Prologue
“You have stolen from me!” The goddess shouted at him through the mirror, a knot forming in her throat. “And for what? Greed? Ambition?”
The man across from her just stood there, his expression emotionless. A completely different person than who she had come to know. With a tilt of his head, he looked at her, as if the answer should be obvious, “For a future you could not possibly understand.”
How many times had he been in her most private of sanctums, making her feel as if she were the only thing he had ever seen? Lips of nectar grazing her thighs, bodies intertwined until they fell asleep trembling in each others arms. Only now did she realize he had been using her. Blinding her with her own heart. It made her feel disgusted with herself to the point of nausea.
“I trusted you... You told me you loved me. But you are too ambitious to love anyone.” she sneered, choking back the volume in her voice.
He just stood there, the face she once saw as beautiful and full of life now stared back at her with empty eyes, mouth set in a bored frown. The inviting heat of his skin she had once longed to feel under hers radiated a cold that rivaled the winters winds.
“All is fair... In love and war. Is that not what you taught me?” He replied, almost as if this was something he could not be bothered with.
Rage boiled in the pit of her stomach and tears pricked the corner of her eyes. She looked down for the briefest of seconds before remembering a goddess bows for no man. Raising her head, she looked straight at him, her eyebrow arching and a bitter smile forming on her lips as the wetness of tears begins to slide down her face.
“I taught you more than that.” She remarked in a hushed tone, “I taught you not to betray those you cannot kill.” reaching through the mirror without a second thought, she grabs the collar of his shirt and pulls him into her realm. His eyes begin to show the briefest flash of emotion.
Fear.
He pushes away from her, his face in shock before spinning around to beat on the mirror in a useless attempt to get back to his own world. ”What have you done?!" He roared at the goddess, anger evident in his face at having now realized his mistake of thinking she would be too forlorn to do anything against him. He turns to her, the anger causing both of their energy to clash and raise strands of their hair like an electric force surrounded them. Stalking towards her, the fearless man he had always been, “What have you done!” He shouted even louder at her. Sparks beginning to form around them, all the while she just stood still. Watching for his next move, thinking more as the strategist she had always been instead of the woman blinded by love.
“Send me back.” He growls at her, voice deepened with a level of hatred she had never heard from him before, it would have shocked her anew had she not already begun to feel numb.
“I. Will. Not.” Enunciating each word pointedly.
He shakes his left arm and she prepared for the next move that was going to inevitably come. Not only had she taught him what he knows of battle and strategy, he had not realized he had also taught her a thing or two while he had a lot left to learn.
He charges at her, the jewel encrusted knife made of moonstone that he had stolen from her slid down into his hand and his long fingers wrapped around the hilt. That was all she needed to know, it was safe in her domain once again.
With that thought, she opened her arms wide, his adrenaline pumping to hard for him to stop now and register why she was welcoming his attack with a smile on her face.
The blade slid into her chest, cold and tight as she tried to breathe around it. she coughed and saw blood splatter on his hand, still gripped around the knife. He tries to pull it out, but it does not budge. Instead, it begins to radiate a blinding light as the knife became her and the Goddess spoke.
“You will not be able to reclaim this part of me ever again. I will make sure of it.” The light bursts into every color imaginable, causing the man to let go of the hilt and back away, shielding his eyes, she continued, ” I curse you. Once you leave my temple, you will forget ever meeting me. You will not even know who you are or how you have come to be in these lands.” The moonstone of the knife had begun to take over up to her neck. She refused to ever be used again.
With a hand over his face he barked out a laugh, “What makes you think I’ll leave now that you’ve told me?”
Her face only remained now .
“You will have no choice.” and she closed her eyes.
The temple began to shake and the earth rumbled loudly as if hungry. The walls begin falling around them, the man jumps back from a piece of falling debris, separating the two from one another. Water came from the cracks in the ceiling, first only drips, before a burst of water breaks the rocks from the earth and with a force that rapidly began to fill the entire chamber with water. And the choice for him was simple. Stay here and die over and over again until driven to madness, or to find a way out of this place before the waves made the decision for him.
She had always been excellent at impossible ultimatums.
