Maybe that meant she was open to letting Kore grow. She could actually become the goddess she’d always wanted to be.
She opened her mouth to let the story spill out.
Her mother yanked her into her arms before Kore could say a single word. Mouth pressed against Demeter’s shoulder, she was forced to remain silent as Demeter spoke.
“My little girl. You are just as lovely as the day I had you.” Demeter pulled back and shook her. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to ever let you grow up. You’re my child forever, dear one. Forever and always.”
And just like that, she was back to being the little girl under her mother’s thumb.
It was a foolish pipe dream to think Demeter would give her enough leeway to marry. Demeter wanted Kore to remain exactly where she was. Forever and always.
Sighing, she smiled at her mother and accepted another hug. “I love you, mother.”
“And I you. Now run along. Find Artemis and Pallas, would you? I know Pallas is still here. She wouldn’t run back to her mother and father so soon, and I need Artemis to look after you this afternoon.”
That could only mean that Demeter didn’t want to see her daughter, to see a god or goddess.
“Who’s coming to visit?” Kore asked. She didn’t think Demeter would actually reply. Her mother told her nothing about their visitors.
This time was different. Demeter frowned and replied, “Zeus is coming. I don’t know why or what he wants, but of all the gods, I don’t want you around him the most.”
Her father?
Kore had only met Zeus a few times, and he always acted like she didn’t exist. She’d grown up without the father figure most children would have had because of that. He didn’t care if she was happy or healthy. She’d argue he didn’t care that she existed at all.
For that reason alone, she didn’t care if she met him either.
Nodding, she took a step back. “I’ll find them. Pallas can summon Artemis if she has to.”
“Good girl.” Demeter pressed her hand against Kore’s jaw one last time. “You’re so beautiful, and Zeus is too easily tempted.”
Kore’s jaw fell open as her mother left the room. Had Demeter forgotten that Zeus was Kore’s father? Why would he ever look at his own child that way?
But, she supposed the Olympians had done worse than find their daughters... No. She refused to even finish the thought. Her stomach turned over without giving the image life in her mind.
She needed to find Artemis, and quickly. The huntress wouldn’t let anyone touch her.
Even Zeus.
Kore bolted from her room and out into the wheat fields beyond. The plants clung to her legs and arms, stroking through her freshly brushed hair and tangling the long strands. She didn’t care that the knots would be impossible to remove later on, or that her mother would tug hard on her scalp to get rid of them.
In this moment, she was free again. Finally, infinitesimally, free.
Her feet pushed off from the ground until she felt as though she could take flight. Her arms pumped at her sides, biceps flexed and muscles powerful. Her body knew what to do and how to get her where she wanted to go.
And that was anywhere but here.
Her mother might be wonderful sometimes, but other times she was punishing in her desire to keep Kore still. Kore wanted to run. To frolic with the nymphs. To meet with other gods and feel like she was one of them.
Now, all she got to do was hide from them. But not for much longer.
As she raced toward the forest at the edge of the sea where the nymphs and oceanids waited for her, she saw narcissus blooms growing where they had never grown before. She saw the bud of a cypress tree rising with the pines. And she knew he was coming for her.
After all her time waiting, today was finally when he would ask her mother for her hand. What would Demeter say? At first, of course, she would say no.
Kore brushed a branch away from her face and blew out a frustrated breath. Her mother wouldn’t even entertain a marriage for her daughter, and Hades would have to argue. She’d help him. Her mother would have to see reason.
She burst out into the clearing. Six oceanids were in their pool of saltwater. They waved their arms excitedly with Pallas among them. Three nymphs sat on the edge of the rocks with their feet in