I know he’s all I’ll ever want or need. I’d let his love swallow me whole if it meant I could spend the rest of my days hiding within gentle shadows and soothing darkness with him.
His eyes glow brighter as he slides the ring onto my finger. I keep my eyes locked on his, even as my skin tears and blood trickles from the fresh wounds, and he smiles at my refusal to wince in pain or pull away. My vision goes hazy, tears brimming from the corners of my eyes, but it isn’t from the pain, it’s from the beauty of this moment with him. This is a moment I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.
His voice is softer, more gentle than usual as he lifts my hand, placing a soft kiss on my skin right above the ring, crimson still trickling from the sharp thorns embedding themselves in my body. “I claim you, my queen. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.”
Holding my hand above the cups, he lets my blood flow into one and then the other. He smiles and pushes his ring toward me.
I don’t hesitate. I hold the cold obsidian between my fingers, dying for it to be warmed by his skin, for him to finally belong to me. I know what I want. All I need is him. It will hurt him, pushing the ring into place on his finger, but I know he won’t mind. He wants this just as badly as I do. I gaze into his eyes as I place the ring on his finger, warmth spilling from his skin and staining my own as the thorns latch on and refuse to let go. I want it to hurt. I want the thorns to hold onto him forever, to bind me to him and to be a constant reminder of how much worse it’d hurt if we ever let this love go.
I will never let go.
“I claim you, my king. Now and always.” My voice echoes off the mountains and into every corner of the realm, my divine light in the torches rising higher and flickering brighter from the strength in my words.
I lift his hand above the golden cups, and his blood drips as the shadows swirl the contents within. He palms the one closest to him, and I do the same. We bring them to our lips and swallow the bittersweet liquid as my heart thuds with triumph and excitement from watching him seal our bond in blood.
“Eternity with you, Ere, is all I’ve ever wanted.” I carefully set my cup down.
Taking my hands within his, he turns and faces me. “Then eternity is what you shall get, Mera. I am never letting you go.”
He goes still, eyes widening and a smile full of feral excitement taking over his features. My soul rages within at something foreign and ancient raking its claws down my subconscious. The skin at the crown of my head burns, my eyes and wings scorching hot and wrong, black feathers falling to the ground in a heap in slow motion. I yank my hands out of his and run my palms against my cheeks and then the top of my head, backing away from Ere as I feel the curve of horns sprouting between locks of wavy hair. Every nerve ending in my body prickles, a transformation tacking place that’s out of my control and doesn’t feel right. I feel sick, my stomach churning and a vile taste coating the back of my throat, threatening to force it’s way out. I bite back my disgust, at the wrongness intertwining itself with my soul, curling in on myself and bending at the waist as I’m torn apart from the inside out. Darkness threatens to take over. The curved horns are wrong. Ere knows how much I loved my wings, so why the hell is he smiling as the last feathers fall at his feet. I collapse to my knees and wave a hand, a mirror glistening in front of me, back arching as I scream out in pain from tendons and muscles being shredded and torn apart along my spine. Hunched forward, I gaze into the mirror and my face is no longer the innocent, freckled face of Nora or the face of Mera from the past, but one I don’t recognize at all. One I’ve never seen. My hair slowly darkens, leaving only small sections of red between thick strands of raven silk locks. Nyx’s serpents with their crimson eyes slither across the stone platform, taking their place on my shoulders as if it’s where they’ve always belonged. The woman in the mirror looks like she belongs in this realm. She is a mirror image of Ere.
“What is happening? W-why is this happening?” I breathe, staring into my reflection, tilting my head, the woman in the mirror smiling wickedly though my own lips tremble in fear.
Ere pulls me to my feet and grips my face between his palms, lips curving at the corners as he tilts my head back and leans into me. “Síko, vasílissa mou.” His voice is dark and commanding and suddenly my eyes roll back as my weightless body goes limp and falls into his waiting arms.
Everything goes black. I’m here but I’m not here. He’s touching me but I feel nothing. My eyes snap open but not by choice, fingers trailing down his jawline that I can’t feel or control.
“Your sparkly blue eyes were beautiful, but I must say… your red eyes are now my favorite, my love. You are so beautiful,” he breathes, shifting my weight and helping me stand upright, fisting my hair and searching the eyes that were once mine but now feel like someone else’s. “Tell me your name.” He says softly, running his thumbs along my cheeks. “Who are you?”.
Brushing loose locks of hair away from eyes that look like they’re seconds away from shattering in pain, tortured and haunted and desperate, the voice that isn’t my own speaks. “Melino?. Goddess of nightmares and madness,” she says, running her fingertips down his chest.
“And?” He asks, pulling my body in closer, eyes drifting down to my lips.
Running her tongue, our tongue, up his lips, she moans softly against his mouth. “Your true fated mate. The one you are now bonded to for life. The only woman your heart has ever yearned for.”
He groans quietly against her mouth, eyes crimson and full of so much fucking betrayal that if I could, I’d gouge them from their sockets and shove them down his throat. My heart shatters as he kisses her, so much devotion and passion from them both that it nearly kills me. Her thoughts and feelings and her fucking corrupted, sickening soul are so tightly bound around me that I can’t move or act or scream, but I try. I try and I try and no matter how hard I do, I am fucking powerless, chained and locked captive within my own mind.
“I love you, Melino?. Welcome home. You will make an excellent queen.” He stands me upright, his glowing crimson eyes burning with a raw, heated desire that I’ve never seen from him before.
In this moment, I realize the truth. He gave me as little as he could and I still fell for him. This look, that smile, the happiness radiating from his soul, all of this is real. All that he showed me, gave me, and offered to me were half-ass efforts wrapped in meaningless lies. He doesn’t even look like the man I knew as he watches her with gentleness and unwavering loyalty in his eyes. She is his sun and his stars and his entire world. I was only a means to an end to getting his world back. I am nothing to him. I never was. And Kairos, fuck…I try to pull away from Ere, tears that I can’t cry ripping my heart in two, because Kairos…I remember the truth. It’s Kairos who has always been everything to me. Him in all those memories my amulet returned to me. And seeing this man, this monster for who he truly is has unveiled whatever power or control he held over me. He destroyed my entire life. He destroyed the only person in the world I’d give my own life for.
“I love you more,” the woman tells Erebus, warmth flowing down our cheeks as my heart and soul ignite from the way he looks at her, and I cannot dwindle the burn or suffocate it until it doesn’t exist, though I want to.
I don’t want my heart or my soul to burn for him. To crave him. To want anything to do with him, but her soul is too strong. She is in control. I am simply a passenger along for whatever fucked up ride I’ve been dragged into.
“Are you ready, my love?” He brings my hand to his lips and brushes a soft kiss against it.
“I forgot what a gentle beast you are, Erebus. It is why I will gladly kill everyone who has made us suffer,” our lips curve into a grin, a wicked laugh spilling from our lips.
The words she spoke are not a threat but an absolute promise that would make my blood run cold if I had any semblance of control.
“Come. It is time for my queen to rise at last,” he whispers against our ear, and my head tilts back to search his eyes, and I am thankful that I at least can’t feel his breath against my skin.
I can feel myself fading, being pushed further and further into the background, her power and soul wrapping tighter around me. I cannot fucking breathe. I can’t fucking move or think clearly or save myself and I don’t know how the hell I ended up here. No one is going to come for me. I am alone. I will be trapped and lost within myself until I don’t exist at all. Gods, what the hell do I do?
Please! Someone help me!!
I scream, my voice echoing into nothing, throat burning as the words play on repeat for no one to hear.
