The Perils of Unrequited Love

CHAPTER XIV: VENUS AND DOLUS

"Beauty will save the world"

--- Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, the Idiot , Fyodor Dostoevsky (1868-1869)

The terror of hurling toward the earth like a comet was less of a terror than she remembered. Maybe, because this time, she could embrace him.

She felt the mark of aphrodite on her breast throbbing, racing along with her heart.

Never once in her existence had she imagined the day she would discover the secret of Lefkadas. The closer they got to ground, the stronger the powerful, ancient magic, embedded within the cliff. She immediately recognized her mother's magic.

The souls who plummeted to death at the cliff of Lefkadas lost their hearts to the cliff because the cliff was cursed by Aphrodite. Perhaps, the goddess of beauty and love did not approve of those heartbroken souls taking their own lives in the name of love.

To love someone but not have that person's love back was bravery, foolish, foolish bravery, but to die because of love was simply foolishness.

Foolishness and selfishness.

Love was supposed to be selfless. To kill oneself because of unrequited love was foolish and selfish because love could not be forced, not even by death.

This was the peril of unrequited love.The death of love and the beginning of miseries.

If Love was an obsession, unrequited love would be an obsession that turned into desperation.

She had thoughtlessly played with Matthew's obsession and now, she was going to get the taste of her own medicine.

Matthew was never going to love her.

In fact, he was never ever going to love again.

It was ridiculous to think about love in her current predicament, yet it seemed to matter to her most that justice of the hearts was going to be at Matthew's expense.

Perhaps, Nemesis was right to call her an ungrateful brat since she was only a misery to those who loved her.

The mark of Aphrodite felt like a knife in her heart now. Her magic leaked from the mark into her blood, preventing the curse of lefkadas from reaching her heart.

However, the ancient curse was too powerful to fight forever.

Her power and essence as Anteros, the god of requited love, was contained in the human heart of Lady Rosabelle Godfrey and when the cliff finally took her heart, she would be gone, completely disappeared. This was the peril of requited love, the death of the god of requited love, just as Nemesis had planned.

She pressed her body closely to Matthew's back and with her newly found sense, she located his heart and forced the remaining of her power to surround it like a shield. She might not be able to protect him, but she would protect his heart. She wouldn't let the cursed cliff take what was hers.

Strangely, the magic that was directed to Matthew's heart, went back to her, entering her at her spine.

Afterwards she could never describe what happened. The mark suddenly stopped thrashing her rib cage and the magic that entered her back got hotter and hotter.

She thought she passed out for a brief moment when their bodies were about to hit the ocean or maybe, it was just a blink of an eye. Everything happened so fast. One second she braced herself for the impact of the fall, but then another second later Matthew was cradling her in his arms and tenderly gazing at her with his bright gold eyes.

They were not falling anymore and that was a good thing. She just needed to figure out why.

Her eyes were very heavy, but she wanted to touch his face, pull him close and kiss him.