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“Sorry.” I shrug, but stand on tip toe and kiss his piercing, dancing my tongue on the metal.
“It’s okay. We don’t have time anyway, but I wanted to show you something before the guests start arriving.”
He leads me down stairs to the large hallway off the entryway. The lights are all off, and it is pitch black.
“Eros, what did you do?” I ask.
“Well, I know how much you miss your mom and how you have been learning about her through her journals. I thought it would be nice for you to learn about her through our eyes, too. This is what we saw the last several years.”
The lights come on, and the hallway is lined with easels, each one holding a picture of my mother. Some are posed, others candid, and they all talk about the charity donations she made, the causes she supported still even while under threat from my father. Several of the photos have one or more of the guys in it. They are all so wholesome and sweet.
“I thought we should have these up for the party. Allow the guests to meet Freya,” Eros says.
“These pictures,” I begin as I take in each one, paying attention to every little detail about the woman I missed out on for so many years. “Wow. To see her smile. To see her happy.”
“She wasn’t always smiling. She was also a vicious woman who refused to take anyone’s shit. She was stubborn and swore like a sailor, but when she loved, she loved hard and fiercely. And god help the person who tried to hurt something or someone she loved,” Eros speaks next to my ear. “There was always something missing with Freya. Someone she was missing. We always thought maybe she was a widow and lost the love of her life, but now we know. She lost you and her other children. She was never quite whole without her only daughter but she was still a formidable woman, and the world deserves to know how much she did for it.”
I can’t say anything. I simply study the pictures of the woman who was in all my dreams. Tears spill down my cheeks.
“Tears of rage?” Eros asks with a wince.
“No. Joy.” I wrap my arms around him. “Thank you. This was a really special gift. It means a lot.”
“I told you, baby girl. Actions speak louder than words.”
“And what is this action saying, Eros?”
He leans down and kisses me. It’s soft and chaste and makes my heart ache in a way I have never felt before.
“It’s saying I know all that stuff we said yesterday was for the article, and we haven’t actually talked about what the four of us are and how everything fits, but I don’t care.” He cups the side of my face with his warm hand and tilts my face up so I meet his eyes. “It’s saying that I like what the four of us have going on, but more importantly, I love you. This is all about you. You. My perfect goddess of war.”
“I love you,” I whisper, and he pulls me into another kiss. “I’ve never said those words before you all. I’ve never… Love didn’t fit the woman I was brought up to be. But it fits now. I truly do love you.”
“Good, now go upstairs and fix all that makeup I just ruined so I can ruin it again tonight doing something really dirty.”
“You better keep that promise.” I laugh as I head back upstairs, feeling lighter somehow, hearing his words echo in my ears. He likes what the four of us have. The four of us.
It only takes me a few minutes to fix my makeup and add a few other accessories to my dress for the night. I can’t wait for Eros and the others to see the silk stockings with the seams up the back and the black lace and pearl garters I have on under this dress. The entire look makes me feel sexy, powerful and untouchable.
“You are quite lovely, you know that?” A familiar voice comes from behind me, startling me. I look up in the mirror, and it takes me a second to recognize Paris.
The sweet man I knew is gone. In his place is a man with wild, crazed, and blood-shot eyes. His usual neat hair is sticking up all over the place, and his clothes are dirty and torn.
“Sadly, Cinderella, this ball is going to be missing its princess,” he snarls as he takes a white cloth out of his pocket and holds it over my face. I try to fight him off. I try to kick and claw and scream. But my limbs get heavy, and harder to move before the world fades into nothingness.
Chapter
Forty-Four
Perseus
“Hey, have you seen Athena?” I grab two champagne flutes from a waiter and hand one to Eros. “I haven’t seen her yet, and most of the guests are here and asking for her.”
