Page 59 of Invoking Ruin

Now, it’s as empty and barren as the Underworld, albeit a great deal prettier.

I miss the way it was before, when Hera would summon me for our plots, her assignments. The noise, and the Hesperides, Hera’s golden sunset nymphs, tending the apples. The dragon Ladon guarding them and the apples alike.

They had barely tolerated me, of course. I’ve never been more than tolerated. Still, the noise was comforting.

Silence is the present and the future of this place. It will never be full of gods again.

Love made this garden, and it means less than nothing, in the end.

“I don’t need love,” I say. “Not if I have you.”

I don’t need anything else.

The water sloshes behind me as he moves, his arms encircling me, dragging me against his chest, his hard cock pressing into my lower back. So he’s not too horrified by my words, after all.

I gasp as his hand slides up between my breasts before it curls around my throat, collaring me.

My eyes flutter shut, and I lean back in his hold. If I’m meant to be threatened, to defend myself, then I’m already doomed.

Against him, I have no defenses.

“You’re going to make us both miserable, then? Are you that ruinous?” His lips brush my ear, and I shiver in the warm water.

Ruinous. If he knew the half of it. I turn my head until our eyes meet. “Have you been miserable, Sandro? Truly? I’ve taken care of you far longer than you know.” Years, a century, more. “You’ve had everything you wished for, and I haven’t forced you to do anything you don’t want.”

“And yet you won’t let me know the most important thing of all,” He replies, far too patient.

My lips purse, and I stare at the water. “No. If it were up to me, if it were in my power, you’d never know.”

The hand around my throat tightens, and I gasp. The next moment, he loosens his grip and lets me go. The cold air whooshes in the space he left behind, and I shiver, sinking deeper into the water.

“But it’s not for you to decide. Is it?”

“I don’t see anyone else deciding.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Until three days ago, you were just Sandro. Did you care about your lost identity? Or did you just live, unburdened?”

“That’s an excuse and you know it.”

I do know it, but I cling to it anyway. He hadn’t cared. Then Momus had shown up and thrown a wrench in the gears like the overgrown cock he is.

Now, everything is breaking down, and I can do nothing to stop it. Soon. Today, tomorrow—if Momus’ threat is to be believed—maybe next week, Sandro will open his eyes and know.

“It doesn’t matter.” I head back towards the stairs. Soaking in the pool has lost its charm. “We’re stuck together, and no one can find you here.”

I reach the bottom step when his hand curls around my arm, and he yanks me back. He spins me around, our bodies joined together before he pushes me into the pool wall. I sit on the bench as he presses between my legs, leaving no space for boundaries, not even for air.

Which means there’s nothing for me to breathe in as he grips my chin. I’m suffocating.

“I’m only trapped until I regain my memories,” he says. “Then, I can just take Pegasus, and leave you here in your pretty little prison.”

His eyes are burning with a fierceness I’ve never seen on Sandro’s face. Something is different about him, now. I must have pushed him too far.

I shove him back, but he stays put, like he’s grown roots to the pool floor.

“Then go, if you think he’ll fly for you,” I spit at him. I try to yank my head free even as his grip tightens enough to bruise mortal flesh.

“You think you’ve thought of everything, don’t you?” His voice is a low tease, rumbling in my ears. “But you’ve been running from one trap to another for days. It’s sheer luck you haven’t been caught.”

“I saved you.” I growl, pushing against him again. This time he lets me go, floating backward through the water.

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