Bride of Fire

Persephone ran laughing across the green field dotted with wildflowers beneath the wide blue Aegean sky. The explosion of color and scent delighted her. Here in all the world she was free to enjoy herself, in a place even her over-protective mother had to admit was safe. Enna sat on a level summit on a high hill, nearly a mountain, surrounded on all sides by cliffs that formed a natural fortress. No harm could come to her here. In all the time she’d been coming here, not even an insect had threatened her.

If she was lonely, at least she could console herself in nature.

She breathed in air heated from the sun, heady with a blend of rich perfumes. One scent caught her attention. Lighter than jasmine, more subtle. Exotic. What flower produced it? Spicy, enticing…Persephone breathed in again and it flooded her senses with narcotic sweetness until she felt like she stood in a dream. Colors grew brighter, the heat of the sun more soporific. The silk of her dress dragged against her skin, tempting her to discard it and clothe herself only in sunlight.

Was it something like a poppy? She searched for the source of this scent that teased and pleased like no other. Ah, there. Could that be it?

She knelt in the grass, not minding the cool wetness that wicked through the fabric of her skirt. Her hands cupped the shape, fingered the texture of a petal. An orchid, but not like any she’d ever seen. It was a pale lavender with a dark scarlet heart. She searched out the stem and found it thick and woody. She rolled it between her fingers, entranced by the beauty of this unexpected discovery.

It delighted her senses on every level; the shape, the colors, the fragrance. She breathed deeper, closing her eyes and touching her nose nearly to the flower’s center. Her head spun as she inhaled the drugging perfume. Images filled her mind like smoke, forming shapes that evaporated before she could see them clearly. They looked like the joined figures of a man and a woman, limbs entwined, dissolving and reforming in varying postures, reaching for something that eluded her.

A craving awoke inside her. There was something. Something she wanted. Needed. It uncoiled from her center, spreading heat and lassitude through her limbs. She wanted something. What was it?

The flower.

Persephone opened heavy lids halfway, gripped the woody stem with both hands. And pulled.

The roots ran deep. They resisted her pull, but she persisted, caught in some nameless desire to take, to touch, to know more. She pulled harder, and the earth gave up the treasure she coveted, opening to let it go. But it kept opening until it became a crack, then a fissure, and then a gaping maw she teetered on the brink of while the earth rumbled beneath her and trees at the edge of the meadow trembled. Boulders loosened and flung themselves down sheer cliffs.

If she let go now, a whisper of reason told her, she might save herself.

She held tight to her prize. It was hers. She would not give it up.

A man burst through the hole in the earth. Dark hair, dark eyes. She stared at him, stunned to silence and stillness as he rose above her. Tall, broad, strong. So strong. His hands gripped hers while her nerveless fingers clung to the blossom.

“It’s mine,” Persephone said as if he’d contested the fact. He could; she knew who he was, and knew now what she held. A night-blooming orchid, made to flower where the sun did not shine. It was of Hades’ realm, and this could only be Hades. She ought to let go. She had no right to touch anything of his. But what had it been doing in her world, her field?

“As you are mine.” His teeth flashed as he spoke. His voice rumbled like the thunder of the earth quaking. His touch burned like fire, not hurting her, warming her as if she’d never truly known what it was to feel heat, until the bright sun felt as cold and distant as the farthest star.

He bent to her. His lips touched hers, a kiss of flame that made her gasp. Then he dragged her down, down into darkness and the earth sealed itself above them, closing her out of the only realm she’d ever known.