Aphrodite's Flame

40. Element

The wind is dancing with the foliage, I can hear their song far away. The sun is glittering on the clear water of the lake and the surrounding sea. I'm lying in Hephaestus bed, where we fell asleep talking late at night. His room looks a lot like mine, except there is a large ceiling painting of a calm morning sky, and his windows look out at sea.

'Can I ask you something?' he murmurs, still half asleep. I turn over to him and rest my head on his shoulder. I like sleeping with him, and I like waking up next to him.

'Sure,' I sigh blissfully.

'Are you going back to Adonis when he is Up?' Right away I'm awake.

'I am bound to him as he is bound to me. I can't forsake him.'

'What will it be like?' Hephaestus asks. I mourn his little flame, little more than a glowing light.

'I don't know. Things will be what they are. He is here because of me, I can't leave him behind.' It's on me that the boy can't be at peace, but has to return every time. That was my mistake. I made the same mistake as Orpheus, but this one is divine. I can't betray Hephaestus, but I don't want to betray Adonis either. Wrily I add, 'you already said I'm a cursed wife. It's okay to love, but to love Love is something else entirely. It's devastating.' I look away from him as he moves closer, kissing my cheekbone.

'What matters most is what Love loves.'

'That's the thing. You said I'm self-destructive and I am. Love loves Love, or the world would know a hard time.' Sighing I lie back.

'Yet, you are happy with me.'

'Happiness and love aren't always the same.'

'Aren't they, though?' I think about this before I smile at him.

'Right now they are.' He responds to my smile and kisses me on my temple.

'So, Persephone can see colours, right? What do you think is the colour of love?' I ask after a little while. He shrugs.

'Love is colourless Up here.'

'For someone so positive that's a dark outlook.'

'No, it isn't. It means that it's transparent. It could take any shape and colour, depending on its underlying motives. It's beautiful, like clear water in the sunlight, or like mountain crystals.' The way the light shines on Olympia.

'Do we ever have to go back?' He smiles and comes closer to me.

'Right now we don't. We could stay here for decades and no one would miss us.' I cackle in laughter.

'You think they wouldn't miss my glittering presence? Or your amazing weapons? My big mouth or your dry stare? Silly man, they would take us away from here the second they need something.'

'Then we don't have any time to lose.' He throws one leg over my body and grabs my wrists to lock them above my head to the mattress. I bite my bottom lip, already glowing with anticipation.

His kisses are divine.

***

It's been a while since I thought about the outside world at all. Hephaestus and I are sitting in the field right outside his castle on Lipari. The world is slowly warming up and I relish the feeling of absolute freedom. I always thought being someone's wife would mean exactly the opposite to that - to lose my own person - but I haven't.

I do recognise Hephaestus is not the most handsome, but he is attractive. His intelligence, his kindness and his wit are attractive. The way he makes me feel makes him the most beautiful of all creatures - and perhaps that is why I am starting to Love him. Because he makes me love me.

Hephaestus is humming a song while I watch him from a tiny distance. I figured his soul would burn at a low temperature, content and satisfied, but instead it's white sparks. They're happy sparks though, I can feel it resonating in my bones. I never saw them before in anyone. Smiling I listen to the final notes of his song.

I sit upright, ready to tell him what I know, ready to tell him I can see his soul, too. Ready to ask him what the white sparks mean. Instead, before the thought has taken shape, he sits upright too and studies me with the most intense gaze.

'I love you,' he simply states. My heart stops for a second and I stare at him dumb struck. The silence between us is deafening and it takes too long for me to recuperate. He smiles and averts his gaze to look at the grass.

I move closer to him and place my lips on his. Our kiss deepens quickly and I climb on his lap. Pulling his hair, pulling him tighter against me, I know I want more of him. I know he gives me something I hadn't discovered yet. I'm an addict to whatever it is, I need more of it every time he touches me. I'm a selfish whore for wanting to hear it again, again, again. He frees himself and shoots me a dazed smile.

'You have the brightest eyes.' He doesn't busy himself with what I say or don't say, he won't force me to say it back. He's just surprised - as am I - that he said it to me. I want to lean in and kiss him again, but he stops me by placing his finger tips on my lips. 'You remind me of fire. It's always been you that's the goddess of fire.' Smiling I look down at my lap. I'm ashamed I couldn't tell him I love him. Well - I'm ashamed I couldn't figure out for myself if I already do. If it is love that I feel. Sure I told Adonis, but telling a mortal man with only so many minutes to live is entirely different from telling your equally immortal husband.

Hephaestus places his fingers under my chin and forces me to look up. Before he can say what's on his mind, he looks up again, to someone or something behind us, and I turn around to see who's interrupting us. Hermes bows for us, his eyes flicker curiously from the God of Fire to me.

'What's up, Herm,' I sigh, still straddling my husband and not intending to move.

'I am here to bring news from Olympia. Hephaestus, God of Fire and Metal, is wanted for a job. If you would be so kind to follow me?' Hephaestus rolls his eyes before turning to me.

'The boss is asking for me,' he says, tucking my hair behind my ear.

'So?' Still, I climb off him so he can get up. 'I'm coming with you.' Told you they'd find us. We couldn't get a decade worth of peace if we tried.