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I was miserable without them both. Even knowing I was better off that way, I was still miserable. So, I did what I used to do as well and stuck with Florence, letting Apollo do what – or who – he wanted when he wanted it. In public, Apollo kissed my cheek and I smiled at him politely. We even went to a faculty dinner together and played our parts perfectly, as decorum dictated. But that was the extent of our contact.
There was, though, one major difference; no longer was I seen as the meek and mild Princess Harlow.
Saints gave me due deference, even the guys.
Magdalens didn’t dare put a toe out of line.
And, according to Marco, Apollo spent the next week celibate, despite going to every orgy. I hadn’t told Marco all that had gone down, but he certainly guessed.
“Missus, can I ask ye something?” he said while he joined me on a stroll around the grounds the next weekend.
I might have been ignoring Apollo and Valen, but that wasn’t going to stop the Black Bloods if they chose to come for me again. Or Kane. I’d been an idiot once. I wasn’t going to be an idiot again. About my safety or my heart.
“You can ask, Marco,” I said.
He nodded. “Fair. I just… Valk’s posted up in the infirmary,” my heart lurched, but I said nothing, “after hunting down some Black Bloods, you’re suddenly talking a daily constitutional, and God’s nary even looked at a Magdalen for over a week now…”
“Get to the point, Marco,” I snapped, and was thankful he was a good enough friend and confidant not to take it personally.
“What the fuck happened?”
The fact it had taken him a week to ask showed his restraint, but he wouldn’t have missed the fact that his God had ordered everyone from the room, then turned up with bruised knuckles to match the new ones on Valen’s face. He might not have known the intricacies, but he knew something had happened between the three of us.
I stopped and he pulled up hard. “What happened?” I asked, as though he was going to have to be more specific.
“I’ll put it a different way, what did Valk do?”
I swallowed hard. “Why do you think he did anything?”
Marco reached for me, and I let his hand trail down my arm to take mine gently. “I know, Harlow. I know it all.”
Okay, so maybe he did know the intricacies after all. “How?”
He shook his head. “I saw you and Valk coming like a fucking derailed train since your birthday. The way you looked at each other. The way you didn’t. Valk’s been hard for you since the day he first fucking saw you. And you were no better.”
I scoffed. “So? We hate each other.”
“There’s a fine line between love and hate, Harlow.”
Of that, I was well aware. I sighed. “It doesn’t matter, Marco. It’s over.”
“I see that, missus. It’s written all over all three of your faces. It’s all over the deep shade of blue of both God’s and Valk’s balls. What I want to know is why.”
I didn’t know about their blue balls, but I hadn’t seen it written on Apollo’s or Valen’s faces. There were other hints they weren’t as happy as they acted, but to everyone else they looked just like their usual level of tomfoolery and fuckery. Valen had even cracked a smile or two in the last week. It might not have reached his eyes, or counted for a smile on anyone else, but it was there.
Not that I’d been staring at him every time I saw him to have noticed.
“Icouldtell you it’s none of your business,” I told Marco.
“Aye, you could.”
I sighed. “But I won’t.”
He grinned. “No, you won’t.”
So, he may as well know it all.
“I fell in love with Valen,” I said with a pathetic shrug. “IthoughtI’d fallen in love with Apollo. Valen threw me away. And Apollo broke my trust. I’m still in love with Valen. I do love Apollo but only like a friend, or maybe a really annoying brother now I think about it. And I hate them both.”
