Page 134 of For the Love of the Gods

The Council meeting.

“I was going to tell Adrian at the meeting. But then I walked in and everyone was looking at me like I killed him in cold blood.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “We should have known better. All we heard was that Pine and your father were dead. Everyone was saying you killed them.”

“I did.”

“No, you didn’t,” I said, pulling Rose’s hands together and placing a kiss on her knuckles. “Your father did. If the Fates blamed you, they would have cut your thread instead of his. And how the rest of us reacted hadnothingto do with you. I should have asked questions, should have given you the benefit of the doubt.”

Rose sniffled and my heart cracked. “I thought I’d done something to make you think that.”

“No,no,” I said. “You did nothing wrong. You were just young.”

At the time, Adrian and I were the youngest gods. No one else our age had ascended yet.

“No one knew you,” I continued. “Or your heart. But that is no excuse. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

Rose shifted closer to me. “There’s no use in trying to rewrite the past. We are here, now. Together. That is all that matters.”

I let out a sarcastic laugh. “And so far your life with me has been an assassination attempt and a potential conspiracy against the gods.”

Rose’s eyebrows lifted in the center. “My life with you has been you comforting me after said assassination attempt and us dealing with any conspiracy together.”

Her way of spinning things in a positive light was one of the many things I loved about her. Maybe the thing I respected the most. I could only hope it rubbed off on me.

“I’m still sorry,” I said, dropping a kiss to her lips.

“I forgave you ages ago,” Rose said through a smile. “And the same goes for you.”

“I did, you know.”

“I know,” Rose said.

I pulled her to me, needing the contact to fight the remaining fury and guilt in my chest. Her father was a dead man two times over. And I had some planning to do for an apology.

†

Adrian arrived a minute before eleven and Lukas ten minutes after the hour. While we were waiting for Lukas, Adrian had apologized to Rose, who brushed it off like it was nothing and pulled him into a hug. Adrian sat down with us, and when Rose went up to grab some more fruit, Adrian took the opportunity to raise an overly curious eyebrow at me.

“I presume there is a lot to catch me up on,” Adrian said.

“Oh, yes,” I said. A lot had changed in such a short time. Too much turmoil for my blood.

“She’s looking at you like she wants to eat you,” Adrian said, referencing the multiple times Rose looked up at me with suggestive eyes when my hand moved a little too high on her leg.

“The sentiment is shared,” I said and Adrian gagged.

I flipped him off and right as Lukas walked in the room, shaking off a loose water droplet.

“What a great start to the meeting,” he said with a grin, but it was entirely unconvincing. Every one of us saw the bags under his eyes. I hoped that Rose didn’t notice, but he also was growing a little too big for his shirt, the sleeves digging into his biceps.

That meant he was slinging heavy shit around to work through whatever demons were in his head. He damn near snapped my neck in half when I tried to press the subject, but I wouldn’t be letting this one go. He clearly had shit he needed to talk about.

“Grab some food, Lukas,” Rose said, “Then sit.”

When we were all settled, I let Rose take the lead and tell the story about the attack and the symbols we’d found tattooed on the bodies. Io’s statements too. And the Fates. Rose had gone back early this morning to ask if they knew anything and they said no. As much power as they had over individual lives, they knew little about the inner workings of man.

Adrian was slipping slowly into battle-ready mode, I could see it in the tightening of his shoulders. When Rose was done explaining, Adrian said, “This is what I was worried about. Something organized.”

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