Three Days Before the Styx

Right after I got home, my mother helped me to a wicker chair in the garden. Then Cassandra pushed the door open. She stood there, her eyes flickering with unease.

"Elara, we need to talk."

I looked at her tense face. I knew why she was here. It was exactly like seven years ago. The day the Oracle of Delphi announced my curse, she had rushed into the Underworld Temple just like this.

I was still terrified. Hopeless about the sudden curse. She just dropped to her knees right by my sickbed.

"Let him go, Elara." Cassandra fell to her knees. "He will inherit the Underworld throne. Olympus will never accept a cursed priestess. You were the temple's most devoted priestess, and you loved him. Do not ruin him."

"I've arranged it," she whispered. "Tell him you hate the stench of death in his blood. Tell him you crave the light. Frame yourself with Aiden, a son of Apollo. Break the oath."

Because of those words, I gave up seeking the gods' protection. I chose cold-blooded betrayal. I pushed the man I loved far away.

And now, she was back.

"Elara, don't hate me," Cassandra said, her voice laced with guilt. "Ethan's new fiancée, Sierra, is from a powerful Nymph family. Her bloodline is noble. This union will completely change our family's status on Olympus."

"You know Ethan. He loved you so much. If he finds out the truth about seven years ago..."

"So please. Stay away from him. Your curse is in its final stage, right? You will turn to ash anyway. You won't even enter the Underworld. You kept the secret this long. Why ruin it now?"

At the words "final stage," my mother angrily slammed the medicine bowl onto the stone table.

I patted my mother's arm to calm her down. I looked at Cassandra.

"Madam, I promise I won't tell him the secret. But I have to see him."

I had to see him. For seven years of this agonizing curse, I missed him every single night. When the pain almost broke me, gripping the obsidian token from our oath was the only thing that kept me going. My soul almost shattered countless times. I passed out in the Healing Temple so many times.

Every time I faded, my mother cried out in my ear.

"Live, Elara! You promised! Find a cure. Go to the Divine Realm. Go back to him!"

"You said you'd explain the misunderstanding! If you fade away, it's all over!"

It was her calling his name that dragged me back from death over and over. But in the end, the curse won.

Ethan has a new life now. A new lover. A sacred Bonding Rite. But in my last few days, I wanted a real goodbye. A goodbye to my painful lie. A goodbye to our ruined love. So when I heard Ethan was back on Olympus, I chose to return. Even though the Oracle warned me that leaving the sanctuary meant certain death.

"Elara..." Cassandra pleaded.

"I will see him one last time," I said. My voice was dead calm.

My mother held my hand tightly, tears in her eyes.

"Just to say goodbye. Just to put a period on our past."

The sun was setting.

The withered flowers in the garden blew away in the wind.

Just like my fading life.

But before I disappear, I need to bury the priestess who loved the Underworld heir.

I need to hold a final funeral for that tragic lie and our shattered romance.