Page 129 of For the Love of the Gods

How wrong I was.

It explained why I was never quite able to shake the feeling that she hadn’t put up that much of a fight. Sure, she fought me every step of the way after we got married, but she walked into that temple suspiciously well-mannered. For her, anyway, she still called me at least three names during the course of our wedding.

I was sick to my stomach, at how blind I’d been, but more so at the heartbroken expression I’d seen on Rose’s face.

She was so convinced I’d been forced into this that she wouldn’t let me tell her I loved her. Well, that was bullshit. I didn’t need to know that we’d been Fated to realize that killing her would have been a mistake. I had been distracted by my own grief and desire to get revenge that I hadn’t been able to see her until she was forced in front of me.

If the Fates had a hand in our marriage then I’d drop to my knees and thank them.

Atropos’s spry voice forced my attention up to their floating thrones. “We don’t manipulate. We may push physically. End a life or start another. We inspire, but we are not in the business of altering minds.”

I nodded in agreement. I knew that. The only person responsible for how wrapped around Rose’s finger I was was Rose herself.

“Make sure she knows that,” Clotho said. “The sentence she has imposed on herself is much too harsh.”

“Will do, Clotho.”

And then I was out of there, stepping right back into our bedroom in search of Rose. I needed to grab her and tell her how in love with her I was, how we were inevitable, how I didn’t care if the Fates caused this, that I was just thankful they had chosen me for her.

I tore through our bedroom and the bathroom, then busted through the door to her old bedroom, the one that had been half-converted into a second library and came up empty.

Damnit, where was she?

If she ran, took a page out of her best friend’s book and fled, there would be no corner of the earth she could hide from me. Not even the darkest corners of Tartarus could conceal her.

My blood spiked a degree hotter in urgency. With every passing minute I knew Rose was delving further and further into insanity, doubting every kind action, every time I did something to take care of her, the fervor with which I loved her.

Every day.

She could be at Lukas’s palace, maybe off with Thea at Jason’s home. But first, I would try her favorite spots in the house.

"Little flight risk," I mumbled under my breath as I started my search.

The library was empty.

The kitchen void of her rich vanilla rose perfume, floating off her skin and begging me to bury my nose in her neck.

The back deck free of her shining hair, perfect to run my fingers through.

The hallway outside of the training room, however, was full of her presence. I would sense her anywhere, my body perfectly in tune with hers.

I all but sprinted down the hallway, barreling through the dark, oak double doors.

When I did, I came face to face with Rose, sitting in candlelight, sharpening a knife.

Chapter 35

Rose

“Are you here to kill me?” Dominic asked, that stupid grin plastered on his face.

“Yes.” The word would have been barely audible if the room wasn’t deadly quiet. I scrambled to my feet and raised the knife slightly, dropping the sharpening block to the floor.

Dominic raised his eyebrows and shoved his hands into his pockets, making no indication he understood how serious I was. “Are you now?”

“Yes,” I repeated. I tensed my muscles, the same way I did when my father’s training had first started and I was terrified of what he was going to throw at me.

“Hmm,” Dominic said, nodding his head and sending his hair shaking a little from its hold. I’d wanted to smooth it back for him. But I was no longer allowed to. “I don’t think so.”

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