The Mortal Coil: Medousa & Perseus by Eris Adderly

Author:Eris Adderly [Adderly, Eris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-01T18:30:00+00:00

XIV OFFERING

There was a golden cast to the light angling in through the opening in the chamber’s ceiling when Perseus blinked back the fog of sleep.

Part of him was missing.

No. Part of him was numb. Medousa lay on his arm, and he could feel nothing below his shoulder. Perseus smiled.

He rolled up on his side again to curl around her back, as he’d done when they’d melted together in a heap after⁠ ⁠…

After everything.

By the gods, she’d bared her neck! The image made his heart jerk again. What could such trust have cost her? And what would it cost him, to cast aside the blade and beg of Medousa to allow what they both knew they wanted? What was both unreasonable and inescapable, at once.

And now, perhaps because he wallowed in impossibility, Perseus leaned over to sample that most dangerous and prized among his wants.

There was no need for a golden shield, now. No need to avert his eyes. With the gorgon lost to sleep⁠—perhaps a greater sign of trust yet, to let down her guard so utterly⁠—he could gaze upon Medousa and remain living flesh and bone.

Only the stolen glimpses in the shield’s reflection had given him any notion of what he might see, now. The Sea Guardian’s features cut the same lines and shapes, but now he could make out the fine texture of her skin. The knots were gone from her brow, the sneer from her mouth. Long, dark eyelashes fringed atop her cheek and, if he held still as stone, he could watch the pulse flicker in the hollow under her jaw.

It took all his will not to reach and trace out her features, even with the barest of touches. The gorgon was no less deadly now, when the contact might startle her awake, eyes snapping wide to meet his.

If ever there was an opportunity, it lay open for him now. If he could rise from the sand pit without disturbing the Bane of Men, the Hesperides’ sword glittered on stone only a few steps away. He could have her head in a clean arc of the blade and be off to make the gruesome trade of it for his mother’s freedom.

But he had not lied to Medousa.

He could not strike her down.

Not when he loved her.

Ah, but the Fates could be cruel and benevolent at once! To allow him the fulfillment sleeping at his side, while thwarting his entire purpose on this island, they allotted him a despairing kind of joy. There must be another way around Polydektes.

Might he slip onto the palace grounds and discover where the vile excuse for a king kept his mother imprisoned? And if he could, what then? Danaë was sure to have a cadre of guards surrounding her location in readiness for Perseus to attempt exactly this. His mother was an asset to Polydektes, nothing more, and the man would protect his key to a marriage alliance with Argos the same way he protected his coffers.

And if Perseus made

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