Page 6 of Invoking Ruin

Lethe isn’t as forgettable as she used to be. Another thing keeping me in check.

He’ll hate me no matter what. It’s in my nature to be despised. But if I fucked him now, while I know what he is and he does not… that deception would be unforgivable.

Is any of the harm I’ve caused open to forgiveness? I growl, shaking off that moral quandary. Those matters are better left to philosophers, or Apollo. Right and wrong doesn’t matter to me, the Goddess of Ruin. Or at least, it shouldn’t.

For a moment, I give in, kissing him again, sliding my fingers into his golden hair and tugging at the roots until I hear him hiss.

We’d been perfect together that night by the fire, but I ache to show him more. I would make him crave me and me alone.

But then I remember myself and draw back. “I can’t tonight. My flight is too early.”

My usual excuse, and I hope the regret on my face, radiating from every fiber of my body, sells the lie.

“I’m starting to really hate your job,” he huffs, stealing another kiss.

“Me too.” He doesn’t know the half of it.

His purple eyes study me. “You don’t have to stay the night. An hour. Two? I’d make it worth your while.”

Of that, I have no doubt.

“We should wait for when we can take our time. An hour or two is hardly enough.”

He sighs and tips his head back. “Vita, at this point, I’m not sure I’d need more than fifteen minutes.”

I kiss down to the hollow of his throat. “I’m not sure I’d need more than one, but I want more than just a stolen-away hour.”

He sighs and cups my face in his hands, stopping my assault. “Fine,” he says after a moment of searching my eyes. “But when the time comes, I’m tying you to the bed and not letting you leave it for days.”

His promise makes me shiver, even though I try to hide it from him.

“I’ll hold you to it.”

Finally, he lets me go, and I force myself to let go of him in turn.

“Next time,” he promises, “I won’t let you get away from me so easily.”

“Next time, I hope you won’t need to.”

I leave him on the front step, and he waits until I’m out of sight before heading inside. I know he doesn’t turn away, because I glance back at him several times, and he’s still watching me.

He only needs to be patient for just a little longer. I only need a solution, a long-term one. If I can keep us away from nosy, Olympian eyes, I can convince him he's better off with me.

If I can keep him from remembering, I can make him mine.

Chapter two

Atê

Outside the town of Lake Como, where its narrow streets and buildings give away to rolling green hills, Pegasus waits for me.

Finding Pegasus at the beginning of the Decay had been nothing short of a boon.

The beautiful winged horse had been drifting, alone and forgotten, with no one to tend to him. Everyone had forgotten he existed except Megaera, one of the erinyes, who’d been trying to trap him, whispering to him about how she’d cut his wings from his back as a trophy. His shrieks of fear still echo in my ears sometimes.

Pegasus’ trust had been worth killing her over. I simply used my power to convince her that she longed to drive her sword into her own chest. That such a display of bravery would finally show her sisters how much stronger she was than them. It wasn’t hard to take off her head while she was incapacitated and at my mercy.

Pegasus has stuck by my side ever since. I was a poor companion for him, I knew. As a beloved immortal horse, he should have been cared for by far finer gods than myself. But Zeus had locked Olympus to everyone, even his most loyal creatures.

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