Page 2 of For the Love of the Gods

Yes. The words were right there, gathering in my throat and supported by revenge five years in the making.

Yes. The only logical answer for a goddess I hated.

Yes. For a goddess who hated me.

One word, and yet it felt like bile in my throat as my vocal chords warmed up to answer her. Our eyes were still grasping onto each other, her body going stiffer with every moment it took that one fucking word to leave my mouth.

“Are you here to kill me?” She asked again, her voice interrupting the silence in all its annoyingly melodic glory. Her shoulder twitched as she said it, and my eyes dropped down to watch the movement trickle down her arm. The tremor went all the way to her hand, causing it to curl around the brush.

When the wind pushed the flame a little to the left, it illuminated her hand, holding the bronze hilt of a knife.

Of course.

Another reminder of why I was here tonight. She was a murderer, and if I didn’t kill her she would kill me. I wasn’t blameless myself, but I drew the line somewhere. She had no line, and she deserved to suffer for it.

She didn’t deserve the quick relief of a knife dragged across the throat. She deserved slow, drawn out, merciless torture that drove her crazy. She deserved the type of revenge that took years to complete, a carefully crafted plan that required her to be right under my thumb to execute.

It was that very thought that coincided with a sarcastic, questioning eyebrow raise from the goddess in the mirror and what finally pulled one word from my throat. “No.”

“No?” she said with a laugh, turning around in her chair to finally face me.

“No, I am not here to kill you.” As I responded, a haphazard plan was forming in the back of my mind, my thoughts searching for the only logical way I could force her into my environment.

She stood, sending light flooding the room with a flick of her wrist. “Thenwhat, pray tell, are you doing in my house at midnight?”

I stepped out of the shadows and started walking towards her. “I need a reason to visit an old friend?”

She scoffed as I approached, her head tilting back to keep my eyes with every step. “You and I were never friends.”

“Well, I was friends with your brother. The term applies to the whole family.”

Something flashed through her expression at that. Guilt, maybe. If she was capable of the emotion. “Okay, if we are such good friends, then you’ll have no problem telling me why you are lurking in the shadows of my room.”

“You caught me,” I lifted my hands in mock surrender, but I underestimated how close together we were standing. As they lifted, the backs of my hands caught the silk of her robe, brushing against it roughly. I forced myself to keep my eyes on her face, especially when the cold sent a shiver racking through her body. “I'm not here to kill you. But I have news that might.”

She steeled her shoulders, resetting herself. “News?”

I nodded. Smirked. “News.”

“Whatnews?” she snapped, her green eyes flickering with a dangerous sort of annoyance at my unwillingness to make this easy. Her eyes were the color of envy. Fitting, as that was what put her at the head of her realm.

“Good news.”

Frustration joined the envy in her eyes. “Drop the vagueness, Pluto.”

I scoffed at the sharp bite of her tone. “Drop the attitude, Hades.”

The gods sometimes went by the title of their Houses, the same way a friend would call you by your last name as a nickname. For those who respected you, there wasalwaysLady, Lord, or Noble in front of the name of your House. But between the gods and their advisors or friends, sometimes you’d catch aHermesorVulcanin place of their given name.

But like she said, we were never friends.

I focused my eyes on her face, readying myself to memorize her shocked expression. “You and I are getting married.”

A little gasp left her full lips, parting them.Thatwas a look I’d remember. “No.”

“You’d rather me kill you, Rose?” My plan wasn’t perfect, but I thought she’d prefer it to death. My preferences aside.

Her perfect eyebrows raised in doubt. “Oh, Dominic, that is assuming I’d let you kill me.”

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