“No,” he smiled, and it was truly the most evil thing she’d ever seen. “I don’t have to, Persephone. Iwantto.”
“Please.”
One last try.
One last beg for mercy.
“The pool has shown me the greatest beauty in the world, but with it came the curse of simplicity. Nothing will ever be enough to feed the need to have myself, and I can’t let you look upon the pool to be graced with a beauty greater than mine. So when I look into your eyes, dear flower, and see my reflection within them… Just know that I will feel bliss in knowing you’ll never compare.”
Before she could scream, Narcissus used his brute strength to shove her head beneath the water. She kicked and clawed desperately, reaching for anything to help pull herself up. Panic seized her lungs and she inhaled gulps of water, unable to stop the instinct to breathe.
Narcissus grasped his cock and stroked himself to the pounding of her heart. Her fight was nothing compared to his strength. Her lungs burned as her body rejected the water but only in vain, for as she coughed and gagged, she only inhaled deeper.
He gazed through the crystal clear water and watched himself greedily in the reflection of her eyes. The more her life waned, the harder he fucked himself. The last thing Persephone saw as her body slowly died was the absolute carnal bliss on his face as he came.
Xia washed up on the shores of consciousness, each wave bringing her closer to awareness. There was a pounding in her head that worsened with every waking beat of her heart and she was sure it would split her in two. Her muscles ached like she’d fallen from the cliffs of Anthemoessa.
She was laying on something soft and a warmth surrounded her like none she’d ever felt. It was cozy, and Xia wanted to melt into it and never leave. A rumble vibrated at her back as a low murmur filled her ear. She froze, breath catching as she fought past the fog.
Where was she?
Oh gods…
Was she still in her glass prison? Was the Devil waiting for her to–
“I’ve dreamt of you for a hundred lifetimes, Xia,” a manwhispered. Something tightened around her waist as the voice nestled more closely. His breath blew tendrils of hair across her ear and she shivered. His voice was full of longing and sadness, and her heart ached for him. “I’ve painted thousands of sunsets with the most brilliant of colors.”
She… she knew that voice.
“I’ve filled millions of skies with the brightest of stars.” The pressure lifted from her waist and she found herself wishing it would come back until a gentle hand stroked the hair falling across her face. “But none of it has captivated me the way that you have.”
Brooks.
“I–” His voice broke. “I’ve been so lost without you.”
A flood of emotion burst through the dam with only six whispered words. She urged her body to wake so that she might turn and look at him. Hold him. To tell him that she had longed for him too.
“I don’t know if you can hear me, sunshine…”
Something splashed on her temple and rolled to the bridge of her nose, leaving a damp trail down her face. He swallowed hard and pressed himself closer. She fit snugly into the curve of his body and the most divine feeling of rightness filled her chest.
She wanted to stay there with him. She wanted to touch his arm and nuzzle her face into his neck. She would tell him everything was okay and that he didn't have to live in the darkness anymore. Xia ached for all of those things, but her mind, body, and soul had been beaten until there was nothing left to take. For now, as her body shut down and dragged her mind with it, Xia found peace within his arms.
For now, she was safe.
She was home.
“You saved me.”
The last few hours had been surreal.
Brooks lay on a bed made of thin cloth and hay that poked him at uncomfortable angles. He thought he’d known discomfort in the asylum. The scratchy tan scrubs and harsh springy mattress were daily pains in his ass, but compared to the clothes and bed he occupied now? The feelings from the asylum were dull. They were never real.
He basked in the relief of the discomforts of true life. Because he was laying in a bed withher.
Chirps filtered through the single window and mumbles came from the room just outside the door. But there, the girl of his dreams was tucked safely away in his arms on a bed of his shadows. They wanted to be near her just as much as Brooks, and he refused to let her healing body rest on such an awful bed.
He, however, needed to feel it. All of it.
