Her eyes fell to the floor, and I just caught a subtle hitch in her voice when she continued, “The day finally came when Zeus heard that I figured out the contents of the box. He brought Psyche with him, holding a bolt of lightning to her chest and saying he would kill her for helping me if I didn’t open it then. I wasn’t clever enough to quickly think of a plan, so I opened the box, praying your light alone would be enough to cancel out the darkness of the curses that escaped.”
I grabbed her hand, sensing the agony rolling off of her in palpable waves. She squeezed it, and took a deep, wavering breath.
“Little did any of us know that the person who opened the box would be damned. My life was forfeit. Taking my life to release such power into the world was nothing more than a balance of power. In a last ditch effort to save me, Psyche bound my soul to the box before it could be swept to the River Styxx for judgment.”
“Pandora,” I breathed out, appalled at her friendship being used against her in a life or death situation.
The stories we all learned growing up were so wrong. Pandora didn’t carelessly open the box, unleashing darkness upon Ordinarius, because of her curiosity. She tried to prevent the curses from being released into the world and ended up giving her life because of it.
She grabbed my other hand, bringing both of ours together as she dragged her gaze up to meet mine. The mist of tears in her eyes made the blue of her irises shine even brighter.
“Do not be sad. It is because of you that I exist here now. Upon my soul’s reentry to the box, you found me. After learning what happened, you offered to merge our souls together and take me with you beyond the confines of the box.” My heart soared at that, but she quickly squandered the hope swelling within me. “In the brief time it took for us to decide that, Zeus closed the box, trapping us within it and allowing just the darkness to escape. Psyche was able to speak to our souls, merging us as her final gift to me before Zeus hid the box away. He shrouded it with magic, not knowing that I also existed within the box still.”
“I…” I stammered, pulling my hands away and lifting one to my forehead as I tried to process everything she was telling me. “Why couldn’t she just put your soul into a new body?”
That would have allowed me to exit the box and for her to circumvent Zeus' death plan for her.
“That’s not how it works. My soul was owed to the underworld–I lived a life, and it had come to a close. Your soul, however, still had a path predetermined by fate to be carried out. You couldn’t be claimed by the underworld until you completed your life cycle. By merging our souls, mine would be hidden upon release.”
Some things still weren’t adding up for me, though.
“If our souls were merged and we escaped the box, how do I still have the creation magic from it? Also, why have I never been able to sense you or access this place until now?”
She leaned back in the corner of the couch, draping her arm along the top of it. Pandora chewed the inside of her cheek while she seemed to ponder the question. After a moment, she explained, “Well, no one could have anticipated what happened by merging our souls when I was also bound to the box and its magic. We were finally released twenty-one years ago–and before you ask, no I’m still not sure by whom.
“When we were released, you became the conscious state around me, and I remained here. I’ve felt your connection to this place, drawing upon its magic over the years, and I willingly fed it to you. Losing your memories of your time here…Well, I think that was a matter of not remembering this place existed within your soul. Something renewed the connection today, and a window between our souls opened. I could call to you for the first time and actually be heard.”
A voice, distant and far away, called out my name, and we both looked around in alarm. At first, it seemed to be a whisper in the wind, but as it persisted, the sound became sharper and more distinct.
“Alexandra!”
Ariel. She was calling out for me.
I wasn’t ready to leave, though. There was so much I needed to learn still. So much still to ask her.
“Fret not, Alexandra. You can access this place within your mind now. Come to me while you sleep, so that we may be undisturbed.”
I grabbed her hand, needing to ask the question that had been eating away at me ever since I found out I was a curse from the box was burning in my mind.
“If hope is light and a way to combat darkness, why was it considered a curse?”
She smiled as the world around me shifted once more, signaling that I was about to be tugged from it.
“Because to hope means you are allowing yourself the space to have your dreams crushed. To hope means meeting the reality of what happens when you do not achieve what you wish. Facing those realities, learning that hope does not make you infallible, can feed all of the bad curses. In that instance, it can become a breeding ground for envy, greed, pride, pain, hate, anger, wrath, and every other curse that eventually merged into the three that remain.”
I let out a growl of frustration as darkness finally descended.
Hope is neither inherently good or inherently bad; it simply is. It is up to us to do something bigger with our hope, Alexandra.
Chapter 14
KYLO
The moment her eyes opened,displaying that beautiful purple I knew I would never grow tired of seeing, Ariel backed off, giving us the space to rush in and be with her. I was thankful she had the foresight to back away, because for as polite as I considered myself, I wasn’t above shoving her out of the way to get to my mate after sitting here for hours watching her unconscious body.
Knowing there was nothing we could do was agony unlike any I’d ever experienced before. We’d tried everything with our powers to connect to her or feel her soul, but there was an impenetrable shield around her, preventing us from reaching her.
Lucien reached her first and laid his hand on her cheek before lowering his forehead to rest on hers. “Angel, don’t you ever scare me like that again. I thought I was going to have to wage war against the heavens themself.”
