Cursed: Redemption

Chapter 16: Another "Happy" Ending

~Persephone~

For the first time since I can recall, I slept through the night, with my own dreams. Granted, I kept hearing Melinoe’s warning, and imagining these faces, both familiar and not. My eyes remain closed as I wake slowly, registering Leo’s arm flung across my chest and under my waist, keeping me close to him.

For a few moments, I pretend that it’s normal, that I’m not still mad at him. The effect is ruined, however, when I can feel his eyes on me. With a sigh, I turn to face him and open my own. His mouth opens and closes, more than once, sort of like a water spirit when it’s hungry, until he finally settles on a simple: “Hi.”

Moving his arms away from me, I sit up and lean against the pillows, my arms wrapping around my knees as I look at him with my right cheek resting on my knees. He sits up, cradling his head in both hands, letting out a deep sigh. “You really don’t forgive easily, do you?” he asks, looking to me, but I turn my gaze to the windows and remain silent.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for leaving me, and frankly, you don’t deserve it,” I say finally. “You cannot expect it either, at least for a while; redemption has a greater price than that which you have already had to pay, Time Keeper.” I look at him just as I say that, noticing his involuntary flinch at the title.

“Have you been redeemed, then?” he asks, looking me in the eye. “Was killing the Destroyer your price?”

“The Destroyer was the First Fallen Star, Melinoe. She hid within me to wait for her death,” I say as I throw the covers from my body and get up. “My fate would never have come to be without her interference, but I could not fault her for doing what was right. Without her, I would never have found you, nor would I have had Eva. Destiny is strange like that. Though you guessed right, killing her was the price I had to pay for my freedom,” I say, reflexively keeping my arms wrapped over my chest as I walk to the small slit of light creeping through the curtains. I was never any good at keeping things from him, though the favour doesn’t seem to have been repaid.

“I would have given my life in exchange for yours, if that had been the price to save you, Persephone. I would have-“I hold up my hand to stop him.

“One problem, Time Keeper,” I sneer. “You cannot die; it is part of your duty is it not? You have to serve the streams of Time until the end of its reign. You cannot die by your own hand or the hands of another. The sentiment, though adorably mortal, is void of any meaning, just like everything you’ve probably ever said to me.”

For a few moments, a strained silence surrounds us as he struggles to say something, anything. The darkness I’d fought against for so long no longer clouds my vision or my thoughts, all I feel is beautiful numbness, a removal from the entire situation. The realisation sends a shiver of excitement down my spine.

“Will you at least allow me the opportunity to earn my redemption from you?” he asks after another eternity amongst his own thoughts as the realisation sinks in. I feel his hand reach for me, but I shrink away, keeping as far from him as possible, which isn’t very difficult considering how huge my room is.

“Do as you wish, I need to eat something and then probably check on Ian,” I say, picking up the trail of my clothes quickly as I walk to the door. When I finally pull my shirt over my head, I yank the door open and steel my heart.

“Persephone, please!” he half-yells to me, his magic reaching for me now, the fruitlessness of it all not failing to escape me.

“What? Do you really have any right to demand anything of me right now? Do you really assume to have any form of power over me?” I ask, coldness creeping down my neck as I push him away in more ways than one. “I will be no one’s slave, ever again, not even if they claim to love me. I seriously doubt that you can feel such an emotion in any case,” his face sinks as if my words physically wound him. I cannot stop my heart from sinking as I leave; pulling my jeans on after I close the door I storm off in the direction with the least interference.