Page 51 of Curse the Flame

For a moment, I think he thinks he said too much. That he’s going to melt back into the shadows and disappear, leaving me alone to think over what he just said to me.

He didn’t say the ‘l’ word, but he didn’t have to. That was as close to a love confession as I’ve ever received, and if I was already wavering here on the balcony before he joined me, I’m basically putty in his hands.

And that’s when, instead of retreating, Aiden shifts closer.

“Listen… I ain’t askin’ you to remember the other me, Blossom. To remember who you are, and who I am to you, because that’s not who we are now.” His voice lowers, sounding even more earnest than before. “You’re here, and I don’t know if the Underworld will ever let either of us leave. I don’t know if I can get you back to your cousin. I don’t know if the mirror’ll open again or if the gods who trapped us here are still out there waitin’ to finish what they started.”

The shadows around us deepen, though the sky hasn’t changed.

Aiden reaches for my hand, then stops before touching me.

“And that’s why all I’m askin’ is for you to fall in love with me all over again.”

I nibble on my bottom lip. “That’s a lot to ask, Aiden.”

Especially because I’m pretty sure that I already have.

“It is.” His gaze drops briefly to my mouth. “But I’m askin’ anyway.”

My heart beats too quickly.

Not because he scares me. That would be easier, and I could blame it on the goddess inside of me. She was terrified of Hades at first, but me… I was never scared of Aiden.

Not when he looks at me the way no one ever has. He looks at me as though every awkward, ordinary piece of Willow matters as much as the goddess he spent decades waiting for because the god inside of him made him.

I don’t know what to do with that.

Well, no. I know what I want to do, but I don’t know if I should or how he would react, and in the end, I don’t do anything at all.

Taking that as my rejection, Aiden’s expression shutters.

He starts to lean away, but before I can ask him not to go, he straightens.

“Let me make something very clear, if I can.” He pauses. “Can I?”

I nod.

“I waited eight decades for you, Willow. I will wait as long as it takes for you to recognize me as your husband.”

Husband.

The word crashes through me with enough force that I forget how to breathe.

He doesn’t just want me to love him. He wants me to marry him.

You already are Hades’s queen, Persephone pipes up from somewhere inside of me. Accept that you are and be who you were born to be.

I was born to teach grade-school kids English. That was my calling. I taught about Greek mythology. I’m not supposed to be a part of it!

“I can hear you arguing with her,” Aiden says softly.

My gaze snaps to his. “You can?”

“No.” A faint smile touches his mouth. “But you get this crease between your eyebrows whenever she says somethin’ you don’t like. It makes me think of all the time I spend arguin’ with Hades.”

It’s good to know I’m not the only one. “She thinks I should accept being queen.”

“I can’t say I disagree. But remember this, Willow: she may be part of you just like I have to deal with a god who doesn’t understand why I don’t just exercise a husband’s right and bed you every night instead of just holdin’ you close. It doesn’t matter what they want. It only matters what we want.”