Page 118 of A Crown of Hopes and Sorrows

“Good.”

He fixed me with a strange look. “Do you know why I always called you ‘golden boy’?”

I could nearly feel the glowing of my eyes, the ways I reflected my father. I bowed my head. “My coloring? My connection to Zeus?”

He snagged my chin and lifted it, not speaking until I met his gaze. “No, that’s not it.”

“Why then?”

He placed his hand on my chest, and a smile slipped up on his face. “It’s because you have a golden heart.”

I released a puff of a breath. “I’ve fucked up a tremendous amount of your life for you to believe that.”

He tangled his fingers with mine, and my heartbeat thundered through me as he shook his head. “Everyone makes mistakes, Apollo.” He paused for a heartbeat, kissing the tip of each of my fingers like I had done to him when he laid broken and lifeless in my arms. I shivered, and he whispered his next words into my neck. “Your worst moment doesn’t define you.”

For several long minutes, we curled up together, breathing the other in, hands scrambling over flesh as if we could anchor ourselves in place. Hyacinth broke the silence, his expression taking on a serious glint. “We still have work to do.”

“I know.”

He leaned back, his eyes growing thoughtful. The Hyacinth flowers in the world below us fluttered, their petals tangling together. “You told your father you just wished to be left alone here? I assumed you’d given up on the cause.”

“I already said that I lied to him.”

“I thought you didn’t like to lie?”

“I’m trying new things.”

He smiled. “So, you’re still going to help people stand up to him?”

I drew him against me again and kissed the hollow between his collarbones. “Cyn, I’ve been meeting with your father and Temi regularly. I’m there with them for as long as I can tolerate staying in the human world until the earth sickness pushes me back.” His touch pulsed through me, and I draped against him. “I promised you, no matter what happened to us, I’d see this through.”

His voice hummed with laughter. “I thought you were trying out lying?”

I chuckled alongside him but drew back and brushed my thumb along the sharp edge of his jaw. “Never to you, though.”

He pressed his mouth to mine, and a hunger came with it, my skin burning with desire for him. He drifted away from me and peeled his robe off, dropping it to the stone path.

“Hey”—I snatched it up and draped it over the arm of the chair—“aren’t you worried about wrinkles or whatever?”

He laughed. “I thought you found my robes to be pretentious?”

“Well, maybe they suit you.”

He grinned, his mouth on mine again, soft and open and heaven, heaven, heaven. He sighed, a joyous sound that bubbled against my lips. “We have a lot cut out for us.”

“Yeah.”

“And I have much I need to do. Reparations I must make. Few mortals get a second chance. I’m not sure where I belong in all of this anymore, but I plan to use my time wisely.”

I bobbed my head.

“We can spare an hour or two first, though, right?”

“You can spare however long you want, Cyn. No one even knows you’re here yet.” I cleared my throat, unsure of where to take the conversation. “Would you like to see my house?”

He cocked an eyebrow up as though I was suggesting more than a tour, and my cheeks warmed, but he only smiled. “Definitely.”

I rose, clasping his hand with mine, and gestured to the cottage. “It’s small and boring. You’re bound to hate it.”