Sage crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. If possible, he shrank farther into the couch cushions. He hoped nymphs hadn't developed telekinesis. "You're awfully quiet all of a sudden," she mused.
"I was quiet when I was sleeping too."
"Except for the snoring."
He clenched the cushion in a fist. "I don't snore."
"You do."
He gritted his teeth and let out a exasperated sound. "What do you want from me?"
"A straight answer." Sage paced in front of him, waving her hands around as she rambled, "You say you don't want me or can't or whatever, yet you want me to stay here with you, so I thought…" She laughed. "I thought…hey…maybe he was joking with me and he wanted me after all, but now you can't answer a simple question on whether you would like me to leave or not? Is this even about the eclipse? Or is this some weird hostage situation I willingly walked right into only to discover when it's too late that I can't leave?"
She stopped suddenly, eyes widening, and asked, "Didn't dudes used to think capturing a nymph meant they had to marry them? Oh, my goddess, are you Hades-ing me?"
"Am…I… What?" Adonis sat up and rubbed his temples. "Little girl, it would please me beyond belief to break this curse and use your body in every way you'd like me to in order to do it, but it can't happen. I am not kidnapping you to force you to be my bride. For gods' sake. And what the fuck is Hades-ing?"
"Hades-ing. You know, like when Hades snatched Persephone and dragged her to the Underworld as her bride and tricked her into eating pomegranates." Her expression made it clear she thought him incredibly slow on the uptake.
Was this a third curse? Had to be. There was no way the Fates hated him this much. Or Gaia if that was a part of why this happened, which he doubted.
Sage wasn't done with her absurd questioning. "Hey, didn't Persephone raise you?"
He dropped his head back on the couch and groaned in irritation. "No. I never lived with Persephone, and before you ask it, she never entered a competition with Aphrodite to win my attentions. She was already married to Hades by the time I was in a relationship with Aphrodite. She and I never met."
Sage dropped onto the couch cushion next to him, propped her elbow up on the back, and stared at him with a look of enthralled interest. "What was Aphrodite like? Was she, like, the most beautiful woman you've ever seen? I know the myth about you dying had to be false if you're here." She gasped. "Did you fake your own death to escape her sexy demands? Was she too dominant?"
He did not want to talk about Aphrodite. He stood up and headed into the kitchen to find something to eat. Opening the cupboard, he realized…with Hermes not visiting like he used to, he didn't have much to offer. A couple cans of soup, some peas, a box of taco stuff…but he didn't have any meat or veggies or even cheese for those. Without working electricity, any cold items had to be cooked immediately when he got them. He picked up a half-eaten box of cookies he was sure had expired four months ago and tossed it back in.
Fuck, this whole situation was embarrassing, and he wished he could melt into the floor and die there. On the plus side, Sage had finally stopped talking. How did someone talk so much?
Adonis put both hands on the counter and hung his head. He didn't know what to do. The right thing was to let her go. Sage obviously saw him more as an amusement than anything, and she'd grow bored once she finally accepted that he couldn't be with her like a man should. Yet, the fear of losing control of himself if the curse drove him mad with lust made it impossible to do the right thing. Neither situation ended well for him, but he'd choose hurting one woman's feelings over doing something he couldn't undo. Maybe he was Hades-ing her…just not for the reason she believed.
As the door opened and closed, he jumped and spun around. What the hell? Adonis rushed into the living room. The clothes he'd given her to sleep in were folded neatly on the arm of the couch and Sage was gone. So was her bag. "Shit!"
By the time he reached the door and opened it, lust hit him like a wrecking ball. Doubling over, he realized he'd taken his night of relief for granted, like he took everything for granted. Why couldn't he be the man everyone expected him to be: perfect. The paragon. The handsome man all mortals wished they could be, wished they could fuck.
The truth was so different. Everyone loathed him, and not out of jealousy. He wasn't a good person. He'd been selfish, greedy, and arrogant. He deserved his curses. Deep down, he'd always known. "Sage?" he bit out as he buckled over on the decrepit porch.
She didn't answer. How had she gotten so far from him already? He wasn't sure how far she even had to go for the curse to return.
When he lifted his head to search for her, he caught sight of her purple hair and black dress as she ran through the mud across the field and disappeared into the trees.
Seeing her for that brief moment, with her out of range of whatever Pan did, ignited his blood like fire. Everything he should have felt when seeing her in that circle of candles the night before burned through his veins. He was hard now like he had wanted to be then. Only the sensation became amplified by the fact he'd waited too long to appease the satyr curse.
Tears pricked his eyes. It wasn't fair. She was his salvation, and he
