Page 44 of Invoking Ruin

God, or whoever we pray to, knows I want to have her every waking moment. Everything about her is entrancing, her dancing green eyes, her wicked tongue, her rasping voice in my ear. It’s all I can do to keep my hands off her perfect curves and not bend her over the nearest surface at every opportunity.

This god I’m supposed to be can’t be so different from who I am, now. We must desire the same things. The same people. Vita is the sort of woman I dream about.

And yet, she said we only fucked once in who knows how many years. Something must have kept me from her. Something terrible.

Was it her, keeping herself away? Or someone else getting in between us?

She crosses a street and is almost swallowed up by the crowd of pedestrians. I hurry to catch up to her. She might be brighter than the others, but she’s slippery. If I let her out of my sight, I’m not sure I’ll find her again.

Once I cross the street, I turn around in a full circle, trying to see where she went . I catch a flash of green turning another corner.

Fuck, she’s fast. How does no one else notice the way she moves?

I push through the crowd, but before I can reach the corner, a hand closes around my arm and drags me into an alley. I jerk, unthinking and whirl around, fist raised.

I’ll be damned if another one of her family members gets the drop on me.

But it’s not a god standing there, but two women.

No, goddesses.

It’s not immediately noticeable, but there’s something about them—an energy Deimos, Momus and Vita all share.

The first goddess, who grabbed me, drops my arm, lifting her hands in the air in a gesture of peace. She’s a tall goddess with brown skin and curly dark hair. She’s wearing a business suit, the collar button undone. Her eyes are grey. They narrow on me like she can’t decide if I’m a threat or not.

The goddess beside her is…different. Her hair is long and the color of undyed cloth, her skin translucent, veins running and converging like rivers just beneath her skin. She’s wearing a dress that glints in the dying sunlight like metal. Her eyes are pale, almost hueless.

Something about her sets the hair on the back of my neck raising.

”Give him Oblivion, child.”

The voice from my nightmares, low and cruel, sends a shiver down to my very bones.

Restraints chafe against my wrists. I’m strapped to a chair. It’s dark, impossibly dark around me, keeping me from seeing anyone, but I can hear them. The whisper of long skirts, the small patter of each step.

“What are you doing?”

There’s no answer, but a clawed hand grabs me by the hair, yanking my head back.

Something glows in the corner of my vision, cupped hands.

“Open his mouth.”

Someone grabs my jaw, prying it open, and I yell, then start to choke as cool, white water spills down my throat.

I gasp and fall back against the wall.

The pale goddess frowns at me. “Dionysus. Do you remember me?”

Dionysus.

Everything pauses. The sounds of the street fade, the warmth of the setting summer sun goes cold, the whole world darkens until it is only the three of us.

Dionysus.

Vines erupt from the earth, tearing through cobblestones to wrap themselves around me. They curl around my legs and upward to my chest, like a lover’s caress.

Dionysus.

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