If you’ve been wishing and dreaming for a Midnight Ruin excerpt, then you’re in luck because we’ve got the goods!
Midnight Ruin will release on January 16, 2024, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve been counting down the days until that very moment. Is there anything better than a brand-new Katee Robert book? Definitely not. Luckily for us, she puts out several of them a year.
This one is Dark Olympus #6, and it follows the story of Charon, Eurydice, and Orpheus. Yes, you read that right—Orpheus isn’t just Eurydice’s ex; he’s the man who’s trying to beg for her forgiveness.
All three of these characters have made appearances throughout the Dark Olympus series to varying degrees. Charon is Hades’ right-hand man, while Eurydice is Persephone’s youngest sister. Orpheus, brother to Apollo, was in a relationship with Eurydice until he made a decision that changed both their lives forever—and nearly got her killed in the process. Since that moment, which took place in the very first book, he’s been cast in a villainous shadow.
Needless to say, I was surprised when we discovered that Midnight Ruin would focus on a relationship between all three characters. I never doubted that Katee would be able to redeem a character such as this, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely curious to learn what it will take for him to get back into Eurydice’s good graces—and impress Charon in the process.
Thankfully, we don’t have to wait much longer to receive the answers to all of our burning questions. In the meantime, we’ve got an exclusive Midnight Ruin excerpt to tide you over until January. In it, we see Orpheus cross the bridge into the Lower City and then happen upon Eurydice in a, well, compromising position.
Exclusive ‘Midnight Ruin’ excerpt
I don’t even try to sleep after Charon leaves. His words keep rattling around in my head, but the thing that has me pacing around my apartment, unable to stay still, is the realization that things really are over with Eurydice. They must be if she’s moving on with him.
I don’t fault her for that. I don’t even try.
We were never going to get back together. I don’t deserve that, even if in my heart of hearts, I desperately want a second chance. That old saying about you not knowing what you’ve got until it’s gone is far too accurate. The problem is that once you’ve done something to lose that priceless person, you don’t deserve them back.
But if she’s not able to move on…
“No.” I shake my head, hard. “We’re not going down that road.” I’m barely holding on as it is. Hope will destroy me utterly. All this time, I’ve said I just want to be able to apologize. Get closure. All that shit. Hoping that Eurydice will do anything but spit in my face is a fool’s dream.
I turn for my door, barely pausing to grab my jacket. Maybe I am a fool. It’s the only explanation I have for finding myself, less than an hour later, standing at the Cypress Bridge.
I’ve never been to the lower city. Initially that was because no one in the upper city crossed the River Styx. Then, when Hades went public, I sure as fuck wasn’t going to get an invite. In my time spent drinking alone in bars over the last couple months, I’ve heard people brag about trying to cross the bridge without an invitation. Apparently it’s painful enough that all of them were driven back to the upper city, telling tales comparing just how far they made it before the sensation was too much.
I don’t like pain. I never have. It’s sure as fuck not something I seek out in my life, though I’ve had plenty dogging my heels since I fucked things up with Eurydice.
Penance.
This is just one component of it. She was hurt that night. Because of my actions. Because of the choices I made. Because I valued my ambition more than I valued the woman I loved.
I deserve a little pain. More than a little.
I take a deep breath and start across the bridge. The fog makes it feel otherworldly. Dangerous. Downright malicious, even.
Eurydice is on the other side of this bridge, and if I have to go through torment to reach her to make things right, it’s nothing less than she experienced. I can do this. I have to do this. Neither of us will ever get the closure we need if I don’t.
At first I think it’s nerves causing my skin to prickle. But with each step I take, the prickling gets stronger. First irritating. Then painful, as if I left acetone on my broken skin. No, not acetone. Fucking acid. I flinch and duck my head, but it makes no difference. The sensation follows me, digging in to my skin regardless of how I hold my body.
I’m not even halfway.
“It doesn’t matter. I can do this” I pick up my pace, or I try. The soles of my feet ache as if I’m walking on knives. Sharp, stabbing motions pierce my soles, the feeling so real, I actually turn back to look if I’ve left bloody footprints in my wake. There’s nothing but fog and concrete, and if that’s not a metaphor I refuse to examine, I don’t know what is. The upper city bank is no longer visible behind me.
The temptation rises to give up. Agony sears me and I know if I just turn around, just let my cowardice guide me, the pain will relent.
Instead, I turn back toward the lower city. For her. Putting her needs first for once.
I grit my teeth and keep going, staggering step after step. My world narrows down to putting one foot in front of the other. The knives beneath my soles turn into a fiery furnace that feels like it’s melting flesh from bone. The burning of my skin morphs into a thousand pinpricks of agony, as if I’m being swarmed by a cloud of invisible insects.
For her. You’re doing this for her, you pathetic monster. What are a few moments of pain compared to what she’s suffered as a result of your actions? You say you care about her, that you want her to be happy and free? Prove it.
The voice in my head almost sounds like Charon, but it drives me harder, faster forward. I could weep with relief when I see the other arch if I had the strength for it. I don’t. Instead, I just keep working my way, one shambling step after another, toward it.
Just when I think I can’t handle it anymore, that the pain will actually kill me, or at least send me to my knees to suffer in agony until someone comes along to put me out of my misery, I step through the arch.
Everything stops.
The lack of torment hurts almost as much as the pain itself. I stagger forward. “Fuck. Oh fuck.” Every breath is sweet bliss. I carefully shake out my arms and legs, testing to see if I’m really okay. Again, I look behind me, certain I left a bloody path along the stones of the bridge. Again, I see nothing.
I seem none the worse for wear, but that doesn’t stop a shudder from working through my body. I don’t understand how the boundaries work—not the one around Olympus, and not the one between the upper city and lower city. I don’t know if I believe in magic, but it’s hard to argue with it when I’m still feeling the phantom bites on my skin. I shudder again and rub my arms, willing away the memory of what I just experienced.
There’s nothing to do but look around. I didn’t have much of a plan when I set out from my apartment earlier, and now I realize how foolhardy it was to come down here.
I don’t even have my phone. I’m lucky I remembered to grab my keys and lock my door behind me.
It’s the middle of the night. It’s not as if I can just ask around until someone tells me where to find Eurydice. Besides, I already know where to find her. Hades and Persephone’s house. She’s been mostly living with them for the last year.
Hades isn’t Zeus, who marks his presence in his territory with a giant-ass skyscraper that can be seen from every corner of the city. Even so, surely it won’t be that hard to find his home. I don’t relish facing down him and his wife…mostly his wife…but it’s a necessary step to get the closure both Eurydice and I need.
For me to apologize. To verbalize all the ways I’ve failed her and acknowledge that I can never properly make it right. To give her the closure she needs to be able to finally move on and be happy.
With Charon.
I pick a direction at random and start walking. Maybe I’ll just wander around until businesses start opening up and go from there. If I see someone before then, I’ll ask them. As far as plans go, it leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s the best I have.
I almost don’t pay attention to the parked car as I approach. It’s a black sedan that looks identical to the ones the Thirteen and legacy families use to travel around, which means it’s nondescript but high-end. That gives me pause enough to slow down. I see the fogged windows and grimace. “Not my business,” I mutter and start to pick up my pace.
Then I hear the moan.
I would know that moan in my sleep. High and breathy and with just a hint of desperation that says she’s close to coming. Eurydice.
Impossible.
‘Midnight Ruin’ publishes on January 16, 2024
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Read all of my Dark Olympus reviews: Neon Gods | Electric Idol | Wicked Beauty | Radiant Sin | Cruel Seduction