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“I know. It must betrying…to constantly have to teach me.”

“I never tire of teaching,” he said. “My frustration comes from another place.”

“Perhaps I can help…if you told me more,” she said.

Telling her more meant he would have to handle his fear of being too much for her—too angry, too vengeful, too cruel.

“I worry my words will come out wrong and that you will find my motives barbaric.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I think I gave you this fear when we met.”

“No. It was there before you, but it only mattered when I met you.”

She studied him quietly and then offered, “I understand Hermes’s punishment. I am comforted.”

He appreciated her words, even if he was hesitant to accept them.

He kissed her forehead, wishing they’d had the hour they promised—more so now given what they would face.

He pulled back.

“Would you like to accompany me to Council?”

“You are serious?” she asked, surprised and a little suspicious.

“I have conditions,” he said, and she arched a brow as if to sayof course. “But if the Olympians are to discuss us, it is only fair you are present.”

She looked so grateful he felt guilty for ever having excluded her before, but she needed to hear this because it would make her angry, and he needed her fury.

“Come. We must prepare,” he said, and they left the island for the Underworld.

CHAPTER XXIX

DIONYSUS

Dionysus had left the cottage to retrieve more water from the ocean and find something that would suit for breakfast. When he returned, Ariadne was sitting up with her legs hanging over the edge of the cot.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Better,” she said, holding his gaze. Her eyes were warm, and they made his blood stir.

He cleared his throat and held up the basket he carried. “I hope you like figs,” he said. “Because that’s about all there is to eat.”

“Figs are fine,” she said as he set the basket by her feet and knelt before her.

The move felt intimate, more so because she held his gaze the entire time.

“Let me see your leg,” Dionysus said.

He expected her to resist, but she drew the blanket back and let him see her wound, which was far less angry today. He drew his hand beneath her thigh and let theother hover over it, using his magic to heal and mend the cut until no sign of it existed.

“If you are able to use your magic to heal me,” she said as he dropped his hands from her, “are we not able to teleport off this island?”

“I am not able to teleport within Poseidon’s realm,” he said.

Only the three could teleport to and from realms without permission. The only exception was Hermes.

“Even if I could get us off this island,” he said, rising to his feet, “I must fulfill a debt before we leave.”