"𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘯𝘰𝘸."
in which persephone ignis, born of fire and love, writhes under the tricks and power of snow to form the black swan.
(young! coriolanus snow x fem! oc)
takes place during and after th...
a/n: by far my favorite chapter yet and has the highest word count out of the rest (5.1k words)
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—Fire and Snow—
As Persephone watched Highbottom's disappearing figure, a pit formed in her stomach, growing and consuming every part of her. It was as if she wasn't really there, that she was not in her body and this was not her real life. That she was living in an active lie.
That she didn't belong.
And the pieces fell into place.
Her father's overbearing worry of what others may have said about his deceased wife, his lack of details when approaching her life before they met, and especially his apprehension to describe her further than her face and public image.
In the span of a mere few days, Casca Highbottom revealed more depth of her mother than Dunamis had her whole life.
The Ignis family was known to have roots embedded deep in Capitol society, no doubt about the way their name appeared in history books and their age-old transportation business. Everything Persephone knew of her heritage, however, was centered around her paternal side and not a whisper of her mother's.
She quickly realized the hidden indicators from the little clues she picked up in the past years. Leucothea had no definite history, no ancient family name, and certainly not aired-out dirty laundry like the Plinths. She was District, if Highbottom spoke the truth, but she couldn't have possibly bought her way to the top if nobody knew of it.
Lies were crafted around her past as a protective cushion, no doubt. Leucothea, for all she knew, could have never been her real name. She could have never been a real person, either, only sculpted like a persona to don, a mask to wear in toxic Capitol society.
Persephone wished she had come to her senses before the man exited to ask her burning questions. It seemed Highbottom was the only adult with knowledge of her mother that was truly transparent. But did transparency assure safety?
How long would it take to be banished from the rest of the narcissistic Capitol families when word spilled that Dunamis Ignis married a girl from the districts and their daughter, Persephone, technically belonged there?
And if Dean Highbottom had been accurate before he revealed a secret she had not even known about, how many times had he persisted in his honesty and been considered delusional?
Fire and snow, he always repeated the few times she had been alone in his presence, witnessing his manic episodes. However, he could not have been possibly true about Coriolanus Snow. She knew the boy more than he ever had, they grew up together and remained close friends. He offered her those protective lingering touches, the rose in her hair, the look in his eyes.
