AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You mean when you let Hermes pressure you into breaking my heart?”
Carl winces as though I smacked him across the face. I’m tempted to do just that.
“You know my screwed up history with boyfriends, and you knew how I felt about you. How could you go along with his plan to hurt me?” I ask.
“I had no choice.” Carl frowns. “He holds my life in his hands. Not that I’m trying to excuse what I did to you this week.”
“No, not just this week. You have been hurting me for all these years! This whole time, you knew just how much I loved you, didn’t you?” When he nods, I go on. “So you hurt me in your own way, giving me just enough to believe we might be together someday. That’s on you.” I curl in on myself. “Fuck. I’m so stupid.”
“Dee.” He grabs my shoulders and makes me look at him. “Youaren’tstupid, because Ihadhoped we might be together eventually. My actions weren’t out of ill intent. Mercy made me keep you close to me after he watched us kiss five years ago, as leverage.”
“Is that when you began to work for him?” I ask, trying to think back to how things were then.
“Our kiss five years ago on graduation night was my last act as an independent person. I was going to die the next day, but Hermes saved me from my accident and made me swear my devotion to him. Right away, he showed interest in you. I tried to push you away to protect you. However, Hermes saw the potential to exploit my feelings and wanted you close by. He gave me enough money to put a down payment on this house on the condition I invite you to live with me. I tried to keep you out of my work life and not get involved too deeply with you at home, but apparently, Hermes had something else in mind. He wanted you for himself. I hoped, over time, he’d forget and leave it be.”
Shit. Carl didn’t want me to live with him. My life since that drunken kiss with Carl was all a setup.
Hermes is a perfect example of an asshole Greek god.
Even after all this is revealed, I still can’t believe Carl would hurt me out of pure malice. “Is he awful to you?”
“The work isn’t bad, and he doesn’t treat me horribly, well, until this week.” Carl grasps my hands so I can feel his regretat putting me in danger. “But the constant worry over you was maddening. I think I’ve gone a bit insane.”
“That turned your affection for me sour,” I conclude.
Carl grimaces. “I’m sorry for that. I had to shut down my feelings to cope with what I was forced to do to you. It doesn’t make up for it, but I’m sorry for everything.”
I sniff back the tears for what happened and for what could have been, then I square my shoulders, remembering what’s at stake now. “What about Eros?” I ask. “Do you know where he is, or how I can rescue him?”
“He’s one ofthem,” Carl says. “It’s the arrow—the love spell—talking. You don’t really want to help Eros.”
“No. The arrow isn’t making me do anything.” I cross my arms. “Are you going to help me or not?”
“Hypnos has him now.” Carl frowns and then rubs his short, chestnut brown hair, trying to think of something. “I don’t see how we can get to him, not with our powers.”
I’m not ready to give up so easily, and an idea hits me. “I’m going to bed.”
“Uh, okay?” Carl looks at me suspiciously. “Don’t mess withanyof them if you don’t have to.”
Really?He’s going to lecture me after all this?
I give Carl a withering glare and head off to bed.
Setting an intention, I close my eyes and let fatigue take me, opening them to Hypnos’s dark cavern. I’m on his massive black silk bed. I know I’m truly there,physicallythis time, since I can now smell the strange metallic scent of the cavern and the river of lost souls surrounding us.
“Hello again.” Hypnos gives me a lopsided grin as he saunters up to me.
He must have allowed me to come, but why?
“Hi.” I glance around, hoping to see Eros.
“He’s not here, sweet goddess,” Hypnos says without losing his smile.
“Is he…” I can’t finish the sentence.
“Dead?” Hypnos shakes his head, then he approaches and reaches around me to touch the bow tattoo on my neck. I shiver, but otherwise I don’t act like the touch bothers me. “No, but he’s sinking into oblivion. He’ll be gone soon, and you will have all his godly power.”
“No!” I grab Hypnos’s arms, but I know it will do little good to threaten him, so I plead, “Bring him back. Please.” My voice cracks.
