HEART OF GOLD | CORIOLANUS SNOW

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 112

Lilith made it to the car before shedding her first tear. It was good because they became unstoppable thereafter. It was bad because she had come with her father and Criseida, and her behaviour scared the wits out of Junius. To make things worse, she yelled at him.

"Drive! Just drive! Just get me out of here!"

Perhaps Mars might have been more attuned to her weeping, but she wasn't sure she wouldn't end up at the same place. Somewhere in between her sobs, Lilith had managed to dispense the instructions not to stop, and when she could make sense of her surroundings, she realized they were in the vicinity of the lake—Junius was on the road encircling the water body.

While the southern section skirted the perimeter of the residential estates, the northern strip ran close to the shore itself. On this side, one could access hiking trails from the visitor center, or else take a break along any of the various pitstops, which were generally equipped with at least a picnic table and a breathtaking view of the magnificent bungalows on the opposite bank.

On his second round, or the second round Lilith was aware of, she was struck by something and made him pull over. All her attempts to erase images of the match made in heaven, of his lips whispering into someone else's ear, of his eyes simply glancing away from hers were severely backfiring. The more she tried to suppress them, the more they consumed her.

Even before the vehicle was fully stationary, she was bursting out the door. The chain of her necklace sliced her flesh, but it didn't matter—she was already hurting from head to toe. Running, Lilith yanked it until it came free and hurled it toward the lake with a cry of frustration just as she came to the railings.

Over the howls of the wind and through the blackness of night, she didn't hear or see the splash. She had no idea if she had truly tossed it into the water, but she regretted her actions immediately. Seized by panic, she scanned the area, searching for a way down, and spotted a narrow flight leading to the shore. One of the many crevices on the ill-maintained flagstone steps snared her stiletto, and her ankle twisted slipping out of the shoe, but again, this pain was negligible compared to everything else.

Abandoning her heels, Lilith hobbled barefoot onto the sand and patted blindly on the ground. After a while of her fingers failing to encounter any metallic strand or flower, she waded into the water, which held onto only a tad of the day's heat with the imminent storm. She was scarcely calf-deep when the first raindrop landed on her shoulder, fat and cold and hard. The intensity of the downpour was such that she was drenched in seconds, but it did nothing to dampen her resolve. If anything, it only made her more desperate to recover the necklace—the one tangible thing he had ever given her.

Turning from side to side, Lilith squinted, but there was nothing to see, not even the violent splatter of the water's surface she was hearing. Even if the deluge hadn't shrouded all the light sources, her tears would have.

All the same, she trudged forward, wrestling with the weight of her sodden skirts for progress. Her hands first raked through the water, then groped along the lake bed. Still coming up empty, she crawled on, needing to duck her head underwater for her palms to touch the bottom. They hadn't gone to work when someone hauled her out by the waist.

There was no fear of being assaulted, no fear of being kidnapped—just the fear of being forever separated from her necklace.

"Lil, stop!" shouted Archie. "He's not worth it!"

"Let go of me!" she shrieked, thrashing wildly. "I need to find my necklace!"

"What necklace?"

She had no time to explain. Every minute she wasted, the rain was washing her precious jewellery closer to oblivion.