But I didn’t.
Instead, I had lashed out at her.
I sank into the chair and pushed my hands into my hair, bracing my elbows on my knees. I was so fucking stupid.
So gods damned stupid.
I was falling for her all over again—Psyche or not.
I wanted that for her, too.
I wanted her to love me of her own accord, because I would love her even if she never remembered who we were. I would love her in every life; no amount of time or tampering by our enemies could change that.
I was determined to live in the now with her as much as she’d let me.
And that started with somehow getting her back into my life.
A knock sounded on my door, making my heart jump, but I settled before I could get my hopes up. Chloe didn’t know where I lived. And even if she did, why would she ever come see me after the way I just shouted at her?
I set my phone on the glass coffee table and made my way to the door, the impatient knocking making my ears hurt. I barely had my fingers off the lock when the knob twisted, and Persephone walked in, nearly knocking me off balance.
“Hello to you, too,” I muttered as she tossed her bag on the countertop. Her head twisted around as she slowly took her coat off, and I could see the furrow of her brows.
“It’s quiet,” she said. “Why is it so quiet? You usually have on the television. Did someone die?”
“Just my heart,” I said under my breath, closing the door. “Why are you here?”
“Do I require a reason to visit a friend?” she asked.
I stepped over to the bar as I considered her question and took two short glasses out of the top cabinet. “No,” I decided. “Whiskey?”
She tossed her coat over the barstool. “Always,” she said. “I forgot how nice your apartment is. It feels like a home unlike most of these luxury condos.”
“It’s the plants and pictures,” I said, nodding over to the far wall between two halls, one that led to the master bedroom, the other to two guest rooms and my office. Persephone strode over to it, wrapping her arms around her chest.
“I remember this,” she said, pointing to one of her, Hades, and myself. Hades looked as broodish as ever, the smolder on his full lips and in his dark eyes, the flash bouncing off of his dark brown skin. Persephone had sprung the selfie on us in the midst of one of the godly retreats Zeus liked to host every few years. Centuries earlier, I saw the retreat as a great weekend to prank as many gods as possible. It was all in good fun, though I hadn’t been to the retreat the last few times he’d held it due to working. I enjoyed my job, and had always enjoyed labor of some sort, whether it was a real job or simply doing my mother’s bidding.
“I remember your mother arriving shortly after and having one of her meltdowns,” I said, sipping my whiskey and handing her her own.
“He’s hosting it this fall, you know,” she said. “Another retreat. The beginning of October.”
I wasn’t sure I could take being around all of them. October… I couldn’t think that far ahead. It was barely the second week of July. It was as if I was counting down to the end of my life—August 26th.
Chloe’s wedding day.
I ran my hand over my face, nearly squeezing my cheeks and jaw, and I threw back the remainder of my whiskey. Fucking Styx.
Persephone was saying something about the retreat, listing out the venue and how she was trying to persuade Hades into actually attending with her. However, I stepped back over to the bar and poured another drink.
“Seph, I really don’t have the patience for gossip right now,” I said. “Why did you come by?”
Persephone stopped talking and raised a brow over her shoulder. “I was just coming by to see if you learned anything from your mother the other morning,” she said.
“How do you know about that?” I asked.
“Because your mother doesn’t have a poker face, and when I ran into her a few days ago, the mention of you made her go all teary-eyed, and she ran away before I could ask what had happened.”
“Don’t let those tears fool you,” I said, my jaw tightening at hearing she’d not had the gall to tell Persephone what happened herself. “She ran away so she wouldn’t have to admit to you what she admitted to me.”
