Page 94 of The Gods Forbid

She almost knocked me on my back when she shoved her hands into my chest, forcing me into a vision that haunted me every day since.

At first, I’d thought it was a vision of the sun, forcing me to look directly into a collection of shimmering, gold strands that were so bright I was tempted to close my eyes from the sheer force of it. It wasn’t until minutes later, when my eyes adjusted, that I’d realized it wasn’t the sun at all.

It was someone’s hair.

Brushing over my face like I was burying my head in their neck while sunlight streamed through the silky strands, turning them into liquid gold. I couldn’t see them, not with my vision distracted, but there were hands pressing into my back.

Feminine, long fingers that burned like an iron poker into my skin.

The second Pythia let me out of that vision, I keeled over and threw up all over the floor.

Others might have viewed that as an ounce of hope, a vision of the future love they might have.

I knew better.

I knew that vision had been a curse.

It had stayed with me since. That girl in the vision was sunlight incarnate.

“Goodness, I think that girl fell right out of the sun,” Penelope said passively, looking at how Persy was running, chasing the sunlight coming through the room.

At twelve, I didn’t care all that much about Adrian’s little sister. Certainly not enough to notice a comparison like that, but I guess it fit.

That memory had slapped me across the face years later when Persy had walked into a Council meeting to observe. I hadn’t seen her in years, especially not in the last two since she’d taken over Prometheus.

She’d changed. Grown into a woman who was so bright and warm that Penelope’s words had slammed into the front of my mind as Persy smiled at the table and tucked a strand of her sunlight blonde hair behind her ear.

I should have known then that she would be my downfall. That she was the woman in that vision.

But I had been angry and far too focused on acting like I was a drunken fool to take advantage of others when their guard was lowered to properly appreciate her.

That didn’t stop my mind from creating a crazy, irrational promise that she would never enter the crossfire of my plan.

Who was I kidding? It wasn’t irrational at all.

In my mind, Penelope’s affection for Persy had given me reason enough to leave her out of this. Little did I know, that would leave her with free reign over my life.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a bone in my body that wanted to complain about that.

I should have known who she was from the moment I saw Persy’s hair catch the sunlight. Pythia had warned me about her, I just hadn’t listened.

Pythia was slow to acknowledge our arrival, turning around in her chair like she had all the time in the world. I expected her to start sassing me about bringing someone in with me, but her eyes didn’t even fall to me for a moment.

She looked at Persy, staring directly at her as she said, “Hello, child. It’s lovely to see you again.”

Fuck.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Persy said with a sweet smile on her lips, clearly paying no mind to the fact that Pythia was staring her down like she was something to eat. All of Pythia’s features looked rather reptilian. The yellow-green eyes, the pointed canines, the glossy black of her hair.

Not to mention the thorough lashing her tongue was capable of.

“Oh, well, I guess you have not met me,” Pythia said, speaking to Persy in a soft tone I had never once heard from her. “But I know you, darling. I’ve seen you in my mind. In visions.”

Persy looked to me, eyebrows drawn in confusion. I would not be addressing that. I turned to Pythia, walking directly up to her. She raised an eyebrow at my boldness, but I didn’t care.

“You wanted to see me?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

Pythia looked me up and down slowly. “You came quicker than normal.”