Page 68 of The Gods Forbid

I could appreciate Persy the way she deserved. I had no right to, but the thought was there regardless.

There was no time to focus on that thought, not when my instincts were telling me that a threat was about to jump out of the bushes and attack me. Thankfully, I knew that Dominic couldn’t kill me.

He certainly looked like he wanted to.

“Hello, Dominic,” I said, unable to keep the grin off my face. He lunged toward me, only stopping when his wife stepped in between us.

I rolled my lips together to trap in a smile. Remorse for setting Rose up or not, it would never not be funny to fuck with him.

I could see Rose reach behind her, presumably to grab for her husband’s hands. Right as I was going to make a comment about it, Persy stepped up beside me, pressing so close I could feel the electricity rolling off her.

Well, that was new. I’d never felt her power that close to the surface before.

“Hi,” Persy greeted, her voice as sweet as ever. “How are you two?”

Rose smiled at her, her hellfire green eyes glowing brighter. “We’re good. How are you doing?”

I didn’t even have to look at Persy to know she was smiling. “We’ve had a lovely morning. Then we just got here a little while ago.” Her sentence trailed off on an uptick, a question clear in her tone as she looked up to me.

A hoarse grunt was the only thing I could manage. I didn’t think it had fully dawned on me how much time we’d been spending together until then. Nor how much I didn’t hate it.

“Well,” Rose said, drawing out the word as her gaze bounced back and forth between Persy and I. “That’s good to hear. Do you mind if we steal you for a second?”

“What for?” Persy said, her body leaning in a tad closer to mine then resetting.

Dominic crossed his arms over his chest, rolling out his neck. I’m sure this pained him beyond measure. “We appre—” he broke off, clearing his throat. “We appreciate the list you provided, Sebastian.”

I scoffed loudly. “That hurt you to say?”

“Yes,” Dominic bit back. Now I understood why Persy loved to tease me about my aversion to gratitude. This was fucking hilarious.

“You were saying?” I drawled dramatically.

Dominic flipped me off, but continued. “We’ve been running through the list, making sure everyone knows that this shit isn’t starting back up.” I fought another scoff. I bet that was going just fine. “Most people get the message and have moved on to lick their wounds, but there are a few that are posing problems.”

Close family members, I’d guess. “Who is it?”

“I believe he’s your uncle. By marriage,” Rose returned, her gaze studying me intently.

I had a few of those, seeing as my father was one of seven siblings, but I knew exactly who she was talking about. He was married to my aunt Ariana and they both thought they were walking into fame, wealth, and power the second I took over.

Powerful motivators, those were.

“Andrew is pitching a fit, I assume?” He was probably trying to rationalize with them, convincing them that he was a threat. Good man.

Rose nodded, smirking. “We figured if he heard it directly from you, he’d give it up and realize this is hopeless. We are currently at the stage where he says nothing but I’ll win, you’ll see over and over—whatever that means.”

I froze up, disgust building over my tongue. “Something my father used to say. Apollos will win, you’ll see.”

I didn’t realize until a breath too fucking late that I’d verbalized the thought that had crossed my mind, letting everyone in on something I hadn’t ever planned to repeat. Fucking hell.

It was Persy who filled the silence. “I think that’s a good idea, Rose. Sebastian, what do you think?” When she turned to me and found me already looking at her, she startled a bit, her head moving back in surprise.

She did that. Every time. I wouldn’t be the one to explain that I was staring at her more often than not and she should get used to it.

“I think he’ll fuck off if I promise to pay him in Apollo antiques.” Blackmail was far preferred to torture of any kind. Less messy.

Persy smiled, a genuine quirk of her lips that made my heart hit my sternum painfully. She found me funnier than she was willing to admit, but I was okay with her secret smiles for now. “I think it would be really appreciated.”