Epilogue

As more days passed with Dax on Olympus, and our courtship having ascended to an intimacy that demanded encores daily, Dax became like a different man in the company of my fellows. No longer did he stare in awe at any of the twelve true Olympians or my other powerful contemporaries. He'd smile and briefly bow his head before continuing on his way like he belonged, for belong he did—even in the salon of the gods with our many revelers making merry around us.

I had gone to fetch us some wine, leaving Dax and Aikos to lounge upon my platform. My mortal worshipers were absent, having gone too long neglected. However much they were my favorites for their talents in my domains, none held my heart like Dax, and so they had sought revelry elsewhere or returned to the earth.

My mother, Leto, was chatting with Dax now. Just in passing, but she liked him very much. He had won her over easier than Artemis. Once seeing Mother's approval had been given, Artemis began to show more liking of Dax too. She had even taken to trying to teach Dax to be better with a bow.

She had her work cut out for her there, but he was improving.

Dax was still quite terrified any time my father approached him, which I tended to help him avoid. Zeus did have a reputation for defiling anything beautiful he happened upon, but he would have to content himself with Aikos.

And Ganymede.

And my mother.

And Hera.

And all his other lovers he had once again regained the virility to bed.

But Dax was mine. Mine, and I wanted our bliss to last forever. Gods can indeed feel dread and nervousness when the stakes are high and the outcome uncertain. I was still working up the courage to ask if Dax wanted forever too, for it was a commitment far greater than courtship.

I did not know how Aikos contended with all of us and won, but Olympus was a better place now because of him, with the surliest or more mournful of my kin in better spirits than perhaps ever before. I couldn't help but pause my steps in my return to my dais to look around at the others.

Hephaestus and Poseidon, both happier with their wives. Hades and Persephone, as happy as ever with each other and occasionally adding a third to their bed. Zeus more or less behaving himself. Ares no longer hiding that he very much enjoyed having his young warrior bedmate to dominate him. Even Dionysus allowing himself to revel as much as providing revelry to others.

Eros was the one who made me pause in my perusal, for he was not alone with fawning mortals, but sat upon his dais with Zephyrus.

A vision struck me of the pair in Eros's chambers, on his bed, slowly disrobing each other with Zephyrus touching the rarely seen burn scar on Eros's side where Psyche had spilled oil after seeing his face. Then Eros just as tenderly touched the scar I had left near Zephyrus's temple.

I returned to the present, unsure if what I had seen had already happened or would happen tonight. Either way, I was… happy for them. Some of us bore scars from what others had done to us, some from what we did to ourselves. Scars fade even if not gone forever, even if not gifted away by a capable god, and wounds heal. Hearts mend too. They do. They do, for mine finally had as well.

Just like Aikos had mended us all.

But one was missing, I realized. Where was he? Where was—

"Hermes," I hissed upon traveling my gaze from his empty platform to my full one, where instead of Dax talking to my mother, he was now being accosted by Olympus's trickster.

I hastened my pace to return and tuned my ear to the vibrations in the air, picking up their voices as effortlessly as I could understand all sound as the god of music.

"Yes, naturally, I am the closest of my brethren to our dear Apollo," Hermes was saying, lying between Dax and Aikos, with full attention on the former. "We have so much in common, you know. Ingenuity. The petite but powerful packages we present. Our tastes in bed partners." He lowered his voice as he said that and dared begin walking his fingertips up Dax's thigh.

I would roast him alive for—

"Really?" Dax purred, writhing as if to encourage the touch, which stuttered my pace to still again. "And do you know what my tastes are, my lord Hermes?"

"Do. Tell." Hermes grinned.

Dax's eyes flicked to Aikos, who resisted a laugh and nodded, as if some secret message had passed between them. Dax took hold of Hermes's hand, almost as if to lead it higher up his thigh, only to expertly flip him backward with that leverage like in a wrestling match, landing him atop Aikos, who seized him and hauled him into his lap.

"My tastes are to not always follow on the heels of my friend," Dax said, all seduction gone, "however adequate his tastes may be."

"Did he just call me adequate?" Hermes tilted his head back to look at Aikos.

"I was about to call you eunuch," I warned, finally finishing my trek through the crowd to join them and handed Dax and Aikos their fresh goblets of wine. "We might share the lyre, Hermes, but I have limits."

"I was only testing him!" Hermes defended, righting himself upon Aikos and settling into his new seat. "Clearly, young Dax is as loyal as our Aikos is versatile."

"No truer words." Aikos chuckled.

"I believe there may be one set that is truer." Dax set aside his wine, shifted to the end of the dais, and took my hand to pull me closer. "My guiding light, my morning star, my beloved, for now and always, I will never stray or leave your side as is in my power to promise. I love you, Apollo, and all that you are."

The tears came so quickly, I couldn't respond at first or yet lean down to kiss Dax as I desperately wanted to. I first glanced at Aikos, for the view he had of us and those words… I knew them. I knew all of it.

Because I had seen this moment through Aikos's eyes.

"Apollo?" Dax drew me back to him with a quiver and worry in his voice.

"Tears of joy, I assure you!" I pulled his hand close to my heart. "For this moment I did see coming. Forgive me for ever doubting I could be so lucky or at all worthy enough to have it come true. I love you, Dax," I said, and then, finally, did I lean down to taste his lips.

"Urg," I heard from Hermes like the most petulant of taunts. "Thank goodness you are not like that, Aikos."

Aikos laughed. "But thank goodness some are, or we would have far fewer epics to write about. Come along, Hermes."

"Come, shall I—"

"And help me find our good friend with his golden cup. I think it might be needed."

Aikos was ahead of me, but I had seen that too through his eyes. A drink from Ganymede's cup. Still, first I had to ask, and even feeling confident in the answer, nerves stirred in my belly, as I pulled my tongue from tangling with Dax's and our lips parted.

"Should I worry about those two?" Dax asked, tugging me forward to join him on the dais.

"Always," I said as I snuggled in close.

He chuckled. We might have been in a salon surrounded by others, revelers of all kinds, both mortals and gods, but with Dax, on my platform, we also could have been alone in the heavens or in my chambers.

I kissed his fingertips, my beloved's fingertips, and prepared to ask him to spend eternity as a god by my side. "Dax?"

"Yes, my love?"

Finally.

Finally.

I unclasped my wrist cuff and slid off the ring it attached to. I placed both on Dax's left hand, with the ring on the same wedding-band finger.

"Dear Dax, I have a question for you."