Tending to his wounds.
Speaking to him as though he were a man. Pouring her heart out to him one quiet night that she’d been betrothed against her will and that she would rather die than be wed to such a vile man.
I also caught flashes of Psyche’s sisters, joining in on their father’s sport of Basil. The only kindness and decency he’d received had been at the hands of Psyche. I inhaled deeply, holding back a shudder of response.
Seeing her as Basil saw her, it only made me care deeper for her. She’d been raised in the same sort of toxic environment, told that her value lied only in what she could attain for her father’s coffers. It was so easy now to understand why she’d willingly taken that vial from me.
Her life had been equally as miserable as my own. But though I’d grown robotic, almost unfeeling through the years, it seemed as though Psyche had grown more and more empathetic to the plight of others. Especially those deemed lesser.
“I felt you inside of me,” he rubbed at his chest with a thumb, slowly back and forth. His gaze hooked mine. “You can, therefore, not be surprised that I actually think highly of her. So far as humans are concerned.”
“And yet still you would hurt her,” I said, again not a question. Stubborn minotaur would likely not answer if I had.
Shoving a hand through his fur on his head, he shook his head. “Know that I would not want to, Lord Eros—”
I shook my head. “Just Eros. I do not hold with pompous titles and ceremony.”
He paused, seeming amused but also hopeful that I might not be as all the others that’d come before me.
“As you say,” he responded gruffly, “but the truth is I know I would one day snap and with her being the only human in such close proximity to me she would bear the brunt of my displeasure. So, I suppose, what I am saying is if I had a choice, I would choose my freedom.”
On the outside the Minotaur seemed cold and forbidding, but I knew I’d guessed correctly when I’d seen the glimmer of unimaginable pain glowing like a cinder behind the fire of his eyes.
I nodded. “So, mote it be,” I whispered, and with just those words alone, the ringing out of rending metal exploded through the labyrinth.
Basil gasped, staring down at the spelled chains in disbelieving wonder. “How did… they are dipped in dragon’s blood. Nothing is stronger.”
Then he looked at me, and there was a new light in his eyes now. Shock. Disbelief. Hope now burned brighter than it had before. “Why would you do such a thing, Eros, son of Aphrodite?”
I dare not answer him. Even walls had ears. But I was feeling something too. Deep inside of me, it was unfurling and coming to life. Like a seedling bursting through the darkness, I felt the stirring of something far greater within myself than I’d ever known before.
I shook my head, but my words came out softly. “Perhaps, Basil, the scales have recently fallen from my eyes. Perhaps I only wish to be redeemed, to find purpose greater than what I’ve known before.”
He nodded and for several tense moments we looked upon one another, questions burning upon the tips of our tongues. But I’d run out of them now and though I knew he was surprised that I’d not betrayed him, I also knew he and I were not friends. Might never be, Basil’s mistrust of the gods and of mortals was deeply entrenched within him. A wound that might never heal, though I hoped he would find his own rest from that painful burden someday.
I knew his life would be no better though, even without the shackles, the fact remained that he was a half breed. And most humans would revile him simply because of his heritage, which he had no control over. I also knew the male was proud and would not accept any more from me. Unless I was smarter than he.
I grinned. “Where do you go now?”
“Crete,” he said without pause, “I have a brother there, I wish to find him.”
I nodded. “You will pass through many human settlements. I doubt many of them would take kindly to seeing you. You might be free of the shackles, but you won’t really be free. You do know that, Basil.”
He frowned, and a heavy dull grow reverberated through his chest. “Do you wish to frighten me, lesser god?”
I shrugged and pressed my lips together tightly. “No, I merely state the truth.”
“To what end?” he snarled.
I smirked, assuming the pose of a sardonic and self-satisfied god. “Say, I could help you pass through mortal lands unhindered, what might that be worth to you?”
My palms were sweating, my heart racing. I did not like behaving in this manner. It felt foreign and wrong to me, I’d never felt more like my mother than I did now. But I could not drop the charade. Basil did not trust kindness, but he did trust that gods and mortals would always betray and disappoint him.
He straightened his shoulders and stared down his nose at me. “What are you getting at, lesser god?”
He’d stopped calling me that for a while earlier, now it seemed he took great pride in cutting me with those words. I was a lesser god, it was a truth I could never escape, just as it was a truth that no matter what I did for him, on the inside, Basil would always be a half breed of man and beast.
I shrugged, leaning casually against the wall of his former prison. “You’re a smart beast, you tell me.”
I would not make this easy for him. I was weary to the bone of these games I played, but Psyche’s safety was paramount and took precedence even over my own fragile ego.
He snorted. “You are no different after all. I should have known. And yet I would be a fool to reject your offer. Much as I despise the mortals, even I am no match for a mob of them. What is that you offer?”
I clipped a hard and decisive nod. “Safety in exchange for a boon at a date and time of my choosing.”
“I am but a lowly minotaur, what could I possibly have to offer you?” he growled.
I sniffed. “You never know what I may require someday, but I’ve learned through the years to never look a gift horse in the mouth. Now give me your hand and let us shake as men.”
He blinked, and again that wary suspicion and thread of hope glittered in his eyes. I confounded him. He wanted to hate me, and yet I was his first and best means of escape. Of living a life that he chose for himself. Basil had never known freedom, not even from infancy, this was an opportunity he was smart enough to recognize would never come his way again.
He took my hand.
Light exploded through the dank confines of the stony prison. Basil grunted and then a growl ripped from his throat, but the bestial sound soon turned into a human roar. He dropped to his knees, and as the blinding light began to flare the changes were obvious.
Kneeling before me was no beast, but a man in form.
He clutched at his chest, blinking back tears as he looked up at me. “I…I am—”
“Only in the day time. At night you will revert to your true nature. But you are safe from the mobs.” I helped him to stand.
Even as a man, Basil wasn’t much to look at. Much of his animalistic nature had been softened, but he still had the flattened nose and shaggy brows. He hadn’t changed much at all, but it was enough to keep him protected.
“Will I always remain so?”
I wondered if that was disappointment I heard in his tone, but I shrugged. There was much more to what I’d done to him. I was Eros after all, the god of love. What I’d placed upon him was no curse, but he would eventually revert back to his true nature for good once he’d found someone to love him for who he truly was. Only once his heart was healed of the poison would he finally know true peace.