From Slave To Queen (Athena and Michael) novel Chapter 132

Chapter 132

Elara

Soft fingers glide across my forehead while my eyes remain closed and heavy. I’m exhausted, or maybe there’s something stronger than my body forcing me to rest. The caress on my forehead continues, and involuntarily, my face leans into the touch. It’s warm here, and I feel something heavy over me. I wonder where I am. Maybe I wasn’t wrong to assume this was the Underworld. The crackling of flames accompanies the thought,

The warmth is so comforting that I lose consciousness again, I don’t know for how long, I just know that when I return to myself, my eyelids no longer feel heavy and 1 can open them. 1 blink quickly, pushing away the fog of sleep, curiously observing the new scene around me. There’s no trace of the vast barren land or the swampy lake. Instead, there is what appears to be a cabin. The walls are stone and the floors wooden. In one corner, in the back, there’s a fireplace, the source of the crackling flames I heard earlier. Beside it, an armchair and a small table,

“Elara”

1 jolt on the small cor where I’m lying I place a hand on my heart as 1 search for the owner of the voice. I recognize the velvety tones and know exactly who I’m going to see. That doesn’t lessen the rapid bearing of my beart, though it’s not out of fear, but a mixture of caution, anticipation, and uncertainty

Ataroth is sitting in a chair beside nie. his black hair framing a chiseled face that, as I confirmed before, is blindingly beautiful. However, that’s not what catches my attention. It’s his eyes–gray, like mine. Orice again, a feeling of belonging stirs within me. When I look at him, I see the reflection of something mine. I feel rooted

“You seemed to have many questions earlier,” he says, not taking his eyes off me.

“That’s

the first thing you’re going to say to me

What do you want to hear?”

I want to scream all the questions flooding my head, starting with: how? How could he leave me alone all this time! Did he never feel the need to meet me? Talk to me? Know who I am!… Yet none of them come out of my mouth, afraid of what the answer might be,

“What is this place!”

“This?” he replies, nodding toward the fireplace. “Or do you mean what you saw before?”

I bite my lower lip and shift under the heavy blankets.

This is a cabin I like to escape to sometimes. It makes me feel mortal.” He smiles, and I swear the room brightens. His teeth are perfect, and a small. dimple forms in his left cheek. “What you saw out there were memories”

“Memories”

“Lilith thought it appropriate that you see them–though maybe I had something to do with it too.” He tilts his face slightly, studying me with a curious air. “Do you want to tell me how you got here!”

I shake my head. I don’t know if I’m ready to recall what happened–especially involving him. I feel the sting of betrayal deep in my chest. When I close my eyes, i see bloody images. I see my family dead, a throne made of twisted fangs, ocean–blue eyes looking at me imploringly. I don’t know why it hurts so much to think about it. I can barely breathe.

“Alright. Then I’ll speak.” I stay still, focused on his face. Deep down, it’s hard to believe he’s really here. “I suppose you know where you come from, what you are but I don’t think you fully understand it. If you did, you wouldn’t still be lingering in memories“.

“What do you meant”

“Lande by botle, Elara”

He smiles again. I don’t return it

His face shows no signs of imperfection. He looks like a thirty–year–old man. No gray hair or wrinkles–nothing course, he’s a god. Din Toolish to even think something like that could touch him. Time. How ridiculous.

hing that shows

the passage of time. Of

must think we’re terrible parents, and that’s fair. His face tightem in a grimace. “The truth is, I have no excuse. You saw it in the memories— didn’t believe I could love you, and I won’t lie to you. When you were born, I felt nothing. It’s not in my nature to feel affections or anything he i Your mother is an exception, and many times I’ve questioned the authenticity of my feelings for her. Maybe I love her because she’s the only one capable of making me feel anything. Still, I made her a promise. So when she left you with that human family before heading to the Pits, I watched over you. I took away your illnesses, nightmares, pains, insomnia. You were a calm, serene baby I didn’t do any of it out of love, only to fulfill my duty to your mother But time changed that Frouldn’t tell you when it happened, but little by late i found myself wanting to escape the land of the gods just to see you, to care for you to watch over you?

The pain grows deeper with every word that comes from his mouth. Ataroth doesn’t love me. He never saw me as more than a duty, a promise to keep. A burden.

12:27 PM &

Chapter 132

“Why did you never speak to

to me? I ne

never felt you–you never tried to reach out or let me know you were

were there.”

You

were safer not knowing the truth. It wasn’t the time. That human family was your best chance to live.”

“I always fell out of place, alone even when surrounded by people,” I confess. “How could you? How could you do that to me?”

He nods as his eyes fill

it with something resembling

ne sadness

“I wanted to introduce myself many times, but I knew deep down it was better not to. Your mother sometimes escaped, and we would sit together to watch you

“You make her sound like a saint.” I say bitterly. “As if she hadn’t conceived me to save her precious children. She plans for me to be a breeding

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