Asterion by Alessa Thorn

Author:Alessa Thorn [Thorn, Alessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-10T04:00:00+00:00

Despite Asterion's reassurances, Ariadne was sure she was dying. Fire raced through her veins, and she couldn't stop screaming. Through bleary eyes, she could see Asterion injecting her with something and laying cool, wet cloths on her burning skin. In one eye, she could see the man, and in the other, she could see the Minotaur. He had kissed her, and she didn't know why but she'd liked it and didn't know what that meant either.

"You need to stop making me so confused," she said, her tongue heavy in her mouth.

"I'll stop, if you do," Asterion replied, cleaning the bloody wound on her bicep where the dart had gotten her. Sloppy! An apparition of Minos shouting at her made her jump backward.

"Don't give me back to him," she begged.

"I'm not letting Minos anywhere near you, Ariadne," Asterion replied as if knowing who haunted her waking nightmares.

Can you trust a creature like him not to betray you? Minos had disappeared, and a beautiful, willowy girl with straight brown hair stood in his place. Lia.

Ariadne curled into a ball and moaned. "No, no, not you. Go away, Lia. I can't see you."

Why? Because of what you did to me? You were closer to me than blood. Look at me, Ariadne! LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID.

Warm hands lifted her, and Ariadne cried out when she was lowered into a bath. Her heart was racing as Asterion pulled the clothes from her body.

Look at how he's caring for you. I cared for you like that once. I chased your nightmares away and kept Minos's probing hands from you. I protected you, and you betrayed me, Lia said, refusing to leave her alone.

"I didn't betray you. I didn't know!" Ariadne shouted at the shade.

"Shh, easy, Ariadne. It's just the poison. There's no one here but me," Asterion said, wiping the sweat and dirt away from her face.

"Lia's here. Lia's watching. She's always watching because I failed her."

"You want to tell me about it?" he asked gently.

That's it. Tell him of your great shame, Spindle. Tell him all about how you buried my memory and never honored your promise, Lia goaded.

"She was taken from the orphanage in Hellas, same as me." Ariadne's hands began to move, and she hallucinated a cat's cradle of golden light moving between her shaking fingers. "We did everything together. Protected each other. We even had a secret language and used the cat's cradles like sign language, so Minos wouldn't know. She was kind. Too kind for Minos. He said that she was being sent to a special school to make her tougher. I believed him. She was always so soft; I thought a special school would help her."

Asterion brushed her wet hair back with his fingers, and she curled her head into his palm like a cat that had been denied too many pats. "You don't have to tell me anymore if you don't want to."

Lia's shade gave her a cruel smile. Here's your chance to stop while he still is pitying you, Spindle.

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