Page 84 of The Devil and His Goddess

Perseus stayed at my side, kneeling on the shower floor and holding my hair back from my face while I vomited then gagged once nothing was left.

Disgust. Hopelessness. Embarrassment. Shame. Anguish.

All of it danced around inside of me, burrowing into my bones and the splinters of my soul. My body no longer felt like my own. It’d been torn apart, stretched and broken to fit a monster inside, and now, every inch of me screamed to get away from that beast.

Only … the beast wasn’t there.

Nothing was there.

Yet I felt himeverywhere.

The little energy I’d had zapped from my body. My heavy head hung forward as the shower spun around me. Darkness ebbed across my vision, and when it swooped in to claim me once more, I welcomed it.

A JACKHAMMER HAD TAKEN UP residence in my head while a turbulent sea broke out in my stomach. I laid on my back in Perseus’s bed, staring up at the high white ceiling. I didn’t mind the pain splitting my skull. It provided the only distraction from the other emotions trying to carve me up inside.

I hadn’t moved from this spot since Perseus placed me here after passing out in the shower, and now, it was Wednesday. I only knew that, because my parents had tried calling. I’d caught the date on my phone as I stared at their incoming call until it stopped. I couldn’t talk to them. I couldn’ttalk.

It had been a full day. One full day since I’d woken here after the nightmare. One full day since I’d fooled myself into thinking I could pretend nothing happened. One full day since I’d broken into a million pieces, the shards scattering too far for me to reach them.

Perseus appeared next to the bed. I didn’t have the energy to even glance his way, though the brothy smell filling the room told me he’d brought another bowl of soup after his first attempt had been served to the floor instead. His next few attempts had all received silence from me, and we both knew that would be the same response he got this time, too. Despite knowing this, he still sat the tray down on the nightstand then took the chair next to the bed.

“You need to eat,” Perseus said softly. “It’s chicken soup, so it should be easy on your stomach.”

I was numb and frozen, unable to refuse or accept his offer. I kept my stare fixed on the ceiling as I breathed in time to the pounding in my skull, hoping the pain would finish me off.

“Harper, please,” Perseus begged, his voice cracking. “You haven’t eaten anything since Monday, even after getting sick yesterday. You don’t have to eat it all. Even a few bites will be fine. O-Or, I can make something else entirely. Anything you want. Just … Justtellme.”

A lone tear slid down my face toward my ear as the white ceiling held me prisoner. “I want to wake up from this nightmare.”

Perseus didn’t speak again. His dark-cladded form slumped forward in my peripheral like he was holding his head in his hands. He did that a lot this past day. Silence became our companion as the orange glow of the setting sun turned to dark shadows. Perseus didn’t move from his chair, and I never looked away from the ceiling, my detached body like that of a corpse.

I must’ve fallen asleep at some point, because I opened my eyes to a soft light permeating the room and sniffles coming from the other side of me.

I managed to turn my head enough to see Aiysha, tears coating her brown face, laying on the bed beside me in her jeans and a school-themed sweatshirt. She held my hand in both of hers, and her entire body shook in an effort to keep her crying quiet.

She must’ve felt me move, because her big brown eyes opened and locked on mine. Her face instantly contorted in grief, and she shifted closer on the bed. “Harper! Harper, I’m so sorry.”

Seeing my chosen sister cry made my own chest constrict, and I immediately hiccuped on fresh tears. Shaking my head against the pillow, I choked, “Aiysha. Aiysha, he—”

“Shh,” she cooed, cupping my cheek with one hand while continuing to squeeze my fingers with the other. “You don’t have to say it.” Her eyes flicked over my shoulder.

I followed her line of sight. Perseus leaned against the wall near the bathroom door. Defeat was etched into the lines of his face, and his crossed arms bulged like it was taking everything in him to stay composed.

When his eyes snagged mine, his lips twitched like they were trying to smile but fell short. He pushed off the wall and said, “I’ll let you two talk. I’ll be in the kitchen.”

With that, he left the room, shutting the door softly on his way out.

“How—”

Aiysha sniffled as she wiped my tears away. “I’d been worried sick about you. You didn’t talk to me at all yesterday. I thought you were just busy with work then crashed here, but when I got home today and you still hadn’t called or texted, I freaked out. I was literally about to start calling everyone I knew to find you when Perseus showed up at the house, looking for me.”

Aiysha’s lip trembled as her face cracked with fresh anguish. “He told me what happened.”

I swallowed hard, but that didn’t clear the knives from my throat. “Why’d this happen, Aiysha?Why?”

Her brown eyes squeezed shut, and she shook her head hard. “Sick fuck. He’s such a sickfuck! I hope they kill him in the worst way possible!”

“They?” I asked weakly.

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