Page 82 of The Devil and His Goddess

The brows on the splotchy and oily face in front of mine furrowed in confusion. “Harper?”

“Stop,” I blurted louder.

Howdarehe look confused? Howdarehe pretend not to know what he did to me?

“Stop!” I shouted, pushing away from him.

He stepped back and held up his hands in surrender as the chills on my body heated into a fine layer of sweat. The room spun, and no air reached my lungs. I couldn’t stand there. I had to run. I had to get away from him.

I pushed past faceless shadows of people and burst through the door, leaving the ballet studio and the monster lurking within it. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know what was happening. Everything felt wrong. The visions flashing behind my eyelids as I stumbled through the hallway were wrong

Because Drake didn’t exist.

Because what he did to me didn’t exist.

Because the pain didn’t exist.

Because I wasfine.

“Fine. Fine. I’m fine,” I gasped, unable to take in a full breath.

Faint music filtered into the hallway from a nearby practice room. When I heard the familiarSwan Lakepiece, ice froze me solid. My limbs locked up, and I stood there, staring blindly ahead. The music for Odette’s arrival played muted yet crystal clear to me. The music spurred the fuzzy memories to play like a vivid movie in my head.

Crawling on weak arms across the cold floor.

Sweaty and sticky hands fumbling to grab my legs.

Hot breath in my ear as a foreign body entered mine.

The dizziness swarming my head amplified, and I fell sideways. Just as my shoulder nearly slammed into the wall, a tanned hand caught me there and pulled me back upright. The masculine ocean scent told me who had come, even before I blearily looked up at him.

“Perseus,” I quivered.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, steering me along.

I shook my head feebly and continued to insist, “I’m fine.”

The constriction in my chest only worsened as the sweat lining my body seemed to seep into my skin and gather as a messy knot of nausea in the pit of my stomach.

“Fine,” I croaked as the warm body at my side guided me down a series of halls and into an office. “I’m fine,” I continued just as the tremble in my lip spread to my entire body.

Perseus shut and locked the door before turning to face me.

“I’m fine. Perseus, I’m—”

“Baby, youaren’tfine,” Perseus gritted out as he cupped my cheeks and stepped into me.

The words hit me square in the chest, knocking the air I’d desperately been clinging to right out of me. I held his crestfallen gaze while holding my breath. In them, I saw helpless misery, and as the seconds ticked by, reality settled in. I could hide no longer.

So I crumbled.

Squeezing my eyes shut and gripping his shirt in my hands, I dropped my head and sobbed, “I’m not fine.”

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into them as tears poured down my cheeks and wet wails poured from my lips.

The lies I’d been feeding myself began to fizzle away like ash on the wind until I had to acknowledge what I’d been fighting.

Drake existed.

---