From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(32)

“Don’t tell me you’ve never fought for what you wanted, Campbell. I’m trying to give her space, but I’m not gonna give up.”

It was the honest truth, the only way Jon figured he could ever win back everyone’s respect.

But Paul only laughed. “It’s too late for you, man. You might as well pack it up and go home. Josie doesn’t change her mind once she’s set it to something.”

Jon slapped him on the arm with a wink. He knew it was true. He also knew there was an exception to every rule, and he planned to be the exception to this one.

“Thanks for the tip, Pauly.”

Paul only scowled as Jon turned and left the station.

And, just like that, Jon was on top of the world, whistling as he headed down the sidewalk.

Corey Rhodes.

Jon had a name.



Josie made it all the way to her car before the hot tears in her eyes spilled over. She gripped the top of the steering wheel and rested her forehead on the back of her hands, unable to stop the sobs and fighting them all the same.

She’d known it was only a matter of time before Jon pressed her to talk about what had happened, talk about their past, talk about all the things she’d worked so hard to put behind her. But the second he’d shown up again, all her work had been undone.

She’d also known he’d eventually push her, and she’d known she wouldn’t be able to handle it when he did.

But Anne—that was unexpected. All he’d had to do was say her name, and the house of cards had fallen. That single question had thrown her off her axis, sending her flying into the sun.

Why did he have to come back?

It had been three years since he left her, three years of hatred and hurt and bitterness that had changed her so deeply, there was no going back.

On the outside, she was fiery and irreverent, but in her heart, she was broken, hurt far worse than she could even admit to herself. She hadn’t been able to understand how he could do it, why he had left her so cruelly.

But underneath it all was the truth, under so many layers of hurt, it could only reach her in whispers.

Josie had believed she found love, a forever love to carry her through the end of her days, only to discover her love wasn’t returned.

All her old memories, memories she’d thought were dead and buried, had climbed out of their graves and were out for blood. She could fight them with every weapon she possessed, but they wouldn’t stop.

They’d never stop.

Seeing him again had shocked her, but learning the truth about why he’d left cut her off at the knees. She felt betrayed and angry, but worst of all, she felt like a fool. Her anger had cooled over the years, turned hard and black as stone, but his return had split her open again, and she found that the pain had never left her after all. It had been there all along, just under the surface, boiling and rolling and waiting for the time it could break out and take her over.

Josie took a deep breath and sat up, wiping her tears away with the flats of her index fingers.

Jon didn’t really want her. If he did, he would have handled things differently so long before. Maybe he wouldn’t have left her so easily, wouldn’t have chosen someone else. It didn’t matter that he and Tori weren’t together. The bottom line was that he’d left. He’d made a choice, and that decision had left her no choice at all. She’d had no say; she had been left to deal with the fallout on her own, all alone.

If he had only told her from the beginning why he left. If only she’d had a choice. She imagined how different things could have been, but it only broke her heart again.

Josie sniffled and turned on her car, pulling away to take off across the river where she would tail Rhodes, hoping maybe, just maybe, the routine would bring her peace.





The stars were bright, the infinite pinpoints against the black of night a sight Apollo had set his eyes on hundreds of thousands of times, and they would never lose their mystery and wonder.

He sat on Artemis’s perch, waiting for her, missing her company. He and his twin had always been close, though less since they’d moved Olympus off Earth. She’d secluded herself in the expanse of her domain, and he didn’t know if he could blame her. She was a huntress; her home was the forest and the moonlight, her companion. Never would he expect her to wear modern dress and live in an apartment building. It went against all that she was.

Apollo had been particularly absent since Dita returned Daphne to him. For a thousand years, he had waited for her, and now that he had her, he’d not let her go, not for a second.

But, with Artemis and Dita competing, he found he didn’t know his place. He’d always sided with his sister against their common enemy. The feud was so old, it had never been a question. But now, after everything Dita had done for him, he found himself caught somewhere between the two goddesses—his sister and the goddess who had given him back his love.

He produced a lyre from the air and lay back, eyes still on the stars, considering how much his life had shifted. Daphne was his again, released from the curse that had kept them apart. His rivalry with Dita was dead and gone, and the price she’d paid to help him was high, as she’d lost Adonis and Ares both.

His guilt over being the cause of her pain, the reason that she’d ultimately lost both her lovers, was almost more than he could bear. And so, he would do his best to bridge the gap between the goddesses. It was the least he could do.