❛THEY WOULD TELL YOU OF A KING WHO STOLE ME HELPLESS FROM MY SUNSHINE GARDEN.❜
They won't tell you about the woman who came to him sublime, lily eyes and lily lips. A king does not ask permission from his prize, but she, oh she, she knelt, kissing m...
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DEMETER'S GARDENS, OLYMPUS.
DEMETER
THE ACOLYTE'S EYES WERE WHITER THAN THE MOON AND WIDER THAN PLATES OF PORCELAIN.
"Please," she stammered. "Please."
Apollo scraped the steel of his knife against the flesh of her pale cheek, the light glinting off it to reflect in the depths of his eyes.
"Shh..." he muttered. "Not another sound. Don't make me hurt you."
The girl sobbed quietly, her drawing breath in huge gulps.
"Please. Please. Just let me go. I promise I won't speak of this-"
"Of course you can go," I crooned. "After you help us out."
"I don't know anything," she pleaded, and the tear tracks on her face were streaking through the grime and dirt on her cheeks. I had never seen anything so shabby, pitiful and pathetic.
"Of course you do. Rosamund, isn't it?" My hand gestured to the earthen pot on the stove, a fire blazing under it merrily as the contents swirled ferociously in it like a sea monster. "Well, Rosamund - you see this? Essence of sage. Just a drop of this would make you spill the truth out of your lips, regardless of whether you like it or not. It is up to you. Speak, or I will make you drink this."
"Goddess," she begged, falling to my feet. "Goddess, please."
"You could save your family if you are a good girl and tell me what I need to know, Rosamund. Or else... you will force me to drastic measures. Apart from burning your father's lands to the ground."
Her tears mingled with the sweat rolling down her temples from the stifling heat in the room. The spotless white robes were now edged with soot, and the hair tucked into her neatly tied braid was coming undone.
I had known that Hecate had acolytes - her own personal attendants to carry out her most important tasks like harvesting herbs or collecting ingredients from above the Underworld. What I had not known was when I could find them. It had taken a single guess for me to wait till the blood moon was full and a shade of angry crimson. In the dead of night did I find the girl up to her knees in an orchard a few miles south. Not much of a fight to put up. Quite pitiful indeed.
"Put the knife away, Apollo. You're scaring her."
He glared at me once, before pocketing the blade and draping himself over a velvet chaise. I raised an eyebrow once at the girl, who gulped as she took in Hermes, standing right behind my chair.
"Okay," she whispered. "But please... please don't hurt them. My family-"
"I give you my word, sweet girl. No harm comes to them as long as you tell me what I need. I much despise what I have had to do in order to get my innocent daughter back, but well, well, well... desperate times call for desperate measures."
