Hera's POV

It has been thirteen days since I have been here, this place was neither the domain of Hades nor did it belonged to any other. This was the deepest parts of forest grounds on which Artemis hunted and one of the places where I have spend the sweet moments of my childhood but after being crowned as a queen all this was long forgotten and the once favored place was abandoned.

Just like me.

The vines and creepers were not tamed anymore, they were not filled with flowers but more or less it was still as enchanting as it was centuries ago. There was this small hut made up of simple wood that I was living in. With thick canopy of trees above me I was very sure that nobody could detect my location unless told otherwise.

Persephone suggested me to shift from Underworld as soon as possible and if possible not tell her the place as well. If she and Hades both were not aware of where I was then certainly Zeus would not be able to ask from them no matter what method he used.

When Persephone had to come here, she would just call my name and whisper a spell and I would blindfold her before bringing her to this dimension myself. At first when she came to the realm I was a bit worried all those centuries ago, if she would be able to control and govern the Underworld alongside Hades because for all I knew was that she was a very magnificent person but as a queen.....I had no idea.

But now that I see, her vision and way of doing things are on a different level than others. My eyes were red and swollen from crying when I came here the first days but since then it had been nothing but a deep numbness because it was not the first time Zeus has done it but the first time I understood the reason of his doing it.

'The act can be forgiven but the intentions are what make it much more heinous. Supposedly a person falling down and getting hurt by someone when it is an accident is completely different when someone has deliberately pushed you down to make you bleed.'

Persephone had said those words before leaving, giving me time to think and go over my throughs spilled all over the place.

And how come I not see why he was doing this....Zeus was always said to be an uncontrollable mighty god, think about adding a goddess that over powers him mentally, where would his pride go to. I was supposed by him to be a queen who would be obedient and let him have his ways, always supporting him because after all his children were heroes who saved the mortal realm countless times.

He thought that even though he was a great god I was his barrier that stopped him from doing every single thing he ever wished for. I was his chain.

The most ironic thing that I silently conjured these days was a realization that he did loved me, if not then why would he take up my insults every time I hurl it at him and why to keep up pretenses, Zeus was a very straightforward person.

He loved me.

He wanted me.

He needed me.

But he never respected me, not loved me enough to only commit himself to me.

In his eyes I was easy, a weak willed creature who would accept him no matter what happens. And I have made him like that myself.

If there was someone who destroyed my life, it was Hera....it was me and myself much before Zeus. Even Ares, my son looked at me as if there was something wrong with me. He always used to tell me that he would be there if someday I finally decided to stand up myself. Even a child, Hebe could see how ruining my relationship had become and yet I was blind.

I find this familiar and accepted it without having the courage to change it myself.

It has been many days since Zeus persisted in my mind link trying to push the closed barrier to make him talk to me yet everytime he had probed my mind I only felt one thing.

I wanted to be free, there were countless of times when I felt him through our bond and pushed it myself to stop him from having sex with another but he never listened. For now there was one thing left in my hurting chest.

This bond

And this must go.

I opened the barrier that has been closed from the past thirteen days and then all of his anxiousness came crashing it, that overwhelming sadness from his side brought tears o my eyes as he whispered my name as if confirming if I was truly there.

"Hera" I could not respond.

"Hera...Hera please tell me are you alright, I love you, I am so so sorry.....please come back, you can curse me as much as you want but this time I am-"

"Zeus" I replied as my lips wobbled, the reality was heart wrecking but this is the time I accepted it.

"I love you Zeus." As soon as those teary words escaped my lips, a sob resonated from his side as if sensing the way I had given up this time.

"It has been so....so long and I have come to realize that my love for you has no bounds Zeus, I am tired of cursing and blaming......fighting and trying to have your attention.

I have been the person who has taken away your freedom and now I-"

"NO! NO! Hera please!" His cries and sobs were desperate but my heart was already so dead that there was no hope in there to reconcile and he must have sensed my words because he was wailing in despair to make my heart turn.

How do you alter something when you have already lost its essence.

"When I married you Zeus, I knew what it entailed. Spending eternity with someone is a great commitment and thus I tried to always maintain excitement and rejuvenation in our marriage but now I have no expectations and certainly....Zeus by the law abiding fates, I, Hera, the goddess of marriage annul this companionship of ours."

My voice got stuck in throat as I choked before the skies above me rumbled furiously, lightning striking each and every tree in vicinity but I sat still listening to the roars and powerful wave of sadness that it brought from his end.

"Hera! What are you doing? Please listen to me, even though you don't wish to be married to me but still we can work this out, you can take your time Hera. I beg of you my queen do not leave me please!" Those words would have moved the previous me, even brought immeasurable joy but now an ironic smiled covered my face.

"My life was like the sand in a sandclock Zeus and I am afraid it had already ran out." Another roar of thunder made me sit down on my knees.

"Hera, I have been a bastard my love, you should punish me..... why are you giving up your immortality. Please it's....don't do this my Queen please."

I smiled in between the tears as if I found the thought of killing myself absurd. I was not coming a suicide or anything even close. I had long lived my life, it has been millions of years and it was now upon me to choose my rest if I wished to.

"Our bond.....do you remember when it was created, how full we felt, it was a feeling so ethereal that I was bewitched. I do not want for you to feel agony on my behalf."

"ENOUGH! Hera this is madness! you will do no such thing, our bond is sacred-"

"Yet not sacred enough to stop you from cheating.." We were bickering like the husband and wife we are....were.

Zeus was crying as much as I was when I said those words if not more, his heart shattered and I felt the pain.

"Hera....please. I would never cheat on you again please."

The universe was meaningless to me now.

"I, Hera, goddess of marriage and queen of gods reject Zeus, the king of thunder and lightning as my mate and King, by this day shall my powers as the queen return as I shall no longer abide by it."

"HERA!" I felt it and without a doubt he felt that too with how powerful the skies blasted lightning, burning the entire realm but I could not witness a single thing as my bond ripped slowly and agonizingly as if someone was opening my mouth and burning it with hot coals.

As if my chest was smashed with knives again and again till I bleed dry.

"Hera! HERA! PLEASE COME BACK!" He had yelled across the other side of the Olympus but by then the bond was gone along with his weeping voice fading away into nothingless.

I sat there for an hour without moving.

my eyes seeing nothing

ears hearing nothing and despite the whole world in turmoil, I was eerily calm.

before I could think very much ahead Persephone was already knocking on my magical door seeking permission to enter my dimension and this time without even blinding and restricting her sight I let her in.

The woman with trembling lips stood before me, we both looked at one another before my world collapsed and I held her before the dam of emotions, all guilt sadness broke free as we clutched one another and continued crying without any abandon.

I failed to see the man behind her, the one who did not even showed emotion when he was given underworld to rule, he had accepted it too without any tears.

I failed to see as his arms came around Persephone and I, all the three people mourning what we have got and finally what he have lost.

A/n: I wrote this because Hera deserves better I think and I wanted to write something cry worthy maybe.

Don't forget you are precious!

And don't forget to cry!