"He doesn't have to be. You could spare him that."
"Why would I? Infatuation never lasts more than a breath or two. I'm sure I'll be bored with him the next time we meet. If we meet again."
"Don't let Agapa hear you say that. You'd hurt her feelings."
Bethany snorted. "The goddess of love can take her seeds and put them in a most uncomfortable place. I don't want her poison taking root in me. Ever."
Laughing, Chara wrinkled her nose. "Now that is the Bet'anya I know and love. Ever a pessimist."
"Ever a realist. You should try it sometime."
"No, thank you." Chara rocked up onto her tiptoes. "I prefer to dream and see the beauty in the world and all its possibilities."
"It shrivels and it dies. All things do."
"But not us," Chara reminded her. "We are eternal."
"Only with limitations."
Chara held her hands up. "I concede this fight. It's nice to see Her Holy Crabbiness back. I've missed you so."
Bethany was crabby and cantankerous. She'd always been that way. But for one brief afternoon, she had been lighthearted. And she'd laughed ...
"I must be getting sick."
And she had better things to do than waste time with some mortal nothing. She had a missing god to find before the goddess of destruction was unleashed and destroyed them all. That and that alone was what she needed to be focused on.
June 25, 9532 BC
Styxx held his breath as he made his way back to the small clearing where Bethany had said she'd be. It'd taken him hours to get away from his father and tutors. After yesterday, his father had taken to watching him much more closely and he'd been forced to sneak away.
Had he taken too long? Was she gone already?
Emotionally wrecked at the thought, he broke through the trees and winced as he saw no trace of her. Damn it! He'd missed her because of them.
Suddenly, he heard the faint steps of something moving away in the trees.
"Bethany?" he called.
The noise stopped instantly. "Hector?"
Relief flooded him so fast and furiously, he almost lost his balance. He rushed toward her voice and found her just a few feet away, in the dense woods. Dressed in a light green gown, with her hair pulled up into a beautiful cascade of falling curls, she had a basket on one arm and her pole in her other hand.
"I'm here." He let go of his horse to touch her shoulder so that she could locate his whereabouts.
She smiled instantly. "I thought you'd changed your mind."
"No. Never. I'm so sorry. I just couldn't get away any earlier."
Bethany shivered as he took her hand into his and kissed it. The warm, masculine smell of him filled her head and made her heart pound. A scary, unexpected urge to hug him went through her and she had to force herself to refrain. "I brought you some lamb and cheese with wine."
"I love cheese. It's one of my favorites." After taking the pole from her, he pressed something into her hand. "I brought you flowers."
She brushed her fingers over the small bouquet. Her smile widened at the softness of the petals. "Poppies?"
"They are, indeed."
"Thank you." Rising up, she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.