I don't even know where to start. The now familiar tugging sensation in my gut returns.
I try to give myself a minute to fully process the information.
"A mortal love?"...
"Two heirs?"...
I repeat to myself aloud.
This page...the dress...the tiara...my visions and dreams...the pomegranate seeds...
Things were very slowly coming into place.
Though I had many more questions buzzing about my mind, there was now ONE thing I knew for certain:
This was no kingdom.
Whatever fairy tale I was sucked into was a big fat lie. Something truly dangerous was going on.
Something much bigger than some petty chivalry.
Slipping the scroll into my dress as well, I give the room one last glance before exiting the cove.
After restoring the lock on the door, I return to the bed and breathe out a long, heavy sigh.
As I lay there awaiting whatever was coming next, there is one line from the text in particular, that keeps echoing through my mind over and over again:
A mortal love forbidden so,
Will torment both and fester foe.
Torment BOTH...
If this text truly is a prophecy, then this could only mean one thing...
...I am much more familiar with the man from my dreams, than I think....Which would also lead to the real reason why I was here.
I must've been up thinking for hours when suddenly, I hear sharp footsteps echoing down the hall. The steps get louder and finally stop right outside of the door.
After a brief pause, I hear a loud knock.
"It's me", comes Hade's voice from the other side of the door.
Unsure of what to do, I resort to feigning sleep. I shut my eyes and lie as still as I can.
"I'm coming in", he proclaims before opening the door and entering the infirmary.
A stream of dim lights filter in from the doorway and illuminate the room. I continue to act asleep.
Apparently, that doesn't fool him.
He slowly walks over to the bed and grips my chin in his strong hand.
"I know you are awake", he whispers into my ear, his warm breath tickling my neck.
Crap....Act natural, I tell myself.
I peel my eyes open and come face to face with his pale-grey eyes.
He stares at me for a moment longer before feeling my forehead with the back of his hand.
I say nothing as I study his face, stomaching the urge to panic.
"Pomegranates, huh?", he sullenly mocks, exhaling. He suddenly buries his face into my neck.
"I almost lost you", he lets out slightly wavering as his hand finds mine.
Caressing my fingers, he peers at me and urges:
"Say something"
When I don't, he stops comforting me and slowly rises back up. His gaze turns colder and colder at my absence of words. Some time passes.
"Very well Highness", he affirms, a little less politely.
He lets go of my hand completely and starts pacing around the room.
He walks up to the huge padlock and stops. He turns away to face the door with his hands clutched behind his back.
A sweat breaks out on my forehead.
"See, when I claimed you Lillith, I hoped for one thing"
"Do you know what that one thing was?" he asks, venom seeping into his tone.
Trembling, I continue to remain silent.
He turns back to face me. His expression now completely stoic and unreadable.
"Power." he continues.
He slowly saunters back to me, his hands still clasped behind his back. Kneeling back down over me, he brings his face close to mine again.
"But...", he continues.
"As the days passed, I had watched you. I had grown under your sweet influence. You bewitched me, Lillith."
"I even..." he trails off briefly looking down and then away. He tightens the clench in his jaw as his eyes gloss over.
Those same eyes suddenly fade into a sickly, dark red color. His brows furrow as he redirects his fiery gaze to me.
Black sparks start fizzing around his body as he readjusts to his full, menacing height.
The deathly-looking bolts of electricity dance their way up his sleeves and through his wild, black hair.
My stomach knots up in fear as I climb off the bed and back away. I keep going until my back hits the wall. My breathing comes out heavy as panic consumes me.
I TRUSTED YOU. echoes a furiously loud Hades in my mind.
I reach up to clutch my ears but something seizes my body. I lose control of my limbs as some power takes over them.
Another feeling of nostalgia hits me as I stare at a wild, angry Hades. In his true form.
"Poupee", flashes a memory in the back of my mind as this becomes all too familiar to me again.
Puppet...
I knew this was Hades' power taking me over. I also knew this was not the first time this was happening to me. The pieces were now slowly falling into place.
My hands mechanically retract down to my sides as my legs stiffly start marching towards him, on their own accord. Fear saturates me as I try and helplessly fail to regain control of my body.
My legs don't stop until I am standing mere inches from his threatening, fizzing figure. His fiery eyes zero in on me as he sneers.
"To think, I allowed myself to be enticed by a...mortal", he spits.
As he does so, fizzy sparks travel up my dress and shred the cloth off of me and into ruins. All the items I had taken lay sprawled out onto the ground.
Never breaking eye contact, Hades grips my chin again, much tighter this time.
"Is the truth what you really want?" he roars,
his voice bouncing off the walls and filling the chamber in a demonic echo.
THEN SO IT SHALL BE, comes his voice from the back of my mind again.
A sharp pain starts seizing me as his electricity dances up into my head, shocking everything in its way. I clench my eyes in pain as I try to escape his menacing hold.
My body doesn't even flinch. Held in place by his control, I am frozen still, allowing his power to continue it's painful torture.
As I clench my eyes tighter however, my memories come rushing back to me...
ALL of them.
Picnics...weddings...long nights...
All with the same man.
But it wasn't Hades,
It was Valentine.
All along. The visions, the dreams, his messages.
They were all him.
Oh, my beloved Valentine.
After a while the pain finally subsides as I take them all in. Every moment I spent with him.
The room goes completely silent for a moment. I reach up a hand to touch my face, and succeed. Hades has released his grip over me, for now.
I look back up to him in time to see a lone tear, sliding down his cheek. His face remains stoic.
After another moment of him silently gazing he speaks again:
"Winter Solstice is tomorrow. It is then that I have lured my brother here. It will be his only chance to enter my realm. He will come looking for...you. When he does so, I will trap him, and he will surrender the throne".
I drop down to my knees and crouch onto the floor sobbing.
"Noooo-oo. Please. Please don't do this. Take me instead. Please", I cry, pleading at his feet.
"I loved you", he whispers broken.
"We could've ruled...Together Lillith".
I sniff, looking up at his tear stained face,
"Please just-", I start but he immediately cuts me off.
"You proved to be what I thought you always were: A foolish mortal girl", he spits again.
His eyes still a dark, fiery shade.
"I will retrieve you tomorrow for the coronation", he breathes.
Coronation?
"You are going to kill Valentine." he commands calmly, shedding one last tear, before exiting and leaving me gasping on the floor.
I clutch my stomach and heave over and over as his last sentence rings through my head.
"You are going to kill Valentine."