I finally made my way to the meadow. Yellow daisies sprouted out from the tall green grass… And there Eris was, dancing in the field like I knew she would be. Her white dress was plastered against her body, her face lifted up toward the violet-tinted sky.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I took a step toward her, the flowers instantly died beneath my feet, I crushed their petals, bringing death and destruction through the meadow until I was finally right in front of her.
Yellow irises rimmed in blue locked onto me. “I knew you’d come.”
“I always do.” My voice echoed, another reminder.
I shook my head as pain splintered my temples.
“It’s dying.” She reached out and pressed a hand to my chest. “You know this, don’t you?”
“What’s dying?” I trembled at her touch.
Her cherry red lips pressed together in a firm line as her jet black hair whipped around her face, and then the wind just stopped, leaving us there while my darkness overtook the small space where we stood.
Flowers turned to ash.
The sky’s hue darkened to a deep plum purple.
A chill filled the already icy air.
“You know what.” Her eyes went wide. And then she jerked her hand away. It wa
s coated in black soot, she pressed her fingertips together as ash fell to the dead ground beneath her feet. “You should go.”
“No.” I reached for her, and for the first time in my existence, the goddess who had taunted me, teased me, told me I was hers, turned her back on me.
I grit my teeth. “Nobody turns away from me!” My voice shook the realm, birds flew from the trees making their escape.
What the hell was happening to me?
“Once it dies, you’ll remember everything, once it dies you won’t want me anymore…” She shot me a cruel smile over her shoulder. “It’s been fun, though, hasn’t it?”
“Dies?” I replied, dumbstruck.
She lifted a shoulder, not answering, not really giving me what I needed at all.
I showed her my hand, the seed that had now taken root, growing into a damn tree. “What is this?”
“Your curse,” she whispered. “And your only chance at breaking free… Let it consume you and you may get everything you’ve ever hoped for. Ignore your true nature, turn away from your heart, from the restored soul you’ve been given, and you’ll die.”
“Demons don’t die.”
“No.” Her smile was cruel. “But that’s not what you are now, is it?”
“Bullshit.” I was so tired of riddles, tired of games, just plain tired of everything. I grabbed her by the arm and jerked her against me. “You do not turn your back on the Demon King.”
“I don’t turn my back on him at all—few would live to tell about it—but you are not he.” She jerked away. “The minute Hope restored you, she restored all of you. Your body is rejecting the used soul. It won’t get better, not unless you choose.”
“Choose what?” I was afraid to ask as shame washed over me. I was bad, death itself, wasn’t I?
“True nature can never be denied, not even for someone as powerful as you.” She took a step back. “You have been thirsty for so long, haven’t you?”
Eris wiped the ash from where I’d touched as if she was cleansing herself from every thought of me.
“For years we’ve been as close as lovers,” I reminded her. “And this is it?”
“You cannot touch me without killing me, Timber. Before…” She sighed as a single tear ran down her cheek. “Before you could, but it’s too late. Too late for us, we were doomed from the start, you know the rules. A goddess of the earth and a demon? It was bad enough, wasn’t it? And now that you are… returning to your original state, there is no hope, not even if you devoured a hundred used souls. You are damned, prince of darkness.” And then she bowed and disappeared from the valley.