The God & The Shadow

Chapter 41

VERONICA
(i highly suggest you play the music above so you can REALLLY get into it)

"Do you want me to tell you how much I loathe you?" My head lifted and he continued, "Do you want me to tell you how your very being infuriates me?"

Lore's words came out sharp and undulated. He rolled his sleeves up to his forearms despite the cold and walked off to Hermes' horse, placing the bottle of liquor on one of the walls.

"Do you want me to tell you how much your touch repels me? How reviling the heavy weight of your gaze feels?"

The satchel on the horse closed with a loud thud. Moonlight glistened on his skin once more as he walked out of the stable area and sauntered to the bench I sat on, my shoes in his hand.

Lore crouched in front of me and gently grabbed my left foot. "Do you want me to tell you how the tilt of your lips abhors me, or the way the wind carries the darkness of your hair stifles me stupidly?"

He slipped one shoe in, then the other. Then his gaze cast upwards, his ethereal and heavenly beauty increasing the steady beat in me.

I wanted to tear it out and step on it. How dare my own heart betray me? How dare it quicken just as it had before, when he would walk into a room or smile at me?

He didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve how my traitorous heart would beat just for him at times, especially now.

He didn't deserve any of it.
At least that's what I told myself.

"I hate your violet eyes, they haunt me too much." Lore added. "I hate your laugh, its too rare for me to remember. I hate your scent, it lingers too much and it reminds me of the memory of you." His jaw hardened and I saw his hands clench into fists.

"But it is you I despise the most. You turn me into a fool. You make me mortal. You make me feel as if I were a boy, when I am both King and god."

I could only stare back at him. The cold wind blew, but his ocean eyes did not falter in returning the exchange. My mind shattered into a million pieces and I didn't know what to think.

So, slowly piecing together whatever I had left, I answered.

"Is it the truth?"

He blinked and hesitated only for a moment before he starkly nodded. "It is."

Maybe it was the liquor. I hadn't taken something quite strong like it, but I didn't feel anything take effect. My tolerance had always been as strong as steel and I'd always kept a leveled head when intoxicated.

I hardly ever forget and regret.

Maybe it was the liquor...

"Then, lie to me." I whispered.

But even I didn't believe myself.

It was his turn to stare. Shock, accompanied with something foreign, flashed in his eyes.

How humorous it would look from an outside perspective. A god, one of the most powerful and punishing, on his knees in front of a girl that served no purpose but to kill and destroy life.