Page 65 of Hunters and Prey

“They don’t. Many of our productions are created in the style of Ancient Greece, and there is no shortage of tragedies. It…was nice to watch something uplifting and bright.” She wanted an outfit like Wonder Woman’s costume and wondered if their armorer, Master Alohi, would consider accepting a custom commission.

“What’s it like to live in Atlantis?”

“What’s it like to live in America?” she countered.

“Struggle and beauty,” he replied, shrugging. “Not perfect, but no country is. Just wondering what kind of troubles your people encounter and how they differ from ours.”

Her lips pursed and silence fell between them before she answered. “We have no trouble with weapons regulations usually. Not like America. Our trouble is the smuggling of magical goods from elven lands. And our caste system. It is outdated, and many want to see change but…” She rolled a shoulder.

“Lemme guess: government doesn’t care to change it because the people in charge benefit from the current state of discrimination?”

“Yes.”

“Sounds a lot like America. There isn’t a day that I don’t wake up and wonder how much worse things can become.”

“Then why do you serve when your country sounds so dark and dismal?” she asked, tilting her head. “There doesn’t seem to be any light. Any happiness. Every news report I read of your people shows the hatred in America.” She paused. “In the rest of the world as well, but so much more in America. Why risk your life for them?”

He shrugged. “The persistent hope that with the good I do, I can erase some of the evil and make the place a little less dark, I guess. I’m not a politician to fix our laws, but I know how to kill. I know how to protect others. It has to start somewhere, and everybody has their part to play. Mine is protecting others and doing what I can for MIRAGE whenever some magical badass steps out of line and threatens humankind.”

“That is…” Elpis pressed her lips together and gathered her thoughts. “Very honorable, Colonel Rossi.”

“Call me Matteo.”

“Elpis,” she murmured, tilting her head to him.

Matteo laced his fingers behind his head and gazed at the ceiling. “You should visit America sometime.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do in your country.”

“America’s a big place. You could do a different activity every day for months and never run out of anything to do. You know, if your cashflow is right.”

Elpis chuckled. “My savings is adequate.” In fact, she hadn’t been on an actual vacation in nine years.

Where the hell had the time gone?

Matteo pinned her under his green stare, dark brows rising. “Yeah? If you’re ever in Philadelphia, I’ll show you around. I’ve only lived about half my life there—lived the rest growing up in Brooklyn with my mama—but Philly is home now, you know?”

“All right. Maybe I’ll take you up on that.”

“Maybe I’ll show you the time of your life.” He grinned, so heartbreakingly handsome it made her chest hurt in a dull throb behind her breastbone.

I’m not here for romance.

Telling herself that didn’t change the fact that Colonel Matteo Rossi had to be the sexiest of all humans in existence, and every time she gazed into those emerald eyes, a small part of her understood why her Oceanid ancestors seduced mortal men for entertainment.

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