Page 3 of For the Love of the Gods

I clenched my jaw. “We are getting married. End of.”

She laughed then, hoarse, sarcastic, and completely disingenuous. “You have officially gone insane.”

Rose so loved to sling epithets at me. She was creative with them, I’d give her that. But there were some she favored more than others.

Insane. First use: Council meeting.Five years ago.

“I would be insane if I was asking you to marry me because I claimed I loved you. This is an arrangement.” I returned, gesturing with my hands between us.

The look of exacerbation on her face threatened to pull my mouth into a grin. “Just fucking explain.”

I liked her frustration. It had everything to do with the prospect of driving her crazy and nothing to do with the way her nose was scrunching up on the bridge.

“The Fates,” I said, trying to sound casual despite throwing this plan together on the spot. “After everything that happened with Adrian, they don’t want to give anyone else a reason to assume that we are a bunch of murderous gods. We don’t have a good reason not to combine our powerlines. So they are making us do it.”

“Makingus?”

“You want to be the person to tell the Fates no?”

Rose breathed in, her chest puffing out just enough to scrape my shirt. One of us must have stepped closer in the conversation. “Did theyspecificallytell you?”

“In the way they are capable of, yes.” They spoke in riddles and rhymes that were barely intelligible to the gods who still spoke Ancient Greek or Latin, let alone the rare human who found themselves in their presence. “They said that any unnecessary death would be punished.”

“And what if I don’t believe you?”

“Check for yourself, and then I’ll see you at Temple Orcus tomorrow night.” Rose could ask them all she wanted. The Fates only gave answers to those they favored, and brother-killers tended not to be on that list.

“Fucking hell, Dominic.” Rose turned around, running a hand through her freshly combed hair and around to grip the back of her neck. The motion caused the edge of her nightgown to drift up and something weird happened in my stomach. I shoved the reaction down, not willing to figure it out when I had just let impulse force me into a marriage I didn’t want.

“Don’t go cursing my name now.”

“Oh, I’ll do a lot more than curse you.”

“This is getting repetitive, don’t you think? Why don’t we try married bliss for a while?”

Rose snapped back around. “I’d rather die.”

“Bring that up with the Fates then.” I countered, crossing my arms over my chest. Rose’s eyes dropped for a moment before whipping back up to my face.

“You know what, I think I will.”

“Good.” I said, sounding falsely confident.

“Good.” Rose returned, huffing like a child in the middle of a tantrum. That was when I decided that this would be fun. Impromptu, unideal marriage aside, I would enjoy making her squirm and stomp her foot from frustration.

“See you tomorrow then?” I said, not bothering to fight the amusement in my expression. “Seven o’clock?”

Her eyes blazed as green as hellfire. “Fuck you.”

“So kind to your husband, already, Rose.” I reached up and squeezed her chin between my thumb and forefinger to punctuate my point. The look she gave me was nothing short of murderous, mixed with some shock, and I reveled in it as I stepped backward through a portal and back to the better side of our realm.

While we still had sides to compare, at least.

Chapter 2

Rose

I knew I’d face the consequences eventually. I knew that someone (Dominic) would exact revenge for my sins.

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