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Three Days Before the Styx
Three Days Before the Styx
Author: Liora Z

Chapter 1

Author: Liora Z
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.
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  • Three Days Before the Styx   Chapter 8

    Ethan's POVA year later. By the River Styx. The dark winds howled.I knelt by the pitch-black water.The cold tip of the sword had already pierced the skin over my heart.Right in that split second of seeking release, I heard frantic footsteps."Stop! You coward!"A sharp rock slammed hard into my wrist.The sword flew from my grip and plunged into the raging Styx.I turned around, my eyes bloodshot as I looked at the intruder.Elara's mother stumbled and fell right in front of me.Her hair was gray. Her face was covered in mud. But she grabbed my collar with a death grip."What right do you have to die?" she roared at me hysterically. Tears flooded her face. "You think you can just stab yourself in the heart and go see her? In your dreams!"I looked at her numbly. My voice was like dead water."I've destroyed everything. I got my revenge. I'm clean.""You are not clean!" She slapped me hard across the face.The sharp crack echoed along the banks of the Styx. The strike snapped my hea

  • Three Days Before the Styx   Chapter 7

    Ethan's POVSierra's screams were still echoing in the sealed study.Her proud Naiad magic trembled violently beneath my black mist.I ignored her begging and spun around.I kicked open the study door and marched straight to the deepest part of the family temple.That was the resting place of our pure white divine altar. It protected our bloodline for millennia.It was the peak of power my mother had defended her entire life. It was the root of all evil that crushed Elara.My mother finally realized what I was about to do. She crawled and lunged at me, hugging my legs tight."Ethan! You're crazy! Don't touch it! That is our family's foundation in the divine realm!" Her shrill voice dripped with utter despair.I looked coldly at the woman who gave birth to me.I kicked her away without a shred of mercy.Black Underworld magic surged wildly in my palm. It formed a massive pitch-black hammer.I hoisted it high and smashed it down hard on the glowing, sacred altar.With a deafening boom, t

  • Three Days Before the Styx   Chapter 6

    Ethan's POVChloe violently shoved them away. She pulled something from her pocket and hurled it right at my face.Its sharp edge cut my cheek. Warm blood rolled down. The object landed on the altar with a heavy thud.I looked down.It was a chunk of obsidian. Covered in dark, dried blood.The love token I crushed with my own hands seven years ago.Now, every single shard was glued back together with dried blood."She tracked down every trampled piece of obsidian. She coughed up blood every single day. She rebuilt these stupid rocks for you!" Chloe pointed at my pale mother, spitting every word like blood. "Your mother tried to buy my silence with a whole chest of divine gold. Ridiculous. You cold-blooded monsters will never deserve forgiveness."My fingers shook violently. My eyes were glued to the bloody obsidian.All the sounds around me faded away. Only a deafening buzz remained in my ears."Elara's soul is gone." Chloe gave me a cold stare on the high altar. She looked at me like

  • Three Days Before the Styx   Chapter 5

    Ethan's POV"The healers confirmed it. Sierra and the baby are perfectly fine. Just a few scratches," my mother announced cheerfully.I pushed open the door to the ward. I didn't even glance at Sierra on the bed.A blind panic gripped my chest. It felt like an invisible hand was crushing my guts.My mind kept flashing back to the Starlight Promenade. Elara, lying in a pool of blood. Her pale finger rested on a half-drawn rune traced in her own blood.Those eyes, once full of stars, held no grievances. No hatred. Just a suffocating sense of finality and relief.She looked at me like I was a total stranger. Like I meant absolutely nothing.The realization made my blood run cold. Right then, a dull snap echoed deep in my soul.It was our mate bond forged by the River Styx. The tie that neither life nor death could cut.Now, it was severed.Dead silence. Absolute dead silence.I snatched my scrying glass. My fingers shook. I recklessly forced my Underworld magic into the mirror.The dark g

  • Three Days Before the Styx   Chapter 4

    The chariot finally stopped at Olympus's fanciest venue: The Starlight Promenade.My legs gave out a little as I stepped down.Ethan reached out. He caught me by instinct.But the second we touched, he snatched his hand back.Like he'd been burned.He pulled a cloth soaked in laurel spring water from his pocket.He wiped his hand in pure disgust. Like I was something filthy.But he was just trying to hide how his hand was shaking.Sierra saw it and looked thrilled. "Let's go in." She hooked her arm through Ethan's, rubbing their closeness in my face.The Promenade was gorgeous, packed with divine elites.Ethan picked the most visible table.He pushed away the regular menu the waiter handed to Sierra. He ordered himself."We'll take the golden fish boiled in Apollo's spring, the white venison blessed by Artemis, and the olives soaked in Athena's magic."Every dish was packed with divine power.They were so expensive a normal person couldn't even dream of them.But I used to be a prieste

  • Three Days Before the Styx   Chapter 3

    The next morning, Mom did my makeup through her tears.She used white powder to hide my pale cheeks.Red pigment to give my lips some color.I looked in the mirror. I almost didn't look like a dying girl."Are you really doing this?" Mom choked on her words."I have to." I stroked her hand. "This is the path I chose."Ethan was already waiting by the porch. I could see the obvious irritation in his eyes. When he saw how frail I was, he frowned hard."Where is your golden boy? Why isn't he taking care of you?" he said coldly. His voice sounded bitter and tight. "Letting a little sickness leave you looking half-dead."His words sliced right through me. Seven years ago, if I even caught a cold, he would go crazy with worry. He would brew medicine himself. He would stay up all night with me. Now, his eyes only held anger and mockery."Ethan, don't be mean." Sierra smacked his arm playfully. "You're so cold to everyone but me." She smiled at me. "Don't mind him, Elara. That's just how he is

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