Page 42 of A Crown of Hopes and Sorrows

I suppose she had a point there. I released a sigh as well but nestled against her shoulder again, and she curled up beside me. We both fell into silence, the weight of our thoughts pressing into the empty room until it felt almost unbearably full of unspoken things.

17

Apollo

The library at the front of the palace had massive curved windows that overlooked the side of the mountain. Standing up against them, it almost seemed like falling and my heart dropped into my stomach. I had considered opening the poetry folio in my bag and reading whatever Hyacinth had written in it. But I wanted to save it as he’d suggested. So instead, I stared out ahead at the drop of the cliffs. The fire crackled behind me, popping and spitting, but I almost felt the icy winds whipping across my skin, the snow-covered rocks sweeping towards me.

“A beautiful view, is it not?” Boreas said.

I jumped and turned around. “It is. Yes.”

He cocked an eyebrow up but found an armchair in front of the fireplace and sat in it, dropping a basket onto a table while two of the hounds who had trailed with him into the room curled up by his feet. I chose a chair near him and lowered into it.

“Can I ask you something that is very curious to me?” he said.

“Of course.”

“Tell me this. Why would a young god who is in love with a mortal stand back and say nothing to him?”

My mouth gaped. “I… that is…”

He raised his crystal eyes and smirked. “I see that I’m right. Zephyrus suspects your admiration of the prince as well. He’s always been a jealous sort.”

Oh, shit.

This was not the direction this should go.

I had gotten too caught up in my own troubles. But Hyacinth was counting on me. I couldn’t mess this up. My interactions here had his welfare on the line, and that of his people. I had to smooth things out.

“Hyacinth’s focus right now is on the wellbeing of his kingdom.”

Boreas chuckled and grabbed a poker, placing a piece of bread on it and guiding it into the flames, the crust growing golden. “Is that so? And yet he is here, visiting with us, spending his morning horseback riding with Zephyrus.” I winced. Watching the two of them leave earlier from a window had ached at me in a way I’d never experienced before. Every moment they remained gone made the discomfort grow. Boreas sighed. “What precisely does he believe we can do to help him with his kingdom?”

I swallowed and fidgeted my fingers together. “Well, as you said, gossip spreads on the wind.”

“Hmm.” Boreas pulled the toast back and blew on it. “That it does.”

“It seems this may be the best place to visit if one wishes to hear news of changing fortunes or futures.”

“I would think the best for that kind of inquiry would be the Fates.” I cringed, and Boreas laughed. “So, you’ve met them?”

“Only once. It was enough.”

He hummed a response and wiggled the poker. “Would you like a toast?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

He popped another piece of bread onto it and handed the poker to me. He dipped his hand into the basket on his table, retrieving a jam jar, and he spread the glistening, auburn jelly over his slice. “I’ve always found the simple pleasures of life to be the best ones, don’t you think?”

I twisted the iron in my hand. “I wish I could focus on them.”

Boreas took a bite of his bread, chewing it slowly. A dog at his feet whined, and he ripped a corner off, tossing it to him. “I am not a man of high ambitions, Apollo. I don’t approve of all these changes I hear about on the wind. And I suppose you coming here, rather than visiting your father—and with your human prince, at that—only confirms the gossip we keep hearing.”

I pulled the toast back, blowing on it, but I struggled not to freeze. “And what gossip is that?”

He took another bite, his eyes fixed on me. My heart thundered, but I picked up the jam jar and spread some on my slice. “I’ve heard that Jupiter,” he said, “is no longer a friend of Zeus’.”

“I would think anyone describing themselves as a friend of my father’s likely overstates the relationship, anyway.”