The Day I Proposed, I Laid Another Woman in My Bed
Within thirty steps of the promise I made to Hera, another woman threw her arms around my neck.
Silence settled over the garden.
Even as Io's grip tightened around my throat, my gaze stayed locked on Hera alone.
"Thirty steps, I see."
"You were counting?"
Hera raised her queen's scepter.
"Wait. This isn't private gossip—"
"Are you claiming it is public gossip instead?"
"Because there are so many witnesses?"
Just as the scepter swung toward my shin, Io's body convulsed hard.
"Ghk...!"
Black blood spilled from between her lips.
The black letters branded beneath her collarbone writhed and climbed her throat. What had been a single sentence split into dozens of tiny eye shapes.
One by one, the eyes opened.
Io's face drained paper-white.
I caught her in my arms at once.
"Don't speak."
Every time Io desperately tried to force out words, the black letters constricted her throat like a snake.
"Every time you open your mouth, that thing burrows toward your heart."
I gathered lightning at my fingertips.
Crack.
Hera seized my wrist immediately.
"If you use that, this woman will burn with it. Lower your hand."
"..."
I obediently withdrew the lightning.
Hera knelt before Io.
Her eyes grew cold as she examined the brand visible through the torn priestess robes.
"This is a vow of Hera's temple."
"Did you make this?"
"No."
Hera pressed one of the black eyes with her fingertip.
Instead of closing, Io's back arched like a bow.
"But it was forged by stealing my seal and a priestess's oath."
She who was the daughter of the river god Inachus and a priestess of Hera's temple was, ironically, being strangled by a goddess's vow.
"Who did this?"
At Hera's question, Io's lips trembled.
The black brand coiled around her throat.
I covered her mouth.
"If you speak, you'll die."
Hera looked up at me.
"Is there a way?"
"There is."
"If there is, why do you look like that?"
"Because I have a feeling you'll hit me if I explain."
The queen's scepter stabbed into the dirt beside my knee.
"Explain."
Io managed to catch her breath and spoke.
"I must come under a protection stronger than my vow."
"Whose protection?"
Io and I both fell silent at the same time.
Hera's eyebrow lifted ever so slightly.
"Why have you both gone quiet?"
"There's an old custom."
"Speak."
"Anyone who enters a god's bedchamber, covers themselves with that god's mantle, and sleeps there is considered part of that god's household until dawn."
"Household...?"
"Originally it was a rule to protect fugitives."
"And now?"
"These days it's almost only used for lovers."
A chill settled in Hera's gaze.
"The place?"
"My bedroom."
"And the contact?"
"A little."
"How much is a little?"
I pointed to Io's collarbone.
"I have to place my hand over the curse and breathe my divine breath deeply into her."
"A kiss?"
"Not quite that far."
Io added with difficulty.
"I might not be able to endure the pain and end up desperately clutching the King of the Gods' body...!"
"You didn't have to say that part."
Hera's divinity was thickly woven into the curse. Just as I was about to tell her to stay in the garden, the promise I'd made moments ago flashed through my mind.
Do not hide danger alone.
Do not make Hera's choices for her under the pretext of protecting her.
I swallowed a heavy sigh.
"Hera."
"Speak."
"Come with me."
Her eyes widened just a fraction.
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"It is."
"And yet?"
"You said you'd decide."
Hera looked at me for a moment, then nodded.
"I will go."
White lilies had been placed in my bedroom.
The flowers I'd prepared to give Hera were, of all places, scattered across the bed.
Hera looked in turn at the bed, the flowers, and Io cradled in my arms.
"How thoroughly prepared."
"It's a misunderstanding."
"There's a bed, flowers, and a woman."
"The flowers are for you."
"Do you realize that makes the situation worse?"
"I realized after I said it."
Hera picked up a single lily and lightly smacked my shoulder with the stem.
"We'll talk separately after we save her."
"Are you going to hit me then too?"
"If you're still alive... we'll see."
I laid Io on the bed.
The black letters had climbed all the way to the base of her neck.
"One last confirmation."
Io's eyes turned to me.
"From this moment, I declare you part of my household. Do you agree?"
"I agree."
"You know what kind of rumors this will start?"
"It's better than dying."
"Good."
I looked at Hera.
"Can I begin?"
"Save her."
I spread my storm mantle and draped it over Io's body.
When I pulled the torn collar down to below her collarbone, the black eyes all turned toward me at once.
Io clenched her teeth.
"Ghk...!"
Hera placed her hand over Io's heart.
Golden threads pulled free from between her fingers.
"I will hold the vow."
"If you let go?"
"I'll break your hand first."
"Reassuring."
I placed my bare hand over the black brand.
Something cold bit into my palm.
Dozens of eyes opened simultaneously.
Io's body jerked upward violently.
Her arms wrapped around my neck.
I hurriedly braced myself so I wouldn't lose my balance, but the result was an extremely awkward position.
Hera snapped in a chilly voice.
"Do you really have to cling to her like that?"
"I'm just as unfairly stuck in this position as you think."
I pressed my forehead to Io's.
I drew a deep breath.
"Io is under my roof tonight."
Thunder rumbled.
"No one can touch this woman without first harming my name."
I breathed the divinity woven into that deep breath into her. As white light swirled around Io's lips and the tip of her nose, the black characters that had been writhing like screams were seized by the golden threads Hera released.
A moment later, Io exhaled a great breath.
The black eyes closed.
"Can you speak now?"
Io nodded.
"The name... I cannot speak it."
The letters below her neck writhed again.
"Just tell me what you saw."
"I discovered an order in the temple's underground records room."
Io's voice trembled.
"It said that when the marriage of you two draws near, evidence is to be created that the King of the Gods lusted after a priestess."
Hera's fingertips froze in midair.
"The target?"
"It was me from the start. I was discovered while trying to take the document. That was when this curse..."
"Is there someone who received the order?"
Io's face grew even paler.
"Hera's guardian with a hundred eyes, Argos Panoptes."
Hera asked in a low voice.
"What order did Argos receive?"
"To secure evidence that I became the King of the Gods' mistress, and to take me into custody."
Io lifted her ankle to show us.
A thin silver plate was fitted inside her anklet.
The moment I reached for it—
The closed black eyes all opened at once.
"Ah..."
Io clutched her chest.
Thud.
Urgent footsteps surged outside the door. Someone had clearly discovered this room's location.
The black brand burrowed toward her heart.
Hera's golden threads pulled taut.
"I can't hold it much longer."
If I struck with lightning, Io's heart would turn to ash as well. If the human Io's vow and name were being tracked, then for a while I could erase that name and clothe her in a beast's shell.
The white heifer I'd seen in my past life flashed through my mind.
I took Io's hand.
"If you stay human, you'll die."
Io looked at me.
"If I change your form, you can live. But you might not be able to return for a while."
Fear spread through her eyes.
Even so, Io nodded.
"Please do it."
Hera took her other hand.
"I will absolutely restore you."
I raised my hand.
White lightning swallowed the entire bed.
Flash!
When the light faded, Io was gone, and a pure white heifer draped in the storm mantle blinked its eyes.
"Done!"
Hera stroked the heifer's forehead.
I looked around the disheveled bed.
Torn priestess robes.
Lilies.
Me, with my upper body wet.
And a white heifer on the bed.
"This would be hard to explain if anyone else saw it."
"Didn't you propose because you were confident you could explain things?"
"I didn't expect it to be this bad."
At that moment—
Bang—!
The bedroom door was ripped clean off.
Outside stood the guardian Io had just named.
Argos Panoptes.
The hundred eyes set in his massive body swept the bedroom all at once.
Torn clothes.
Disheveled bed.
Me.
Hera.
White heifer.
No matter which eye you looked with, it was a scene ripe for misunderstanding.
Argos unfurled an order.
"This is an order bearing Lady Hera's seal."
All hundred eyes turned to me at once.
"Regard the priestess Io as the King of the Gods Zeus's mistress, and take her into custody immediately."
Hera took the order.
When she brushed the peacock emblem on the red sealing wax with her fingertip, a faint golden light flickered.
"The seal is genuine."
Argos approached the heifer.
Just as I moved to block him, Hera folded the order.
"But the order is fake."
Argos's hundred eyes all turned to Hera at once.
"I do not declare my priestess someone's mistress without a trial."
Hera pointed to the first line of the order with her finger.
"And my orders always begin with the name 'Hera of Argos.' Not 'Hera, candidate for queen.'"
Her cold gaze swept the words written on the document.
She crumpled the order in her fist.
"Someone stole my seal and forged this document."