Page 5 of Pandora's Pain
Finally, she stepped past us, forgetting me and the weird protector the gods thought could somehow help me.
This was going to turn into a circus, I just knew it.
“What is with you?” I asked, shoving hard out of his embrace, gold specks dancing around my fingers. What was with them? I hoped they'd go away, otherwise they were going to drive me mad.
His beautiful eyes grew wide as he looked down on me with ridicule. “That woman wanted to fuck you, Dora.”
“Stop calling me that. And no, she didn’t. She simply felt bad for running into me. Some people are just good people, Alex.”
“No. They’re not. Not anymore. Her hand was three inches away from jumping the border and diving into your panties.”
What was he even saying right now? “You’re delusional. You’re not going to be any help.”
Anger shook through his strong frame. “And you’re not going to recognize sin. Sin literally just felt you up in broad daylight and you thought she was just a good Samaritan. The gods knew you’d fail. We’re fucked.”
Doubt seeped into me, dropping hard to the pit of my stomach.
What if he’s right?
Chapter Three
"I'm confused. What are we doing here?" I asked Alex, who paced in front of me. Why he couldn't just relax was a little beyond me. Especially with the big soft bed in the room.
Then again, the big soft bed was mine. I didn't want him joining me on it and ruining my new luxury.
"You don't expect to go running around collecting sin right away, do you?" Alex replied.
A scowl pulled at my lips. He was going to just continue sucking all the fun out of my new-found freedom if he kept this up.
I was here in the real world for the first time in so long. I wanted to explore it all. I wanted to see it all and experience it all before the gods ripped it away once again.
"According to you, I wouldn't know sin if it was right in front of me," I parroted. I should have been insulted he thought that. I wasn't as naive as he seemed think. I couldn't be. Whether I liked it or not, I had opened that box. Sin was something I understood, even if I couldn't always recognize it.
On second thought... this was going to be more difficult than I'd first imagined.
"Which god are you anyway?" I blurted out, putting my hands out behind me and propping myself up so I could see him properly. I wouldn't be able to maintain this position for long, but this conversation would hopefully be short.
"What?"
"You heard me." I didn't recognize him, which meant he wasn't one of the original Pantheon. Or at least, not one of the ones who'd been powerful when I'd been given my box. Of course, that meant nothing. There'd always been hundreds of gods. No one could have known all of them.
"I can't tell you that."
"Can't or won't?"
His scowl almost rivaled mine. That was a won't then. No matter. I'd work it out in time. Or he'd slip up and actually tell me by accident. That was always a possibility.
"What's your plan, Alex?" I asked, drawing out his name and only just stopping myself from giggling as his scowl deepened. I must really have been getting on his nerves. Served him right for being so moody himself.
"I was hoping you'd have one." He glared at me as he said it, suggesting he didn't expect me to have one at all. He was just being a prick.
Lucky for me, two could play that game.
"I thought I'd just stand in the middle of the street and wait for them to come to me." I fluttered my eyelashes at him, hoping the move still worked even after thousands of years stuck in a prison.
Maybe I should have tried it on one of the gods back then. I might not have ended in this predicament if I'd done that. On the other hand, I might have been turned into a swan just so Zeus could get laid. That also wasn't exactly my idea of fun.
Yes, the gods had a weird history of retaliation. I was apparently too cherished to be turned into a pet. Or maybe I was considered a pet just the way I was.
