Chapter 40 Canvas of lies
IRIS
I storm out of the building, barely remembering to shut the study room door behind me. My heart is hammering in my chest, my thoughts spinning. Zeus. Darian. Me.
Of all the people who could have told Zeus about the mark… only one name sticks.
Daisy.
She’s the only other person who knew. The only one I ever trusted with something that fragile. And now? Now, everything is unraveling. Darian’s being cornered, Zeus is playing a game I don’t understand, and I feel like a pawn someone’s moving without my permission.
I don’t hesitate. I don’t text. I don’t call. I head straight for the art building, my boots thudding across the campus walkway as the sky darkens with early evening clouds. Daisy usually stays in the studio after classes, finishing commissions or painting for fun.
And she’s there. I can already smell the paint through the crack in the door.
But when I push it open, my feet freeze on the spot.
They don’t see me at first.
Daisy is in Zeus’s arms, their bodies pressed tightly together, lips locked. Her hands are tangled in his shirt, his fingers slipping beneath the hem of hers. It’s not just a kiss, it’s the kind you save for when the world melts away.
I feel like I’ve been slapped.
I don’t make a scene. I just cough. Loud enough to get their attention.
They jerk apart, startled. Daisy’s face goes scarlet, eyes wide with embarrassment, mouth slightly parted like she’s trying to form words. Zeus’s face, on the other hand, is cold. Hard. Not even a flicker of guilt. Just that same stoic, unreadable expression he wears like armor.
He grabs his bag without a word, leans down, and presses a chaste kiss to Daisy’s cheek like I didn’t just walk in on him devouring her face. Then he walks past me and out the door, brushing my shoulder on his way out.
I turn to Daisy.
She’s fidgeting, brushing her hands down her sides, avoiding eye contact. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”
I cross my arms, biting back the thousand things I want to scream. “Right. Because sneaking around behind people’s backs is such a private thing.”
She finally looks at me. “It’s not what you think.”
“Really?” I laugh, dry and humorless. “Because it looked pretty clear to me.”
Her jaw tightens, and I can see she’s gearing up to defend herself, but I cut her off before she can twist this around.
“What have you been telling Zeus about me?”
Her expression shifts instantly from confusion, to disbelief, then a flicker of offense. “What?”
“You heard me,” I snap. “What have you told him, Daisy? About the mark? About me and Darian?”
She stares at me like I’ve slapped her. “Are you serious right now?”
I laugh again, sharp and unkind. “You’re sleeping with the one person trying to ruin Darian, and I’m supposed to believe you’ve just been keeping secrets for me?”
“I’m not sleeping with him,” Daisy says quickly, taking a step forward like that makes it better. “It’s not…It’s not like that.”
“No. Don’t Iris me.” I cut her off, voice sharper now. “I trusted you. I told you things I couldn’t tell anyone else.”
“And I didn’t betray that,” she insists, her voice shaky but stubborn. “Just because you saw us kiss doesn’t mean I’ve been telling him anything!”
“I don’t care if you’re sleeping with him or not,” I snap. “That’s not the point. The point is, you’re close enough to him that I can’t trust you because somehow he knows things he shouldn’t and you’re the person I can think of.”
Her face falls, but I’m too far gone to soften it now.
“You picked him, Daisy. Whether it was for a night or for more, I can’t look at you and not see the reason everything’s falling apart.”
“I never told Zeus anything about you!” she fires back, voice rising now. “Don’t stand there and accuse me like I’m some spy he planted.”
“You don’t have to be a spy to slip up,” I say. “You talk. He listens. Maybe you didn’t mean to betray me, but how am I supposed to believe anything when that-” I motion toward the space Zeus just left “-is happening behind closed doors?”
She pauses, then her voice rises defensively. “But wow, Iris. You really have the nerve to come in here and slut shame me for kissing someone?”
I blink. “What?”
“Don’t act clueless.” Her eyes are sharp now. “You’re judging me like you’re so innocent, when Darian spent the entire night in your bedroom this weekend.”
I suck in a breath, heat crawling up my neck.
She scoffs. “At least Zeus hasn’t made it into mine.”
I clench my jaw, pulse pounding. “So that’s why you told him? To sabotage me?”
Her face twists. “What? No!”
“You sure? Because that sounded a lot like bitterness.” My voice cracks, somewhere between anger and disbelief. “You couldn’t stand that I had something real, something mine, so you gave him just enough to ruin it.”
“I didn’t tell him,” Daisy says, quieter now. “I would never do that to you.”
But her voice isn’t steady. There’s a tremor there she can’t hide, and I latch onto it.
“I don’t know if I believe you,” I say softly. “Not when you're that close to him. You’re sleeping with someone who’s actively trying to ruin Darian’s life. Do you even care?”
Daisy’s face twists in pain. “I’m genuinely confused right now. You think I planned any of this? I don’t even know what’s going on!.”
I shake my head. “No. It didn’t just happen. You let it happen. And now you're standing there acting like I’m the one being unfair?”
“But you are! I’m not your enemy, Iris.”
“Then stop acting like a stranger.”
I don’t wait for her to respond. I walk out, heart pounding, throat tight, eyes stinging.
She didn’t deny it fast enough. Not for me to believe her. And even if she didn’t tell Zeus herself, I know he got that information from somewhere, and Daisy’s the only thread that connects me to him.
Trust is fragile. And right now, mine’s in pieces.