But when they made me come, I felt nothing but hollow and empty inside. I banished them all, knowing they would report back to mother that I’d had them, she would be satisfied that I’d moved on from my queen.
I cried.
Present Day, Eros
* * *
“For years I searched for Psyche. But mother hid her from me well. Maybe she knew I would one day weaken and try to find her again.”
I stared hollowly down at the ground, shaking my head. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed to get my story off my chest, but Heph’s quiet and understanding demeanor had made it all come out.
“But and correct me if I’m wrong, nephew,” he said softly, “Psyche was of the mortal realm. This would have been hundreds of years ago. She would be dead, my boy.”
I blinked, shaking my head. “No. I thought so too. Until a few weeks ago I found a note laying on my bed, telling me that what I sought would be found on the sinking isle.”
I looked at my uncle and he blinked. “Who sent the note? Are you sure you can trust—”
I sniffed, brushing a tear violently away with the sleeve of my arm. “I thought it was a terrible prank too, but I used father’s looking glass and I…I saw her. She’s here, Uncle. She’s been here, on Olympus all these years. She’s not aged, she looks exactly the same.”
I shuddered, rubbing at my chest. Feeling as though I might shatter all over again. I’d gone unhinged after I’d lost her. I’d tried so damned hard to go back to life as usual, but my moods had grown sullen, even at times violent. I’d stopped doing as mother wanted, and now I knew that Psyche had felt the wrath of her displeasure for it. In the end, I’d become exactly the monster her sisters had warned her I’d be.
Psyche had been right all along.
She should have just killed me that night. Her life would have been better for it.
“Then let’s go get her,” he said gruffly. “Now.”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand, no one can safely step foot on that isle. No one save…”
“Aphrodite,” he finished for me. “And that cold hearted bitch never would have before.”
“I’ve tried so many times to rescue her and nearly had my head ripped off for it. I cannot reach her and each time I try the isle sinks just a little bit farther. The dark waters of Acheron are now up to her neck. They’ve so poisoned her that even if she’s rescued now, she will never come back. I…I don’t know what to do. I…I’ve killed her, uncle.”
I hung my head, as tears of shame ran steadily down my cheeks.
“My Dite will save her.”
“You say that,” I muttered, “but you don’t know her like I do.”
“No son, I rather fear it’s the other way around. Now, come.” He held out his hand to me. “We’ve no time to waste.”
Hephaestus refused to release my hand the entire trip to mother’s. And with each second that ticked by I felt an ungodly urge to run.
“Relax,” he said.
“Easy for you to say. Or maybe not. I still don’t fucking understand how you could move on so easily. Even, if what you say, they aren’t the same woman they still look identical. How can you bear it?”
Finally, he released me. And turned toward me. I saw a fire in his eyes that revealed the depth of how deeply he felt about her. “Hear me this time, boy. Really hear me. Not with your rational mind, but with that heart that led you toward your female in the first place. Your mother has done all she could to prove to you that she wants to fix things. Fix things she never even caused in the first place. It’s been many months now since she and I have reunited and not one harsh word has ever been spoken from her toward me. There are moments where I can’t bite my tongue, where the demons of the past come bubbling up and she takes it with grace. Understanding me in a way I even can’t. If you want to save your bride, she is our only choice. Period.”
He crossed his big, burly arms over his equally massive chest and stared down his long nose at me.
I fidgeted under the weight of his heavy stare.
And for the first time in a long time I began to open myself to the possibility that maybe, just maybe he was right. I knew the curse had happened. I’d seen the changes wrought. For so long I’d battled my need to cling to the “truth” as I knew it. That Aphrodite hadn’t changed at all, that she was still the same bitter bitch who’d raised me. That this was all a sham, a game she played to toy with us because to believe she wasn’t the same woman would give me hope. Hope that she could easily exploit again. Hope that would have exposed me and made me vulnerable to her games again. I’d been so scared of being hurt by her that I’d pushed her aside and now I wondered if I’d made the worst decision possible.
What if she didn’t know anything about Psyche?
What if she truly wasn’t the one who’d hidden her so well from me that I’d believed my very mortal bride returned back to the dust from whence she’d came? What if maybe accepting that this Aphrodite was truly a completely different version of herself would have led me to Psyche sooner?
I squeezed my eyes shut, scrubbing my forearm across my eyes and moaning from deep inside of me. “I’ve messed up everything up, Uncle.”
I felt the movement of the travel tunnel cease and knew we’d arrived at mother’s palace.
“Not yet, you haven’t,” he said. “Now come. Quickly.”
I followed him. Sick to my gut with each step I took down the familiar star lit pathway. As if on cue, as if she’d known we’d be coming she was there at the entrance of the doorway, dressed in starlight, with her long flowing blond hair hanging like a curtain down around her ankles.
And then she smiled at me. With tears burning in her eyes and the old hate began to rise in me. The fear that she would use me ill again to do her dirty work came rushing up and I almost, almost left. There had to be another way to get to Psyche.
But then Aphrodite did the most astonishing thing.
She dropped to her knees and held her arms out toward me. “My son,” she whispered in a broken tremor that tugged at my heartstrings like nothing else could have. Her gaze never wavered from mine.
Crystal tears spilled in a steady stream down her cheeks, gathering at her knees and the moment they landed on the marble steps they burst with life. A field of white, glittering water lilies began to gather round her.
Tiny crystal bees pinged and buzzed from stamen to stamen. She looked like the most beautiful water nymph I’d ever seen. But more than that, I saw nothing of the haughty arrogant female I’d once known.
Mother would never have debased herself in front of me in such a manner. She’d always made sure to tower above me when handing out punishment. Letting me know my place quite forcefully.
And that’s the moment that something inside of me snapped. And a truth I’d hidden from the world and even myself became suddenly crystal clear.
I’d never stopped loving her.
I’d never stopped wanting her love in return.
My wings erupted and I flew the last few steps to her side. Then we were wrapped in each other’s arms and a glowing light of radiant magenta enveloped us. I saw her in her god form and I couldn’t help but join in my own. We burned as bright as Apollo’s sun.