Page 58 of Curse the Flame

That was it. That was the look on his face.

He thought I’d eaten the pomegranate because I believed I had to. Because it was the only way to end this tie we had between us.

Somehow, after everything we’ve shared, after every quiet morning and every night we’d fallen asleep wrapped around one another, he still couldn’t imagine that someone might freely choose him.

Screw that. Tossing the pomegranate rind, I cross the garden without another thought.

He shakes his head before I can reach him.

“I promised myself I would never become the Hades from the stories.” He laughs bitterly, scrubbing a hand across his face. “The one who trapped Persephone. The one who took away her choice. I swore I would never do that to you, and somehow...” His eyes drift to the place where the portal had disappeared. “Somehow, I still failed.”

What is he talking about? “You didn’t.”

“I did.”

“No. I’m pretty sure you didn’t.”

He finally looks back at me, and the grief in his expression just about steals my breath.

“I wanted you to be able to leave whenever you wished. I wanted you to stay only if you decided this life—this place... me... was enough.” His voice softens into little more than a whisper. “I never wanted you to stay because you thought you owed me.”

“Oh, baby.” The endearment slips out before I could stop it. Moving into him, I reach for his hands, relieved when he doesn’t pull away. “I think we’ve got one Cerberus-sized misunderstanding here. I don’t know what you think happened before you showed up. I didn’t eat the pomegranate because I thought I had to. I ate it because it was tempting and I was hungry. Not because I was trying to escape you or something.”

Confusion flickers across his face. “Really?”

“Yup. I ate it because I was starving.”

He stares at me before his expression breaks. “Willow…”

“What? I’ve been living on ambrosia for three months.” I can’t help smiling now that I know he wasn’t trying to get rid of me after all. “Do you have any idea how badly I wanted that pomegranate? It was the first thing I’ve actually wanted to eat since I got here.”

My poor soulmate. He still looks so hopelessly confused.

“So...” I give his hands a gentle squeeze. “Yes, I ate the whole thing because I was hungry.” A tiny smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. “But I also ate it because somewhere along the way, I realized something. If I ate it, I got to stay. It was as simple as that. I want to stay.

“I wasn’t choosing the Underworld, Aiden.” My voice trembles despite my best efforts. “I was choosing the man who never asked me to stay. The man who would’ve opened that portal himself if I’d asked him to and the magic allowed it. The man who spent every single day making sure I knew I had a choice.”

His lips part, but no words come.

That’s okay. I know exactly what he needs to hear: “I choose you now, Aiden Murphy. I choose you forever. If you want to be my husband, I’m more than happy to be your wife.”

In the next instant, his knees strike the ground before I can stop him. I drop with him immediately, cupping his face before he has the chance to bow his head.

“If you wanted to say ‘no’,” I tease, “you could’ve just done that. You don’t have to play dead or something. I mean, aren’t you Death?”

Normally, Aiden is amused by my sense of humor. But now?

I’m cupping his face. Suddenly, his arms are bracing my shoulders. “Blossom, my Willow, my love… I don’t deserve⁠—”

“Of course you do, silly.”

“I mean it. I don’t deserve someone who⁠—“

I silence him with a kiss he wasn’t expecting. It’s a slow and lingering kiss, and I put everything I want him to understand into our embrace without having to say another word.

When I finally pull back, his forehead rests against mine.

“I want to be your bride, Aiden,” I tell him. “Do you understand that? I love you. I want to stay here with you as your queen if that’s what it takes. To live with you in the Underworld forever. To share your bed… in every way.”