Then she turns and runs.
I don’t chase her even though I know this moment will haunt me.
Hours pass. The club empties. Damage is assessed. Blood is cleaned. Still, I feel like I’m at war, this time with myself. I know I should go for Cassia, but I can’t shake this feeling of being betrayed.
I sit in my office, wounds knitting slowly, fury curdling into something worse.
Regret.
The door opens without announcement.
Aphrodite steps inside.
The room changes instantly.
The air thickens. Light bends toward her. Every instinct in my body screams a warning.
She’s smiling. Her beauty is astounding, but it’s not new. I’ve been in her presence before. That smile never comes with good news.
“Oh, Orpheus,” she says sweetly. “You absolute fucking idiot.”
I blink at her a few times, startled by her straight-to-the-point words. Standing, I say. “You don’t belong here.”
She waves a hand. “Neither did that bastard with the dagger fetish, but here we are.”
She circles my desk, eyes sharp and knowing.
She puts a hand on my cheek, and my cock gets hard. It’s not my choice, it’s just one of her gifts. Lust and desire. Even though my body could probably fuck her through a wall right now, I’mnot in the least bit interested. All I can think about is how Cassia looked as she ran away.
With a sigh, the Goddess of Love speaks. “I thought you’d recognize a hand-wrapped gift,” she continues. “But no. You had to yell at her instead.”
My chest tightens. “What are you talking about?”
She stops in front of me.
“Cassia is the daughter of my favorite handmaiden,” she says. “Raised around gods. Trained to survive them. Loved like a daughter.”
My world tilts.
“She was meant for you,” Aphrodite continues. “Balance. Anchor. A reminder you’re not just a crown and a grave.”
I swallow hard.
“You fucked it up,” she adds cheerfully. “Fix it before it’s too late, Orpheus. Before you lose her forever.”
Oh, by the gods, what have I done? All this time, I spent denying what I was feeling for her when she was fated for me. She’s mine. It doesn’t matter what she’s done or who else wants her. She’s mine.
I need to go to her. Aphrodite doesn’t have to spell it out for me anymore. I’ll make this right.
I glance back up to where Aphrodite was just sitting, but only find a bloomed rose on my desk. She’s gone just as quickly as she came.
It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t need her for what I have to do.
The moment I take a step toward the exit, the door slams open.
Priam staggers in, blood soaking his shirt.
“My King,” he gasps. “The gray-haired vampire. He ambushed her. She was coming back to the club.”
