Make Mine Nymph (Mirrorside #7)

1. Excuses

EXCUSES

ALEX

I’ve run out of excuses.

It was bound to happen eventually. For some awful reason, my twin has decided that I needed to put in more of an effort to get along with the huntsman. Orion—or, as Noelle calls him, Hunter—is her husband, and they’re a package deal, I’m told.

It’s been three months since I met my own soulmate.

And while Apollo’s opinion on Artemis’s companion has definitely colored the way I think of Orion, I understand why Noelle is so protective of the huntsman.

If anyone tried to get between me and Daphne, I’d give Apollo control so that they’d learn not to test one of the Twelve.

I’m a god. Even before I discovered that I was one, I’ve always been a bit of a cocky bastard.

Arrogant, too, as my feisty nymph delights in reminding me all too frequently.

I’ll protect her and I’ll love her, just like how I’ve always cared for my twin.

It doesn’t matter that we’re not blood. Doesn’t matter that, technically, I was in the Other for decades before Noelle St. James was born mirrorside.

She carries the soul of Artemis inside of her, so she’s my twin, just like Daphne Ackerly is my only chance at having the one thing I’ve always wanted.

A happily-ever-after.

Not that I’d admit that to anyone else. I have a reputation to protect, both as Alex Harcourt and Apollo, the arrogant god of far too much to mention.

In his myths and legends, he went through lovers—male and female both—faster than I could change my sandals, and while he chased the original Daphne, I’m the one she didn’t flee from.

I’m the one she chose.

Which, of course, is a good thing since I fell head over sandals for her reincarnation the moment I saw the dare written in every line of her beautiful face, stiletto in hand as she prepared to stand her ground against my pet python.

Then she stomped into the megaron, fury pouring off of that luscious body of hers, and I was a goner.

Not to mention the red hair. Zeus, but my gorgeous ginger really gets me going.

Back on the mirrorside, my smirk and my attitude hid another side of me.

I wanted love. I wanted affection. I always felt as if I was missing something, and when I ended up in the Other, I discovered what it was.

I was missing my eternal twin, plus the other half of my soul.

Apollo had thousands of lovers, thousands of soulmates for an insatiable god, but Alex…

I just wanted one.

I have her. In nearly all ways, I have my Daphne.

She lives in my palace, she’s part of my oikos, and the guarded look in her lovely green gaze has been gone for months now.

When I tell her honestly how much I love her—whether with words or in songs and poetry, another perk of being Apollo—she’s stopped with the impish shrug and a curt, “I know,” in that adorable New York accent of hers.

She repeats it back and, sometimes, she even tells me unprompted.

She gets along with my twin, too. I’ve known from the moment I met Daphne that family is important to her; of course, since she only arrived in the Other because she was searching for her missing cousin.

As soon as she agreed to stay with me, I introduced the two most important women in my life.

And, because I had no other choice, Daphne met the huntsman, too.

That was three months ago—and when I began with the excuses.

Now, I’m not a fool. I know part of the reason she decided to stay was because Willow can’t leave.

As the reincarnation of Persephone, Daphne’s cousin played her part long before my nymph ever arrived.

That’s because time works differently in the Other.

To Daphne, Willow was only gone for three days.

To Willow, she spent two seasons as Persephone before her cousin—with my generous help, of course—tracked her down in the Underworld with her new husband, Aiden, the most recent Hades.

I would’ve done anything to convince Daphne to give me a chance.

Considering how I almost lost her before I had her—thank you, Apollo—I was desperate.

After so long in the Other, I believed wholeheartedly that I’d one day meet my soulmate, though I expected it would all go wrong.

Every new life that Apollo has led since the beginning had, and if I ever doubted it, I just had to remember Cassandra.

And that was difficult since the curse another me placed on her made it so that no one believed her—until I finally realized how wrong that was and found a way to remove the curse.

Whatever my story was, whatever price I had to pay to be an immortal god in the Other, I hoped for a happy ending, though I doubted I’d get it.

Not because of anything Cassandra told me, either.

It’s just… in the Other, the magic wants us to play our part.

To relive our myths exactly as they were once told in order to create stability and balance.

It’s why we’re here. To keep the myths and the magic alive, regardless of the toll it takes on our human sides.

Until Noelle arrived seasons ago and found a way to change her story, no one else had. But then she did, and that’s when I started to hope again.

Pointless, really. In the end, I didn’t change mine.

Just like it happened ages ago, when Daphne discovered that I was Apollo, she ran and, I kid you not, she turned into a tree.

But Daphne… my Daphne… she didn’t take the first portal out of the Other.

And, yes, I know it was because of her cousin, but it was a little bit for me, too.

She stayed for me. She lives with me. She loves me.

But will she stay with me forever?

Or will she pull an Apollo and change me out for another lover when she gets bored?

It’s almost unfathomable. A god like me, worried that another, lesser male will catch her eye.

But that’s Alex, I guess. Apollo would be insulted, I’m sure, but I’d be heartbroken.

I want to make my nymph mine in all ways, but nothing is tying us together anymore.

Our story’s been told. The magic paid. If she wants to walk away from me right now, I can’t stop her.

And Orion, godsdamn it, is a handsome bastard.

I’m being ridiculous. As much as it turns my stomach to think of it, my twin and her huntsman are sleeping together.

In the Other, where soulmate bonds are real, the physical act adds another layer to that tie.

Even if Noelle didn’t wear his ring on her finger, anyone looking at them can tell that they’re fated to spend the rest of their days together.

He’s not just her companion, he’s her husband, and he adores Noelle.

He’d never cheat on her, just like I know that Daphne wouldn’t stray while she tells me she loves me.

But we don’t have that bond. Not yet. And as much as I’m dying to make her mine, I worry that she’ll reject me the same way that the first Daphne rejected Apollo.

I don’t know if I can take it.

So, instead, I make excuses so I can keep Daphne to myself.

Especially since, for months now, Noelle has been pushing to have some “girl time” with just her and Daphne, and I’ve been finding ways to refuse.

Not because I worry about what my sister will tell my soulmate when I’m not there, but because Noelle is also pushing me to get to know her husband better so that we’ll all get along.

With a snort, I remember the bright and cheery way Noelle suggests we get together for “double dates”. Please. If I’d rather keep Daphne away from Orion, that’s nothing compared to how I’d avoid him myself if I could.

Apollo, in so many ways, is a petulant god.

He’s pleased that we have Daphne in our palace, though he can’t understand why she still sleeps in her own room in her own bed instead of in mine.

Luckily for me, now that I played my part here in the Other, it’s easier to keep him quiet.

He rarely rises up these days, and I’m glad.

I just want to have my twin in my corner and my soulmate at my side, and if there’s one god who can screw that up for me, it’s Apollo.

Having me play nice with Orion? That’s a surefire way to get a rise out of the sun god who, millennia later, still despises the one male who tempted his maiden twin to fuck.

Me? I like sex. It’s been four decades since I’ve had any myself, and though the nymphs who always seem to track me down have been more than willing to sleep with me over the seasons I’ve been Apollo, I…

I couldn’t do it. Alex couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right, and even if I’m one of the Twelve, that just makes it worse.

I know what I look like. You don’t get as arrogant as I am without a good reason to be.

I could hop from nymph to nymph and, in the Other, no one would think twice.

But Alex would. And, stubborn as I am, I’m not just Apollo. I’m Alex, and Alex knows better than to sleep with someone just because they’re attracted to what he is instead of who he is.

Daphne could care less that I’m a god. She told me so herself.

The power I have in this world? It doesn’t faze her at all.

Now, my looks definitely make her lusty—and I’m vain enough to preen when my Daphne touches my arm or runs her fingers through my hair—but when she admits that it’s my surprisingly generous nature that she can’t help but love, it takes all I have not to drop to my knees in front of her then and there.

So what if I’m a god? I’ll be the first of us to worship a wood nymph.

I’ve always said I was generous. She’s the first who sees it. The first who sees me.

And I want her. I want her so bad it feels like I’ll die at times if I didn’t get to have her.

I didn’t realize how hard it was to hide an aching erection beneath the Other fashions, and I finally understand why Orion wears his hooded cloak.

When Daphne touches me, I go as hard as stone—and, thanks to my chiton, she knows it.

She teases. My ball-busting soulmate loves to tease, but that’s all she does. Unlike Kyrene and Melia, she never invites me to her room, and I can’t bring myself to offer her to join me in mine. Because if she refuses? I don’t know how I’ll take it—or how Apollo will.

So I leave things as they are. It’s only been a season, fall turning to winter on this side of the mirror, and Daphne is still here.

She’s made herself comfortable in my palace—at my insistence—and she’s looking forward to spring, when her cousin will visit her and Aiden will decide whether or not he wants to support the rest of us in fighting against Kronos.

My father isn’t so happy with his brother.

As Hades, Aiden is a powerful piece in Zeus’s plan to bring balance to both worlds: the Other and mirrorside.

Zeus and Hera, my stepmother dear, have been playing matchmaker recently, their latest scheme in making it so that the Other realm has enough balance to keep it thriving.

No balance, no Other. And while I could survive a return to the mirrorside, and so could my soulmate, the magic won’t let her cousin go.

Neither will Hades. And that means that, despite my only loyalties belonging to my sister, my soulmate, and my snake, I have to do whatever I can to make Daphne happy.

Which is precisely how I find myself sitting down for a meal with Daphne, Noelle, and the huntsman.

At least, I’d thought it was just a meal. A quick vegetable stew—since Daphne was a guest, and I insisted—a couple of pats on Dudley’s head, and Daphne and I could return to the palace to spend some time together alone.

But, see, I find it hard to deny my sister anything. With Daphne, it’s impossible. When the two of them gang up on me and Orion, I know it’s a lost cause so I don’t even try.

I’ll give the huntsman credit. He’s a smarter man than his brawn and brute and reputation suggests. When he realizes Noelle has gotten an idea in her head, he doesn’t argue. With a solemn, “‘Course, darlin’,” he just gives her whatever she wants.

And what she wants? Is to know which of us is a better shot. Now, I’d say it’s a fair enough bet that I could shoot the hood off of his cloak if anyone let me, but she suggested a contest.

That’s the goddess in her coming out. Zeus knows none of us can refuse a contest.

I’m no exception. Neither, it seems, is her Hunter.

But that’s how I know that my twin is up to something.

She volunteers Daphne to be judge, but then says that we should go practice first. She offers the huntsman the charmed bow Hephaestus made for her, but he shakes his head and returns with one of his many weapons from the hunter’s cache he keeps; I’d brought my own since I was leading Daphne through the dark woods to bring her to Noelle’s shabby cabin.

With a shooing gesture, she sends us away while the two women stay behind with Dudley.

Of course. I know my twin. Noelle’s been dying to get Daphne alone, and the only way she could do that was if she managed to pawn me off on the huntsman. I’d come up with excuse after excuse to keep my firecracker of a nymph in my sight, but Noelle found my weakness.

I refuse to let anyone best me in a contest.

Especially Orion.