Why did he have to come here?
Deianira felt as if she was being punished. As if the Gods were laughing at her. It had been decades since she’d even shed a tear but there she lay, staring up at her ceiling, crying. It had to be some sort of twisted joke sent from above that he of all people would be the one to break the dam.
She couldn’t silence the battle in her mind as to whether she regretted what she’d just done or not. Devin was alive and she was glad for that but she might have introduced something way more sinister into Terra.
The past and present were blending into one. It started just like this the last time. Everything seemed fine, and then…
Deianira knew that she was spiraling but she couldn’t do anything to stop it. For some reason though, Cade saw that. The way he looked at her was past surface level. He saw her pain. Tried to assuage it. Not even her own people, who she had killed for, could see past the cruel exterior; but Cade did. And then he went and touched her. Why did he have to touch me? Didn’t he know that bad things happened when people got close?
Innocent people.
Blood. So much blood.
Eyes wide, blinking back into reality, Deianira stared at her red-stained hands, shaking from head to toe. What have I done?
“What have you done?”
She whipped her head behind her to see her uncle, Jude, standing in the doorway, horrified.
The tears came instantaneously.
“I-I don’t know. I-it was an-n accident.”
“Oh, sweetie…” He walked briskly to her and swept her up in his arms, cradling her head.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“I know, it’s not your fault.”
But it was her fault.
Her eyes caught little Calliope’s still body on the floor of their parents’ bedroom. She was only six. Next to her lay their parents, their faces unrecognizable.
So much blood.
Deianira cried even harder into Jude’s shoulder.
She didn’t mean to do it. She just lost control.
“Settle, settle. It’s okay.” Jude swayed with her in his arms.
Walking her out of the room and into his office, he set her down on his desk. Reluctantly she removed her hands from around his neck so that he could take a step back.
“Sweetheart, it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do it on purpose.”
Deianira nodded emphatically, wishing that it was true, as her legs dangled above the floor.
“I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but things are going to change now and there are going to be a lot of people depending on you. If you are going to do right by them, you have to be strong, okay? I’ll be there with you every step of the way, but this is on you now,” he told her sternly. “The Dome is yours.”
Aggressively wiping her eyes, she hiccuped. “Okay.”
And then began her reign.
A sharp pain in the back of her head brought her from her distressing memory.
Just thinking about it gave her a headache. Was she really fit to rule if she couldn’t even control her own emotions?
Hadrick. That name played on her mind in an endless loop. Those faces. Those lives destroyed. It was all too much. Deianira brought a hand to her cheek, remembering Cade’s touch. He touched me. It shouldn’t have been, but it was comforting, soothing even. Something that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. The kind of comfort that she couldn’t even get from fighting or killing. It was strange. But it didn’t feel wrong.
She had been seconds away from crumbling when Mikhael interrupted them.
What would’ve happened if he didn’t?
