Cursed: Redemption

Prologue:

Prologue: A Summoning

~Persephone~

It is said that once, a mage and a demon fell in love. How they met has been lost to the sands of time (because I didn’t care to ask), but the products of their love have endured. Well, one of them, the other tried to kill a high-strung little princess and lost his life in the process.

But you probably know all about that, and I don’t feel like rehashing the events.

My brother may have been demented and vicious, but he did have some form of love for me, his twin sister. I’m not sure how he felt about our father, but I don’t really care about that either. I don’t have the time or the energy to deal with his ghost.

Contrary to human beliefs, I’m not the Goddess of Spring or the wife of Hades. I’m his only surviving child, his darling Persephone, and his eventual heir. But the Lord of the Dead can’t actually die, so I don’t have to worry about that for a while.

What I do have to worry about is the fact that I have a half-brother no-one bothered to tell me about.

And, of course, the return of my mother.

Saving the world was never my thing, although when Scarlet asked, I would usually assist her. No one really cared about the ‘other one with the axes’, when she was in the room. Not that I minded, anonymity is something I’ve been fighting for since the failed marriage all those years ago.

Now, it’s not that I don’t miss my brother; I just think he got what was coming to him. Well, part of me does, the chaotic side of me always goes a bit mad whenever I’m in extreme emotional upheaval. I tried my best to silence that part, by binding myself, but sometimes it gets a little too close to the surface.

I probably sound like a mental patient right about now, but I have my reasons. Being born of a creature of order (ironically, Hades) and a creature of chaos does this from time to time. People always thought Tristan was the worst that could happen, but that’s what I want them to think. The reality is far worse, and I would know.

The other side of me, the one cheerfully nicknamed ‘the Destroyer’, can do some extreme damage. For example, destroying entire towns in a temper tantrum. And that’s on a good day; other days…let’s just say it isn’t very pleasant, all right?

Way back when, Scarlet helped me to contain that side of me by forging a bracelet and a necklace set with protective stones and with spells so intricate that my inner demon could never escape. For added measure, a marking was made on my skin to make sure that it could never truly be free, even without the jewellery.

It also helped that she didn’t leave my side for a few hundred years after she escaped the clutches of her mother to make sure the shields, as we called them, were working. She’s been popping in now and again to make sure as well. But with the discovery of my half-brother, she hasn’t checked in for almost a decade.

Oh well, I guess I can’t hold it against her, she’s finally free of my brother and she’s happy.

***

Six years ago

Gripping my head tightly in my hands, I slid down the wall into a crouch. The pain was almost unbearable at that point, I could barely see.

“Hey Seph, you okay?” one of the waitresses asks as she passes by with a dozen empty beer bottles in her arms. I lift my head and nod, just as another jolt of pain slices through my skull.

“Just a headache, Anne,” I said, and she walked away, looking over her shoulder every few steps at me. I sigh and get to my feet unsteadily, gripping the wall with one hand as the other holds my head. I hiss as another pair of shoes approach, obviously I’m worrying people.

“Boss, do you need some help?” one of the bouncers, Kent, asked me.

“Take me to my office, would you?” I say, and his arms wrapped around my back and knees a few seconds later. He picked me up with ease and stomped towards the staircase leading to my office. Groaning, I turned my head to his chest, thankful for the small amount of relief. The door opened and I was deposited on the red couch at the end of the room. “Thank you,” I whispered and he nodded again, knowing not to ask questions.

He turned off the light as he left, used to the procedures of my headaches. I sighed as the shadows wrapped around me, taking the tension from my limbs. I faded out of consciousness and into the realm of dreams, my second world, to find out what was happening.

The visions started almost immediately, most of them featuring my brother and silver blood…and Scarlet with some boy. I could feel my body, but something is wrong. Someone was taking over control, their energy familiar…my brother. I claw at the walls of my subconscious, but his grip is too strong and I was forced to watch as he materialised in the demon world.

What followed was hidden from me, but I knew something was wrong.

I woke a few hours later, my body sweaty and drained. I couldn’t recall anything; Tristan had hidden the events from me…or taken them with.

I’ve been scouring my mind ever since, and that is all I could find.

***

Author’s note: Next chapter soon!

Picture: Persephone

Video: When The Darkness Comes, I felt it was appropriate