But it was Theo who stepped forth.
CHAPTER12
Theo lookedChuck in the eyes sternly.“No, you’re wrong.”
Chuck shoved off Mars and Spike, lunging forward.He hissed at Theo, but Theo did not back down.
“You know nothing,” Chuck sneered.“You are a human.You can not understand.”
“But I do,” Theo said carefully.He recognized the anger, the guilt in Chuck’s eyes.He’d seen it in his own reflection time and time again.
“I did not believe in fate or destiny or preconceived notions.I thought fate could not be real because if it was, it was a fucking dick.”Theo pursed his lips.“Fate took from me, too.”
Chuck snarled as he got in Theo’s face, but Theo still did not back down.The energy he’d felt next to Calliope was everywhere now.Around him, inside of him.
And so he channeled it, he used it to fuel him.
“And then my roommate forced me to go to this stupid masquerade and...”He turned to look at Calliope.His mate.
She knelt on the floor, divine dust in her hands, slipping like the sands of an hourglass.
Chuck had destroyed the diviner.But in Theo’s heart, he knew the magic was not within the diviner itself.It was like many things, in the belief.
Theo did not believe in fate, but he did believe in the power between hearts, between palms, between souls.
And perhaps, that was enough for Theodore.Eternal bonds or not, he believed in the energy, the love that existed between him and a woman.A muse.
“Then I met Callie, and that changed.I changed.”
Chuck hissed at him.“Fool.That is what she does.She is like a spider, sneaking into your ear and laying eggs until one day they hatch and when they are gone, you are not the same.”
Theo shook his head.“Fate may not be real, but you are.”The two of them stood there in the light, like the sun and moon.
Theo was aware in his peripheral vision, Spike and Mars were waiting, guarded.Ready to jump in should the tide turn.Isabelle and Lorelai flanked Calliope, who was crying.
Theo hated to hear hismatecry.
“You can change your fate,” he said.“You just have to let go of what’s holding youback.”
Theo turned to look at Calliope, her eyes red rimmed.He hadn’t understood before.He was angry, too.And that anger, that pain—the baggage he’d carried for his ex-fiancé and his failed relationships, his embarrassment and guilt over his sensitive cock, his own self-loathing...it was all holding him back from what he wanted more than anything.
Love.
And the moment he’d let go, the moment he left the choice up to fate, he’d found Calliope.In a bar, drinking pomegranate martinis.
Chuck reached one hand out and wrapped it around Theo’s throat, his anger boiling over.Mars and Spike tried to separate them, but it was no use.Theo coughed, unable to breathe, and in his last attempt to be reasonable, he reached out and grabbed Chuck’s neck, and the world faded into lilac.
TheDen of Sindisappeared, and all there was, was the nothing.And the faint sound of laughter.Calliope’s laughter.
And then he saw it.Calliope in her youth, dark hair framing her face in curls, wearing a toga.She looked different, but the eyes...those were the same deep amber eyes he’d come to know and love.
And the man with her, a young Pegasus.Laughing, carefree.
But laughter turned to arguments, and arguments turned to darkness, and darkness turned to armor.To self-preservation.Theo watched a great god become a shell of himself.A man portraying greatness when inside, he felt empty and void of love.
And then he’d watched all the women come and go.He’d watched a man laugh and drink, sharing in camaraderie with his friend.Mars.
He watched Chuck try to reach out to Calliope, only to be ignored.Watched him force a mask of bravery for his friend who was dying, watched as that friend slipped through his fingers like divining dust.
