Page 41 of Invoking Ruin

“Better than anyone.” He is mine. He’s always been mine. I’m helping him avoid his family for his benefit. Chaos help me when he regains his memories, though. He certainly won’t see it that way.

He sighs. “We should go, then. But we will find a place to stop eventually, Vita, and you will answer my questions. All of them.”

The ultimatum hangs over us like the Sword of Damocles. Something I have hidden away with the rest of my stash.

If we continue down this path, I won’t be able to hold off on telling him who he is. I fear that once that truth is revealed, once he knows the history between us, good and bad, he’ll hand me over to Nemesis himself.

Certainly, his causes will be more just than the others’.

I can’t think about that kind of a fate now. Taking the reins back, I steer us north and east, to Athens.

It’s not my smartest choice, but I need a place with enough remaining energy from our time of worship to obscure my presence. Going to Corinth had been an error. It was too deeply steeped in Aphrodite’s presence, and she has it out for me. Not to mention, Deimos has his own reasons for hunting me. Athens will have more gods, I’m sure, so many I might be able to slip past them unnoticed. Too much interference to track one little pair of runaways down.

At least, I hope so.

Still, them catching me feels more and more like a certainty, and when they find me, they’ll take Sandro. Take him back to Olympus and bury him in family and obligation.

I meant what I said before—I only want the best for him—for all I don’t think he believes me. Certainly, Lethe didn’t. This is the freest he’s ever been, without his identity. Remembering can only hurt him.

I’m on borrowed time, though. If he stays with me, they’ll catch him too.

Athens stretches out before us like a lazy cat, the arch of its back in the Parthenon. I won’t be landing anywhere near there. Bad enough I’m crashing in Athena’s city. I don’t want to provoke her, of all gods.

The city, like all of them, is very different from how it had been in our prime. The modern rubs up against the ancient like ill-fitting puzzle pieces, shoved together to make a picture that doesn’t quite make sense.

It’s lovely anyway.

Lovely enough for someone to get lost in.

We touch down in a park. It’s a little too close to mortals for my liking, but the city is too vast to easily land outside its borders. Pegasus shields us from prying eyes with his intrinsic magic, and that will have to be enough.

Sandro watches me as I dig through the chest again. I still have the sandals and the helmet, but I’m loath to let either go. They’re too useful, especially if I need to go back into the Underworld.

I dig around and past them. The chest is deep, far deeper than it appears on the outside. After all, it used to hold all of us, or perhaps just key aspects of us.

My fingers close around a curved stretch of warm, smooth tortoiseshell. Perfect.

Apollo’s lyre is, despite being crammed at the bottom of the chest, in perfect condition. I touch the strings gently, careful not to pluck them. I’m sure the sun god could hear them from anywhere.

This will do. Though even just holding it feels like tempting Fate, and they already told me how that would end.

Nothing but ruin.

“Where are we going, Vita?”

“I’m going to drop this off.” I wave the lyre, wincing as the strings sing in the breeze. I slap my hand over it to stop the vibration. “You are going to find the nearest wine bar and wait for me there.”

I should let him get free of me altogether. Let him find his own way and live his own life, here on Gaia, where no one will notice him.

But I’m too selfish. I can’t let him walk away.

“That’s not what we agreed to,” he pouts.

“You’ll get your answers when I’m done with the task at hand.” I cut him off. If I let him push me around again, we’ll end up fucking in the grass. “We’ll need to run again after I leave the Lyre. We can’t stop here.”

His jaw tics, and I hold my breath. If he demands answers right now, I don’t know what I’ll do. Nemesis can’t be far behind us.

“And if they catch you?” he asks.

---