Page 6 of The Ruin of Eros

But you have to be brave, to live that way. I doubt I am so brave.

“You must see,” I hear Kirios Demou’s voice again. “It cannot be helped. I only hope that the town’s judgment will not be harsher.”

I have not heard Father say a word this whole time, though I can picture his face—that stormy look he gives you when you’re saying something he dislikes, that gets stormier and stormier until you feel you might lose your nerve completely. But then he speaks, and it shocks me. His voice is not stormy at all. There’s no anger, no righteous indignation.

“Kirios Demou…” There’s a tremor in his voice. Who is this man; where is my outraged father? Dimitra stares at me, her eyes wide like mine.

“...I cannot pretend this comes as a shock. I will not ask you to reconsider. But can I ask you to delay any announcement a little longer? I confess, I am fearful of what may come next.” He sounds almost pleading.

“For my sake and my daughters’, sir…it is important that the Council see we still have friends and allies. Just until the worst of this has blown over…”

Dimitra pulls away abruptly, the blood drained from her face. She doesn’t look at me, just runs along the corridor in the direction of the kitchen. I’m torn—do I stay, and wait to hear more?

I swallow hard, and follow down the corridor after my sister. I find her in the kitchen, pacing between the empty vats and stoves like a madwoman.

“Never mind, sister. Perhaps I shall make a good spinster,” I joke, or try to. I thought it might make me feel better. It doesn’t, but it certainly gets Dimitra’s attention. When she looks up at me her face is furious.

“You don’t understand, do you?”

I stare at her, trying to figure out what she’s so enraged about.I’mthe one whose future is being ripped apart.

“The Council,” she spits. “What do you think Father’s so scared of? Hmm?” She drums a finger against her temple as though I’m slow-witted.

Perhaps I am. Because it’s only now that I’m wondering what exactly Father meant bywhat may come next.He’s afraid of something, and Dimitra is too.

“You think Father will lose his seat on the Council?” I frown. It would be shaming, for him and for the family.

Dimitra looks wild-eyed.

“You thinkthat’sthe worst that can happen, Psyche? The way Father cossets you, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you still think like a child!” She pinches the bridge of her nose, closes her eyes.

“Expulsion, Psyche,” she breathes.

Banishment.

“They will turn you out upon the roads.”

Chapter Five

I feel my blood run cold. Ostracism is not common, but it happens. It may be used in our towns as punishment, or to restore justice, or for protection. To end a blood-feud, for example, a town may make the sons of feuding familiesostraka, outcasts. It is like a death, in a way: the families mourn for theirostraka, for they know they will never see those faces again. Towns may practice it, too, if a member of the community has badly offended the gods.

“They wouldn’t do that,” I say, my voice unsteady now. The truth is, I have no idea what our town would or wouldn’t do. I saw how quickly their minds changed about me today, in the space of a few moments at the temple.

“Dimitra,” I say. “I must find a way to appease the goddess.”

Because there’s no doubt in my mind which god had a hand in the events of today. The words of the priestess are seared into my mind.So this is the face they say is more beautiful than the goddess herself.Sikyon has boasted of me, boasted much too highly. I remember Hector reporting what his family had said.More beautiful than Aphrodite. They were just stupid words, but they can’t be unsaid now. And though I never spoke them, it seems I’m the one being held responsible.

I’m the one who will have to appease her.

But Dimitra looks at me as though she’s unsure whether to laugh or cry.

“You think you have the ear of the gods? What are you going to do to change Aphrodite’s mind, little mortal girl?”

I ignore her, pacing back and forth. There must be something.

Humility.

Humiliation.

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