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Dionysus pushed back from the bar, angling toward his foster father. “Enlighten me.”

“You are not having fun,” Silenus said. “At all. How long has it been since you let loose?”

Dionysus ground his teeth. “I am not the same person I once was, Silenus.”

“None of us are,” the satyr said. “But that does not mean we cannot enjoy life if we are to live it.”

“Was it not you who said it is better not to have lived at all, and if we must, then it is best to die soon?”

“Well, you have yet to die, so why not spend a little more time having fun?”

Dionysus rolled his eyes and stepped out from behind the bar.

“You cannot go on like this,” Silenus said. “You have let her have too much power over you.”

Dionysus turned to him. “If we are going to speak about this, say her name.”

Silenus stared, frustration in his gaze. “This quest for vengeance has made you…someone else.”

“Has it occurred to you that perhapsthisis who I am?” Dionysus asked. “And the person you met all those years ago, the one you miss so badly, was created by Hera?”

Silenus started to shake his head. “No. I don’t believe that.”

“You don’t believe it because you don’t want to see it.”

“I don’t believe it!”

They spoke in unison, voices raised and vehement, and once the words were out, the silence that stretched between them stung.

It was Silenus who spoke first. “I want to see you find happiness,” he said and sighed, running a hand through his thin, graying hair. “Even if it is just anounce.”

“Perhaps I am not meant for happiness,” Dionysus said.

“It’s achoice, Dionysus,” Silenus said, clearly frustrated. “You have to choose.”

“Then I choose vengeance,” Dionysus said. “And I will choose it until I have secured it.”

“What about the girl?” the satyr asked.

Dionysus felt his body tense at the mention of Ariadne. “She’s a woman, not a girl. What about her?”

“She’s pretty,” Silenus said.

His observation already irritated Dionysus. She wasn’t just pretty. She was beautiful, and he was reminded of it every time he looked upon her face,feltit every time he entered the same room as her.

“She hates me,” Dionysus said.

“Because she doesn’t have anything to like at the moment,” Silenus said.

“Perhaps I do not want her to like me at all.”

“Your cock tells a different story.”

“Don’t look at my cock,” Dionysus said. “It’s weird.”

“A cock never lies,” his foster father said. “You like her.”

“I want to fuck her. I don’t like her,” Dionysus said.