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All I could do was sink to the floor, tears pouring down my face. If I thought losing him was bad before, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like now, when just the threat of it was the most excruciating pain I’d ever known.

Chapter 29

Lukas

There were a lot of moments over the year Daphne was gone that I felt like a pathetic shell of a man, nothing more than a bag of skin and bones. Little more than the beast that laid dormant in my power.

It was why it came out more often, why turning into that beast and finding the darkest, most remote part of the sea I could find seemed like the only option.

The last thing I wanted was to see Daphne hurt. To watch her cry and know that I had a hand in those tears. But dammit, knowing that three sentences was enough to make her run had me so angry, the water around me was heating.

I just needed a second to calm down. To try and understand. Because forgiveness wasn’t the issue. I was pretty sure I’d forgive Daphne for anything. But I couldn’t—yet, at least—understand how she could claim to love me and still leave like that.

I couldn’t even let her say it.

It was just so foreign to me.

My love for her was greedy, possessive, consuming. It overtook my body and propelled me to discover everything about her, learn how to cherish her, ensure I kept her happy. All of that required her to be in my presence.

Obviously, we had our own lives. I wasn’t angry over missing a few days with her while she was taking time for herself or with friends or doing something she loved. It was a fucking year.

Even when it had been a pining, hidden version of love, I needed her close. I took friendship and close companionship just to have her by my side, because Ilikedher almost as much as I loved her. We’d had fights then, too. Disagreements and arguments, some stupid, some real. And never once did I think about running.

I would have stayed and fought like hell.

The water around me was heating with every breath I took out, the sea life that dwelled at the bottom of the ocean swimming far away from me. Only a large shark dared to get close, and I chomped at him.

He wisely darted away.

Something flashed out of the corner of my eye. I turned to find lightning shooting out of a deep crevice in the ocean floor. This far down, it was almost like there was a loop back up to the skies.

And the lightning made me think of Adrian. He was pragmatic, almost to a fault. He could tell me if my anger was out of line.

I rolled through a portal straight to Olympus, popping out right in between the city and Adrian’s home. Olympus had grown over the years, now a fully formed town. It was filled with people who were loyal to Adrian as much as those who just cared about making money off the rare materials his power kept plentiful in the snow-capped mountain.

Dealing with my own court, full of people who weresupposedto be invested in the Poseidon line and the sea was difficult enough. I didn’t know how he did it.

I moved quickly through the front halls of his private house, a smaller version of the temples dedicated to the gods. On a stroke of luck, I ran into Emre, his head guard.

“Where’s Adrian?” I asked.

Emre took my piss poor attitude in stride. “Formal office,” he responded, then took off down the hall.

His formal office was on the front side of his house. The known side. Because behind all the pristine white limestone facade was Adrian’s real home. A smaller, cozy wood house protected by lush greenery.

I didn’t have the mind to care who he was with, just barreled right through the crowds of people gathered in the hallway and through the door.

“Well, hello, Lukas,” Sebastian greeted from a chair. Adrian stayed silent, just cocking anoh really?eyebrow at me.

“I need to talk to Adrian,” I gritted out.

Sebastian laughed, rising dramatically from his chair. “Lucky for you, we were just finished.”

My eyes narrowed in question.

“Sebastian was dropping off supplies from the hospital to bring to Prometheus,” Adrian explained.

“You couldn’t bring them yourself?” The gods were the only ones allowed in, and I was sure Sebastian knew how to get there. We had all dropped someone off a time or two.