A Wayward Arrow

Chapter Fifteen: And He Flew From The Tower

It had been weeks since the incident happened and Eros was healing well. Being well fed and being nursed back to health had left the wounds with nothing but nasty scars on his shoulders. The pain from Psyche's betrayal was healing as well. The more alert and awake he was, the more he was able to remind himself she was young and mortal and she would make mistakes. Deep down he knew he could not escape the love he felt for her. Even if their marriage wasn't a true one, she was still his through and through and he wanted her even after what she had done to him.

Eros had managed to wake up, at least enough that he was aware of his surroundings. Shaking off the sleep and the herbs that his mother had been putting into the food that she had been serving him. It was morning and her handmaidens were helping her attend to him. They were talking amongst themselves, thinking they were alone with an unconscious Eros as Aphrodite was preparing another meal for the god. Gloating about the new servant that they got to torture. Unaware that Eros was more than lucid this time as they were changing out his bandages.

"I wish the mistress hadn't sent that girl away." Worry had spoken up, "She was so fun to play with. Every little task she was given would bring her to such delicious despair."

"Her sadness was so great, the guilt in her heart was so deep she could think of nothing else beyond it. I loved how she took the whippings as if they were the very punishments for every transgression she had done." Sorrow chimed in.

"Well, she did deserve it. Look what she did. Now her back is tattered and marred worse than she did to the god's body."

Eros would sit up in the bed, causing the two handmaidens to gasp. He reached out gripping hold of Sorrow as he dragged her forward and onto the bed. Bringing her face to face with him. There was an angry scowl upon his face and as he looked over her, it was evident that he knew exactly who this servant was that they were speaking of; after all, what other woman had marred his body than his beloved Psyche?

"Tell me the name of this servant." He breathed his command through clenching teeth.

"I do not know her name." Sorrow wailed, crying out "Only that she is a god betrayer and nothing else."

Eros shoved her away from him and began to throw off his blankets. As he moved to stand up, his legs gave out from beneath him and he'd tumble to the ground with a heavy thud. He had spent so long lying down in bed that his legs had gone numb to all movement. All the commotion had alerted Aphrodite, who was now making her way into the room, handing over the tray of food to Worry and sending her handmaidens out. She shut and locked the door behind her. Motioning to the bed.

"You're still not ready to move, Eros. Please, lay back down, you need your strength."

She was moving along to the side of him, helping him up from the ground and back onto the bed, but Eros wasn't lying down, he was sitting up and staring at her with the most incredulous look she had ever seen in those inhuman-looking eyes. Everything in him screamed anger and, if there was ever any pain from betrayal, he now felt it from his own mother who was now backing away towards the door. For the first time, fearing her own son.

"What have you done, mother?"

"I haven't done anything. She came to me looking for you."

"And you did what? Handed her over to be tortured by your handmaidens?"

"She asked to be a servant in my house. I wouldn't allow her to see you, you were healing from what she did to you. You were so hurt and so devastated by everything she did. She betrayed your love and trust. You really think I would have just let her come up here after she stabbed you and poured hot oil onto your body? She could have come up here and done more to you. I told her I wouldn't allow it. So she made a deal with me." Aphrodite admitted to Eros.