Divine

Chapter 8: A Change only a God Could Make

Persephone

I laid on my new bed, not as upset and pathetic as I had felt before. But then again, I hadn't seen Haden for hours which could've played a huge part in the small amount of peacefulness I felt now. And Pierce had been with me so that was probably a factor too. I hadn't even known him for more than two days and I felt like he was my best friend.

I just knew I would be relying on him during this. He kind of reminded me of home, or maybe just happiness, or. . . I honestly didn't know, he was just the perfect person to be around and if I found out he was going to be gone tomorrow I knew I wouldn't make it down here.

I fell asleep with those thoughts, the thoughts of how I already knew Pierce would be my tether.

But when I woke, I didn't wake up to my tether, I woke up not only not in my bed but in what I assumed to be Haden's chambers. Sitting back in a soft white couch with him sitting in a similar smaller white chair.

Except he didn't look like he did before, he had been so much older than me before but now. . . now he was my age, or maybe Pierce's.

I paused, staring at him uncertainly. "Haden?" I asked cautiously. Yes, there was an obvious similarity but maybe he was just related to him? Maybe those pitch black eyes were inherited? And the shape of his body too, it may've been something they had in common?

He nodded. "Yes," he whispered and there was no mistaking it, that voice could never be replicated, I don't care how many people were in his family.

But then an idea struck me and I wanted to slap myself, I looked down at his hand and saw the bandage around it. I looked back up at his eyes as I sat up from the couch. "How?"

"It is difficult and slightly painful, but I can reduce my age because I'm a god," he replied with a small shrug. He still hadn't made a move to get closer to me, for which I was incredibly grateful. This whole age thing was kind of freaking me out.

I stared at him. Slightly painful? The way he said it made it even sound like an understatement, so why would he even go through something like that? Finally, I whispered, "Why?"

He looked at me and it was obvious that he thought I should already know the answer to that but he went ahead and humored me, "Because I love you."

Oh, obviously. I wanted to hit myself for the second time since getting up; weirdly I had become very violent as of late. But of course he would say he loved me so much he had to change his age to be closer to me, to maybe have a better chance of winning me over. "Right, okay Haden, I want you to listen to me," I said as I leaned forward and took his unmarked hand into mine, resisting my urge to flinch from touching him.

"Percy –" he started but I quickly cut him off.

"No, last time obviously did not work very well so I really want you to listen this time. Okay?" I asked, finally managing to make eye contact with those dark eyes and after actually looking at them, I realized they weren't just black. They had a velvety darkness to them, much more beautiful than I had thought before. Were they even like that before? Maybe it was a new thing because of the age difference.

No, stop thinking about his eyes and talk, you idiot. You actually have his attention now. Which was true, I guess the whole eye contact thing really worked. "Love is missing someone so much it hurts," I told him quietly, attempting to keep eye contact with him as I thought of my mother. "Love is never wanting to let go." I finally had to look away as Cyane's screams came into my mind, why couldn't I just take the easy way and think of random things? "Love is not getting tired of having them around. Love is a lot of things, but it's not this."