Page 97 of The Gods Forbid

“That’s the part you’re latching onto? Not that I just said I didn’t like you?”

Sebastian’s hand hovered over my back as we navigated the winding path. “Precisely. Come on, love. Tell me how much you like me.”

I tilted my head back and laughed, feeling something more than just the sun burning into my skin. “Fine. You’re tolerable as a roommate. I don’t know how I’m going to survive without your cooking.” And his company, but that felt too honest to mention.

Sebastian reset his grin, the muscles in his cheek falling for just a moment. “Who says I’ll stop?” he asked, causing a jolt of hope to hit me square in the chest. We hadn’t talked about what would come of this … friendship when these six months were over.

A few nights ago, I had a dream of him showing up at my door, falling to his knees and apologizing for attempting to restart his plan against Adrian. I’d woken up feeling awfully calm, instead of angry that what I’d worked towards for six months hadn’t taken hold. I was focused on the fact that meant he’d come back to me for another six months.

“That would be—” My stupidly hopeful response was cut off when I realized we’d approached a house. I would never say this out loud, but that house looked like someone had taken it right out of my own mind.

It looked like a bigger version of my house in Prometheus, with everything dialed up. Beautiful panels of rich, dark wood. Sun catching every corner of the house, shooting through the floor to ceiling windows. So big I could see straight through the house to the expansive back porch, with a view of the sea over the cliffs.

“Is this your home?” I choked out.

“I have a house in Rome and Athens,” Sebastian said, walking up the short steps to the front door. “But yes, this is my home.”

“It’s beautiful,” I said, staring up at the vaulted ceilings. A small bit of jealousy rang through my chest. I could spend weeks in this house and never leave. There was so much sunlight, so much love in the walls of this house.

When I dropped my eyes from the ceiling, I saw Sebastian looking at something. I followed his gaze over to the huge fireplace in the main room, then over the mantle. Hanging there, carefully preserved, were two large bows.

I knew which one was his almost instinctively. The top one was carved from a dark wood that somehow looked like it was threaded with gold in the sun. It looked strong, healthy. I could almost see it in Sebastian’s hand, hanging by his side like an extension of himself.

“You need that with you.” All of the sudden it became very important to me that Sebastian have that bow with him.

Sebastian chuckled lightly. “I haven’t used it in years. It wasn’t missed.”

“Liar,” I said, through a smile. I hadn’t even realized that I’d caught the shift in his tone, but apparently I was becoming quite attuned to him.

“Fine,” Sebastian said, his lips breaking into a full smile, “Just to prove it to you, I’ll show you that no time at all has passed.”

“Wait, what?” But he was already moving. He walked over to the mantle and easily scooped up both bows, grabbing a sleeve of arrows I hadn’t seen resting next to the fireplace and walked purposefully outside onto the back deck.

I scrambled after him, almost stumbling over a couch that looked like it would hold me hostage for multiple hours.

I burst onto the patio after him, immediately hit with a blast of fresh sea air. In the distance, I could see trees that had targets placed on them. It looked like they went on far longer than normal arrows could travel, but that was Apollo for you.

This was good. I wanted to have him reconnect with archery. Though something about viewing it like that felt wrong, like it was tainting the experience.

I didn’t realize I was smiling until I had to look down while I took the steps off the patio and saw the apples of my cheeks pressing into my vision.

Sebastian was weighing the bow in his palm, flipping it over the back of his hand and catching it again. That … did something to my stomach. I was stunned into silence as he pulled a thin arrow out and notched it.

His movements were so quick, so assured, as he pulled his elbow back and sent the arrow flying into a tree hundreds of yards away. I didn’t even have to squint to know that he’d landed in the dead center of the target.

“Show off,” I said, coming up next to him, my arms crossed under my chest. His eyes dipped for a moment, then continued down to the other bow resting against the stand next to him.

Penelope’s bow. It was obviously carefully preserved, and someone would be hard pressed to tell you that the bow likely hadn’t been touched once in the ten years since Penelope had died.

“You try,” he said, picking up the bow and extending it to me. When I paused, my mouth opening to say something in protest, he added, “Since you want to be smart about it.”

I rolled my lips together to hold in a laugh, even though he was about to make me embarrass myself in front of him. Hiding a groan, I grabbed the bow from him and felt a small jolt up my arm, as if my power was saying cool. My power was very subtle, not coming out in big, booming thunderstorms like my brother’s did, but rather in small crackles of electricity.

When it spoke to me, it normally meant something.

So, I was choosing to believe my power was telling me to just enjoy this little break from reality with Sebastian and not mess it up with talk of work and responsibilities.

We were friends, I guessed. Might as well do things that friends did, like … shoot arrows at targets … yeah, I was moving forward with that logic regardless.