Page 4 of Spring's Descent
“You will marry Cyrus on the eve of your awakening. He is a powerful grounder who might just be able to help you survive with the marriage bond complete and your magic merged.”
Merged, as in we’d have to consummate the marriage as well as bind our souls to one another. There would be no separation.
Unable to stop myself, I glanced toward Cyrus and immediately regretted it. The hungry look plastered across his face was enough to make me nauseous. Bile burned the back of my throat as I thought about what the two of them would force me to endure. I would never be anything other than a hole for Cyrus to fill and a power source to exploit—both in name for my mother and body for my would-be husband.
“Don’t be such a prude, Korae,” Mother chided.
“Prude or whore, Mother? Which one is it?”
Her hand lashed out before I had time to brace for the impact. The slap was vicious, jerking my head to the side and splitting my lip. Heat bloomed beneath the stinging impact, and the tears I’d worked so hard to hold back tumbled free.
I focused on the warmth of my blood coating my fingers, on the faint traces of fresh air and wildflowers surrounding me. And then I poured every last drop of my concentration on counting to ten.
There was nothing else to do. Mother never stopped with one strike. I was useless. Powerless to do anything but find a way to survive, I focused on making it through the next ten seconds as she unleashed all her pent up fury.
One. Two.
“Pathetic waste of a witch.” I doubled over as far as her vines would allow, gasping for breath as her fist collided with my stomach.
Three. Four. Five.
“An embarrassment.” Quick flicks of her wrists had the vines drawing back. The crack of the whip rang through the air as they lashed at my chest, slicing through my clothing and skin mercilessly.
“More,” Cyrus growled as a tortured cry rang in my throat.
Six.They couldn’t touch me—not the real me. I only needed to fixate on the infinite rage I kept smoldering inside. The relentless fire that burned right next to my endless self-loathing.
Knuckles collided with my cheek. Vines devouring my legs.
Slice and sting. Blood and pain.
What number was I on?
“Earth witches are meant to be poised,” Mother spat. “Balanced and beautiful always. Butyou. Just look at you. There’s nothing beautiful. Nothing worthy. Just a fat, attention-seekingwaste.”
Humiliation burned in my gut, worse than my cracked ribs or the dozens of cuts marring my body. Worse thananyphysical pain. Because despite how desperately I didn’t want to… that self-conscious little girl inside of me believed her.
Demeter smiled triumphantly, as if sensing my shame. She stepped back next to Cyrus, surveying my shattered body as she rested her long fingers on his shoulder.
“All that is required, daughter, is for you to fuck the night of the wedding. We won’t need to share him indefinitely.”
My stomach heaved as she leaned in, her lips pressing against Cyrus’s neck as her cold gaze stayed fixed to mine.
Just once, I wondered what it would be like to have a mother who fuckingcared. One who did her best to calm my fears, who loved me enough to lie and say that everything was going to be all right.
“I’d rather die,” I breathed, spitting out blood. I hated the way I was too weak to prevent my voice from shaking. Loathed that my only options were to bind my body and soul to my mother’s fuck boy or meet my fate in The Underworld.
“Careful what you ask for,” Mother cooed.
A gasp tore from my lips as the vines along my wrists and ankles tighten, slicing through my flayed skin, digging intomuscle as they lifted me from the ground. I wanted to rage, to fight and scream, but only a tormented whimper came.
“I won’t be made a fool, daughter. Not even by you.”
The vines withdrew a moment later, dropping me to the blood-stained ground with a harsh thud. Having gotten her point across, she turned and walked away without bothering to look back.
“Clean her up,” she called to Cyrus over her shoulder. The maliciousness of her voice had cooled into a contained politeness as if she had spent the last few minutes admiring the flowers. “I don’t want any proof of what happened.”
My bitch-of-a-mother covered her tracks well. She always had, but with Cyrus here to clean up her messes, she’d become fearless.