Page 98 of Sett and his King
"Hey I'm happy to be proven wrong, but I've never heard you talk about boys, girls or anyone in between."
Gene shrugged. "Well, yeah, no one was worth my time," he said.
"And Ani is?" I asked, barely able to hold back from smirking.
"Maybe. I guess we'll find out, won't we?" Gene was trying to brush it off, to appear nonchalant but I could tell he cared about the subject. About Ani. It was in his tone and the way his eyes attempted to glance at Ani but kept staring at me instead. It was in the way he fiddled with his fingers or the way he chewed his lip.
"Okay. Like I said, I'm not anyone's boss. As long as you kids are safe, it's nothing to do with me."
Gene rolled his eyes with a groan. "Goddess, Drew. Ani is not a kid. He's an ancient god."
"Hey!" Ani exclaimed. "Who are you calling ancient?"
Both Gene and Ani smiled and my heart grew bigger in my chest.
"Come," Gene said and offered his hand to Ani. "I'll show you my art."
Ani followed Gene and I dry-coughed.
"Is that what we call it now?" I said.
Yaya slapped my chest but she smirked too.
"That hurt you know," I told her.
"Oh shut up. It didn't." She took a deep breath and her expression turned more serious. "I'm so glad you're back. All of you. And the house is full of people again. It's been so long."
I glanced at Sett. "I like that too."
Sett smiled and moved his arms to the small of my back and pulled me closer to him.
"I'm still mad at you, you know," Yaya said.
I turned to her. "What? Why?"
"For not telling me what was going on all this time."
"Uhm…Yaya. I thought we'd established I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to."
Yaya's frown deepened. "Yeah, but you didn't want to. That's why I'm mad."
She had a point. I didn't know how she knew but yeah, even if I hadn't been compelled to keep the truth from her, I still wouldn't have told her. How could I have possibly told her I was being abused by a god and the same god had taken my brother captive and threatened to do the same to him? If that didn't kill her, the worry of trying to rescue him alone would.
Although, after everything that had happened today, something told me she was made of far stronger stuff than either me or Sett.
"I'm sorry. You're right. But thank you. If it weren't for you I don't think we'd have made it out alive."
Yaya approached us both and tapped my cheek then did the same to Sett. "You don't need to thank me. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you. All of you, huh? Welcome to the family, Sett."
Sett thanked her and then she pushed us toward the door.
"Go on. Get out of my kitchen now. I've got a feast for kings to prepare. And I'm sure you'd love to…debrief."
I raised an eyebrow. "I thought we were calling it ‘showing him my art’ now," I said.
"Well, since you're no artist you can call it debriefing. Or defilement. Either works."
"Yaya!"
