31 see a rippling silk dress draped over a delicate frame, bronze fastenings decorating ivory collarbone. His voice rose. “You didn’t defile Athena’s temple, and your curse is one a masterpiece like you was not meant to bear!” The footsteps staggered, stopped. “I saw your portrait in your family home. You were a vision. Blessed by Aphrodite herself! Gods were right to seek you, but Athena was wretched to tarnish your beauty over a trifle. But here”—he lifted the vial—“I have salvation. You shall be free with me.” “What of Stheno and Euryale?” asked the urgent whisper. The sound of silk caressed the floor as she moved towards him. “You shall no longer be tied to them,” the demi-god promised. He held the vial higher aloft, reaching it out to the approaching sound. “Those two gorgons will be but a distant nightmare.” “I shall leave them? I shall go with you?” The woman asked, a shake in her voice. “Yes,” he promised, voice rising, taking a step forward. “You need not be alone any longer. I will have you and protect you—from the gorgons, from Athena!” His skin tingled upon the brush of her smooth fingertips. With his other hand he trailed his nails up her arm as she delicately took the vial from his clutch. The stopper popped open. In his mind, he watched her put the glass rim to her full lips, the same ones of the oil-painting inscribed in his mind. He watched, through blindfold-eyes, her hair turn from serpents to velvety locks rushing down her back—her, from monster to goddess. He watched the island racing to greet him, the hero who broke Athena’s curse, saved the maiden, earned what no demi-god had before. Her hand softly grazed his face. “Open your eyes, Kakos,” she said. He reached and shed his blindfold with a jerk to look into the emerald eyes. His gaze traveled down her lips, neck, chest where a silver owl pendant rested on pale skin.
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