Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
If I could marry for love, I would have married Adonis without a second thought. Our relationship has never been particularly smooth, but it has been consistent in its inconsistency. He makes me laugh more than any other person in this city, and he makes me feel seen, even if he doesn’t always like my more chaotic impulses.
But I am Aphrodite, formerly Eris Kasios, daughter of one Zeus and sister to another. My fate was written the moment I was born.
Adonis’s jaw goes tight. “Come with me.”
“What?”
“Come with me,” Adonis repeats. He holds out a broad hand. “I’ve already bribed Triton. We just have to get to the boundary and he’ll see us through. You don’t have to do this, Eris. We can leave. We can start a life somewhere outside this fucking city and be happy.”
The space behind my eyes burns, but I am a Kasios and I learned from a very young age to control my tears. I will not cry now, even if it feels like the broken shards of my heart are grinding to dust against each other. “No.”
He doesn’t drop his hand. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
How can I love him even more now, knowing that he would sacrifice everything for me, even though I would never have asked it of him?
I shake my head slowly. “No,” I repeat. “We had something special, Adonis. Don’t ruin it with theatrics.” The words are cruel, intentionally so. I swallow hard and push through. If I have to hurt him to keep him safe, then I will.
This is why we could never be endgame. Adonis insists on seeing the best of me, without acknowledging the depths I will descend to in order to keep my people and my city safe. He will always balk about doing what needs to be done, and I don’t have the luxury of hesitation.
“Eris—”
“Aphrodite.” My grip goes white-knuckled on the door. “I am Aphrodite, and you’d damn well better remember it. I chose this, Adonis. I chose…him.”
“Don’t lie to me. You hate him.”
“I would rather take a knife to his throat than slip his ring on my finger.”
He flinches. “Then why?”
“You know why.” I have to pause and lower my voice. “Your parents didn’t raise a fool, so stop playing the innocent. Minos has a foothold in the Thirteen now; he isn’t going to stop. What happens if we tuck tail and flee, leaving everyone else to pay the price of his ambitions?”
“That’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not. Neither is you showing up here and asking something from me that we both know I can’t give.” My chest aches so much, I can barely draw a full breath. I refuse to let it show on my face. “What I do, I do to protect this city and everyone in it. Including you.”
This marriage is the only way. Friends close and enemies closer and all that. I want Hephaestus to pay, and the best way to ensure that happens is if we’re sharing a life, a home, a bed. He and his little fucked-up family won’t be able to slither about unnoticed when we’re in such close quarters. He’ll slip up, and when he does, I’ll be there to gather all the information I need to ensure Minos doesn’t succeed.
In the meantime, I’ll keep my new husband so busy chasing his tail that he won’t have time to worry about plotting his next move.
I lift my chin. “I am marrying him, Adonis. Nothing you say or do will change that.” It’s on the tip of my tongue to apologize, but if I’m sorry this is hurting him, I’m not sorry that I’m taking this necessary action. “I think you should leave.”
His broad shoulders slump. “You’re serious. You’re really going to marry him.”
“Yes.” It hurts to watch him crumple, but it hurts more when he straightens and shakes it off. Anyone with a drop of power in Olympus learns to lie early and often, with word and action and expression.
Adonis has just never bothered to lie to me before.
He does it now with a bright grin that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Point taken, Aphrodite.”
Gods, but it hurts to hear that name on his lips. “Adonis—”
“See you around. Or not.” He turns without another word and walks away.
I tell myself to close the door, to not watch him and hope against hope that he’ll turn back and look at me. That this thing between us won’t be over, once and for all.
I know better. Despite how he sometimes seems, Adonis is no innocent. We grew up together. He knows exactly what it takes to grab power in Olympus—and what it takes to keep it.
“Eris?”
I jolt at my sister’s voice. I hadn’t even heard her approach. “I’m fine,” I say automatically. I almost sound like I believe it.