“Maybe she’s not so awful, then?”
“I’mthe awful one,” Piers bit out. “I tried to control forces I didn’t know enough about and nearly ripped my family apart. As it is”—he laughed harshly—“I’m the only one who got torn from everything. From everyone.”
“Does your family know what happened to you?”
“They know Athena took me to Attica. She said she had scientists ‘running amok with sensitive information,’ and that I might be of help.”
“So, they know you’re gone? Forever? They must be devastated.” Tears burned her eyes. She’d only known Piers for two days and already knew his family was everything to him. She imagined the devotion went both ways. How could it not? Terrible families didn’t make a person like him—loyal, kind, caring. Everything she’d always wanted in a man.
He shrugged, then shook his head. “I’m dead to Griffin. I know that. Cat’s pregnant.” He swallowed. “I didn’t knowthat, but my actions could’ve taken his wife and child from him in the blink of an eye.Idid that. I just did.”
Sophie reached for him again, but Piers avoided her. The look on his face said he was toxic, and she’d better stay away or get contaminated. She wasn’t having it. She planted herself in front of him and stopped him with both hands on his chest. His torso shuddered. “Tell me. What happened.”
His face twisted. But instead of shrugging her off, he stayed where he was and put his hands over hers, holding them. “I never liked Cat. She’s hot-headed, a know-it-all, and always needs to be the center of attention. I could deal with all that. I mean, she wasn’tmyfated woman, so I was just going to grin and bear it for Griffin’s sake, but then she started dragging my family—my friends, too—into extraordinarily dangerous situations. Quests nearly to Mount Olympus. Arena games to thedeath. Trying to overthrow enemy royals in their own throne room.” His mouth went flat. “My sister Jocasta ended up in the middle of it. My brother Carver almost died. Griffin was in constant danger…”
“So, you thought if Cat was out of the picture, all that would stop?”
He nodded. “But it wasn’t her. It was Griffin. Cat was the weapon—and the emblem. But he was the driving force. That was the partnership the gods decided for them.Griffinpushed Cat toward her destiny. I didn’t see it until that last moment. Never truly sawher… or her worth.”
Softly, Sophie asked, “Do you regret what you did?”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “More than you can imagine.”
She tried not to let his words cut like a knife. This wasn’t about her. Piers could never say he was sorry to his brother. Never make amends with Cat. Never see his little niece or nephew. Never see his family again. “I’m so sorry.” She leaned into him, offering her arms as comfort.
“You’re not to blame. I am.”
Throat thick, she said, “That doesn’t mean my heart can’t ache for you.”
Piers wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Thank you.”
As they stood there, Sophie wondered if Piers really believed in fated mates, and if things like that really happened. Because that would explain how she’d fallen in love with him so quickly. A lightning-bolt attraction—no pun intended—and the unusual situation probably made everything more intense, but somehow, sheknew. Piers was it for her.
“There is some good news,” he murmured. “What I did to get exiled? It was a summoning chant. I know how to call an Olympian. I can compel Athena to us here, right now. That must be why she pushed us together.”
Sophie’s eyes shot wide. She tilted her head back, looking at him. “Really? That’s amazing! That’s perfect!” Her gaze darted to the shard. She could get rid of that glowing bit of Olympian ice and get back to her safe,sanelife just in time for Christmas!
So why did Piers’s expression say it was anything but amazing? He looked as though he’d swallowed a razor blade, and it was cutting him in two.
“Piers?” A terrible feeling sank through her.
“Call a god, lose a soul. You see, I figured out just enough to know that summoning an Olympian could be a means to exile. I didn’t understand that the summoner doesn’t get to choose who goes. Someone’s permanent exile is theresultof calling on a god for a favor. It’s not supposed to be the favor itself.” His eyes darkened and locked with hers. “Athena will come when I call, but she’ll rip us apart. That’s the price we’ll pay for using magic that’s supposed to be long lost. That’s the price to pay for summoning a god.”
~9~
Sophie stumbled back,and Piers’s lungs tightened. His punishment was just beginning, wasn’t it? He knew he’d been an asshole to Cat and deserved to suffer, but if the gods’ goal was to finish him off, they were on the right track. He’d already lost his home and family. He didn’t think he’d survive losing Sophie.
“Rip us apart?” She scraped her hair back with shaking fingers. “You mean…take one of us away? Exile?”
“Those are the rules.” Piers barely recognized his voice. His words hitched on the lump in his throat. “And we don’t get to choose who goes, although I’ll offer myself and hope she takes me.”
“No!” Then Sophie winced, her face washing of color.
Piers shook his head. “Not you,Sophronia mou. You have everything here. I have nothing.”
“You have me.” The tremor in her voice nearly undid him. Piers’s heart folded in on itself.
Having Sophie was precisely the problem. She wasallhe had. And the summoning chant meant losing a soul close to him. Piers hadn’t understood that part of the old texts until it was too late, and Kaia, especially, ended up in grave danger. He’d offered himself instead, and the gods had accepted. They might not accept again.
