The tearing sensation grew exponentially, and blackness flooded her mind. The void expanded, bringing ice and Darkness where there was once life and Light. Yet, the Light had not vanished. Not completely. Trynn could sense it, pulsing angrily near her heart, where it had been ripped free and tossed aside.
She screamed at the sensation, terrible shrieks that scraped her throat raw and stabbed like tiny knives at her lungs. As she thrashed, Trynn felt a cold, bony hand clutching at her shoulder, restraining her flailing body. Someone was trying to calm her, pressing peace into her mind from an outside source—the sensation causing a harsh dissonance when it touched the horror of her rent soul.
Tears streaming down her face, Trynn’s grip on the world started to slip away.
“Hold on, Trynn. I will if you will,” Eris whispered in her ear. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
With one last whimper, Trynn surrendered herself to the darkness.
*
It was odd, hearing the sound of waves. Damascus was a dry place, wasn’t it?
But, no. She could hear the ocean. She could smell it—a salty tang in the air. Where was she?
She opened her eyes and found herself standing in darkness, the pale light of the moon splashed across her face like wan silver mist. She brushed sand away from her hands and arms. Had she been lying on the beach? The grains clung to her legs as well.
Salt water teased her feet and ankles, white foam clinging to her skin as the tide ebbed and flowed around her. The sea breeze lifted her hair off her neck and filled her nose with the smell of salt.
“Come dance with me,” a voice whispered in her ear.
She looked to her right and saw Eris standing beside her in the darkness, the light of the moon reflecting in his merry eyes.
Giddiness stole over her and she laughed, smiling up at him. “Of course, my love.”
Eris pulled her into his arms and led her in a rollicking dance, twirling her around and around until she shrieked with glee, dizzy and flushed. When he put her down, she stretched up to kiss him, grinning against his lips.
With a mischievous smile, she grabbed his hand and dragged him back into the surf with her, the two of them laughing as they crashed through the waves. Her long dress floated up around her legs, as soft as silk against her skin.
“This is our victory!” Eris proclaimed to the heavens. He threw his arms wide, sweeping them towards the small town situated at the ocean’s edge. The hearth fires burning inside the huts and cottages were visible through the darkness, promising warmth and light. “Now that the shipping deal with Flavian is sealed, this island will be our kingdom! We’ll never want for anything. We’ll never have to steal and scrounge and hide in the shadows again!”
She framed his face with her hands. “You will be my King, and I, your Queen.”
“Nothing can stop us from having the life we always wanted, Phaidra,” Eris declared, covering her hands with his as he laughed, clear and happy. “Not now.”
His simple, toga-like chiton was soaked from their dip in the ocean, and his hair dripped from the spray.
Phaidra smiled, happier than she’d ever been in her life, and pressed her lips against his… just as the wind around them changed.
Pulling away, she shivered and looked around in confusion as a cold breeze wafted over her damp skin. Shaking off a brief flutter of unease, she smiled again. “Come out of the water, my love—the evening is growing chill. Help me find some seashells! I’ll make us two necklaces so we might remember this night always.”
Eris beamed at her and lifted her slight frame into his arms, spinning her around in a circle as he had done earlier. “Anything for you, my sweet.”
He bent and kissed her neck before setting her on her feet and leading the way back up the beach. They gathered all the shells they could find. Phaidra tucked them in the folds of her toga, where they clinked together when she walked.
As they searched, they spoke of their newly acquired wealth in reverent tones. Thieves they might have been once, but now their quest to become honest traders had finally reached fruition. With the Roman shipping contract in place, they would soon have enough money to purchase all the land around them. Eventually, they would control this entire part of the coastline.
The chilly breeze grew positively frigid. Phaidra straightened and looked around in alarm.
“Is a storm coming?” she asked, turning towards Eris.
Eris checked the sky, his eyes drifting out over the darkened ocean. “No… there are no clouds on the horizon, only millions of brilliant stars.”
A gust of wind nearly knocked Phaidra off her feet. She staggered into Eris’ arms. They turned towards the town of Lapethos, only to find that the flicker of fires they had been able to see earlier had disappeared. A dense, clammy fog was descending on them as they crowded together.
“I don’t like this,” Phaidra whispered, feeling fear climb up her throat. “This is no natural wind. It’s the work of the gods; it must be.”
An explosion of sound echoed around them. The two lovers clutched their ears and fell onto their knees. Phaidra screamed—she could no longer see the sky, the moon, or even the vast expanse of the ocean. She was lost in the black fog, and her grip on Eris’ strong arm was the only thing holding her to reality.
“No!” Eris shouted, pressing her behind his solid form. “No! Begone, demon!”
“What?” Phaidra asked, confused. She could see nothing but impenetrable blackness.
Suddenly, a deep, cruel laugh reverberated around them. It was so powerful that it seemed to shake the foundations of the earth itself, making the sand swirl and shift beneath her. She sank as if into mud, until her hands and legs became trapped in the quaking surface beneath her.
“You have grown powerful, little mortal.” The disembodied voice rolled around them like thunder. “For that, you will now pay the price. You have become… useful to me, and now I will turn you into my creature.”
Phaidra stared at Eris, who gazed upward with a look of horror on his face.
“Your soul is mine,” the voice continued. ”I will rend and devour it, until your flesh is nothing but an empty shell, ready to be filled up with my will. You will be consummated by my evil.”
Even as he gasped for air in the smothering cloud of darkness, Eris straightened his spine in defiance, though his hand on her arm was trembling. “My soul is not yours to take! It belongs to another. It is for her and her alone that I sought power and wealth. I will not serve you, filth!”
The evil laughter echoed around them once more. Sudden agony burned Phaidra’s skin, as if the black mist had turned to vitriol. She screamed, jerking violently in an attempt to get away.
The mist receded, the pain disappearing as quickly as it had come. With shaking arms, Phaidra managed to pull herself free of the sucking sand, which had grown still now that the demon appeared to have focused its attention on Eris.
Eris! She looked to her left and saw the dense darkness swirling around him. She could just make out the outline of his body, lying face up in the sand. His back arched in torment, yet he made no sound. The beach had gone completely silent, as if the heavens themselves paused to listen.
“Eris, no,” Phaidra whispered, petrified with fear. Her lover did not respond. Unnatural green lightning, the likes of which she had never seen before, crackled across the beach.
The central mass of fog coalesced into a monstrous, twisted figure. It was huge—larger than life. The creature bent menacingly and gripped Eris with slimy, bloody claws. The reek surrounding it made Phaidra’s stomach churn.
The thing’s attention turned towards Phaidra, and she recoiled in disgust. It had the body of a man, but the head of a toad. The head gulped wetly, its long tongue shooting out to lick one eyeball. The wide, slack mouth looked as if it could swallow Eris whole.
“No!” Phaidra shrieked, struggling forward to try and reach Eris through the cloud surrounding man and beast. The urge to flee was nearly
overwhelming, but she would not leave Eris at the demon’s mercy. She threw herself forward, over and over, but the mist surrounding the two figures had grown thick as treacle. Finally, she lunged forward a final fraction, and was able to reach him. Her fingers found the edge of his toga, soaked now with sweat and blood as well as seawater.
Even pulling with all her might, Phaidra was barely able to move his writhing body a finger’s width. The creature was clearly amused by her attempts. It cackled with glee, and the hair on the back of Phaidra’s neck stood on end at the horrible sound.
It was evil. Pure evil.
“You cannot save him, insect. You are nothing more than a worthless whore. A warm place for him to stick his cock. He is mine now,” the toad said.
Phaidra swallowed a sob and shook her head, trying to draw on the defiance that Eris had shown earlier, even though she was still too petrified to speak or look directly into those horrible eyes.
“His inner Light will be cast into the underworld and tortured for all eternity,” the beast continued. “I will make him my slave until this world crumbles to nothing. He will serve me loyally, feasting on blood and skin and sinew.”
Phaidra recoiled in revulsion at its words, and tried again to pull her lover’s body out from under the suffocating cloud surrounding him. Still, her meager strength was insufficient to free Eris from the demon’s clutches.
“M-my life for his.” Phaidra forced the words through chattering teeth.
The black miasma swirled around her, flooding her nose and mouth, making her sputter and cough for air.
“You would give your pathetic life to save his?”
The terrible voice crooned the words in her ear like a lover. She shuddered in disgust as the toad’s tongue traced up her neck.
“My life for his.” She repeated the words with more force this time.
Her love for Eris burned brightly in her chest, filling Phaidra with a strength she had not known she possessed. Will overcame fear as she looked up at the demon and stubbornly set her chin. “You will take my life, offered freely, and spare his in turn.”
Phaidra glanced down to find a faint golden glow emanating from her skin, luminescent in the swirling darkness surrounding her—the light of her love, stark against the demon’s dark power.
The creature’s face twisted and changed. Instead of a toad, she was staring into the eyes of a rabid cat. Anger laced its next words like poison. “I will destroy you, insolent mortal. By the time I am through with you, you will curse the day you were born.”
Phaidra took a steadying breath and jerked backward as hard as she could. The cloud shifted with her, following her, partially freeing Eris’ body.
The sound of skittering insect legs assaulted her ears. She clenched her teeth, trying to stop her body from shaking and jerking. It felt as though fire ants were crawling up her legs, eating her flesh from the outside in.
Her cries were lost in the rushing noise that surrounded her, but despite the intolerable sensation of insects creeping over her skin, one small part of her mind held onto sanity and awareness of her surroundings. Immortals were dangerous and capricious, but they could be bargained with, if one knew what drove them.
“A wager, then!” she cried, trying to make her voice heard over the rush of noise. “You call me his whore, but I know the truth of our bond! I will wager that our love is stronger than your evil! If I’m wrong… if I lose… you will have everything you want. You will get to watch as my heart shatters with grief, and afterward he will be your creature.”
There was a pregnant beat of silence. Encouraged, she continued. “But if I’m right, you will spare his life. He will be forever protected by the sacrifice of true and unconditional love.”
As Phaidra spoke, she struggled to unsteady feet and took one stumbling step backward, pretending that her trembling legs could not hold her weight. The creature paced her, and the movement completely freed Eris from the dark cloud surrounding the demonic being.
The silence stretched longer, and she held her breath.
“If he is so important to you, human, it will be as you say it is. You are but a mindless beast, in the end. Your fear will overcome your sickening nobility the moment you see the truth of what I have done to him.”
The air escaped her lungs in a whoosh. “You’re wrong. He is worth everything to me,” she said. “And that is what I am offering you as my part of the wager. Everything.”
There were no more words. The demon did not speak again. Its power coalesced above her like a heavy stone, crushing her. She fell beneath its weight.
As her body dropped to the ground, her gaze flickered and came to rest on Eris, covered in blood, twitching weakly on the sand a few paces away. As she watched, he curled onto his side, facing her. His eyes glowed red, and his handsome face twisted into a mask of animal hunger. There was no recognition in his ravenous gaze.
With a sinking feeling, she wondered if her beloved was already gone forever, his soul sacrificed to a demon’s lust for power. But… no. The creature had agreed to her wager. Her love could still redeem him. She had to believe that. She had to.
What the demon didn’t understand, was that she couldn’t bear the thought of living in a world without Eris. She had no fear of what might happen to her, because it couldn’t possibly be worse than losing him.
Eris was struggling onto all fours, now, stalking toward her like a predator. She felt the demon retreat, leaving her prostrate and helpless in the sand as it fell back to watch. She could feel its bloodthirsty glee.
Her beloved was close enough now that she could read the anguish behind that blood-red gaze. The need. He hungered, and her eyes fell to the full-lipped mouth that had brought her so much pleasure over the years.
He had fangs.
The demon’s words returned to her. He will serve me loyally, feasting on blood and skin and sinew. Your fear will overcome your sickening nobility the moment you see the truth of him.
That fear tried to rise now. She didn’t let it.
Eris crawled up the length of her body, caging her with his arms and legs. Looking down at her. A drip of saliva fell from one of his fangs, to land warm and wet on her throat.
She swallowed. “Eris, my love,” she said hoarsely, “I know you can’t see anything but the Darkness right now. And that’s all right. I will be the Light for both of us. I offer you everything I have to give, and ask only this in return. Don’t let this creature win.” Her voice fell to a whisper as Eris wrenched her head back by the hair, and lowered his mouth to her neck in a sick parody of a lovers’ embrace. “I love you. Through death and life—”
Eris snarled, and sharp pain pierced the sensitive flesh of her throat. She cried out, blood gurgling. As her soul was dragged forcibly from her body, a single thought flickered before her awareness slipped away into nothingness.
But now, I’ll never know if I won the wager…
*
Trynn shivered violently. The air against her back felt icy, but there was warmth beneath her. Was she still in the dream? She hungered, as Eris had hungered on that beach in the distant past. A feast lay a mere hairsbreadth from her lips. She could feel it. She could smell it. All she had to do was—
Her teeth buried themselves in salty flesh, and warm nectar flowed over her lips. She lapped weakly at it, and some slipped down her parched throat. It should have been horrific, but she knew it couldn’t actually be real. She was still sleeping, no doubt, her brain concocting some kind of fantasy dream-revenge on dream-Eris for biting her earlier.
That was all.
A hand cradled the back of her head, holding her steady. “That’s it, beloved.” The hoarse voice sounded relieved beyond measure. “Drink from me. Everything will be all right, now.”
She suckled like a hungry newborn, completely on instinct. The warmth inside her grew, driving back the icy chill. Exhausted, she slipped into sleep.
*
Trynn still couldn’t open her eyes. They were t
oo heavy. Her aching body weighed a ton; her fingers might as well have been made of wood for all the feeling in them.
What—? Where—?
Indistinct voices murmured above her, the words unintelligible as she drifted in and out of sleep. Trynn tried again to open her eyes. The lids parted reluctantly, only to slide closed again as the world around her spun.
She moaned, and wrenched a numb, heavy hand up to her head, pressing the heel clumsily against her temple.
“Easy,” a voice whispered. Strong arms held her against a warm, naked chest. “Rest now, Trynn.”
She nodded, past the point of caring what she was agreeing to or with whom she was agreeing. She knew that voice. She trusted that voice. That was all that mattered.
Trynn drifted vaguely for what seemed like a long time, resting with the warm body on the soft pile of pillows. Someone pulled a dusty blanket up over her shoulders and she relaxed further, concentrating only on the feeling of blood pumping through her veins and arteries. It was strange, hearing the soft, rhythmic shush-shush so clearly, though she couldn’t have said why it was strange.
Some time later, she became aware of an odd chasm inside her chest that had not been there before. She didn’t like it. Something about it made her feel lopsided. Off-balance.
Don’t be stupid, she thought. You’re lying down. How can you be off-balance when you’re lying down?
Realization struck.
Oh. Right. Snag had ripped her soul in two earlier. She probably should have remembered that part sooner. It was kind of important. Did that mean she was going to hell now? Which… yeah. Apparently hell was a real place, so…
I certainly hope not, a voice murmured inside her head. For one thing, that would require dying first. But if you do, gods forbid, I will be by your side the whole way down—my word on it.
She was so startled by the mental intrusion that she physically jerked in surprise. A warm hand settled on her arm, rubbing soothingly.
“It’s all right,” the voice said aloud. “Sorry about that. Don’t worry, that’s normal.”
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