Page 116 of A Crown of Hopes and Sorrows

A mean, hard-hearted smile curled up on my face. The kind that a starving wolf might don as he stumbled over an injured creature. I stood, rolling my shoulders back, and stepped in close enough that the crackling electricity of him zipped along my skin.

I dropped my voice to a low whisper. “No, let me make this clear to you.” He growled, but I raised my hand to stall him. “You did everything within your power to force my ascension to become the god of the sun.”

“Yes, and you’ll—”

“I’m not finished,” I snarled. “You have achieved your ends, and now, I’ll inform you of your just rewards.” I swiped my palm up, and the sun’s heat grew intense, piercing through the rain clouds, causing sweat to trickle over both of us. “I control the sun. And if you fuck with me”—his eyes flared, but I continued—“if you so much as look at me the wrong way again, I will keep the sun from rising on any city that has a temple in your name. The people will die in numbers this world has never seen before, and they’ll blame you. You will lose all of your tributes, all of your power. And the mortals will finally see you as the monster that you are.”

His nose wrinkled. “I should kill you now for speaking to me in this manner.”

I huffed a laugh and dropped back into the seat. “You won’t do that, though, will you? It would open my role for one of Jupiter’s children to take, which would endanger you even more than me. So, that’s a baseless threat as far as I can see.”

And I wouldn’t care if he did, anyway.

He growled, his fingers curling into fists. Lightning slashed across the sky. “What are you wanting, Apollo?”

“Nothing.” I lifted an ankle to my knee, clouds whirling around with the motion. “I want you to leave me alone. Don’t call on me and don’t bother me. And, in exchange, I’ll play my role with the sun.” The meadow below gleamed in fresh raindrops. “Oh, and I want Hyacinth’s kingdom. No other gods can touch it. It’s mine.”

He yanked a bolt of lightning from the sky, the white-hot light of it casting dark shadows that undulated over his face. “I could wipe out his kingdom right this minute.”

I took a deep breath. “Do so if you wish to make my entire existence’s purpose to destroy you,” I hissed the words, like a blade slicing into the air. “I swear to every god that has ever had the misfortune of walking this atrocious world, I will.”

The glow hovering around me increased, competing with the lightning for luminance. Zeus swept the bolt out across the sky, and a heartbeat passed before a boom thundered, rattling my chair. “This is what would become of you,” he whispered. “You fell for a fucking mortal, and now you’ll spend your existence pouting in this hovel.” He gestured to the cottage. “You’re as weak and useless as you ever were.”

I drew a spark of sunlight to myself and curled it between my fingers. “What you say has truth. I did fall in love with a mortal. And I lost him.” I snapped my gaze up to meet his. “Which is why I can claim without hesitation, I have nothing holding me back.” I dropped my voice to a hiss of a sound. “Ending myself to destroy you would make me fucking giddy.”

He frowned and turned, speaking over his shoulder. “Don’t forget yourself, Apollo. You’re more disposable than you believe.” Another thundering roar sounded, and he disappeared.

That was a lie. The war was only heating up, Jupiter becoming more openly aggressive. Zeus needed me in my place.

I blew out a breath and leaned forward in my chair.

The flowers had bloomed.

Asshole. He made me miss it.

Their lilac and lavender and blush petals peeled apart like kisses.

Hyacinth.

A showy damn flower.

He’d love them.

I smiled even as tears bit at my eyes.

I didn’t fight them.

I let them flow over my cheeks, slide down my neck, pool along my tunic.

“What are you crying about, golden boy?”

I froze.

My heart stuttered.

A breeze ruffled through my hair.

I turned and there stood Hyacinth, his hazel irises sparkling in the sunlight, his eyebrows drawing together, forming that v-shaped dimple over the tan of his skin. He wore a robe in burgundy silk that swept around him, edged with detailed embroidery of flowers.