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He looked around and noticed shredded pieces of plants and vines turning black all around them. Flowers in the pots next to the patio looked overgrown and dangerous, thorns jutting out of even the most harmless type of flower.
He immediately looked up to where Persephone was, worried that he had done something unforgivable, knowing he had.
It was all confirmed when he noticed the cuts on her shoulders and throat closing up. Her dress had tiny rips throughout the fabric with blood running down her arms. Her eyes were black, her fingers clawed.
They both looked at each other for several long moments, his heart working overtime as it moved into his throat.
Finally, more out of shame than curiosity, he broke her stare. He noticed the people around him were not at all staring but were suspended as if someone had pressed a pause button on the world.
He stumbled a bit, his entire body drained. A slight breeze would be enough to knock him over.
How had he become so exhausted?
He felt like he had lost a piece of his day, of himself. Lost in an illusion while his body acted out. He was confused and mortified at what had been done, at his mindless actions. His eyes roamed over the still crowd, but only one person moved aside from him and Persephone.
A man that held the demeanor of a soldier with a large muscular build and radiated a power that rivaled Persephone herself. His chin length dark hair was blowing around his face, his hands in his jacket pockets, and a smirk on his face.
An unknown amongst the crowd of strangers, but his soul knew an enemy when he saw one.
The man simply did a small salute, mouthing the word, “Soon” before disappearing into thin air, an orange light fading from where he had been.
Devon looked at Persephone.
“What happened?” he whispered. He meant it to be louder, but he was in too much shock to put effort behind his words.
The only response he received from her was a flash of blue light all around them before the world went completely dark.
Chapter 29
Devon woke up feeling groggy and stiff, as if he had been on a drinking binge while doing one hell of a physical workout.
It took him a minute to realize where he was, and once he did, his anxiety increased in his worn and tired mind.
The clean, sophisticated blue and black room that was Persephone’s bedchambers. He was
prostrate in her giant bed by himself feeling half drugged. He moved to get up when he realized he was not alone by the tap, tap, tap he heard from the chair in the corner of the room.
“You said you were not a threat to my sister,” the voice that could only belong to Hera said in
such a low and menacing tone that Devon resisted a tremble of terror.
The shadows covered Hera, her golden eyes all he could see as they were alight with Godfire. Had he not known her, he would have drawn a weapon or run from the room for his life.
“Yet, you almost killed her right on main street. Tell me, Devon, how is that not a threat?” she growled. The tapping ceased, and the atmosphere started to feel like it was trying to pull him apart at the seams. The tension growing thicker, choking him.
“What happened?” he finally managed to ground out. His brain was too foggy to deal with this, much less understand or even try to reason it out.
He could feel himself becoming increasingly defensive the longer she stared without answering.
Finally realizing Hera could go all day, he closed his eyes to stave off the burn he felt building in his eyes and temples. A headache like none he had felt before, and he knew if it grew, he would be lost to the pain and in no way able to defend himself against an angry Goddess.
“Hera, I need a minute,” he mumbled. He tried to stand up again but felt her power push him back down on the bed. Hera stood up instead and moved to prowl over to him like a lion ready for the kill. Her slow, steady predatory gait punctuated by the click of her heels on the marble floor. As she stopped next to him he realized he was completely at her mercy. Leaning down, she used one finger, her nail cutting into his chin, to tilt his head up at her.
Her eyes were tinged with his green glow as his temper rose to the surface. The tension built up in his muscles, his body going still and readying itself for battle by sending surges of adrenaline to his extremities.
“No, what you need to do is leave. You need to go far away from here. From my sister. A remote village in some town on the edge of the wastelands where there is no way you can harm my sister mentally or physically.” Her eyes flashed with gold fire. “And I will happily escort you there myself.”
Devon closed his eyes, not wanting her to see him bending to her will.
