From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(68)

“I know. I’m sick, and I don’t know how to get better. No one can help me.” She let out a sigh. “You know something else? I was thinking about why Echo had brought me the mirror in the first place. That timing was really fucking convenient.”

“I know. I’ve been thinking about that too. It just seems really strange to me that she would bring it to you, unprompted. How did she even know you would be interested in it? She didn’t know about Adonis. Someone had to tell her. She never leaves her cave, like, ever.”

Dita’s thoughts fired in her head like Black Cats in a tin can. “Artemis.”

“Yeah,” Perry said flatly.

“Motherfucker,” Dita breathed. “She did it to fuck with me, to mess with my head.” She shook her head with her eyes out of focus, not believing it. “If it wasn’t for her, you and I wouldn’t have fought. I wouldn’t have gone through the pain that the mirror had caused. It’s her fault. It’s all her fault.”

“Hang on, you’re the one who went crazy when you got it,” Perry reminded her.

“I know that, but she instigated the whole thing. She set it all up to hurt me on purpose.”

“We don’t know that she wanted to hurt you. In fact, we don’t even know for sure if she did it.”

That was all Dita needed. She flipped her blanket off and stormed to the elevator. “Well, I’m going to fucking find out. Right now. Are you coming?”

Perry eyed her warily. “I don’t know if you can handle her in your current state of zombie brain, but is there really any way to stop you?”

“No.” Dita practically ran for the elevator, untethering her anger and letting it fly. “I’m pretty much running strictly on adrenaline, which will go really badly for her if she crosses me.”

Perry trotted in behind her, and the doors closed. “Should we have a safe word in case you go apeshit?”

“Good idea.” Dita thought for a second. “Purple rain.”

“Ooh. Done. Will you actually stop if I say it?”

“Probably.”

The elevator doors opened into Artemis’s domain, and Dita barreled down the moonlit path to the boulder where the Oceanids made camp. They scrambled for weapons as she approached, moving around their small fires with their eyes on her, and several drew their bows.

Dita held her hand up and knocked two down with a blast. “Artemis,” she called.

Artemis pushed the flap of her tent open and stepped out with her lips in a flat line. “Aphrodite.”

Dita stopped across from her. “You sent Echo to me with the mirror.”

Artemis’s hands were loose at her sides, and Dita made note of the dagger just visible in her boot and the other in her holster.

“I did. I believed that you might appreciate the opportunity to see him again.”

“Oh, I am so sure you did it out of the kindness of your heart.” The sarcasm cut through the air. “You cruel, twisted creature. You play with things you do not understand. How can you be so careless and vicious with the hearts of others? You have no concern for me or Josie or anyone, and now, you’ve thrown your player into the fire—and on purpose. It’s irresponsible and foolhardy and cavalier and…and…I don’t know. Fucked the fuck up.”

Everything grew darker by shades as Artemis began to glow, as if she were drawing all of the moonlight into her skin. “I do not answer to you, especially when you come into my home in the middle of the night just to fight.”

Nymphs lined up around Aphrodite with their bows drawn.

“I am not afraid of you, Artemis. I’ve been into the depths of Hades and lived through more than you can even fathom.” Dita knew her eyes were glowing as the wind whipped around her. “Tell your bitches to back off. I don’t want any of them to get hurt.”

“Do not threaten me.”

“I didn’t threaten you,” she said, her voice deadly calm. “I threatened them.”

“Purple rain.” Perry was tentative, her eyes bouncing between the goddesses.

Dita waved her off without even looking in her direction. “You have no idea how humans work, how love or emotions work. They’re like little playthings for you to destroy. Does it make you happy to cause them pain?”

Artemis’s eyes were dark as she dropped her chin, and her jaw set in a hard line. “I do not want Josie to be hurt.”

“But you’ve already hurt her, don’t you see? And now you have sent her after the lion with nothing but a slingshot. If she does get hurt, it’s nothing to you, isn’t it? Don’t you care? Do you care about anything? Have you ever cared about anything?”

“I have cared more deeply than you and the men you throw away. You speak to me of carelessness when you know nothing of devotion.” Artemis took a step toward her, seething and accusing. “How can the goddess of love be so blind to her own heart? You claim to love a hateful dog who would murder you if it meant no other could have you. Your other love is a vapid half-wit who has been dead for three thousand years. And then,” she scoffed, “there is your husband, who you have made a cuckold of for eternity. Could you truly be so empty? Really, it is only proof that you have never loved anyone but yourself.”

The words swallowed Dita whole and spit her out hot. Her face twisted as she rushed Artemis, shrieking like a Harpy.