Page 17 of Pandora's Pain
More voices chimed through the little speaker, and his brows creased with annoyance.
Finally, he pressed a red button hard on the box. The voices continued to speak but he gave me his full attention.
“What are you doing?” There wasn’t aggression in his voice, but confusion.
“Just seeing what you do, I guess.”
Gods, did I sound lonely. Pathetically lonely.
He nodded, his attention flickering back to the voices for a moment. “You’re distracting.” He pushed a few papers around, avoiding my eyes.
“You didn’t seem too invested in the call. Sorry I interrupted your doodling.” I stepped away from him and he seemed to physically relax with the small amount of space between us. Quietly I made my way back to the door.
“You want to join us for dinner tonight?” His dark eyes met mine, holding more interest than they had a moment ago.
A warm feeling swirled through me. I nodded slowly, and the small gesture made his features soften.I knew I was tolerable looking. More than tolerable, according to the heated look in Zavier’s eyes.
The warm feeling clung to me the whole walk back to my room. When I was safely inside, my attention fell on the god draped across on the small tan couch. His legs hung off the end and I almost felt bad for him.
Almost.
His quiet snores filled the room. He was so peaceful. So angelic looking.
I kicked hard at his foot. He jostled awake in an instant.
“Guess who has another date tonight?”
His hands pushed against his eyes as he squinted up at me.
“Tolerable me, that’s who.” I settled in, not waiting for him to move as I sat on his legs at the end of the couch.
He made a grumbling sound instead of replying. He shifted away from me, burying his handsome face in the cushions.
Nearly an hour passed while I glared daggers at him. I was bored. Alex had been asleep since I returned, and it was starting to annoy the Hades out of me. Why couldn’t he just wake up, so I could gloat about my date and maybe get some money to go shopping. I’d only grabbed one dress yesterday. In hindsight, not my best plan, but I had no idea how long Alex was going to sleep for.
Maybe I should frisk him? Just to find where he’d stashed the money, not because of how he looked in those tight modern clothes of his.
Not my worst idea. In fact…
I crept over to the bed, looking around for his discarded clothing. I scowled at the crumpled mess I found. Not that I could talk; I had lived in captivity for a long time, dirt and squalor were things I was used to.
Crouching down, I began to search through his pockets, only stopping when something jangled. I didn’t want to wake him up. I stuck my hand into the jingling pocket and searched around, my fingers closing over something cold and hard. Could this be it?
I pulled the item out of his pocket and turned it over, a small gasp escaping me.
No. This couldn’t be right.
Rising to my feet so quickly it made my head swim, I rushed over to the closet and went onto my tiptoes to pull my box down from where I’d stashed it. I wasn’t naïve enough to think Alex hadn’t been sent her to spy on me under the guise of protection, but this was another step.
I slipped the ornate golden key into the lock on my box and twisted. The soft click confirmed all my suspicions.
Alex had the key that could lock me away—if my soul was inside the box again.
Was he intending to turn the lock once the sins were inside.
Or me?
Or maybe I could use this as my way of stopping the box from working? If I locked it, then there’d be no way I could send Ashton’s soul into it. Or anyone else’s for that matter. If my duty couldn’t be fulfilled, then I’d stay free longer. And they’d be safe for longer.
