Page 52 of For the Love of the Gods

I held that promise so strongly I’d even say no to the Fates.

“You reject us?” Clotho asked, really hammering the nail in on my decision.

I blew out a breath, I could do this. “If you are asking me to kill him, then yes.”

“You have not denied us anything thus far.”

“Today is different, it seems.” This request was different. They’d never even asked me to harm another person before. The furthest they pushed it was making sure an already-dead soul didn’t escape. Even that grated against my nerves.

“Well, then you are dismissed.”

Dismissed?I’d never been dismissed by them, not even in the days I spent hours lingering in their quarters.

“Are you ordering me to leave?”

“You won’t fulfill our request, so yes, you may leave.” May meant must.

“Well, then.”

I left without another word, and immediately regretted it. I had made that promise to myself, but was it worth it if it meant I couldn’t bring Pine back.

That was more important, wasn’t it? I would suffer in the Fields of Punishment if I was lucky, Tartarus more likely. What was one more person gone because of me?

Except I couldn’t do it. I physically couldn’t do it. It would destroy the value system I'd built.

But, Pine. Pine could be back.

I kept at that loop of circular thinking for the entire walk home. Walking from the Fates lair was ill-advised. It was on the barest edge of the Underworld, and it would take me at least two hours to take the trip.

I did it anyway. But nothing worked. It was Pine then the nausea at the thought of killing then Pine again.

I pushed through my front door hours later, after almost being full-body tackled by Max. They hadn’t recognized me at first, my face downturned and my normally free-flowing hair tied back. They let me go with a promise to catch up over meetings the next day, and I agreed. Concern was etched into the soft lines of their face, empathy strong in their eyes, and I promised myself I would honor it later.

I made it up the stairs, practically running them. I needed to dive head first into a book and forget the world. I was on my way to do just that when I crashed into Dominic coming out of the library while I was headed in.

I didnotneed this right now. “Fucking hell, warn a girl would you?”

Dominic was still in that distracting black hoodie from earlier, with the sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. They were corded with thick muscle and dusted with light brown hair. He crossed his perfect hands over his chest and asked. “Running from something?”

I chuckled darkly. He didn’t even know how true that was. “What, like my past?”

“You said it, not me.” He thought he was hilarious, didn’t he?

“I’m leaving,” I said, turning around. I’d re-read a book from my personal collection.

Dominic’s voice stopped me in my tracks. “Why are you wearing that?”

“Wearing what?” I looked down at the simple outfit I had on.

Dominic nodded towards the pants, in particular, not without dropping his gaze to my breasts first. Fucking typical. “You look ready for a fight.”

“If you think this is appropriate clothing for a battle, I pity you.”

“I didn’t say battle, I said fight.”

“Semantics.”

“Ah, yes, semantics,” Dominic said, “Important to you, I presume, when you spin your pretty lies.”

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