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Thalia
She couldn’t put it off forever, as much as she might have liked to. Eventually, they had to go back to the house, and eventually, they had to face Alex again, and eventually, she was going to have to deal with the consequences of her actions.
Thalia sighed, staring at the front door, her hand still locked to the steering wheel. The engine was still running too, because she was half-tempted to drive back out the way she’d come and stay gone for the rest of the day. They could get a hotel in town, just the two of them and make love until Pirithous’s shoulder started aching.
Except that his antibiotics were inside, and he really did need to stay on them, especially if they were going to make love until his shoulder stopped him. Though, now that she thought of it, she wasn’t entirely sure that was possible—his shoulder aching from too much sex. He’d never once complained about it.
Pirithous reached over, twisting the key free of the ignition, and the engine purred into silence. “Sitting here will not make it easier to face,” he said.
“I know.” But she couldn’t quite talk her hands into letting go of the wheel, or her body to get out of the car. “I just—I don’t want to answer to him. I have a right to fall in love. A right to be a fool if I want to be when it happens. I have a right to be with you, if that’s what I—we—want, no matter how we met.”
“So you say.”
She shot him a glare. “I don’t just say it. It’s a free country!”
“I do not doubt you, Thalia, but I understand your brother’s feelings. He only errs in not recognizing what I am, and for that I cannot blame him.”
“It doesn’t matter what you are. The only thing that should matter is that I want you. You’re important to me, and so you should be important to him because of it.”
He smiled, holding the keys out to her. “That is hardly reasonable.”
She snatched them from his hand. “I don’t care if it’s reasonable or not.”
“When you marry—”
She rolled her eyes. “I can’t even get you to promise to move in with me, never mind marry me. And what happens if you decide it’s too dangerous after all? Because honestly, I can’t count on you, Pirithous, and I’m not interested in living the rest of my life with big brother Alex looking over my shoulder this way.”
He glanced up at the house and Thalia followed his gaze. Shadows and reflections shifted against the glass. Alex and Nikki moving around inside. Knowing Alex, he was probably pacing with impatience, just waiting for them to walk in the door so he could jump down her throat.
“I do not know your customs for marriage.”
Marriage certificates required IDs, birth certificates. Even if he wanted to marry her, she wasn’t sure how it would be possible. “What were yours?”
“The bride is led to the house of her husband in a procession with her family. When she reaches it, her father gives her to the groom, who takes her by the wrist to draw her across the threshold and a blessing is given by the burning of offerings to Hestia, Hera, and Aphrodite. If it was a king who married, often there would be a banquet or a feast to celebrate the occasion.”
“It sounds beautiful.” She forced herself to smile, trying not to think about how much harder it would be for them. “And very simple.”
“Simple enough for the bride,” he agreed. “She need only make the procession. All else would have been arranged by her father with her new husband. Most marriages had nothing to do with love.”
“Did yours?”
“She was very beautiful but strong-willed,” he said quietly. “And our marriage was meant to secure a peace for our people. I thought that was enough until she showed me otherwise. We learned to love one another. After.”
“Oh.” She stared at the house again for a moment, thinking of what she’d read about his wedding feast. The centaurs and the fighting and all the people who had died. Bringing it up probably wasn’t the smartest thing she’d ever done.
He laughed softly at her response. “Have you forgotten it was my ill-fated search for a bride that resulted in my imprisonment? I would not have spoken to you as I have if I still grieved for my wife. Nor should you fear speaking of your own customs to spare my feelings, if that is your concern.”
“Hm.” She glanced at him sidelong. But he did seem more amused than heart-sore this time. “Here you have to get a license in order to get married. You need two witnesses and someone with the authority to marry you—a priest or a judge or the captain of a ship. Then you mail in the license, after, registering it with the state.”
“There is no ceremony?”
“Well, that depends. Alex is going to be married in the Church, of course, so that will have a full ceremony, complete with processions and vows and readings from the Bible, but other people just exchange vows they wrote themselves in front of a judge and let him sign the paperwork without anything fancy...”
“And how would you wish to be married?”
Her heart skipped and she turned to look at him openly, then. He was watching her closely, his eyes warm. “If I married you, you mean?”
He smiled wryly. “I am a good enough man to wish you happiness with another, but not so good that I would want to hear of it, Thalia.”
She flushed, biting her lip on a smile. “I would want something small and private. No gods involved.” He nodded at that, some of the warmth fading from his expression. “But it doesn’t matter, really. Without a birth certificate or a passport or a driver’s license, I don’t know how we could get married, legally.”
His lips twitched. “That sounds like a challenge.”
“Because it isn’t already?” But she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Of course. She hadn’t been wrong then, about what he’d thought of the fathers who locked their daughters away from men like him. “You’re completely shameless, aren’t you?”
“In pursuit of a worthy woman there is no room for shame,” he said seriously. “Or if it should stop you, then it is not fated to last.”
“That sounds like something Alex would say after he chased off one of my dates.”
“He would not have been wrong,” Pirithous said. “But he will not chase me, nor will he hound you any further if you do not wish it. You need only allow me the freedom to act in your interest.”
She sighed, tipping her head back against the headrest. “You make it sound so easy. All I have to do is give you the reins and you’ll set me free, fight all my battles for me.”
He laughed. “Is that not the purpose of a husband?”
“Obviously it was where you come from. But now—how can I have any respect for myself, if I can’t even stand up to my own brother?”
“You’ve already stood firm, Thalia. You have already fought.”
“But I didn’t win.”
“So let a stronger arm swing the sword in your stead.”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
He pressed his lips together, looking back at the house. “Is there a custom among your people that signifies betrothal?”
“Yes,” she said slowly. “Usually the man gives the woman a ring, which she wears on her left hand. Diamonds are popular, but I never really liked them myself.”
Pirithous twisted a gold ring from his finger. A simple oval with a running horse carved into the metal, its tail and mane streaming behind it in the wind. It was thick and bulky and obviously made for a much larger hand, but he held it out to her.
“This ring bears the mark of my family and was given to me when I became king. It is my seal. Will it serve?”
She stared at it. A signet ring from the Bronze Age, and he wanted her to wear it as an engagement ring? Thalia swallowed. “I can’t accept this, Pirithous. It’s too much.”
“It is a ring,” he said, his forehead creased. “Is that not what you said was required?”
“Yes, but this is too valuable for me to just—what if I lost it? It’s much too big to stay on my finger, and I couldn’t stand the thought of it falling off and disappearing.”
“I can fold the metal so it will fit.”
“Fold the—You can’t!”
“You think I cannot bend gold?” he asked, laughter in his voice. “Have I not proven my strength to you?”
“It isn’t that!” She covered the ring with her hand on his before he could warp it. “Do you have any idea what this ring would be worth to a collector? To a museum? You can’t just ruin it to fit my finger.”
“I would not ruin the face, nor the band, truly. But let it be my gift to you, all the same.”
A gift. She bit hard on her lip to keep from arguing. If she refused it now, he’d take offense, and the fact that he had offered it as an engagement ring at all...
She dropped her hand from his, looking up into his face. “Are you serious about this?”
He raised both eyebrows. “I would not offer you a gift I did not mean to give.”
“No,” she said. “I mean the—the betrothal. Are you giving me this as a promise that you’re going to marry me?”
His jaw tightened. “I would not have you feel as though you cannot depend upon me. If this is what you wish, knowing fully what risks it brings, it is your choice, and already this day I have sworn to defend your right to make it.”
She pushed open the car door, her heart racing. “Come on.”
Pirithous followed and she caught him by his good hand, glancing up at the house to be sure that Alex wasn’t watching. If they stood just under the window he wouldn’t be able to see them. And then they were in the shadow of the stone façade, and Pirithous was looming, his eyes searching hers, asking silent questions.
“I just needed—Can you kneel? On one knee, I mean.”
He pressed his lips together, but this time she was sure it was to keep from smiling. He sank smoothly to one knee before her without taking his eyes from her face. God, he had more grace in even that gesture than she did in her entire body. But she couldn’t imagine going back. She couldn’t imagine settling for someone else, loving someone else, when she knew he existed.
“Ask me again, Pirithous.”
He laughed. “I do not know what it is you wish me to say. There is a purpose to this? The kneeling?”
“It’s part of the betrothal,” she said, ignoring the way her cheeks were burning. “You get down on one knee, offer me the ring, and ask me to marry you.”
“Ah.” He sobered almost immediately, studying her as though he wished for some other answer. “You are certain this is what you want?”
“That’s not the right question.”
“But once I ask it and you answer, it is a bond between us. A vow made and sealed when you accept the ring. Is this not so?”
“Yes.” She couldn’t look away from his eyes, more gray than blue. All the laughter was gone now, shadowed by something else. Something she couldn’t quite identify. But it was warm and gentle and called to her.
“Then I ask you again,” he said softly. “Are you sure of this?”
“Aren’t you?”
“I have wanted you for my wife since the moment I knew you, Thalia. Even before I loved you. But I will not ask unless you are certain of your own desires. I have no land, no horses or cattle, not even goats or sheep. The only things I can offer you are the strength of my arm and the love of my heart, and that is not much in return for what our marriage might mean for your future or the risks you will face as my beloved.”
She pressed her finger to his lips, stopping him from going on. “The love is the only part that matters, Pirithous.”
He held up the ring. “Will you bind yourself to me, Thalia? Will you become my wife?”
She gave him her left hand, her heart pounding in her ears. Her throat had thickened and she had to clear it before she could answer.
“Yes,” she said, the word hoarse.
He slipped the ring onto her finger and closed her hand around the much too large band. The gold was warm against her skin and so was his hand on her cheek. She wasn’t sure when he had risen from the ground, but then he was kissing her, and she didn’t care about anything other than that.
***
“NIKKI?” ALEX’S VOICE came from the back side of the house some time later, and Pirithous’s hand slipped out from beneath her shirt as he lifted his head. “Nikki!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Thalia said, kissing his neck while his lips were no longer available. “Let him shout all he wants.”
“He calls for her into the wood.” He caught her hand when she tried to turn his face back to hers, folding it against his chest. God, she wished it were bare. Her whole body was flushed, her skin burning for his touch. Kissing Pirithous was almost better than sex. Almost.
“If he’s outside, we can sneak in and lock the bedroom door before he even realizes we’re there.” And then she could get him out of his shirt. All she wanted was to get him out of his clothes.
But when she tried to pull him toward the stairs, he held firm. She blinked, jarred by his stillness when just a moment earlier he’d been so eager to draw her in, to form himself to her body as she melted into his.
“What’s the matter?”
His eyes had darkened to storm clouds and his hand tightened on hers. “If she is in the wood, Thalia, she is in grave danger.”
“Nikki!” Alex called again.
Her stomach lurched. “The centaurs.”
“Where is my sword?”
“Under my bed—but Pirithous, your shoulder.”
“It must serve,” he said, releasing her hand. “Go. Bring the sword, and my knife as well. If Nikki is taken, I must find her.”
She hesitated, staring at his shoulder and the arm that still hung stiff at his side. But he was right. And if everything he’d told her about the centaurs was true, they didn’t have time to waste. They would kill her, just on the off chance that it might bother Pirithous in the slightest.
“Go, Thalia.”
She ran.