Chapter 23 Now
23
Now
For a few painful, blinding moments, there’s only white. My eyelids rush to blink it away, and then, slowly, shapes emerge from the vastness.
There are two young women, one with black hair and one with blond, crying with relief. No monstrous wings grace their backs; they kneel beside me on human legs. Pisinoe slowly lifts me to a seated position, and Raidne brushes the blood-soaked hair from my eyes.
Oh, gods, the blood—the gash. The fall. My hands rush to my gut, but there’s no gaping wound to find. Only the soft flesh of my stomach, perfectly intact. I run my palms over my arms, my legs, expecting to discover bones protruding through the skin. But I’m no longer broken. Proserpina has remade me, remade us, just as she promised she would.
My sisters speak excitedly, but I can’t hear their words over the ringing in my ears. When something behind Pisinoe catches her attention, Raidne follows her gaze.
My eyes instinctively trail my sisters’. They push their bodies away from me, parting to reveal someone new.
A sea of raven curls. Cheeks stained pink by salt—both from the sea and from tears. Trembling slender fingers that reach out to just barely brush my face, as if they fear contact will cause me to vanish.
Large green eyes, wide as if beholding a miracle. And finally, soft red lips parted in awe.
There’s no reason to hold back—I pull her close, tangling my hands into her midnight hair. The gentle scent of roses floods me with warmth.
“Come, stop your ship so you may hear us.” I whisper the words into the curve of her shoulder. She trembles beneath my lips, and fresh tears roll down her cheeks.
“I don’t know all that happens on this bountiful earth.” I kiss each tear away, following their salty trail up her neck, over her cheeks, until my mouth hovers above hers. “But I do know this—the future is finally ours.”
Cora closes the gap between us, and her lips are sweeter than honey, than ambrosia. When we finally part, her fear is gone. Now she beams.
It’s this last image that takes my breath away: Of all the transformations I’ve seen during my impossibly long life, Cora’s smile is the most beautiful.