“Yes, sweet Cyane, ask him and find out, then tell me. I’ll help you escape if you so choose. I will be eternally grateful, and having a grateful goddess on your side is no small gift. A deal. A deal between friends?”
Cyane, wet now with ocean spume, slowly nodded at Melinoe. “Okay.”
Melinoe smiled. The chill returned ten-fold upon Cyane.
“My dear, sweet friend,” Melinoe said, “it’s time to wake up.”
Before Cyane could ask what she meant, Melinoe released her hands and pushed her into the ocean.
She didn’t have a chance to scream before it consumed her.
The Day of Deals
Cyane shot up with a scream,arms flailing outward. The taste of mint filled her mouth, and she spat it out, yet the smell lingered in her nose.
“Cyane?”
Her eyes fixated on Cerberus, naked and perched in the water before her. Concern marred his face, as did lust, and it threatened to smolder her anew. His pale, muscled body was a welcome sight.
Cyane pulled her gaze from him before she melted. She was back in his room—her room. They were in the tub.
Cerberus cupped her cheeks, forcing her eyes back on him. “What happened? You left me, and I didn’t know what to do. You said baths were good for humans, so I thought this would help.”
This wasn’t the ocean.
“A nightmare. I had a nightmare,” she whispered.
Cerberus frowned. “A nightmare? What kind of nightmare?”
Cyane shook her head as she recalled her conversation with Melinoe. She didn’t know if it’d been real, but something kept her throat tight. “I was drowning again… I was back in Styx,” she lied. “I was drowning, and you weren’t there to pull me from the water.”
But in a way, he had, hadn’t he? Cyane curled her arms around her stomach, feeling a little ill.
Her lie was a dangerous confession in itself—she was afraid for Cerberus to know that she’d made plans with Melinoe. If he found out her deception…He knows when I try to leave, when I want to leave.
Don’t think about it!Nervousness clawed at her throat.
With his hands still cupping her cheeks, Cerberus leaned closer, studying her a little more than she liked... “I will be there to pull you from the waters. Always.”
“Even if I were dead?” she mumbled.
He cocked his head. “Even so.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.” Melinoe’s words filled her mind once more. “A mortal has never been saved from their fate.”
A crack formed in her chest.
“My mortal will.” He lowered his hands to her waist and drew her into his arms, into his lap, and then settled back on the opposite side of the basin.
My mortal will…Tears formed in her eyes, and she burrowed her face against his chest. It was mildly cold again, but she didn’t mind. The water was hot.
How could I leave him?Give this up for a near impossible chance to confront parents who had left her with nothing but a note?
She’d only known him for days—days!—and she was already reconsidering everything. What if she made her way home only to face terrible strangers or worse…no one at all. Would she ever be able to live again after all she had learned?Could I get a job, save up money, and find someone to love after this?Start a family? Adopt her own children, and wake up every morning, already dead inside, knowing their inevitable fates?
Cerberus’s fingers stroked her arm before they tangled into the strands of her wet hair and played with her locks.
Time is different in the darkness...
