“No,” he whispered, tilting his head as he watched her. “Do it if you must. But I will not be the one to break this bond. I’ve been given a gift more valuable than any god has ever given a human, a gift I will spend the rest of my life doing my best to earn, to be worthy of: you. There’s no power strong enough to make me willingly break this bond with you. I don’t want to. Ever.”
“Not even for me?”
Daris’s face crumpled for an instant. It was gone so quick she thought she’d imagined it, and yet the answering stab to her heart at his hurt made her knees buckle. She reached out to steady herself, but he stepped away, looking at her as if she was a monster.
Perhaps she was.
“Is this because of the prince?” Daris asked a long time later, his voice barely above a whisper, and yet they shouted through her brain like the bells at solstice. “Is… do you still love Prince Lerek?”
“What?”
“I know you’ve seen him,” Daris said, his voice a mix of desperation and defiance. “I don’t know what he told you, Ren. But I did not betray you. I kept the truth from you, aye. I gave my word to my king no one was to know he was alive. I know it was wrong and I am sorry I kept it from you. Don’t ruin us because of some misplaced guilt you have that you moved on!” His lips parted and he looked at her, lost. “Unless… you haven’t.”
Terena lifted a hand to her chest. It physically felt like her heart was cracking into a thousand pieces inside her ribcage.
“This is aboutus,” she gritted out, her throat tight. A part of her wanted to throw her arms around him and tell him to forget everything she’d said.
Then Cassandra’s face flashed in her mind, and the consequences of not doing this filled her with dread.
“Do you think,” she said when she felt she could speak without crying, “do you think if we didn’t have this bond, you’d still love me?”
“Without doubt,” he snarled.
She nodded. “Then why won’t you let me have this? If you’ve no doubt, why do you fight me?”
“He doubtsyou.”
Daris’s head jerked up,instinctively putting his body in front of Terena as Hermes came into the clearing. Behind him, Daris heard Terena sigh and step to his side but Daris didn’t take his gaze off Hermes.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Hermes asked, leisurely strolling to a stop a few feet away, arms crossed at his chest. He lifted one hand to his lips, then pointed at both of them.
“He doesn’t believe you’d choose him, too.”
“Hermes—” Terena huffed, taking a step toward him.
“Incidentally,” Hermes said as he paced away, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I agree with him.”
“No one asked you,” she grumbled.
Daris did not respond. He stared back at the god, a riot of emotions warring inside him. He did not trust himself to speak.
“Believe me when I say, dear niece, your little tantrum about ‘choosing’ and ‘oh, is this real?’” Hermes laughed when they startled at how his voice had morphed into hers. “—is pointless. If you go against the Fates to sever the bond, you risk incurring more than their wrath. The Furies will hunt you down for the affront, and then where will you be? Not in love with a fine warrior sent to help you with your destiny and certainly not fulfilling the prophecy.”
Daris knew the god was not helping him out of the goodness of his heart.
He wanted something. And yet Daris could not think of what it could be.
“Thank you so much for your sage counsel, Hermes,” Terena said insincerely as she fluttered her lashes at him. A second later, her face darkened and she glared at him.
“But stay the fuck out of our business.”
Daris lurched forward to grab her as she stomped off but Hermes stayed him, a hand pressed to his chest.
“Don’t mind her,” Hermes purred. “She’s just wrestling with the fact her free will has strings.”
“What does that mean?”
“I didn’t realize they bonded you,” Hermes huffed, ignoring Daris’s question. He moved to block Daris’s view of Terena’s retreat. “Complicates things a little but…”
