Inflexible | Fated Four: Book 1

Chapter Ten

*Clarissa*

Everyone in the ballroom was silent, but my sole focus was Arrow. I couldn't believe it. Was this real?

Arrow kissed my forehead tenderly.

"Oh my Gods," he whispered still in shock as he rested his forehead against mine, "You're real. You exist."

"Arrow," I sighed as he wrapped his arms around me. I breathed in his scent. It was like I was home. It was like I belonged in his arms.

"Clary," he whispered. I saw Nemesis grinning out of the corner of my eye. She was happy that none of the annoying minor Goddesses turned out to be Arrow's soulmate.

Aphrodite cleared the room and the Gods and Goddesses vanished. It was just me, Nemesis, the Four Fates, and Aphrodite left.

"It's time for you to complete your soulmate bond," she told Arrow and me.

Arrow's eyes widened and he gasped before stepping away from me. My heart ached, wanting him close and wondering why he had backed away.

"I can't," Arrow told the Goddess of Love and Beauty.

"Arrow—" Aphrodite began, but Arrow cut her off. 

"I won't subject her to that, Aphrodite!" Arrow thundered, his words were like the blade of a sword. They cut deep and made my heart bleed. He was rejecting me. Why?

"Arrow, you have to accept her!" Soren insisted.

"I can't subject her to this, Soren!" Arrow retorted, "I just can't." He sounded so broken. Then in a whirlwind of shadows he was gone. I dropped to my knees and Nemesis wrapped her arms around me, trying to soothe me as tears welled up in my eyes.

I let out a heart wrenching sob as tears began streaming down my cheeks. My heart shattered into a thousand pieces as the sting of his rejection hit me. Why did he do that?

Soren cursed under his breath. Ryder and Calix gave me sympathetic looks. Nemesis held me tighter as I cried.

Aphrodite knelt down next to me and placed a hand under my chin, gently lifting my head up so that I could look into her eyes.

"Why did he do that?" I asked as more tears steamed down my cheeks, "Am I not good enough for him? I mean...I know that I'm just a demigod."

"Oh Clarissa," Aphrodite said soothingly, "It's not that at all and don't you dare think otherwise. Being a demigod does not make you unworthy of his love."

"Then why did he do that?" I asked.

"Arrow's pain has been consuming him for centuries and the second that he accepts you as his soulmate, he'll risk subjecting you to his pain," Aphrodite told me.

"Our soulmates are meant to ease our pain," Soren told me, "And they can only do that if we allow them to share our pain. Arrow doesn't want you to experience his pain. He's scared of what it'll do to you."

"He loves you, Clarissa," Aphrodite told me, "You must know that."

"Maybe, but it's doesn't seem like he trusts me," I whispered.