Page 126 of For the Love of the Gods

“Fuck it,” Rose said, shooting out of her chair. “They owe me.”

“Who owes you?” I asked, rising to meet her.

“The Fates. They owe me.”

And with those five words, my body rocked with a fear worse than finding Rose bloodied and bruised on the floor.

It was the fear thatIwould be the one to hurt her so thoroughly that I would lose her forever.

Chapter 33

Rose

“The Fates. They owe me.”

“Why?” Raiden asked at the same time Dominic said, “Rose.”

I answered Raiden first, even though Dominic was looking at me like I might break. “Why do they owe me or why am I going to them?”

“Why do they owe you?”

Dominic was hovering near me as if this answer was of the utmost importance. Maybe it was. It revealed the most about what happened with Pine.

“I started working for them after Pine died. Hoping they’d…” I glanced at Dominic, who looked nauseous, the color draining from his face. He knew where this was going. “Hoping they’d bring him back. Even if it meant exchanging his soul for mine.”

“Before anyone freaks out,” Marcus said, staring pointedly at Dominic, “She stopped working for them.”

“All of three days ago,” I said. “But, Marcus is right. I realized what a hopeless mission that was. I need to accept that my father would have found a way regardless.”

“Rose,” Dominic said again, his voice desperate.

“I’ll explain later,” I told him, smoothing a hand down his arm. I hadn’t meant to tell Raiden too, but it just slipped out. Trust was a weird thing in that regard. Once you did trust someone, the pieces of your life floated to the surface easier.

Dominic didn’t say anything, just swallowed whatever stone was lodged in his throat.

Well, alright. It was time to see the Fates then. Knowing Dominic would follow, I turned quickly and stepped through a portal right into the Fates lair. Dominic came barreling through after me, like he had reached for me right as I stepped out of the way.

I was somewhat giddy with the chance to call in a favor, finally making the Fates helpme. Clotho met my eye immediately, and I smiled at her. Then she looked behind me to Dominic. This would be interesting, I’d been meaning to ask what debt they’d incurred with him.

“Dominic. Last I saw you, you were closer to a boy than a man.”

It took a second. A second for those words to register. For my smile to drop as I processed what, exactly, Clotho had just said.

Drawing on a healthy dose of naive hope, I tried to find another meaning for it. Maybe a youthful disposition or his age was young compared to theirs or—

No. No, they just hadn’t seen Dominic for years. And I was a fool.

“What?” I asked hoarsely.

Clotho looked at me with unabashed pity, the emotion swimming in her hollow gray eyes. It was so potent, so overpowering I wanted to scream. She felt so bad for me. And it was because she knew how deep I would feel the betrayal.

Her expression only stole my attention for a moment before I turned to the man who I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off for more than a few seconds, even now.

Dominic looked sorry, I’d give him that. His brows were creased together, and my thumb twitched with the urge to smooth down the line. I would have, maybe an hour ago, before I knew. But now, I kept my hands at my sides, tucking my fingers into a fist to fight the urge to reach for him.

Clotho’s voice cracked somewhere to my right, gearing up to answer my question.

“No,” I cut her off before she could. Then said to Dominic, “I want to hear it from you.”

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