Page 117 of A Crown of Hopes and Sorrows

“Hyacinth,” I whispered.

He walked over towards me, cocking his head to the side. “You know, I would have expected more of a response than this.”

I blinked and rubbed my eyes. “I’ve seen you hundreds of times since your death. You’re not real.”

He kneeled beside me, and the breeze fluttered through his short hair. He reached out and clasped his hand around mine. His touch came warm and firm, his long fingers draping over my flesh. I gasped. “You just touched me.”

He smiled. “Do you think I’m real now?”

“Cyn?” I blinked more tears away and traced my knuckles along his jaw, curling my palm against his ear, trailing down the length of his neck. I sniffled. “You can’t be real.”

He slipped his hands over my cheeks, the smell of jasmine filling the air, and he pressed his lips to mine. I closed my eyes and leaned in towards him. Perhaps I’d finally cracked. But at that moment, I didn’t care. I drew him onto my lap and kissed him back.

That kiss was like a million flowers blooming at once, a thousand sunsets over rippling waves, a hundred poems so pure they broke your heart. I parted his lips and tasted him, my fingers gripping into his robe, my thumbs grazing the notches of his spine.

He pulled away from me and brushed his nose over my cheek.

I opened my eyes.

He still sat there, beautiful and perfect and him, him, him. “Cyn, how are you here?”

He grinned, his teeth sparkling. “You made a deal with Hades, remember?”

“A fucking terrible deal. He created a flower in your name.”

Hyacinth laughed, the vibration of it echoing into me. “It’s a lovely flower.”

“It’s pretentious, like you.”

He scoffed and kissed my cheek. “My spirit is bound to that pretentious flower, thank you.”

I sucked in a breath. “Wait. Do you mean…”

“Yes. Whenever the Hyacinth blossoms, I can be with you.”

Tears choked me, and I swallowed hard. “Then I will plant Hyacinth all over the world and make sure the sun always shines on it. There will never go a day where it doesn’t bloom.”

Sunlight sparkled over the threading on his robe, and he whispered, “Then I shall spend eternity by your side.”

I kissed him again, this one harder, pulling his lip between my teeth. He groaned into my mouth, and I snagged my fingers into the back of his neck. By the time I pulled away, we both breathed heavily. “What are you?”

He shrugged. “I guess I’m a nature deity, like a nymph?”

“A nymph?”

He smirked. “Is that acceptable for you, Apollo, high god of the sun? Are you willing to be involved with a low deity?”

“Yes,” I choked the word out. Emotions sparkled through me like the sun above us still dappling through clouds. Moments of bright sunshine alternated with the looming storm welling up in my chest. “Cyn…” I swallowed “I’m so sorry. It’s my fault you died.”

He lifted my hand and placed a kiss over my knuckles. “What’s done is done, Apollo. Let it go.” His expression tightened. “Did you mean what you said to your father?”

“My father?” I shifted back against the chair, and Cyn eased up, sitting on the arm of the throne. “You heard our conversation?” He nodded, and I clenched my teeth. “What part?”

“Would you really kill humans in order to bring him down?”

I blew out a breath and swept my gaze around the clouds as though Zeus might still stand there. I side-eyed Hyacinth. “No. But he believed it, didn’t he?”

“I think so.”