Chapter XLI #2
Applause rippled through the circle, harp strings swelling to meet it.
This scene repeated with Blaine and Jessica and Liam and Brinley and Braden and Maggie.
With the first four couples matched, that left four couples and Demi. Asher had eliminated himself and wouldn’t be joining us.
As the circle of remaining cast members grew smaller, the air seemed to grow heavier.
“Carter and Laila, please join me.”
They moved slowly, hesitantly, as if the weight of their past still hung heavy between them. Yet when they met in the middle of the dais, their hands found each other, clinging tightly, as though holding on to the possibility of a second chance.
“I know the road for you hasn’t been easy,” I reminded them. “But . . . Is your love worth a second chance? Is it a match?”
They turned toward each other, eyes searching, hearts laid on the line. For a moment, silence hung heavy, the crowd leaned forward, waiting. Then, quietly, they spoke in unison:
“Yes.”
The crowd once again applauded.
I looked around at the darkening sky, panic now setting in. But the show had to go on.
“Cassie and Jonas,” I called next. I was interested to see how this would turn out. Their union bothered me, even though Demi never spoke ill about either one of them. In fact, she didn’t want to talk about it. It was odd.
They walked confidently across the stage, neither looking at each other nor at me.
“Yours might be the most controversial relationship of the season. Some might say you betrayed a friendship. Only you can answer if it was worth it. Are you a love match?”
Cassie burst out laughing, the sound unnaturally cutting through the clearing.
“Absolutely not.”
The crowd murmured, some in shock, others saying they knew all along it would never work out.
Jonas only shrugged, his face unreadable, but in his eyes I caught a hint of disappointment.
Huh.
Not that I cared. Especially after the smug bastard had asked me for a song for Demi and then groped Cassie the first chance he got.
I regretted never having sung it to her myself. Why hadn’t I? There was no time for me to reflect on past mistakes.
There were two couples left. And the sky had deepened into bruised purple, Venus gleamed like a herald of what was to come. Soon the moon would follow the planet named after my grandmother, and with it, the moment I dreaded most. Damn it. This couldn’t be it.
I rushed through Todd and Olivia, Diego and Fiona. Both couples agreed it was a match, though each hedged with similar reservations: “We’ll see how it goes in the real world.” Honestly, their words barely registered with me.
Because now there was only her.
I was required to call Demi onto the stage, though it was the last thing I wanted to do. My throat tightened, the title of “Architect of Love” curdling into irony. Why did it have to be her humiliation, to stand alone as the final woman?
The lanterns glowed brighter and the crowd hushed, almost as if they too knew that Demi’s life and heart hung in the balance, as the moon’s edge began to crest the horizon. Every beam of light felt like a spotlight trained on her.
I swallowed hard, forcing the words past the ache in my chest.
“Demi . . .”
She stepped onto the dais and tiptoed toward me, the golden fabric of her dress brushing against the wooden steps. Her eyes locked on mine, pleading, searching for a lifeline I could not give. But every part of me wished I could.
I wanted to reach for her. To shield her. To rewrite the script.
Titans, please help me. Help her. I silently pleaded.
“I fear I owe you an apology,” I said, my voice faltering, the microphone catching the tremor. “I promised you this season I would architect your love story, and I failed. You were right to question me. Even laugh at the title.”
Those words weren’t in the script, but I felt like I owed them to her, especially now.
The crowd shifted uneasily, the silence thick. It was unfair that Demi had helped every person in the group, yet she was left with nothing.
“Is there anything you would like to say?” I asked, hoping she would tell me what to do. How to save her.
Demi’s lips parted, but for a moment no sound came. She stood in the lantern glow, her hands trembling at her sides. Every eye was on her, waiting.
Junie’s words pounded in my head and my heart. Be very brave for Demi.
But how?
Then Demi squeaked out, “Well, I did my best to lay everything on the line.”
The words pricked me like a pin. Those were my father’s words that I’d repeated to Demi. His warning about soulmates who were unnaturally separated. Was Demi trying to tell me something?
I wasn’t her soulmate. I couldn’t be. And yet—what if I was? Or was that just wishful thinking?
I looked to the heavens for an answer as the sky above deepened into indigo. Venus gleamed, the moon’s edge rising, and I felt as if the heavens themselves were demanding an answer.
Another thought came to me. Demi had said the man she’d fallen in love with wasn’t in her past. That I wouldn’t find him there. What if he was in her present? Again, I dared to ask myself, what if it was me?
If it was how could I lay it all on the line for her? I only had minutes. Maybe seconds. And she knew I loved her and I would risk anything for her. But was that enough?
Maybe her knowing wasn’t enough. Perhaps I had to actually risk it all.
The crowd waited, and the crew grew uneasy waiting for me. The ceremony demanded its rhythm, but all I could hear was the echo of Demi’s words and the pounding of my heart.
I did the only brave thing I could think of. I was going to risk everything. My career, my reputation, even life as I knew it—all of it.
“Demi,” I whispered. “Maybe it’s not too late to architect your love story. Our love story.”
A collective gasp rippled through the circle before fading into a deafening hush. Even the harps ceased to play. But it didn’t take long for the crowd’s silence to collapse into murmurs. I didn’t care.
I drew Demi to me, her body trembling against mine, her eyes wide with shock and something else—something that looked like hope.
Above us, the moon crested the horizon, spilling silver light across her hair until it blazed like fire. I could feel that the gods themselves were watching. Her father. Zeus.
“My love,” I whispered, my voice breaking but steady enough to carry, so there was no question as to what I was doing.
What I was laying on the line. “No matter what happens tonight, I will search all the earth and heavens and even hell for you. Even if you were to forget who you are, I would find you and remind you. If I were a god among men, I would give that all up for you. I will only live in any world you are a part of. I love you.”
The words hung in the air as if waiting to see if they were enough to unlock Demi’s heart. The crowd froze, the ceremony suspended, and the world itself had paused to see how it would all turn out.
And then I felt it.
Every part of me connected with her heart. Our two halves snapped into place with a force that stole my breath. A rush of warmth, memories, and truth surged through me—and I heard it all, felt it all.
There was no doubt that the man she had fallen in love with was me.
And to my horror, she had locked her heart because of me. Her soulmate. The one who had rejected her, despised her, blinded by her disappointing appearance, by the clothes, the glasses.
And all along she knew. Because her goddess had recognized me for who I was. No wonder she’d believed that part of her had lied to her. Her “soulmate” had rejected her.
A sickness like no other rose in me. It was merciless, but I deserved it. My knees threatened to buckle, the dais tilting beneath my feet.
But just as the pain was about to consume me, light flooded through every vein, every breath.
All that Demi had done for me this summer became clear.
The fake drama she’d manufactured. The way she’d humiliated herself.
Even how she’d stayed away from me. Most importantly, her longing to have her heart back so that she could love me.
And . . . she did love me. I could feel it.
“Roman,” she breathed out.
She clung to me, her voice trembling. “My heart. I feel it. It’s mine again,” she cried. “And it’s yours too, if you want it.”
Was there any question? “Of course I want it.”
“Oh good,” she laughed. “I suppose you know everything now,” she whispered.
“Everything,” I whispered back. My lips inched toward hers, but before I could taste them, a crack of lightning split the sky, thunder rolling so violently it shook the dais beneath our feet. A few in the crowd screamed and some stumbled back, their faces all lit in brilliant flashes of white.
And then—Eros appeared. His normally hidden wings unfurled. His face beamed like I’d never witnessed before. He bowed to both of us.
“You have rectified my mistake. Thank you.”