Page 6 of Locking Down Qetesh

"You're ace," she blurted.

I pulled my hand back and touched my ring, trying not to feel too surprised by her observation.

Her eyes widened. "I'm so sorry, that was really rude."

"It's fine," I assured her. "I wear it so people know. Though I'm surprised you know what it means. Most people don't."

"I'm known as a sex goddess," she murmured. "It's my job to know these kinds of things."

"Known as?" It was an interesting way for her to phrase it, especially when I'd done my research on her after I'd gone home last night. Not that I'd been able to uncover much. She was a little bit of a mystery to me, and to the world if my search history was anything to go by.

She cleared her throat. "Yes."

"So you're not one?" I shouldn't ask, but my curiosity got the better of me.

"It's complicated."

I resisted the urge to ask more. Not having had a lot of experience getting to know any gods before, I had no idea what to believe and what not to about them.

"It doesn't really work like that," she said after a pause. "I was a dryad before I became immortal. Some people considered me to be a nature goddess, some a protection goddess, and some a goddess of sex and beauty."

"That's a lot of things to try and be all at once."

"Mmhmm. The latter is the one that stuck."

"I had no idea."

She shrugged. "That's just how it is. Most gods don't actually have all the magic assigned to them by their human followers. That's just me. The powers of a dryad, and not much more than that."

"If you ignore the fact you're immortal."

"Anyone can become immortal," she pointed out. "You just have to know the right person."

"I wouldn't even know where to start."

"You ask a god, and hope that they say yes."

"Have you ever made anyone immortal?"

She nodded. "Most gods have at one point or another."

"Huh, that's not something I knew about either."

"Even though you work for one of the most notorious love goddesses of the moment?"

"That's a recent development," I told her. "And I wasn't actually aware that I was being hired by a goddess until after she'd offered me the job."

"That sounds like Aine. Hopefully, you weren't too shocked to learn that gods exist."

I laughed. "I already knew. I'm a dryad myself."

"Ah. I didn't know that."

"I'm surprised you weren't able to tell that because of something I was wearing."

She raised an eyebrow. "Should I have?"

"No. I don't tend to advertise that I'm a dryad to anyone who doesn't already know. Even other dryads."

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