I sneered. The fool.
He tapped two fingers to his temple. The rain of fiery arrows from the walls ceased.
I raised a fist. The bombardment ceased instantly. The legions behind me became a silent wave awaiting my command.
“Well.” Apollo’s voice carried, smooth as honey and just as cloying. “Look what the cat dragged in.”
“Why the fuck are you here?” I hissed.
“To say hello to an old friend.” That infuriating smirk was etched into his voice.
“You aren’t my friend.”
“Now you wound my feelings.”
“Your kind have no fucking feelings,” I growled. “Beat it.”
“Incredibly rude,” he said, sunlight glinting off his perfect golden hair. “No wonder Zeus despises you. No wonder Poseidon grinds his teeth at the mere whisper of your name.”
“I don’t give a fuck what those two clowns think,” I snarled. “Run back and tell them to return my queen, or my dead will wail outside their walls for eternity. My demons will beat upon their gate until the gold flakes away. And my creatures will foul their gleaming walls until Olympus reeks of the pit.”
“That’s…vividly disgusting,” he chuckled, the sound grating. “Honestly, I don’t particularly care what you do to them. I’mjust here because your little tantrum disrupted my dance with Bloom. Which was, frankly, doubly rude.”
I bared my teeth, a snarl torn from the deepest, darkest part of me. The urge to rip his golden head from his shoulders was a pulse of pure, blinding need.
He raised his hands, palms out in mock surrender. “I rescued her from having to dance with Zeus, though,” he continued, his tone deceptively light. “Trust me, you’d thank me. I could feel her fury from across the room, a storm waiting to break. She was two seconds from clawing his eyes out.”
“You should’ve let her, you meddling prick!” I snapped.
“If I hadn’t meddled, he’d have gone back for her while you weren’t there to back her up. She’s a lone she-wolf in a den of power-hungry vultures.”
“You’re a vulture, too,” I spat.
“That’s where you’ve got me wrong, pal,” he said with a smirk. “But I don’t blame you. You and I have never seen eye to eye.”
“I’m not your pal!”
“I understand holding a grudge,” he said. “They sacrificed two of my companions as collateral damage when they began their crusade against you. Daphne. Hyacinthus. Both gone, because of their game.”
“I don’t care what you lost,” I said, my voice cold enough to freeze the Styx.
He grinned, and I ached to punch that insufferable golden-boy face. “You’re still one of the originals. One of the three brothers who carved up the worlds and divided the realms. Being exiled to the Underworld and barred from this golden city doesn’t delete your genetic makeup. It doesn’t change the fact that you remain one of the most powerful beings in existence.”
“Fuck off, Apollo,” I said. “I’m busy.”
I began to raise my hand, the signal to unleash hell once more.
“Wait.” His voice lost its playful edge, shifting into something purposeful. “I’m not here as their messenger. I’m here as hers. Your queen.”
My heart slammed into my ribcage, a painful, hopeful drum, yet I narrowed my eyes on the sun god.
“What are you saying?” The question tore from me, despite the millennia of enmity standing between us.
“You see her on the tower,” he said, his gaze drifting briefly toward the rooftop of The Paramount. “Isn’t she magnificent in that crimson gown?”
I snarled at his familiarity.
“Cool your jets,” he snorted. “I’ve conceded. After an eon of trying, I finally understand that nothing can come between you two. It would be the height of folly to keep attempting it.”
