Destined (37 page)

“I — I don’t know,” Iris said. “How did they not see? It was so beautiful.”

“They’re human. They only see what their eyes can comprehend.”
 

Some thought tugged at the back of Eros’s mind. He tried to bring the thought forward, but set it aside when it didn’t easily surface.

“Come on,” he said, tugging at Iris’s arm and leading her out of the courtyard, “it’s your turn to work some magic.”

Iris looked up. The sun shone unmercifully from a pristine blue sky where only a smattering of clouds puffed here and there. She shook her head.

“I need more clouds. Rainbows don’t work in pure sunlight.”

Eros stopped. “What do you mean?”

Iris shrugged. “I can’t just make rainbows appear anywhere. I need sun and rain clouds.”

Eros’s eyes flattened. “You might have clued me in to that little detail before you agreed to help.” He threw up his hands and raised his wings to fly.

“Wait!” Iris said. “All we have to do is get Helios to drive behind one of the clouds.” She pointed to a rocky grey-colored cloud near the horizon. “That one has rain in it. It would work.”

“Oh. So all we have to do is get the sun to fly off course and we’re in business. Sure. No problem.” Eros rolled his eyes.

“For a god, you aren’t very clever about using your gifts,” Iris said. “Helios would gladly take a jaunt behind that cloud if something tempting enough were up there.”

Eros and Iris looked at each other. “Who?” they said in unison, then laughed together.

“A girl would have to be pretty dazzling to get the sun’s attention,” Iris said.

“Of course!” Eros said. “Aglaia.” The Grace of Radiance. “Helios would be drawn to her even without my arrows.”

Iris gave him an quick, excited hug. “Perfect! Now how do we get her up there?”

“
I’m
the one who’s not very clever?” Eros asked. “I can make him think Aglaia is up there, but the illusion won’t hold when he tries to talk to her. Can you work quickly?”

Iris burst into the air, calling back for Eros. “What are you waiting for?”

With a jump and a flap of his wings, Eros sped past her. “Work fast, remember?”

Iris answered with a laugh as the gods sped toward the lone rain cloud.

When they got to the cloud, Eros reached for his arrows and Iris perched on the edge like a diver about to jump into the sea. Eros’s arrow caught Helios in the shoulder and his head snapped around toward the pair.
 

Helios’s gaze tightened on a hologram of dancing light. The mirage took shape in the figure of a sparkling girl whose hair moved with the wind and whose eyes flashed with the brilliance of the stars. A perfect duplication of Aglaia. She tip-toed across the air toward the rain cloud.

“It’s working,” Iris whispered as Helios turned his solar steeds toward the girl.

“Get ready,” Eros said. “Helios won’t stay enchanted after she disappears.”

Helios’s chariot drew closer, shooting spikes of heat toward the gods as he neared. Iris flinched. “I can’t believe I’m doing this for a human.”

In a flash of searing light, Helios was behind the cloud. Iris dove, drawing her palate of colors across the sky as she fell. Her rainbow illuminated the sky and just for a moment, Eros thought he saw a red-dressed girl looking up in awe.

As Iris touched down behind a hill and tucked away the tail of her rainbow, an accusing boom of a voice call out. “Eros!”

Iris had only just spun around to look when Eros tore down from the sky and swooped her up in his arms.

“Let’s go,” he said, furiously flapping his wings back toward Olympus. When Eros set Iris down back at his palace, they both burst out laughing.

“I assume Helios wasn’t pleased?”

“You could say that.”

“Aren’t you worried?” Iris asked, wide-eyed.

“Nope. He can’t hurt me. Besides, that was fun.” Eros looked at Iris. “Thanks for playing along with me. I needed that.”

Iris took a step closer to Eros. “I could be a lot of things you need.”

The smile fell from Eros’s face, but kindness remained in his eyes. He ran his hands down Iris’s delicate arms and clasped her hands. When had her hue changed from blue to pink?, he wondered. She looked almost edible flushed with a more natural color.

“I’m just not ready yet,” he breathed, looking down at their hands laced together.

Iris pulled one hand free and raised Eros’s chin until his eyes met hers. “It’s okay. I said a lot of things yesterday that I shouldn’t have … If you can forgive me, I can wait. Deal?”

Eros looked off in the distance. “I forgive you.”

Iris raised up on her toes and kissed Eros on the cheek. “Good night.”

He watched her sultry aura of shimmering colors trail her out the door.

That night, alone in his palace, Eros relaxed with the pleasant tiredness that comes from a satisfying day. He’d answered a prayer
and
used his arrows on a god other than Zeus. What more could he ask for?

The thought was barely out of his head before Eros regretted it. He could ask for Psyche to have loved him enough to trust him. He’d forgotten her while he was out playing with Iris, but memories of her came crashing back in the solitude of his home.

Eros was angry with himself for being so easily amused by Iris. Yesterday he had hated her, but today … not so much. And he was shocked to think he could so easily be drawn to her after the devotion he’d held for Psyche. Was giving Psyche up really as easy as wiping away the magic of his arrows?

As Eros mulled it over, the little flicker of a thought he’d ignored back at the wedding crept to the surface.

They’re human. They only see what their eyes can comprehend.

Even if she had some divine blood running through her veins, Psyche was still human. She could only see what her eyes could comprehend. “Yeah, so,” he goaded himself. There was something there. What was he missing?
 

Eros thought through everything that had happened leading up to Psyche’s betrayal. They’d fought. Then made up. Psyche’s sister came to visit, but Alexa said Psyche hadn’t listened to them.

And then he remembered. Alexa told him she’d shown herself to Chara. And when Psyche was trying to explain herself, she’s started to say something about Alexa, but he’d cut her off.

What if Psyche had seen Alexa too? Psyche’s eyes would only comprehend betrayal. She’d see a palace built on lies. A supposed best friend stabbing her in the back.

Hope too painful for words grabbed Eros’s heart and squeezed. He had to find Alexa. If his hunch was right, Psyche was the one who deserved his forgiveness.
 

Perhaps he would need some forgiveness of his own.

Chapter 45 - Psyche

When I woke up the next morning, my mind instantly clamped down with the fear of facing Aphrodite. There was nothing to do though except busy myself with getting ready.

Ceres floated in with her carefree nonchalance as I wound my hair neatly into a bun. When she opened her hand, a tiny white daisy materialized. She tucked the delicate flower behind my ear before taking my hands in her own.

“You can do this,” she assured me, squeezing my palms.

I closed my eyes and exhaled while bobbing my head and forcing a tight smile. “I know,” I said and bit my lip. “Might as well get this over with, huh?”

I didn’t mean a word of it, of course. I’d have taken any excuse to delay.

Ceres straightened the flower behind my ear. “No time like the present,” she confirmed. Her dark eyes danced again with motherly assurance.

Unable to stop myself, I threw my arms around the goddess. Everything about her was comforting. Her skin smelled fresh like the Olympian air and her smile radiated warmth. She encircled me with her own arms as I shuddered against her.

“Oh, Psyche,” she sighed as she rubbed my back. “You
must
believe that everything will work out. All is lost if you lose hope now.”

I stepped back and blinked at Ceres. “I don’t understand,” I muttered, now furiously chewing the corner of my lip.

“When you stand before Aphrodite to apologize, she’ll know your heart better than you do. If there is any hesitation in there, she’ll sense it.”

Gulping, I nodded.
This had better be the best apology of my life
.

“And the same is true when you tell her you love her son and deserve his forgiveness,” Ceres continued. “You must go to her with the conviction that you are Eros’s destiny. You do believe that?”

“More than anything,” I whispered.

“Then you can do this.” She tilted her head so she could look at my downturned face. “Putting it off won’t make it easier.”

I looked up into her eyes. “I believe that too,” I muttered with a sigh.
 

Ceres’s laugh was as light as butterfly wings. She squeezed my hand once more and led me out of her palace.

Xanthy was grazing in the flower-filled field beside Ceres’s home. I headed toward her but Ceres stopped me. “Leave Xanthy with me.”
 

Stopping short, I swung around to meet Ceres’s command. My heart broke. I didn’t want to leave my horse behind. She was the only link I had to humanity on this mountain of gods.

Ceres glided up to me. “I’ll take good care of her until you return,” she promised. “Now come.”

When her hand touched mine again, we fell into Ceres’s sickening flight, floating and diving through the glorious morning air. But this time our flight was quick, and we landed with a gentle touchdown on a gilded path. I followed the glinting metal under my feet up to the entrance of a palace.
 

Her palace. It was grotesquely ornate, and nothing like the down-to-earth persona she’d had when visiting me. But now it made sense why Eros thought I’d like golden everything — he’d been raised in it. The palace dripped with golden columns, golden doors, golden statutes. It made my stomach sour and I glared at it from behind furrowed brows.

“Yeah, we all think it’s a little over-the-top,” Ceres whispered in my ear, “but don’t you dare let Aphrodite catch you making that face at her home.”