▃▃▃ ᴅᴏɴᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ʜᴇʀ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴏꜰ ɪɴɴᴏᴄᴇɴᴄᴇ ꜰᴏᴏʟ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱʜᴇ ɪꜱ ꜰᴜʟʟ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ʙᴀᴅ-ᴊ ɪʀᴏɴ ᴡᴏʀᴅ
▃▃ ʙᴏᴏᴋ 1 ▃▃ In which the only daughter of Persephone sneaks on a quest to see the world for the first time since she's been at camp. The daughter of wisdom...
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𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⭑ ‧₊˚ ⋅ જ⁀➴๋࣭ ⭑๋࣭
Dominic jerked awake, breath shattering out of him. Elara's voice — sharp, furious, hurt — still tore down the walls of his skull.
"Like your mother's was on yours?"
He squeezed his eyes shut, but the words carved their way in anyway. She had said it in anger, in the heat of the moment — but that didn't make it wrong. It didn't make it untrue.
He lay there for a long moment, staring up at the dark ceiling of the cabin, chest tight and throat burning as guilt pooled in the hollow of his ribs. He didn't blame Elara for hating him. He hated him.
Slowly, he reached under his pillow and pulled out the one thing he shouldn't keep — the one thing he could never let go of. A worn photograph. His mother, smiling at the camera, warm and soft and alive. He traced the edges with trembling fingers.
"You deserved better than me," he whispered, voice cracking. "They all do."
Her smile stared back in silence.
The delivery room was too bright — a sterile white glow that hummed against the metal equipment. His mother's breathing was steady, tired but joyful, as the nurse placed the swaddled newborn into her arms.
"My beautiful son," she whispered, voice warm with awe. "Dominic."
She pressed a soft kiss to his nose, her smile trembling with happiness.
Then her fingertips brushed his tiny hand.
Her smile vanished.
Her skin drained to white so fast it looked unreal. The monitor beside her exploded into frantic warning, shrill enough to rattle the walls.
Black seeped from the corners of her eyes, dripping down her cheeks in thin, horrifying rivers. Her breath hitched — choked — vanished.
Her body collapsed inward, shrinking like something was pulling life out through her bones.
And the baby in her arms —
He screamed.
Instant and instinctive, loud and terrified, tiny hands curling in panic as the warmth he'd known for seconds vanished from her body.
Doctors rushed in. Shouting. Hands lifting him away. Someone yelling "What happened?!"
But she was already gone.
Gone because of him.
Dominic sucked in a shaky breath as the present snapped back around him. Tears slid down his face unchecked. He stared at the photo, at the smile she never got to share again, and the guilt twisted deeper.
