It was four in the morning, and I restlessly walked through the forest toward the cave. I shouldn’t have been going there this early, but I couldn’t help myself. It had been a long day of dealing with Erebus yesterday.
Helios laid with his back against the cave wall, eyes closed and lips parted slightly, looking so peaceful I almost didn’t want to wake him. But when I entered the darkness, he slowly opened his eyes. “Nyx,” he whispered in a hoarse voice. “You’re here early.”
I climbed on top of him, straddled his waist, and rested my hands on his tunic-covered chest. “Shh, I don’t want anyone to hear us,” I whispered. He chuckled softly and pulled me closer, wrapping his strong arms around my waist and crushing me against him. “Helios, we need to talk.”
“About what?” he asked, lips moving against my stomach.
“Us.”
Pulling away slowly, he stared up at me, his eyes burning as gold as the sun. “What about us?”
“Erebus and Hella are starting to ask questions and get suspicious about my whereabouts,” I said, remembering yesterday when Erebus stared at me after Hella left and asked me where I had really been. I told him that I was with Eos, and when I wasn’t, I was watching the wolves and wondering why they were so weak compared to hounds.
“So?” Helios asked. “What’d you say?”
“That I’d been roaming the Sanguine Wilds alone,” I said.
Lie.
“But he’ll figure it out sooner or later. He’s not stupid.” I drew my fingernails down Helios’s chest. “We need to take a break from each other. I don’t think I can deal with this added stress. Everyday I go back home and fear that Erebus has found out about us.”
He curled his fingers into my hips. “I thought you wanted to spend eternity with me? Isn’t that what you said in all those little love notes Eos sent back and forth for us? Are you going to give it all up because you’re afraid of your brother?”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. “I don’t want to give you up.”
“Come live with me,” Helios said. “Let me protect you from the darkness.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Then find another way.”
Find another way.
My heart raced a bit faster as I thought about what that could mean for me. I couldn’t live up here with him. I was bound to the Underworld, all gods from Erebus’s Kingdom were. Staying up here would weaken me to the point where I wouldn’t be able to fight Erebus ever.
Yet all I could think about were vile ways I could get Helios to come to the Underworld with me. He wouldn’t go willingly. It’d take something terrible, something cruel, something deadly to get him to live in the Underworld for an extended period of time so we could be together.
I could hide him in Elysium, where Erebus was refused access to visit. I could visit him every dawn and every dusk. I could live there in peace with him. We could be happy. I’d do anything to make him happy.
“Because I’m not giving you up that easily,” Helios continued. He tightened his grip on me, fingers burning into my skin. “I’ve waited thousands of years for you to finally let me in and I’m not letting you go.”
“I don’t want to let you go either,” I said. I tried pushing away those evil thoughts, but the darkness had already sunk its claws inside of me. I had been tainted with ungodly thoughts the moment I was born, I just hid it well enough to get people to trust me. “I’ll find another way…”
Grasping my jaw lightly, Helios pulled me down to him and captured my lips with his. I curled my fingers into his shoulders and relaxed in his warm hold. But then I heard a branch break outside the cave, and I tensed.
“What was that?” I whispered into the night.
“It’s probably just a wolf,” Helios said.
My heart pounded a bit harder, and I stood. Helios let out a long sigh, muttering an “every time” under his breath. I hurried to the exit of the cave and peeked outside, seeing nothing but a wolf staring back at me.
Good. I blew out a deep breath. Thank the Gods and Goddesses that we were alone.