Cruel Seduction (Dark Olympus, #5)
Katee Robert
To everyone who loves MESS. This one’s for you.
MUSEWATCH
Previously in Olympus…
OLYMPUS’S SWEETHEART GONE WILD!
Persephone Dimitriou shocks everyone by fleeing an engagement with Zeus to end up in Hades’s bed!
ZEUS FALLS TO HIS DEATH!
Perseus Kasios will now take up the title of Zeus. Can he possibly fill his father’s shoes?
APHRODITE ON THE OUTS
After publicly threatening Psyche Dimitriou for marrying her son Eros, Aphrodite is exiled by the Thirteen. She chooses Eris Kasios to be successor to her title.
ARES IS DEAD…
A tournament will be held to choose the next Ares…and Helen Kasios is the prize.
…LONG LIVE ARES
In a stunning turn of events, Helen Kasios has chosen to compete for her own hand…and she won! We now have three Kasios siblings among the Thirteen.
NEW BLOOD IN TOWN!
After losing out on the Ares title, Minos Vitalis and his household have gained Olympus citizenship…and are celebrating with a house party for the ages. We have the guest list, and you’ll never guess who’s invited!
APOLLO FINDS LOVE AT LAST?
After being ostracized by Olympus for most of her adult life, Cassandra Gataki has snagged one of the Thirteen as her very own! She and Apollo were looking very cozy together at the Dryad.
MURDER FAVORS THE BOLD
Tragedy strikes! Hephaestus was killed by Theseus Vitalis, triggering a little-known law that places Theseus as the new Hephaestus. The possibilities are…intriguing.
1
APHRODITE
Even as a child, I knew I wouldn’t marry for love. Love is a fairy tale, a fantasy built on lies as fine as gossamer wings. Normal people marry for love. They settle down, do the white-picket-fence thing, have two-point-five children and a dog named Spot. Maybe they’re happy in the end. Maybe they’re not.
That isn’t my path.
I’m marrying for power. For duty. For Olympus.
I tighten the tie of my silk robe and fight the urge to pace around the bridal suite. Just fifteen minutes before, it was filled to the brim with bridesmaids and hair and makeup people, but I sent them away to give myself time to breathe. Two weeks is nowhere near long enough to pull together a wedding worthy of my title, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
My new husband is an enemy to the city that I love. A murderer, who killed the last Hephaestus to gain his title. He and his family are a danger unlike this city has ever known, and with the barrier around Olympus failing, the stakes have never been higher.
Even if I have no doubts about taking this course of action, that doesn’t mean it’s without cost.
I press my hand to the spot on my hip where a small tattoo is hidden, the skin still tender from the fresh inking yesterday. An anemone flower. I’m not normally so sentimental, but the physical pain alleviates the ache in my chest a little. Or at least that’s what I tell myself as I turn to the window overlooking the courtyard where I’ll walk down the aisle and sign my life away to Olympus’s new Hephaestus.
The rows of seats are half-filled with all the important people in this city. My family is nowhere in evidence; likely they’re having some kind of hushed meeting right about now to ensure my groom doesn’t attempt to leave me at the altar.
He didn’t choose this marriage, after all.
I smile. I don’t know what Theseus Vitalis thought he’d accomplish by taking the Hephaestus title by force, but he’s a small fish in a big pond here, even if he is now one of the Thirteen. He tried to argue against the marriage, but with the rest of the Thirteen in agreement on this course of action, he was essentially out-voted.
I chose this. I will continue to choose this. Growing up as the daughter of one Zeus—and now the sister to another—there was never any question that my marriage would be one of politics.
It also means I’m no stranger to violence and death. And if Minos’s people decide they’re better off trying to take my title by making him a widower…
I ignore the frisson of something almost like fear slithering down my spine. Ruling Olympus means we’re all swimming in blood up to our necks, even if some of my peers pretend otherwise. I’ve never had the luxury of a soft fantasy, and I’m not about to start now.
I’ll do anything to keep this city safe.
Even this. Especially this. I was made for this.
A knock on my door has me turning from the window. I tighten my belt again, pause to ensure my makeup is pristine, and walk to the door. “I said I need some time. Why are you—” I stop short when I see who’s on the other side. I thought the ache in my chest was inconvenient earlier. It’s nothing compared to the pure agony that flares as I look up into Adonis’s dark eyes.
He looks good. Of course he looks good. He always does, even when he’s obviously been missing sleep. His dark-brown skin is warm in the early afternoon light, but there are exhaustion lines around his eyes. He doesn’t smile. It’s fine. I don’t deserve his smiles any longer, but I still mourn the loss. “Adonis,” I say softly. “What are you doing here?”
“I was invited.” I belatedly register that he’s wearing a perfectly tailored pale-gray suit. He always dresses well, but this is clearly event clothing.
I didn’t invite him. I have plenty of capacity for cruelty, but I don’t level it at those I care about. At those I…love. I swallow past the awful sensation in my throat. “You shouldn’t have come.”
He doesn’t deny it. Instead, he seems to drink in the sight of me. “It should have been me, Eris.”
He’s the only person outside my family who uses the name I was born with instead of my title. It used to feel like a secret just between us, but now he might as well have pulled out a knife and stabbed me. Gods, why does this hurt so much? “It was never going to be you.” Pain makes my voice harsh. “My brother never would have allowed it.” Except that’s a cop-out. Zeus didn’t force me to marry Hephaestus. I decided on this course of action. I square my shoulders. “I never would have allowed it.”
If I could marry for love, I would have married Adonis without a second thought. Our relationship has never been particularly smooth, but it has been consistent in its inconsistency. He makes me laugh more than any other person in this city, and he makes me feel seen, even if he doesn’t always like my more chaotic impulses.
But I am Aphrodite, formerly Eris Kasios, daughter of one Zeus and sister to another. My fate was written the moment I was born.
Adonis’s jaw goes tight. “Come with me.”
“What?”
“Come with me,” Adonis repeats. He holds out a broad hand. “I’ve already bribed Triton. We just have to get to the boundary and he’ll see us through. You don’t have to do this, Eris. We can leave. We can start a life somewhere outside this fucking city and be happy.”
The space behind my eyes burns, but I am a Kasios and I learned from a very young age to control my tears. I will not cry now, even if it feels like the broken shards of my heart are grinding to dust against each other. “No.”
He doesn’t drop his hand. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
How can I love him even more now, knowing that he would sacrifice everything for me, even though I would never have asked it of him?
I shake my head slowly. “No,” I repeat. “We had something special, Adonis. Don’t ruin it with theatrics.” The words are cruel, intentionally so. I swallow hard and push through. If I have to hurt him to keep him safe, then I will.
This is why we could never be endgame. Adonis insists on seeing the best of me, without acknowledging the depths I will descend to in order to keep my people and my city safe. He will always balk about doing what needs to be done, and I don’t have the luxury of hesitation.
“Eris—”
“Aphrodite.” My grip goes white-knuckled on the door. “I am Aphrodite, and you’d damn well better remember it. I chose this, Adonis. I chose…him.”