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“After all the sleeping you do…” Rowan didn’t finish his sentence. He knew that wasn’t the kind of exhaustion I referred to. He only nodded, and we sat in silence while he watched Clea, his eyes glazed over with affection and lust.
I’d meant it when I said I was happy for him. He believed in love, so it would exist for him, and it was safer to fall in love with a dryad than a mortal. They could live together forever if they wanted. Or they could hate each other forever if it didn’t work out. Either way, they had that luxury.
I hadn’t had it when I’d fallen for Ava. She’d been human, and growing old together hadn’t been possible. Not unless I’d given it all up.
A man in love was a fool. I’d been willing to give up too much for too little in return.
“Do you ever wish you could change things?” I asked.
Rowan frowned. “Like what?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Everything.”
“How are you supposed to change it?”
I shrugged again. “I heard stories about spirits and demons who chose to become something else.” I glanced at Rowan, and his eyes grew wide.
“You can’t talk about shit like that, man. That’s sacrilege. Giving up your mortality is one thing—the gods are okay with that because they fall for humans, too, so they get it. But changing who you are? Trading one immortal life for another? Zeus will have your head.”
I snorted. “Why? What would it do? I’m just one being, it’s not like I’d upset the balance of nature.”
“Sure, not when you’re just one person, but if everyone decides to do it?—”
“Since when are you so serious about the sanctity of being a drus?” I cut him off.
“Since it’s our lot in life, Ash,” Rowan said sternly. “We have a hell of a lot of freedom. Why can’t that be enough for you? Why do you have to fuck with the system?”
I shook my head. “I’m not fucking with the system. Gods, I was just asking.”
“Well… don’t,” Rowan said, shaking his head. “Don’t even entertain the thought. You’ve got enough shit in your life as it is.”
I groaned. He was right. I wished he wasn’t, but he was right. I had too much shit in my life.
That was the thing, though. I wanted to change it up. I wanted to do something drastic. I’d tried avoiding life for the past three centuries, and that hadn’t worked out very well for me. The breakup, albeit ancient news by now, still hurt like a bitch, and I was perpetually drained.
A murmur rippled through the group around the water, and magic filled the air. The very atmosphere trembled. A deer stepped from between the trees, lowered her elegant head, and started to graze.
“She’s here,” Rowan said excitedly.
Artemis appeared a moment later, stepping from the trees, too. She wore a short white dress with boots, and in her hand, she held a bow. A quiver of arrows sat on her back, peeking through her long auburn hair.
She had another goddess with her. Philotes, the goddess of friendship, who sometimes accompanied Artemis to see us. Lately, she’d been coming more and more often.
“My friends,” Artemis said to us with a smile.
The druses and dryads stumbled over their feet to go to her. Of all the goddesses, the goddess of the hunt was our favorite. She came to see us often, and we were her friends.
I didn’t go to her like the others.
After my stupid mistake, trusting a human woman when I should have let it be, Artemis had helped me. She’d saved me.
“Aren’t you coming?” Rowan asked when I didn’t follow him.
“Not when Philotes is with her.”
Rowan looked confused.
“She’s weird,” I said. “Don’t you think she’s weird?”
