A Wayward Arrow

Chapter Five: I Love You

Eros had returned to the palace before the sun had completely set. Upon his return, he had been informed of Psyche's movements throughout the day. Of her having gone into his bed chambers and having been asking around about him to a couple of the servants. While they had seemed alarmed about it, more so he suspected, because they didn't want to get caught answering the girl about him, he knew she would eventually give up on the pursuit of figuring it out. After all, she had seemed content for the rest of the day in the library with the vast collection of works that he had.

He took to watching her for a while after dinner, going about her evening in the palace. Mostly doing as she had the night before by walking through the garden and looking through the flowers. Doubting now that she was growing more accustomed to having the freedom to do as she wished during the day, that she would be easier to manage should more issues like today come rearing their head. Unlike back in the mortal world, she had no obligations to attend to. There were no social events, no decorum of how she should act, just the freedom to do as she wished in a palace that would jump to whatever her heart so wished.

That night, as the sun went down and plunged the palace into shadow, he'd come for her again. Waiting this time till she had finished with her nightly ritual of combing out her hair with the help of Fiona and pulling on a fresh nightgown of silk and lying out on the lounge in front of the fireplace with one of the books from the library. The book in question had stories of heroes, most of whom were half-bred children of Zeus. He'd let her read well into the night. Wondering if she was just reading for fun or waiting to see if she'd catch a glimpse of him.

The fireplace would go out with a flick of his wrist, plunging the room into darkness, and while the act had given Psyche a bit of a startle, it seemed she had been waiting for him to come to her even in this late hour of the night. He stood on the threshold of her room, looking her over from where she started to sit up. Placing a book marker into the book and sat it down upon a little end table next to the lounge.

"I knew you'd come again tonight." She spoke with a soft shake in her voice. The fear she had wasn't as strong as it had been the night before, but it still quaked along with the adrenaline that thudded her heart.

"You were waiting for me?" He asked as if he hadn't realized this already, making his way through the room and towards where she sat, crouching down in front of her.

"Yes. I know that I must remain in ignorance and I have come to accept those terms of our arrangement, but I still wish to ask what you plan to do with me. Surely a god has no real reason to marry a mortal woman and bring her to his palace."

There was a hum from the god, a simple hm; one of contemplation. The question she had was a sort of loaded one that could give away some things if he wasn't careful how he answered her. Though he supposed she had her right to ask it. He was not Zeus who lusted after just about anything that moved and even then Zeus would have simply taken her in that field that day that he had seen her and been over it. Selfishly ruining her for any other man and cheating upon his wife. Unlike many of the Gods, he wasn't into forcing himself or his will onto mortal woman then solely going upon his way. Even his own father was guilty of this act.

"A few years ago, I was watching the mortal world. Something I liked to do from time to time. That was when I had spotted you in the field outside of your kingdom and I was smitten with you instantly. I even returned here and tried to forget about you but I just could not and I knew that I had to have you. I love you, Psyche, more than any God could ever love any thing or person, and it is a love that, no matter what, shall never extinguish. For as long as there is breath in my lungs and blood which pumps into my heart, it will remain. I am immortal; deathless... my love will follow you even after you've been ferried across the River Styx. I want nothing more than to have you by my side as my wife and lover."