Page 29 of The Gods Forbid

I scoffed, not even trying to hide it. “You don’t have to lie, you know.” If I was her, I’d be halfway through a plan to make my life as painful as possible.

“It is,” she said, shrugging one shoulder. “Partially because I’d like to figure out why it took me so long to guess. Right now I’m settling on hope for our friendship.”

“Guessing at all is impressive,” I said casually, even though that was a little piece of the story no one had bothered to tell me. I’d figured that they’d worked it out, being able to catch me by surprise and all, but I didn’t know Daphne was the one to do it.

Daphne let out a short breath of laughter, then turned to Persy. “Are you gonna hang around or do you have work?”

Persy’s eyes drifted to me for a quick beat before she answered. “I’ll leave you two to get to work. I’m gonna go meet up with Niky.”

I caught my groan at the last minute. I didn’t care to hear any more about her fucking boyfriend—even if he was a former friend of mine—than I needed to.

Daphne smiled, full of warmth. “He’s in the marketplace trying and failing to be subtle. I’m sure you’ll get a face full of flowers when you get there.”

He brought Persy flowers, huh? Guess his head wasn’t just a holding place for algae after all. Though I would have happily spent multiple minutes picturing seaweed falling out of his ears, there was something marginally more interesting drawing my attention.

After Persy hugged Daphne quickly and shot me a smile, she left us alone.

“You’re friends with Nikolas, now?” I asked, doubt clear in my voice. Daphne was openly protective of Lukas. I was pretty sure I’d seen her restrain a real urge to strangle Piper—the woman so obsessed with taking her place she was willing to join my ranks and help poison Daphne. After Nikolas’s role in that same plan, I was sure she’d want nothing to do with him.

Daphne chuckled low. “Come inside. I’ll explain while you work.”

“Ah, so you’ll just sit by sipping tea while I do everything?” I worked better alone, but that was of no consequence.

Daphne dropped dramatically onto Persy’s couch. “Don’t think I’ll be drinking anything around you for a while.”

“Fair.” I’d poisoned her by offering tainted whiskey the first time. My jaw loosened, as if my body was prepared to speak further. To offer explanation or—Zeus forbid—an apology. Instead, I settled on, “Why did you volunteer?”

Daphne didn’t look up, just waved her hands over the vials and bottles she’d brought over and scattered across the coffee table. “This is everything you should need to get an antidote going. I got close, but not quite there. To be fair, I also got fairly distracted by the quality of the tonic you gave me. I haven’t seen anything close to that level of complexity. What did you add to target the part of my power that was specifically damaged? That was—”

I grabbed the tonic I’d given her to heal the damage I’d caused, wrapping my hand over the gold-painted ceramic. I pushed my power into it with my left hand, while my right hand added a few other liquids, measuring entirely by muscle memory. Three pointed shakes later, the antidote was done.

“Here,” I said, shoving it towards Daphne. I didn’t need anyone to remind me how good I was at my job. The more people were aware of someone’s raw talent or power, the more they were tempted to manipulate it. I learned that the hard way. “Give it to Reyna. She’ll be free to speak within the hour.”

Daphne blinked down at the vial in my hand. “It took me two months to figure this out for the tattoos.”

“That one was more complicated,” I said, my tone coming out in defense of her. Surely that hadn’t been my intention.

Daphne looked up at me from where she was sitting, brows pinched. She opened her mouth, and I just knew it would be to comment on the fact that no other Apollo in history could have done it that fast.

I cut her off before she got the chance. “Now that pesky antidote is out of the way, you can tell me why you volunteered. Or why you haven’t ripped Nikolas’s head off for what he did to Lukas. Your pick.”

Daphne breathed out, the exhale sounding like a chuckle. “Zeus help me, you love a story.”

It wasn’t false, so I didn’t deny it.

“I guess they’re the same answer, really,” she began, her eyes going slightly distant. Everyone did that when they were about to launch into a story. She rested her arm on the back of the couch, folding her hand back to rest under her chin, the picture of introspection. “I made a mistake. I hurt the one person I love more than anything else in this world. There were a million little reasons behind my decision—or impulse, really—to run.” Ah, so this was about her disappearing act on Lukas. Touching. “There was an explanation. Not one that justified the hurt or the fact that I shouldn’t have run, but there was a reason for it.”

She looked at me pointedly then. “There is always an explanation for someone’s mistakes. Sometimes it’s just that they are a bad person. But sometimes,” she drew the word out, making sure even the most ignorant couldn’t miss that she was talking about me. “It’s a good person making a misguided decision.”

“You think I’m misguided?” I hedged.

Daphne scoffed at my tone. “Think what you will. The point is that Nikolas deserves forgiveness. He’s put in the work. He’s been nothing but apologetic. So yes, I chose to forgive him.”

“And Lukas knows you do this?” Lukas could go shot for shot with Daphne in protectiveness. I would be shocked if he just let her hang out with one of the people most instrumental in her poisoning, family ties aside.

“Of course,” Daphne said quickly, looking almost comically affronted at the idea that she would be lying to him. “He’s still not super happy. But that’s his family.”

I internalized my scoff. Putting too much faith in one’s family was a mistake. “How wonderful to have a sibling you care for so much,” I said, sarcasm clear in my tone.