Heart (31 page)

He rolled over so that he faced me, propping
his cheek on his bent elbow. “If I go with you and stay with you,
Red, it’s because that’s where I want to be. It’s not because I
feel like I have to babysit you.”

I shifted nervously. “We didn’t know all of
that before, Ryder. We didn’t know that you’re the only person that
doesn’t feel my effects or can do anything about me. If I become a
problem… I just don’t want your whole life to be wrapped around the
potential that I might turn evil.”

Ryder sat up so suddenly I jumped back. He
moved to the edge of his lounger and leaned over me. I felt his
intensity without needing to look at him.

“When I stay with you, Ivy, it won’t be
because I’m waiting around to kill you just in case you flip a
switch and become evil. I don’t believe half of what was said. I
don’t believe that I was born just to keep you in check or that the
universe is waiting for you to become the evil overlord that Nix
wants you to be. I was born and you were born and when we met, it
wasn’t the Fates pushing us together, it was beautiful chance. Now
that we know each other and what the other is capable of, we’re not
enemies… we’re partners. The one thing that I got out of that whole
speech was that I can’t exist without you and you can’t without me.
That is what I believe. I’m not the same man without you. I don’t
want the same things or care about the same things. I need you in
my life not because of some ancient destiny Zeus put on me, but
because I can’t breathe without you near me. I love you, Ivy.
That’s never going to change.”

Hot tears pricked at my eyes, but I managed
to hold them back. “I love you, too.”

“If you want me to go, I will. I don’t have
to stay with you on the island. But, Ivy, if you want me to stay,
then let me. Don’t leave me again or make me leave you. Let’s live
the rest of this life together.”

“What if you get tired of me,” I
whispered.

“That’s not going to happen, Red.” His lips
curled into a playful smile. “After you left, I spent every day
thinking about you, wishing you would come back to get me. I can’t
tell you how pathetic I felt when I realized that wasn’t going to
happen. Now, I know better than to let you go. I’m not going to get
tired of you. I’m going to be thankful for every single day I get
to spend with you.”

“I’m only eighteen, Ryder! We’re so young!”
Even though I felt ancient. “I just don’t want you to throw away
your whole life on me.”

He leaned closer until his lips hovered above
me. With aching tenderness, he brushed his mouth over mine. “Stop
trying to convince me to leave, Red. I know things will never be
perfect and I don’t want them to be. We’ll fight, sure. Of course
we will. We’re in love, Ivy. Nobody has the power to hurt me like
you do. But that doesn’t mean we’ll always fight. And when we do…
well, we can make up.” He waggled his eyebrows at me and I couldn’t
help but laugh. “But it doesn’t matter, because I’d rather take a
lifetime of fighting with you than living without you. I’ve done
that. I never want to live like that again.”

My heart raced in my chest. How had I gotten
this incredible man to fall in love with me?

I had lived a lifetime of attracting the
worst kind of men and yet somehow I’d also found Ryder. I had never
felt this loved before. I had never loved like this before. And he
was right. I had lived a year without this, without knowing how
much he loved me, without seeing it on his face or feeling it in
his touch.

I never wanted to go back to that place. I
never wanted to live without him again.

“We’re not going to fight all of the time,”
he laughed at my silence, misreading it for something else. “You
make me a better person. And I want to do the same for you. We’re
young, but we have the rest of our lives to figure this out. It
won’t be easy, it won’t always be fun, but it will be worth it.
You’re worth it.”

“What about your dad and uncle?”

He pressed another kiss to my forehead. “They
can visit, can’t they?” When I frowned, he read my thoughts and the
fear I had for his family, and said, “Or I can visit them. I’m not
saying I won’t ever go back to the States, but my life is with you
now. I gave it the second I fell in love with you. That’s not going
to change.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled
him on top of me. His laughing kiss met my mouth and I dissolved
into blissful lust. We wiggled around on the narrow lounger until
we both fit snuggly together. Our legs tangled, our arms clung to
each other and our lips met over and over again in frantic,
beautiful kisses.

We stayed there for hours. We stayed there
until the sky lightened and erased the constellations overhead and
until the sun peeked over the horizon in finger strokes of pink and
orange, purple and deep blue. We stayed there whispering promises
and apologies and making plans for a future that, for the first
time in my life, seemed possible.

I told him about my beachside bungalow and we
made plans to stay there. I told him about my job and he couldn’t
wait to meet Fleur and see what kind of employer had been able to
put up with me for that long.

We talked about the long term future, about
online college classes and maybe opening a coffee shop in Tortola…
maybe someday… but always together. We talked about swimming in the
ocean and walking along the beach, about our friends that we would
leave behind and miss dearly. We talked about inviting them to us
and spending holidays in the balmy, tropic air. We laughed at
things we’d missed in each other’s lives and fell more, impossibly
more, in love.

In the midst of one of the worst, most
dangerous experiences I’d ever gone through, it was the best night
of my life.

Chapter Twenty-Five

A few hours after Ryder and I had finally
fallen asleep, we found ourselves standing before Zeus and Hera
once again.

Strangely I was more rested than I had ever
been before and I knew that it was because of Ryder. For the first
time in my life, when I fell asleep, I felt safe. I didn’t have to
worry about Nix finding me in the middle of the night or snatching
me out of my mother’s home. I didn’t have to worry about whom Ava
would bring home or the kind of seedy people lurking around my
house while I slept.

With Ryder, I was safe. I was safe and I was
protected.

Hermes had woken us up early so that we could
shower again and dress properly. One of his maids had set out
another elegant Grecian gown. This one was white as well, but the
strapless bodice was wrapped in golden rope. It had the feel of a
corset, but the look of armor. The skirt fell in long folds past my
toes, but there were two slits on either side that went all the way
to my hips. There was too much fabric to make it feel
inappropriate; instead I loved the easy movement and freedom it
provided.

I felt like a warrior dressed for battle.

And I couldn’t help but wonder if that was
exactly what I was.

Ryder had dressed similar to my style.
Instead of a toga that showed off his chest and arms, he’d dressed
in a tunic that hung to his knees. A gold belt wrapped around his
waist and kept his clothes in place. His style was simple, but
practical. There was a loop at the side of his belt that
traditionally held a sword, although it was empty this morning.

I had been tempted to dress in jeans and a
t-shirt just to spite the Pantheon, but standing in the middle of
them now, I knew it had been a smart move to dress
respectfully.

The atmosphere of the temple was saturated
with defensive aggression. Half of them wanted to hand me over to
Nix and the other half wanted me for their own gain.

If there was anyone on my side besides Zeus
and Hermes, I couldn’t find them.

“Despite your testimony, I find you at fault
for the death of Hades,” Hera announced over the constant chatter
of the gods. “You were the reason he attacked. You are the reason
he’s dead.”

Unable to hold back my retort, I said,
“You’re blaming me? It’s my fault that he wanted to attack me? That
is the craziest-” I heeded Smith’s warning glare and adjusted my
argument. “Do you know what he would have done if he managed to
capture me?” Out of pride, Hera stayed quiet. “He wanted to take
over the world, my queen. It wasn’t about wanting another wife or
sprucing up the Underworld. He wanted to rule the world. The whole
world. Especially Olympus. If Persephone hadn’t intervened, he
would have gotten his chance.”

“He would never have come after the
mountain,” she argued stoically. “His home means too much to him to
throw it into civil war.”

I chanced a glance at Nix and saw the
arrogant smirk he wore. Hera was an idiot to believe that, but I
was afraid Smith believed that lie too. There were plenty of gods
and goddesses willing to take control of the mountain. They didn’t
care about anything except power and fame.

“He’s dead now, so feel free to believe the
best about him, but he told me what he wanted to do. He would have
killed Ryder to get to me. He would have used me however he wanted
to.”

Shouts and accusations thundered through the
open-aired space. A few random flashes of lightning crisscrossed
overhead.

Smith took a step forward and held up a hand.
Immediately he had silence. “Regardless of what happened before
Hades died, the truth is that Ivy did not kill him.”

“A technicality!” Hera protested.

“But an important one. If anyone needs to be
on trial, it’s Persephone. She knew the cost of killing her
husband. She could have helped him back through the veil. Instead,
she murdered him. Ivy couldn’t have predicted what would happen
once Hades crossed the veil.”

“Why are you sticking up for this child?”
Hera sneered.

Smith leveled his gaze on her. “Why are you
afraid to bring Persephone to trial?”

Hera’s mouth opened, and then closed quickly
before she was able to compose herself. Finally she said,
“Persephone is my sister.”

“Persephone has not been clear-minded for
ages. If it pleases you, Wife, I suggest we let this go. The Siren
and the musician are innocent and we cannot bring Persephone’s
addled mind to justice.”

Hera’s mouth turned down with disgust. “Hades
deserves more than this. He deserves more than sweeping his killers
under the rug and forgetting his legacy!”

I thought of Sloane’s older sister, Evaleen.
I remembered the man Hades had been around Eva. How he had stripped
away pieces of her every minute she spent with him until she was a
hollow, lifeless black hole. I thought about the painful despair I
saw in her eyes and the anguish Crete caused her to feel. I thought
of the night she escaped, how there was hope in her soul for the
first time since she met him. And then I thought of her death… how
he hunted her down… how she took her own life to escape him.

Hades had been a sadistic monster when he was
alive. He tortured countless women. The world was better off
without him.

But I kept those thoughts to myself. If Nix
wasn’t punished for his behavior then I highly doubted they would
care about Hades and his taste for abusing women.

“Let them go, Hera,” Zeus pleaded. “We can
ask them to leave Olympus. They are not welcome here anymore. But
they cannot be punished for someone else’s crime.”

Her presence became less hostile as she
listened to her husband. She was the kind of woman I assumed
resented all men for the simple fact that they were male. She was
the divine female after all. A goddess. She didn’t want or need men
unless they could do something for her she didn’t feel like doing
for herself.

Yet, she listened to Zeus. She softened when
he spoke kindly to her and took the time to be thoughtful when he
asked something of her.

What was strangest of all was that I could
relate to her in those moments… I understood her reaction and
behaviors because I had them too. She loved Zeus.

Even after all of this time, after every
cruel and heartless thing they had done to each other, after
countless affairs and an eternity of going head-to-head and losing…
she loved him.

She conceded to his demand with one of her
own. “I want to speak to the musician,” she said quietly.

“He has no information the Siren did not
already give us,” Zeus protested.

“It is still worth my time to speak to him,”
Hera insisted.

They maintained eye contact for long moments,
neither moving a muscle. Finally, Zeus turned his head to face me
and said, “Wait outside, Siren.”

My feet didn’t immediately move. I couldn’t
make myself leave Ryder or willingly turn my back on this group of
immortals.

“Go,” Smith sighed. “Nothing will happen to
him. You have my word.”

I met Ryder’s gaze across the room and held
it. His silver gaze promised that he would be fine. If I could just
let him go for a few minutes, we would be able to leave. We could
turn our backs on this world forever.

Nerves scratched like razorblades in my
blood, but I forced my body to leave the temple and walk down the
long set of stairs to the road. I thought I might be able to listen
in on what they wanted from Ryder, but the wind whistled through
the empty buildings and drowned out any voices.

I looked up at the hazy sun, hidden behind
thick white clouds. The temperature was warm, but the wind had a
bite to it that pulled goose bumps from my arms. I rubbed my
forearms and tried to calm my panicking heart.

Everything would be okay.

We would be okay.

This was almost over.

“Siren.” The cold voice called out to me with
the heaviness of a steel blade.

I turned on my sandaled foot and nearly
toppled backwards at the sight of Eryn dressed for battle. Two
swords made out of blinding orange flames dangled in her slender
hands. Her orange and black hair was styled with warrior braids.
She towered over me, angry, purposeful and full of hate I didn’t
understand.