he nymph, still disguised, her eyes red–rimmed, lightly beat against Kaelen’s chest. “I only went to see you because I missed you so much. How could you be so cruel?”
“Look,” she pouted, holding up her swollen arm, “don’t I look… alluring in this uniform?”
A sliver of sheer, translucent fabric was visible at her cuff.
Kaelen’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his eyes darkening.
“Want to see what I’m wearing underneath? I know you’ll like it,” she purred.
He grabbed her arm, his eyes now clouded with desire. “Don’t tell me… it’s a mortal’s silken finery.”
She giggled, burying her head, in his chest, cooing, “You’re so wicked!”
Laughing and teasing, they disappeared into a secluded pavilion. Their entangled silhouettes danced on the window screen.
I stood outside, listening to the sounds of their passion. I watched Kaelen repeatedly kiss her injured hand.
A searing pain shot through my own ankle. I looked down to see it swollen beyond recognition.
I had already decided to be reborn, to forget. But at this moment, my heart was filled with a bitter ache.
A single tear traced a path down my cheek. The soft moans from inside grew louder. I clamped my hands over my ears, but I couldn’t block out the sound. It seeped into my mind, a sharp knife twisting in my heart.
I forced myself to limp away, ignoring the agony. My hair was a mess. The hairpin was gone, my ankle was sprained, and I looked utterly pathetic.
I desperately told myself this was the last tear I would ever shed for him.
When I stumbled back to the Asphodel Pavilion, Kaelen’s two guards were waiting, holding the hairpin.
My eyes fell on it, and I suddenly remembered the day Kaelen had proposed. His face had been flushed, but he had looked at me with such sincerity.
“Elara, I will be good to you for all of eternity.”
I had looked at him, and my heart had soared.
From that day on, he had devotedly fulfilled his promise. In the end, he had even died to protect me.
Now, the hairpin was still as beautiful as ever, but the man who had made the vow was a stranger.
5/6
04.2
Chapter 1
I shook my head, and when I spoke, my voice was steady again.
“I don’t want it anymore.”
I didn’t want the hairpin, the symbol of our vow.
And I didn’t want Kaelen anymore.
04:32
I fell into a restless sleep, and it was only then that Kaelen returned. He moved quietly, carefully slipping int bed beside me and pulling me into his arms.
I kept my eyes closed.
He took my cold hands in his and murmured an incantation, warming the room with the very heat of the Phlegethon, the river of fire.
In my drowsy state, I felt him almost reverently tuck my cold hands into his own embrace to warm them.
A wave of sleepiness washed over me, and I finally drifted off.
When I woke up, the space beside me was empty.
A handmaiden approached. “Lord Hades has been very busy,” she explained.
I nodded, indifferent. Whether he was truly busy or off with Lyra, it no longer mattered.
I spent the next few days clearing out the pavilion.
Kaelen had given me many things. A lantern that held a captive star, custom–blended incense that smellec
of forgotten memories, a lover’s knot woven from my own hair…
I packed them all into a box and cast it into the fires of the Phlegethon.
As the flames died down, Kaelen pushed open the door. “Elara, what are you burning?”
I smiled. “Nothing. Just some useless old things.”
He nodded, glancing around the now–empty room. “I’ll find you some new treasures to entertain you in a few
days.”
I didn’t answer. In a few days, I would be completely free, no longer waiting for him in this dull, lifeless realm
Time was short. I made sure to burn everything.
Coincidentally, my birth anniversary and the day my thread was to be cut from the loom were the same.
6/6
