She would know I was the last of the first.
She would know.
I didn’t move.
Let her see.
Let her know.
The branches squeezed around my arms, pinning them to my sides as she watched.
“Ask. Me.”
My lungs burned as I screeched out. “More.”
“More what?” Her head tilted from the left to the right like she was bouncing the idea around.
“More.” I gritted my teeth. “More than this.”
“You think you deserve more after the things you have done?”
“Quite the opposite.” Her grip lessened on my body allowing me more air. “I deserve less—but I want more.”
“You know what you are asking.” She did not release me, but at least she wasn’t squeezing my lungs into tiny pieces of kindling. “Only the Creator has the power to give you more, to restore you. And even then—I cannot give you a good soul.”
“So it’s useless,” I whispered.
She grinned. “I said I cannot give you a good soul—but it is possible to give you one that has been… used.”
“I want it.”
“You want what you do not understand,” she snapped.
“Anything,” My body started to shake; already I was too weak from her presence. Food. I needed food. “I will not survive this—and I will not take my life like the others before me.”
“You may as well take your own life with what I see in your future.” She laughed, it sounded like screams from the depths of Tartarus. I couldn’t cover my ears. So I waited for her enjoyment to cease.
“What will you give me for this used soul, Demon?”
“What do you want?”
Her smile was cruel. “Entertainment.”
“I must be misunderstanding you.”
“I will be watching,” she said cryptically. “For now, take your used soul, and feed.”
The fires roared around me as the branches broke off and fell to th
e ground. The goddess was gone.
The body remained.
“Help!” The human girl reached for me. “I do not know where I am. I need—” She shook her head as blood dripped down her arm.
The goddess had left the body.
But the scars from the seed remained.