Chapter Thirteen
Duel

We stared at each other for several long tense moments, almost as though Psyche couldn’t believe that I actually agreed to her little challenge.  Which was sort of hilarious, in a sense; even though I was an artificial soul that gained consciousness of my own, I was still a piece of her, and thus reacted to situations in a similar manner.  If she never backed down from a challenge, especially one that would determine the rest of her life, then why would she think I would?  I might not have had the same hardships that she had when she was living as a mortal, because no one in this world really cared if a woman ended up single her whole life.  Sure, it was still frowned upon, and people questioned what was wrong with the woman, but it wasn’t nearly as taboo as it was in antiquity.  All I really would have to say was that my lifestyle was a choice, and most people would back down from that.  Psyche didn’t have that option, so she had to fight for the one thing that would give her that normalcy she wanted.

But that didn’t mean that I would be a doormat because I didn’t have that hardship.  I still had that rebellious piece of her soul, the one that wanted to prove to everyone that no one could dictate how I would live my life.  Eros’ mother doesn’t want us together?  Fine, I’ll prove to her and everyone else that I’m more than worthy for her son!  Some psycho bitch wants to ruin my life and then take it over?  I’m not going to give in, I’m not going to be effected by whatever she threw at me.  She’s seen what I’ve been doing with my life, and yet she still doubted that I would do?  Clearly, she was the foolish one in this situation.

Of course, so was I, in some sense.  I knew I was feeling rather cocky as we stared at each other, while I tried to interpret the silence.  After all, Psyche was a rather clever goddess, even if she didn’t hold that form at the moment.  She still had centuries of knowledge on me, even if my soul existed nearly as long as hers did.  The difference was that she remembered all those lives, on top of her original one, whereas my lives were still locked to me, only accessed in my subconscious.  All I could really remember were vague dreams, and none of them would be of much help to me at the moment.  But I still had to try.

That was another reason Psyche was a fool is she really did doubt that I would accept.  I would understand more if it were only my relationship on the line, like it had been with Aphrodite.  I didn’t mind when people messed me only me, and to some extent Eros.  Sure, it was annoying, but the problem was just between me and one other person, and I had grown used to people messing me with, even if it was just behind my back.  I built up a thick skin against my sisters anyway that I could take most shit with a grain of salt.  But once you involve my family, the gloves come off, I noticed.  Even in high school, when the popular girls sort of made fun of me for being so different, I wasn’t really bothered by any of it until they started calling Papa a failure as a father.  Hell, even when they trash talked Penny and Phoebe, I got annoyed, even if they were completely right.  It was almost as though it were written in my DNA that I needed to defend my family.  Which was ridiculous, if you thought about it.  After all, I was pretty sure Psyche didn’t had that loyalty towards her family, especially considering she murdered her own sisters just for being jealous and misguiding her.

Whatever the case, it didn’t matter now.  I had dug my own grave, and I was either going to have to lay in it, or shove Psyche in my place.  One way or another, I was going to end this nonsense here and now, and no one was going to stop me.

Although I’m pretty sure they were going to try.  I heard rustling in the forest behind me, almost as though someone had stopped someone else from charging out, but otherwise, no one really reacted to stop me from jumping into this headfirst.  Persephone was keeping an eye on Psyche, ready to interfere if she tried something, whereas my family in chains just looked really worried about what was going on.  Penny, though, looked annoyed, although I couldn’t tell if it was because I agreed so readily, or if it was because I was stealing her thunder.  She might know me better than she generally lets on, but that doesn’t mean that she knows my choices.  She probably though I’d play coward like she would have, and refused on the grounds that she might lose.

But it was most likely because I was stealing the small amount of attention that she had right before I appeared.  That seemed more like Penny.

Psyche was the first to break the staring contest we were holding, although I don’t think she realized that’s what was happening, or else she might have maintained the position.  Instead, she sort of leaned back in amusement.  “It’s interesting, this feeling,” she mused.  “I think I understand now why gods liked the challenge mortals.  It’s sort of thrilling, isn’t it?”

“Its horrifying,” Persephone spat at her.  “Why do you think we only challenge the mortals who overstepped their bounds?  Even Hera hated to do it, and she was only doing it to make an example.  Several times over.  She sort of approached it the wrong way.  Mortal women knew not to get involved with the King of the Gods, but it’s not like any of them knew until it was too late.”

“Anyway…,” I said, unsure what the point of that was. “

“Its horrifying to see them challenged, knowing that they’re never going to win.  Even if they did somehow beat us, our egos would be too badly hurt for us not to lash out.  We couldn’t control it.  There was a reason you never did it when you were a goddess.  You knew of the consequences.”

“Who the hell cares?” Penny demanded, naturally wanting to get a word in.  “She accepted the duel or whatever the hell this is, and I doubt anything a minor goddess like yourself would say would change her mind.”

“Persephone’s not a minor goddess, Penny,” Papa said.  “She’s the wife of Hades, whose a pretty big deal to the Greeks, as well as the goddess of spring.  A minor goddess would be Psyche here.”

Psyche just sort of glared at him for a good long moment.  “Major, minor, it doesn’t matter anymore.  We’ve all been lost to the ages, although some of us have been lucky enough to remain in mortal consciousness.  Mortals still use my name all the time.”

“Please, the only other person I know named Psyche is this loser over there.”

“She’s referring to the psyche, or mind, and things like psychology, which were derived from her name,” I said dryly.  “And you have words like ‘erotic’ coming from Eros.”

Penny looked taken aback.  “Are you shitting me?” she demanded.  “My baby sister is seeing the god who ‘erotic’ comes from!  That’s just…sick.”  She looked disgusted for a brief moment.  “I mean, it’s sort of lost on you, isn’t it?”

Even Psyche rolled her eyes at her.  “Eros was the god of sexual love to the Greeks, but he didn’t actually practice that himself.  I think the more proper classification would have been the god of romantic love, but they gave that classification to his mother.  Goddess of royal bitch would have been more appropriate, really.”

“Seriously, who the hell cares?  Just…destroy her already or something,” Penny said, tapping her foot slightly, since clearly she wanted me hurting if no one was going to be paying attention to her.

“Indeed,” Psyche said, turning to me.  “We shall make this interesting, shall we not?”

“How so?” I demanded.  “What, are we going to each get a gun, turn our backs to each other, take fifty paces, and turn and shoot?”

She blinked at me.  “God, no,” she said.  “I’ve always hated that sort of violence.  Rather senseless, if you ask me.”

“Says the girl who murdered her own sisters,” I muttered.

“We’re both reasonable women,” she continued, pretending not to hear me.  “We’re both, in some sense, the goddess of the mind.  So that’s what our duel will be, a battle of minds.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, since I still wasn’t sure what exactly she was planning.  She was more cunning then I could even hope to be, but a battle of minds wasn’t at all what I had expected.  I did sort of figure that this duel wouldn’t have anything to do with the classic Western standoff, but I still expected some level of violence to be associated with it.  Maybe swords were going to be involved.  She was ancient Greek, after all, and it wasn’t like they were really known for their peace.  Or maybe it was the ancient Romans I was thinking of.  I tended to confuse the two of them from time to time, especially since Rome adapted a lot of characteristics of Greece once they conquered it.

But I still didn’t know what a battle of minds would entail.  I think violence would be preferred, since I’d been exposed to fighting pretty much all my life, even if I didn’t partake in it at all myself.  At least not the physical kind.  When we were younger, Penny, Phoebe, and I would occasionally have our little cat fights that ended with us rolling around on the floor together, but I didn’t count that.  That was just normal sisterly stuff, or so I assumed.  But I was a girl, and physical fighting was beneath me.  But at least I could fudge that, and at least act like I knew what I was doing.

“A battle of minds?” I asked slowly, glancing between my parents and my grandmother, and Persephone.  She was still giving Psyche a rather steeling glare, probably not even paying attention to what was going on anymore.  She was just annoyed that her friend would be stooping to this level.  “I’m not sure exactly what you mean, but yes; I’m in.”

“Oh my gawd,” Penn said annoyed.  “A battle of minds?  That is the dumbest duel I have ever heard.  You want to hurt her, don’t you?”

Psyche surprised me by spinning on her.  “Quiet, you,” she hissed, causing Penny to clam up in shock.  “I am a goddess; I do not take orders or suggestions from a mere Erinyes.  The terms have been decided, anyway; you have no say in the matter.”

“You’re so predictable, Psy,” she spat at me.  “Going for the boring route.”

“Psyche, you don’t have to do this,” Papa pleaded with me, looking concerned.  “She’s dangerous; I wouldn’t trust her.”

“I don’t trust her,” I pointed out.  “But that doesn’t matter.  I want to end this now, one way or another.  I am done playing this stupid mind games.  I either want to move on with my life, or just end it, and either way, it’s going to happen now.”

“There is an easier solution; you could just admit defeat now and relinquish your body to me,” Psyche preened.  “It’ll save us both a lot of time.”

“For the last time, I am not going to give up my life, not without a fight.  But I suppose that’s a term of the duel anyway.”

“Indeed.  If you somehow happen to win, which is unlikely, I’ll release your family and allow you to go about your merry little life.  If I win, then you’ll give up your stupid little life and return it to me, where it properly belongs.”

“It properly belongs to Psyche,” Persephone hissed at her.  “You have no right trying to take it from her.”

“That hardly matters now, ‘Seph,” Psyche pointed out, flipping one of her blond tendrils off her shoulder.  “She’s already agreed to it.”

“So what exactly does a duel of minds entail, if I may ask?”

“We simply try to outwit each other, that’s all,” she said, shrugging like it was nothing.  “For example, I know you’re hiding your entourage in the bushes to catch me off guard, so I merely request that you call them out, or else your grandmother might lose her tongue.”

“Where’s the wit in that?” Papa demanded.  “That’s just torture.”

“Fine, he’ll lose his tongue.  I’m getting tired of it anyway.”

I clenched my fists at my side, gritting my teeth against the harsh comeback that was quickly upon my lips.  For one thing, it wasn’t witty at all; that was usually something that came to mind well after the incidence had taken place.  I knew she was going for intimidation, and any remark I would have had would have just played into her little scheme.  It was hard to be clever and witty when one was pissed off, I knew from experience.

Hades surprised me, however, by making the first move, calmly exiting the tree line and moving to stand beside his wife.  “You need a judge,” he proclaimed in something of a deadpan tone.

Psyche did look completely off guard for a moment, almost like she didn’t expect the king of the dead to side with me.  She glared at me accusingly for a brief moment.  “And I suppose you’d make a find judge, Hades?” she demanded of him, glancing at my parents to see their reaction.

Both Papa and Nona visibly blanched at the name, whereas Mom’s eyes just widened ever so slightly.  She might be into mythology merely because my father was, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t know who Hades was.  Even Penny looked taken back for my brief moment, her hand moving protectively over her stomach like she had an idea of what a proper mother would do.  Hades might be a benevolent god, in a manner of speaking, but he still instilled fear within mortal hearts, even if he didn’t mean to.

“Naturally.  I have no problem either way who ends up where.  My tiff is that both of you are currently playing around in the land of the living, and I need one of you down in the Underworld.  It doesn’t matter to me who it is.  I have nothing else invested in this.”

Persephone shot her husband an annoyed look, and for a brief moment, I thought I saw him give her a slight wink as to reassure her.  I wanted to think that meant that this was going to weigh favorably towards me, but I couldn’t be too sure if I had seen it at all, or if he was merely doing that to put his own wife at ease.

“Fine,” Psyche hissed, almost as though she realized that this was actually a good idea, and she didn’t actually want to admit to it.  “I guess no one else is more qualified to judge souls than the king of the dead himself.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he started to say, probably thinking of other deities within even his own pantheon that had influence over death and souls, but Persephone just elbowed him.  “I suppose I’ll establish some ground rules first.”  Psyche shot him a dark look as though suggesting that the only reason she agreed to this was because we’d be playing by her rules.  “They’re simple enough; not to worry.  This is between you and Miss Karalis, Psyche.  You are not allowed to involve her family in any way, shape, or form.  Is that agreed?”

“Yes,” she muttered, giving me reason to think she was planning to do just that.  “And what of her?”

“What about her?  She doesn’t have any family members of yours that she can harm.”

“Well,” I started to say, thinking of Hedone hiding beside her father.

“That you can harm,” he said pointedly back at me, and I realized what he meant.  Hedone was a goddess, and I was a mere mortal.  Psyche could do plenty to my parents, but I could do nothing, on my own at least, to her daughter.

Luckily, I don’t think Psyche knew what the hell he was talking about.  Most likely, she was thinking of her own parents safely in the Underworld and currently free from harm.  She knew people were back there, sure, but she didn’t quite know who, even if she had a pretty good idea.  Naturally Eros would be there, and I was a little surprised that he hadn’t emerged already.  Or that Maddie hadn’t, since she was so keen on helping me earlier.

“I’ll start, shall I?” she asked, grinning dangerously as she flipped one of the tendrils of her hair over her shoulder.  “Eros loved me first.”

I blinked at her, wondering what she was getting at.  “Um, yeah,” I said.  “I know that.  What’s your point?”

“That is my point.  He loved me first.  No matter how much he claims that he loves you more than he ever loved me, the simple fact remains that he did love me first.  You are his second choice.”

She was trying to play on my earlier insecurities about the relationship, but she seemed to have missed the part where I was coming to terms with this idea.  Yes, he loved Psyche first, and I’ll always wonder if he loved me or my soul, but I didn’t care anymore.   He was over there, hiding certainly, worried about me, and not about her.  He had fallen out of love with Psyche a long time ago without even realizing it.

“No, I’m not,” I stated confidently.

“Yeah, you are.  He married me millennia ago.”

I shrugged.  “So?  I’m half of you, and thus, he’s always loved me.  The problem here is that you’re a fool.”

“Excuse me?”

“He did in fact love you, even if he actually fell in love with you and not just your beauty after you became a goddess.  And you just…gave that up.  You gave up the love of the god of love, which has to be one of the most powerful loves there are.  Free given, but hardly felt is his curse.  Instead of trusting him, you hide your sadness and depression when he could have worked with you to make you feel better, and then you just gave it all up, and for what?  So you could protect him?  He wouldn’t have cared!  The joy is in falling in love and getting to know each other again!”

“Bah, what would you know about love?”

“Plenty,” I said.  “I’ve felt it once before.  I know I’d rather be miserable for the rest of eternity than to give up Eros again.  Hell, my soul became conscious because you wouldn’t allow me to be with Eros.  Its your own damn fault we have to do this crap.”

“She lies,” Penny spat out.  “She’s never been in a relationship before!”

“Penny, sweetheart, this isn’t your fight,” Mom said sternly.  “Stay out of it for once.  And besides, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know Psyche, our Psyche, is a reincarnation, so yeah, she’s been in a relationship before.”

“You’re amazingly calm about this,” Papa said to her.  “I’m still getting used to the idea.”

“So I am, but that doesn’t make it any less true.  It makes a lot of things about our Psyche make a lot more sense, don’t you think?  I always thought it strange that she was our prettiest and nicest daughter, and yet she wasn’t the one with boys knocking down our door.  I would have even accepted her bringing girls home, but she had no interest in it.  I thought it was merely because she took after her father, but now I see it’s only because she was predestined to love someone else.”

Papa shuttered slightly.  “Don’t remind me,” he muttered under his breath.  Naturally, he wouldn’t have a problem with a god loving me, but with the fact that I was predestined to be with a boy.  It really must be tough to be a father.

“He doesn’t love you; he loves your soul, which came from a piece of me.”

“Your soul does define you,” I pointed out.  “I am who I am today because I share characteristics with you.  But environment also shapes a person.  I am who I am also because of my mother, father, grandmother, and even my sisters.  Yes, he loves my soul, but he also loves the person I’ve become outside of your influence.”

Hades sighed.  “This is pointless,” he said.  “Ask the boy himself.”

There was brief scuffling in the bushes behind us before Eros finally stumbled out, most likely pushed through thanks to Zephyrus.  I was hoping he didn’t want to get involved because this was my fight, and not because he didn’t want to get in the middle of this.  He strolled over to us confidentially, though, almost like he had meant to come stumbling out of the treeline, to stand beside me like he was picking sides.  Psyche shot him a terrified as well as annoyed look.

“This is stupid, Psyche,” he told her.  “Why would I still love someone who chose to not love me anymore?  Your argument here just makes no sense.”

Psyche seethed a little, since it was clear that she lost that round.  I wondered if that was all she really had on me, hoping to tear down my insecurities.  “You’re not strong enough,” she told me after a moment.

“Strong enough for what?”

“This life that you seem desperate to hold onto.  Are you really prepared to be in a relationship with a god?  Do you have what it takes to watch your loved ones move on, forget about you, and die?  Generations will go by, and you’ll be the same as ever, never changing, and then you’ll be a mere distant memory.  No one will remember Psyche Karalis, and you’ll have no one to worship you.”

“I don’t want people to worship me,” I said.  “I never did.  I want to be another face in the crowd, to be forgotten just as easily as remembered.”  I glanced at my parents and my grandmother on the ground in front of me, and thought of Maddie still hiding.  “Yes, it would be hard to watch my loved ones grow old and eventually die, but that would only be if I became a goddess, right?  I have an immortal soul trapped in a mortal body.  I could chose to remain mortal if I want, am I correct?”

Persephone nodded solemnly.  “I could, in fact, have the experience you completely gave up on, to die with my family and be reincarnation, and to fall in love with Eros all over again.  Because that is one thing I’ll never give up on, love.”

She snorted.  “You’d give up your family for a boy?”

“You killed you sisters for a boy, did you not?” I asked dryly.  “Besides, I didn’t say that; I said I wouldn’t give up on love.  There’re many types of love out there, not just the romantic love Eros represents for me.  There’s the love of my mother and father, of my grandmother, of best friends and good friends, and even of sisters, if you look deep down enough.  That I’ll never give up on.”

Penny looked madder than I had ever seen her, and she looked ready to smack me for including her in the list of people I cared for.  Psyche, however, glanced at her briefly, narrowing her eyes and nodding slightly at my sister.  I didn’t suspect anything at the time, of course, especially since Psyche quickly turned her attention back on me.

“So typical,” she sneered.  “The self-sacrificing heroine.  I shouldn’t be surprised, really.  You’re much too noble.  Really, your kind makes me sick.  I had to deal with countless people overlooking me because they claimed that I was too beautiful.  I had to deal with sisters who were so jealous of my beauty that they had to trick me into betraying my husband’s trust.  I had to deal with my mother-in-law attempting to dole out justice on me.  What do you get?  Everything handed to you!”

“Are you kidding me?  I might not be considered the most beautiful girl in the world like you did, but I still grew up with sisters who wanted to make my life a living hell.  I mean, one of them’s doing it right now.  I had to deal with Aphrodite and her weird over protectiveness of her son.  Your case is not isolated, Psyche.”

“If anything, she should be mad at you for causing her life to parallel yours,” Eros stated.  “It’s called the Psyche Curse for a reason, you know.  Any girl I was going to end up with was going to face the same trials and tribulations you did.  She’s no less of a heroine than you turned out to be.”

“You’re not tough enough to deal with the life of a goddess,” she snapped at me.  “You’re not willing to make the same sacrifices.  You’re not willing to eliminate those who stand in your way.  I am.  Or rather, she is.”

She stepped aside for a moment to reveal what Penny was up to.  It wasn’t much, at least by her standards, but she did have a knife to Mom’s throat as well as a book in her other hand.  She was muttering something in Greek as she pressed the knife deeper into Mom’s skin, the wind slowly picking up around her as the spell was being activated.  Mom, for her part, had gone limp in her eldest daughters arms, looking strangely lifeless. 

“What the hell, Penny?  What did you do?”

“Psyche, I said not to involve her family!” Hades snapped, clearly appalled.

“You said I couldn’t do anything.  You said nothing of her.”

“What are you doing?  What’s wrong with Mom?” I demanded, lunging at my sister only to have Eros catch me when I started to move.  The gods looked all equally horrified.

“She’s sealing her soul.  Essentially, she’s killing her, and making it impossible for her soul to leave her body and find rest.”

“What?  Penny, stop that!” I said, shoving myself against Eros’ arms again.  “No!”

“There’s no way to stop it, girl, not once its started.  I could, but of course, it’d be at a price.”

Naturally, I realized what she wanted at once, and suddenly I realized what it had come down to – my soul for my mother’s.  I grit my teeth against the decision, but despite everything I had been working for, it was clear that there was really only one thing I could do now.

“Fine, fine, take it,” I said hastily, hoping it wouldn’t be too late.  “I’ll trade places with you.  Just don’t kill my mother!”

“Psyche!” Papa said, whipping around to face me.  “Don’t.  Your mother wouldn’t want you to throw away your life!”

“I’m not,” I said.  “I’m willingly giving it away.  I can’t do this, Papa.  I can’t have them hurting you in order to get to me.  This is the only way.”

“It’s true,” Psyche said, grinning in triumphant just as Penny stopped chanting, snapping the book shut.  Mom collapsed in her arms, where Penny clearly wasn’t going to support her weight.  She dropped like a rock to the ground, and only when she let out a soft moan did I realize that I had been had.

Psyche started to reach for me to possibly perform the deed about two seconds before a small blond streak came tearing out of the forest to attach herself to her mother’s side.  Psyche clearly wasn’t expecting that at all, since she nearly tripped on her feet to regain her balance.  “What the hell…?”

“Mama, don’t do this!” Hedone pleaded, burying her face into Psyche’s arm.  “You’re better than this, I know it.”

“Hedone!  Hedone, release me at once.  This doesn’t concern you.”

She pulled herself away, looking small in insignificant for a moment.  “This does concern me, Mama!  I like Psyche, and Psyche makes Papa happy.  If you loved him at all, than all you’d want is his happiness, and you’d be able to move on.  Psyche was quite willing to give him up when you came back, and you’re acting like a spoil child whose just been told she couldn’t do something.  Mama, you’re ruining her life!”

“Her life!  She’s ruining mine!  She’s living the life I should have had.”

“Mama, the life you would have had would have still been filled with misery.  No one would love Papa, and you’d still be ignoring me.  Don’t you love me at least?”

She looked ready to retort, but she paused as the weight of the question fell on her.  She looked surprised for a brief moment before she wrapped her arms around her daughter comfortingly.  “Of course I love you, Hedone.  You’re the best thing that’s ever come out of my life.”

Hedone seemed to relax a little with that conformation.  “Mama, there’s another option to this mess, you know.”

“Sweetheart, I’ve made too many mistakes in my life to live any period of time with those memories,” she pointed out.  “I’ve lost too many people.”

Hedone pulled away.  “That’s just it; what’s the reason why you wanted to give up your life to begin with?”

“Because the people I loved had passed on, leaving me lonely.”

She nodded.  “You could switch.  You could remain in the Underworld with your loved ones, and Psyche could be set on the path of reincarnation.  If I’m not mistaken, you don’t have to stay in the Reincarnation Chamber.”

“Um…well…true,” Hades said slowly.  “It just made it easier to keep up with the souls and make sure none of them actually escaped.”

“Its what you wanted originally, right?” Hedone asked her mother.  “To be reunited with your loved ones.  This was just the best option you could take at the time, so that you could forget them.  You wanted to die, but you couldn’t because of your immortal soul.  Well, now your immortal soul wants to chance to live, and you could take the option to stay in the Underworld, and everyone wins.”

Psyche blinked for a moment as she considered this.  I could see it playing out in her head, being reunited with her parents and her sisters and all the friends she lost along the way.  The way the plan had worked didn’t give her the option of seeing them, which is why she, nor anyone else, had never thought of it that way.

“I give up my reincarnation status and give it to her?”

“It’s possible,” Persephone said, relaxing a little.  “You are mortal, after all, and the Underworld is certainly open for your soul.  If that’s what you want.”

Psyche stared off into space for a moment before glancing down at Hedone, as well as me, Eros, and my family.  In that moment, I could see exactly the woman that Eros fell for, the unsure beauty who was just figuring out her place in the world.  “I’m sorry,” she said to me, her voice light.  “I’m sorry I’ve put you through all of this when the solution is just that simple.  I just…I don’t know…”

I sighed.  “I think I understand,” I admitted, even though I really didn’t.  “Your soul has been through a thousand different lives, and that was just what you were used to.  That solution didn’t come to me, either.”

She took the remained steps towards me and reached out to brush her fingertips against my own.  “Take care of them,” she said, grinning at me.  “Those you surround yourself will are special, and you are very lucky to have them in your life.”

“I know,” I said.  “Thank you.  I wish you the best of luck.”

She took a deep breath.  “I’m sorry,” she said to my parents.  “I really am.  Your daughter is truly remarkable, and I know you’ll help her through whatever troubles she may have.”

Papa looked sort of pissed, but Nona decided to handle the situation.  “Sweetheart, you were once a goddess.  It’s an honor to be held captive by you, and if you ever find an emotionally stable god, then we might not be able to forgive you.  You at least have a reason to lose your mind.”

She chuckled slightly before turning to Hades.  “All right, I’m ready to return and face my punishment.”

“Punishment?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.  “Ah, well, an escaped soul who willingly returns receives no punishment.  In fact, they get rewarded.”

She smiled at him.  “Thank you for understanding,” she said to him.  “Best of luck to you, Psyche.  I’m rooting for you.”

She winked at me as started to glow slightly, and before I knew what was going on, she was gone, leaving me suddenly free of all the trouble she was causing in my life.

Chapter Twelve

Cupid and Psyche Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen