Page 56 of Pandora's Pain
“Tell me, Pandora, how do you know everything? How do you fit in so well if you’ve been locked in a box for thousands of years?” he demanded.
Of all of them, I hadn’t expected him to be the most antagonistic over this. He was kind of being a dick about it. I liked him much better when he was just naked and quiet all the time.
Ah, the good old days.
“That’s the gods’ doing,” Alex answered for me.
“They gave her the tools to be able to live in this world, including any information needed.”
“So, you’re like a walking encyclopedia?” Zavier’s eyes lit up as he asked, and a small smile threatened on my face. I was glad his opinion of me hadn’t changed too much then.
“Pretty much,” I responded, before turning to Alex. “Wait, you saidthey, shouldn’t that bewe?”
Horror flashed over his face as my question sank in.
“We need to talk.”
Chapter Twenty-One
I was in Ashton’s bedroom at least, though this wasn’t quite the way I’d had in mind. Not with a confused looking god in front of me and Ashton very firmly on the other side of the closed door.
“What?” I demanded of him.
“You’re my punishment,” he blurted out.
“I’m what?” I half shouted.
“Zeus caught me making small talk with one of his favorite concubines and assumed more than there was.”
I laughed sharply. “So, you’re not the god of the moment then? Does it hurt your fragile ego not to be the favorite?”
His pretty eyes narrowed into thin slits to stare down on me.
“Is nothing ever serious with you? I just told you I’m in the same shit boat you are, and you’re mocking me.”
“I so rarely ever get to mock the gods. And you’re so good at being mocked, Alex.” My arms folded across my chest, and he mirrored the stance, looking much more intimidating than I did.
If I was being honest, I was only teasing him to take my mind off of the events of the day. Everything was laid out now. I had nothing to hide and everything to lose. So, yes, I was trying to distract myself a little bit from what my future would hold.
It held more pain. I knew it would. I‘d admitted to a room full of people that I was Pandora, sent here to steal their lives away simply to save my own.
And in doing so, I basically admitted I’d never be able to do it. I’d never be able to steal their lives the way the gods did mine. I should have just conceded right then and there.
“I’m trying to tell you something. If you’d just listen.” The somber look in his eyes pinned me in place.
It sank a twirling feeling all through my stomach. A quietness pushed into the space between us. Slowly, he lowered himself until he was kneeling at my feet. He leaned forward, his broad shoulders pressed against my legs in a way that made me shift against his body.
I know you don’t believe me and I know I’m the last person you’ll ever trust, but I’m on your side.
His unspoken words drifted through my thoughts. They sent a shiver across my skin as they repeated over, and over, and over, again.
It’s something he’d never be able to say out loud. It’s something I shouldn’t have believed.
He was a god.
But he wasn’t one of them. And I believed him entirely.
