Page 127 of For the Love of the Gods

Dominic wisely listened, clenching his fists once before his voice scraped out of his throat. “I lied. We aren’t Fated.”

My life shattered to pieces before my eyes.

The only way to escape our control is to know your Fate.

How had I been so stupid? So blind? Fuck, Dominic didn’t even know how much they’d controlled him. He would have the urge to get close to me, to spend time with me. They wouldn’tlethim kill me. He wouldn’t even know that someone else was manipulating his life, taking the power completely out of his hands.

I could forgive him for the lie.

Lying to force our marriage was one thing. It made sense for the realm and to keep the peace and to prevent another death as a consequence of the godly lines merging.

But this…this was torture.

Dominic didn’t know that he wasn’t in control of himself. This entire time I had thought that we were acting despite being Fated, but notbecauseof it. I took a step back, away from Dominic and the sheer anguish in his deep brown eyes. His hand reached out on a reflex, and I stepped back again. If he got his hands on me I wouldn’t be able to focus, to ignore the part of me that felt so deeply for him I could cry.

“Sweetheart, please,” he ground out, taking a stride that was double the length of mine towards me. Suddenly he was inches away, the smell of his cologne threatening to steal my sanity. When his hand reached up to softly brush mine where it was crossed over my chest, my breath seized in my throat.

He had me cornered, surrounding me with his energy, his power, just him. He followed me as I slowly backed into the wall and when I hit the cold stone of the dome, Dominic gingerly lifted his hands to my face.

One brushed under my jaw before circling around to cup the back of my head. The other gripped my chin softly, pushing up as he said, “Let me explain. I’m sorry I lied, more than you know. But this changes nothing between us. We don’t need to be Fated.”

That last statement is what did it. What had me pushing off the wall of the Fate’s lair and past him before he could blink, escaping his grasp. Dominic jumped after me, a growl escaping his throat as I kept moving towards the gate.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me, Rose.” His voice was desperate, pleading.

It didn’t stop me though, the pressure building in my chest and the tingles attacking my throat were overpowering my need to stay and hear him out. I ran out of there into the hallway, one hand bracing the wall.

“Rose.”

Okay, so Dominic followed me. The ghost of his hand near my shoulder had me moving down the hallway again, running…left. Apparently.

I didn’t know where I was going, I just knew that I had to get out of there. I couldn’t sit and listen to him tell me that he didn’t need a bond to care for me. He didn’t even know how blind he was.

He didn’t care, not really. He was just clouded by whatever magic the Fates could spin around our thoughts. The idea that the past months had just been forced sent my stomach turning sour, nausea propelling me faster down the hallway.

“Rose.”

My name. Again. Spoken with a raw sort of desperation I didn’t think I had ever heard from him.

He was really committed to following me, it seemed. I had fled so quickly and without reason, I didn’t even know where I was trying to go.

Another left down a black-walled hallway, and I started to run even faster as I heard the stomp of Dominic’s boots against the tile floor getting louder.

I was back to the impasse between the gardens, to fresh air and a sky I could unleash a scream into, and the Fates’ chambers when Dominic called my name again.

“Rose,” he pleaded, and if I had half a mind right now I might have thought it sounded like he was getting choked up.

“Let me explain,” he begged, again. “I lo–”

“No.”

I ripped the words out of his mouth as fast as I could. He didn’tloveme. He just didn’t know it yet.

It was his near declaration that had me turning back towards the chambers instead of for the fresh air. If he was so out of his mind from the Fates’ control that he was claiming he loved me, then he needed to be knocked back into reality. Fast.

Especially before he tried to say those three words again, and I wouldn’t be quick enough to stop him. If I had to hear those words from his lips, knowing that they were based on a lie, I would crumble. It would be worse than the torment that was already wracking my soul.

I turned left, back towards the stony, damp home of the Fates.

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