Page 57 of Invoking Ruin

Atê comes up beside me, and it’s only then I realize that I’ve wandered close to the knife. She throws a piece of undyed cloth over it, and immediately the world brightens. “Don’t touch that. You could get yourself, and the entire world, wiped from existence.”

I jolt. This must be the rift knife that Nemesis mentioned. Right here, out in the open.

My brazen little Ruin practically waving a flag saying come and get me.

“What is it?” I ask, but my gaze has already caught on something else: a lock of golden hair beneath a glass display case, tied with a purple silk ribbon.

Oiled, sweat-slick skin coming together. The arch of her back, the press of her breasts as I drive into her. My hair pulled tight, and then the rasp of a knife as she cuts a piece away.

“I didn’t take you for the magic type. What are you doing, little Ruin?”

Her leg comes around me, dragging me in deeper until thought flees once more in favor of the pleasure of her body.

“Just a memory.”

“Sandro?” Her voice, here in the present draws me out of the memory. She’s staring at me, her green eyes missing nothing.

I shake it off. I can’t let her know that I’m not Sandro anymore, not yet.

The bronze medallion hangs heavy in my pocket, and the knife is right there within my reach. I could end this now, summon Nemesis and have Atê dragged away.

But I don’t. That wouldn't be any fun.

“What kind of knife can destroy all of existence?” I ask, turning away from the hair.

Atê frowns at me, suspicious, but she doesn’t question how I fail to recognize my own hair. Maybe she doesn’t want to question it.

“During the war, my grandparents created a knife capable of opening the Void,” she explains. “They called it the rift knife.” She sucks her teeth. “Erebus decided to get into a fight with Zeus and was killed with this knife, setting us all on this terrible path we’re on now. The Void eats everything. One cut, and it will end you, from the inside out.”

A chill runs down my spine. Nemesis hadn’t exaggerated about the power of that weapon. I wish she had. “Why do you have it?”

Atê shakes her head, apparently unwilling to say, and turns from me. Without warning, she pulls the torn kaftan over her head and tosses it aside. Once again, I’m distracted by that expanse of smooth, golden brown skin. I trail my eyes up from her ankles, to her calves, thighs, pausing at her rounded hips as she hooks her fingers into her underwear and drags them down.

Fuck.

“Vita,” I growl.

She glances over her shoulder at me, inky black hair swaying. “What?”

As though she doesn’t know.

“You promised answers. No more running.”

She huffs and walks away. Beyond the pavilion is a large pool, the water crystal clear. Without preamble, she steps in, letting out a sigh that goes straight to my balls as she sinks into the water.

Nymphs could take lessons.

I follow her out, unable to take my eyes off her as she dips under the water and emerges, glistening in the sunlight.

“I never said I wouldn’t have fun while giving you answers,” she tells me, her voice a low, rasping tease. “Get undressed and join me.”

Chapter fourteen

Atê

Sandro’s eyes burn with so much heat, he could light me on fire if he wished.

I’m aware I’m on borrowed time. Any moment, the god could emerge, but I’m the Goddess of Ruin, and I couldn’t resist a bad decision if I tried.

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