Chapter 22 Seeds and Shadows #3
I forced my eyes open. For a moment, I just stared at him. He knew. Not just the general concept of grounding, but this one—the five senses, the exact sequence Reenie taught me years ago when I was small. The surprise flickered and dissolved. I didn’t have the bandwidth to wonder how.
“Dogs,” I gasped. “Fireplace. Window. Rain outside. You.”
“Good. Four things you can touch.”
I pressed my hands flat against the couch cushions. “Upholstery. Your rug under my feet. Blanket on my shoulders. My birthmark.”
“Three things you can hear.”
I tilted my head, listening past the roaring in my ears. “Rain on windows. Fire crackling. Birds outside. Singing despite the rain.”
“Two things you can smell.”
“Tea, still warm. Cedar, from you.”
“One thing you can taste.”
“Medicine, from the inhaler.” I swallowed.
My breathing was evening out now. The panic receded like a tide pulling back, leaving me exhausted and wrung out but able to breathe again.
“You’re okay,” Kian said. “You’re safe.”
Luz’s hand found mine, squeezing gently. “We’ve got you. You’re not alone in this.”
I looked between them. Hades and Leuce, Kian and Luz, and something in my chest loosened.
“I’m scared,” I admitted, voice small.
“You don’t have to do this alone,” Kian added, his hand hovering near mine. “Whatever you need. However long it takes. I’ll be here.”
I looked at his hand, and my chest squeezed tight.
Part of me wanted to grasp it and ground myself in his touch.
The other part wanted to run. It was all too much.
But would taking his hand mean I was choosing to be Persephone?
Choosing him? The longing was there to wrap myself in his embrace, but I couldn’t tell which part of me, Persephone or Melanie, wanted it.
Did I only want it because of Persephone?
Uncertainty flooded my chest, and I pulled my hand back, completely confused about my feelings.
His whole body went still. His expression seemed to close like a door shutting. Very slowly, he withdrew his hand and tucked it back into his lap. He looked away first. I almost reached for him, driven by the urge to reassure him, but I stopped myself.
“What do we do now?” I asked, looking between them. “I can’t just sit here knowing Amy’s dying and my mother’s missing, and Cyrus is—” I stopped. “What is he doing? What does he want?”
“Power,” Kian stated. “He’s been harvesting divine essence for centuries. Building something, maybe? We don’t know what exactly, but whatever it is, it requires massive amounts of energy.”
“And he thinks we’ll just let him?” I asked.
Something in my voice must have changed because both of them looked at me differently. Not like I was fragile, like I was dangerous.
“No,” Luz said, a fierce smile spreading across her face. “I don’t think he’s counting on you remembering who you are. At least not in full. He thinks the curse will claim you before you can.”
“You’ve always died before you awakened,” Kian added. “Before you could access your power. But now—” His eyes burned. “Now you’re Persephone. Spring incarnate. If you can access even a fraction of your power…”
“How?” I asked. “How do we fight a man who’s been doing this for thousands of years? Who has resources and power and—”
“He doesn’t have you,” Kian interrupted. “This is the first time you’ve truly awakened; that gives us an advantage. He’s planned for every version of you except this one. The one who knows what she is. What she’s capable of.”
“And what am I capable of?” I asked.
“Bringing spring to the dead. Life to the barren. Rebirth to what’s been destroyed.” His eyes met mine. “You’re the force of renewal, Melanie. The power that breaks through stone and ash. And if you can access that, you’ll be the most dangerous thing in his world.”
Something shifted inside me. Not a memory or divine power awakening.
It was pure, mortal, human rage at everything that had been taken from me. My lives, my power, my choice, my mother, and my best friend who’s lying in a coma. I was done being afraid.
I stood, energy I didn’t know I had flooding through me.
“Then let’s burn them down,” I declared. “Cyrus. Ekklesia. All of it. Let’s take back everything they stole. Starting with Amy.”
Kian rose slowly, eyes burning with the promise of retribution.
“We start with Amy,” he said, voice firm. “We find a way to break her connection to them. And then we don’t stop until Cyrus and everyone who helped him are ash.”
A storm was building. I could feel it in my bones, in my blood, in the way the air itself seemed to crackle with anticipation around me.
Cyrus thought he’d won. Thought he’d locked me away forever, broken me into pieces too small to be dangerous. But he’d forgotten something crucial: Spring always returns. Life always breaks through stone. Seeds planted in darkness still grow toward light.
And goddesses, especially goddesses of rebirth, don’t stay buried.
I looked at them both and felt something click into place. Purpose, direction, and power waiting to be reclaimed.
“Then let’s go get our family back,” I said. “And make them regret every life they’ve stolen.”
Outside, rain drummed against windows. Inside, something began to wake, not just memory, but a power that had been sleeping for three thousand years.