The world was on fire, the earth had crumbled to ash and there was nothing left but darkness.
'Can you see it? Can you see what you have done?' A dark voice whispered in my mind. A voice I didn't know but one I recognized all the same. 'You killed the world.'
I shot upright in my narrow bed, sheets tangled around my feet and sweat running down my temples. It wasn't real. It was never real. I dropped my head into my hands and tried to calm my breathing.
How many times had I dreamed the end of the world? How many night terrors? It had happened for as long as I could remember. When I was a child mother would shush me and make me forget. I couldn't forget anymore.
I got to my feet and pulled my robe from the foot of the bed. The dawn light washed the bare white temple room in golden light. At least it wasn't the middle of the night. Entertaining myself in the dark hours usually let to trouble. I left my chamber and crossed the hallway into the main room.
Mother lay on the chase there, tucked in a blanket and staring emptily across the room. She hadn't changed in a week. A whole week. Every time she was punished the healing was getting longer. She hadn't spoken, no matter how many healing potions I begged Artemis to give me. The truth was she was weak. Mother was of earth and unless it stopped suffering, she never would.
I crossed the room to her and knelt down at her bedside, pressing a palm to her feverish forehead.
'Persephone?' She mumbled, rolling towards me but her eyes remained closed.
'I'm here mama.' I whispered, brushing her sweat dampened hair off her brow. She went silent again, just like every other time she whispered my name.
'What were you doing?' I said, knowing she wouldn't respond. She was helping mortals but there was no reason for her to risk so much unless she had no other choice. It had never taken her this long to recover. She wasn't going to speak so there was no point wasting time fussing over her. She was as comfortable as I could make her.
'Cronus has called a meeting.' Came a new voice, making me surge to my feet and turn. Artemis stood there, leant back against one of the central pillars, looking at her nails like she had nothing better to do. Her dark skin stood out against the stark white of the marble, her golden cat-like eyes lifting to meet mine. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head and the hunting gear she wore was pristine.
'You cannot nurse her forever; she is not a child.' She said, not looking to where mother spelt but keeping those all seeing eyes on me.
'I know.' I did know it, no matter how I wished for it to be different.
She pushed off the pillar and moved closer, lifting her hand to hold out a small brown pouch. The healing herbs that were forbidden but she supplied me with them all the same. 'The minute Cronus sees how weak she really is, that is the moment he will declare her useless.'
'I am trying.' I took the pouch and left it on the small table next to mother's chase. One of the girls would see it and mix it in mother's tea for her.
'Dear child, you try too hard.' Artemis whispered, suddenly so close she could rest her hand on my shoulder. I needed that, how had I not noticed how lonely I had become?
'She cannot go on like this.' I said, wincing at the pain in my own words. The whole world could not go on like this, not for much longer.
'Get dressed.' Artemis patted my shoulder and nodded towards my chamber and turned to crouch before mother, running a hand over her hair just as I had done.
I went back to my room, pulled off my robe and reached for an appropriate dress. I had my green silk on in my hands when I felt someone there, someone in the room.
I turned towards the open balcony and there he was. Golden wings spread wide, hands braced on the doorway as his armor caught the morning sun.
'Hermes.' I gasped, clutching my dress to cover me. It was too late, he'd already seen me. I could tell by his smirk and the light spark in his eyes.
I stepped backwards to touch the doorway, allowing him space to fold away his wings and duck into the room. I had to.
He was a God and Cronus had made it clear that males in his favor could have whichever female they desired, whenever they wanted as long as Cronus had enjoyed them first and made them infertile.
A rule he'd brought in after I was born. He didn't think beings like me were possible, I was a gap in his plans. He'd quickly bedded and ruined all the Goddesses in his service. Eradicating the problem. Due to complications with my birth, he didn't need to touch mother. She wouldn't birth another. Cronus wouldn't touch her and so no other God was allowed, all the Goddesses despised her for their punishments due to her actions. We had nobody but the understanding few, such as Artemis.
Hermes often appeared when I was undressing or bathing, he might not be allowed to touch me, as the pure half breed I was, but he could look all he wanted. I hated it, hated him and wanted to blast a hole right through his chest but this was a small fight in a big battle. If I lost now, I was losing for nothing but my pride. He could look but I wasn't his, I had that at least.
'Dear Persephone.' He bowed, long blonde hair cascading over his shoulders. He straightened quickly, still amused. 'How is your mother?'
'She still hasn't risen but she is recovering.' I smiled, gripping the doorframe a little harder. The golden winged rat was probably the snitch that got mother caught.
'She should have obeyed the rules.' He teased, leaning closer and catching a strand of my hair and rubbing it between his fingers.
'I am ashamed of her actions but… she is my mother.' I sighed, biting down all the curses I wanted to fly free from my lips.
'Such a sweet and pure soul.' He grinned, running his fingers through my hair.
'How is the realm below?' I tipped my head, elongating my neck the way Artemis had told me to. She was the Goddess of the hunt, and she knew how to make a trap. Even one to lure in a stupid male such as Hermes.
'Cronus men keep being attacked by a strange entity. Some think it a demon but we shall kill it soon enough.' He shrugged, grasping a few more strands and winding it around his hand to pull me closer. I had to go, had to release the door and watch as he peered over my shoulder to see my bare backside.
'How dangerous…' I whispered, playing the naïve servant. It wasn't dangerous. He killed innocents and enjoyed it.
'Do not fret, Cronus is having some of his playthings moved tonight. Mortal females who will produce fine demi-gods. We will keep them secure.'
'The only way to move them is through the mountains.' That was another lie but he wouldn't tell we where they were travelling unless I set the trap.
'The dark forests have safer passages. I myself will be in charge.' He smiled, not realizing how simple he had been. He released my hair to run a hand down my exposed side and rest it on my backside, fingers biting into my flesh and pulling me even closer so I was pressed up against his hard armor.
'Be careful.' I whispered, pressing my palm to the gold that covered his chest. Resisting the urge to push him away, to slip my hand right through his chest and rip out his heart. No armor could stop me when I used my abilities. Soon though, I would kill him and enjoy every moment. 'I need to get dressed, Cronus has called upon us.'
He nodded slowly, releasing his painful grip on me, only to slap me there and step back, waiting.
He was never usually this close, never usually this bold. His eyes were brighter and I had a moment to allow myself to feel fear. He always followed the rules, him being this bold was breaking them and if he didn't care about the rules anymore, nothing else would stop him.
I had to play this game, had to swallow down my revulsion and let him watch as I slipped my dress on, watch his own move over me like he owned me. When I was clothes it was a small relief but not much, he had already seen me. He had that piece of me and it hurt to realize it.
He leant forward, like he did every time he came, every time he looked. He leaned in so close and brushed his lips against mine. I kept mine clamped shut and resisted the urge to vomit. He didn't care about my lack of response, saw it as me being endearing, playing hard to get. I was disgusted and repulsed he had been my first kiss, that he would probably be the only kiss I would ever get.
Another curse.
'Persephone.' Artemis called, making him pull back, his smile slipping a little.
He liked me alone, if Artemis caught us this close she could report it to Cronus. Hermes may be allowed any female on Olympus, but it would lower him in Cronus' eyes if he was after me. I was a runt, a Half breed and filthy in the God Kings eyes.
With a flutter of his golden winds he was gone, leaving only the sweet stench of his magic. I trembled with my anger, clenches my fists and pushed down the dark energy rumbling inside. Destroying my room would do no good, I had to control myself and that was the hardest part.
'If he was any stupider you could have gotten the secrets to the Universe from him.' Artemis' voice came from the doorway. I don't know how long she had been there, how much she had seen. I didn't want to meet her eyes for the shame. Then again, I had nothing in comparison to her. She was Ares' favorite besides Aphrodite. She had no safety and I was ungrateful to feel sorry for myself.
'Cronus is moving his Harem tonight.' I said, bending down to fasten my sandals and to try and contain my excitement about the new information, battling away the thoughts of Hermes. He might have touched me, but I could save the females Cronus was after.
'That must have been what Demeter found, she alerted me a few weeks ago young girls were missing. They won't be missing for long.' Artemis agreed, stepping into the room to touch my arm, a small sign of sympathy. 'Be careful.'
'Always.' I smiled. She knew what I would do, and I would repay her loyalty by killing Cronus the way she had always imagined it. All I needed to do was attack tonight and I would be a small step closer to stopping him, to getting under his skin and dividing what little unity he had between the Gods.
'With Hermes too, he isn't a man who gives so much without wanting a reward soon enough.' She pressed, a sadness falling over her expression.
'I'm a pure being, he doesn't break the rules.' He wouldn't. He loved his master too much.
'I think you underestimate how beautiful you are.' She touched my cheek but I knew she was talking about something else. She saw what she believed lay inside me, my soul and the beauty it possessed. She was wrong. My soul possessed no beauty, it only held my dark magic, the darkness that wanted out. It wasn't beautiful and when I killed Hermes, he would regret ever thinking I was.