Page 13 of Deadly Games
Loki groaned in his sleep, but he took way too long to wake up on his own, so I threw his clothes on top of him. “Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. Fenrir’s still not back, so we’ve gotta go look for him.”
“Does he do this often?” Kore asked, still looking drowsy even though she was dressed. My eyes couldn’t help but linger over her curves, now that I was so well-acquainted with what was underneath those clothes.
She had a killer body, I’d give her that. And a way with her tongue, if the sounds Loki had made last night were any indication. I still remembered how it had felt to be inside of her. To feel her soft body pressed up against mine, so deceptively fragile. As I’d imagined, she was just as fiery in bed as she was in everything else, but I wasn’t expecting the new vulnerable side she’d shown last night.
Oddly enough, that was the thing that made her more dangerous than anything else.
I just hoped it wasn’t obvious.
“From time to time,” Loki answered, pouring out of bed like molasses. He struggled into his jeans, looking decidedly less than godly.
“Hopefully he hasn’t gotten into too much trouble,” I sighed, leading the way out of the room. To my relief, the hallway was empty. I’d dealt with my share of disapproving fathers in my life, but I still wasn’t eager to find out how Ares would react. Then again, he was the one who’d let us share a room.
“This place is ridiculously huge,” Loki said, looking around the halls. He had a point. It seemed easy to get lost, and you could never guess what was going to be behind any given door. “It’s bigger than the Academy.”
“Ares probably got a good deal, considering the neighborhood it’s in,” Kore said in a wry tone, hugging herself. She was only wearing a tank top, and it was cold in the spacious halls of stone.
Loki shrugged out of his jacket before I could do anything and draped it over her shoulders. That son of a bitch. One blowjob and he started acting like a white knight.
“Thanks,” Kore said, sounding as surprised as I was irritated. I told myself it was nothing more than the fact that she wassupposedto be the enemy and he was treating her like a girl he was going steady with. Not jealousy or anything.
“Don’t mention it,” he said in a pleasant tone.
I rolled my eyes and walked faster, ready to get the inevitable reunion with Ares over with. I still hadn’t forgotten what Kore had said earlier that night. I didn’t trust him and I never would, but if there was a chance I could use him for my own ends, I was going to take it.
Maybe my fiancee was going to come in handy, after all.
“I feel something,” I said as I got the sense we were drawing closer to Fenrir. “I think he’s out this door.”
Kore followed my gaze to the giant archway at the end of the hall we’d just turned down and glanced back at me. “You guys can really sense each other?”
“Kind of like radar,” Loki mused. “That’s how we know he’s not far. Too much distance and the connection goes haywire.”
“That’s what I felt that night, isn’t it?” Kore asked. “When you went to the Underworld.”
I nodded grudgingly.
Loki was looking at me, his eyes lit up with suspicion. “You went back to the Underworld? When was this?”
“The night of Phrixus’ murder,” Kore answered before I had the chance to say anything. “That was his alibi.”
Loki chuckled. “So it was.”
The look he gave me made it clear this wasn’t the end of the discussion, but I wasn’t about to come clean. Not when it would mean admitting that he was right, and I’d been researching the whole necromancy thing for longer than he thought. The damage was already done, and if my father found out the three of us were plotting against him, magical crimes would be the least of our worries.
I opened the door leading outside and realized the sky had already turned a darker shade of gray. Surprisingly enough, there were plants around the castle grounds, even though most of them resembled cacti. A few were in full bloom and I couldn’t help but notice how closely the color of the petals matched Kore’s eyes.
I brushed the thought aside quickly and scanned the distance, trying to look for any sign of Fenrir.
“Over here,” Loki said suddenly. I followed him around the castle to the larger garden out back. It was a shock to see Fenrir standing in his human form, having changed into a set of robes similar to the ones Ares was wearing. He was talking with the elder god about something, but they both went silent when they saw us coming.
“Good morning,” Ares said in a surprisingly pleasant tone for a man who had to know we’d just boned his daughter. Maybe he wasn’t making up all this consort bullshit, which raised more concerns than anything else. “I was just discussing the nature of your visit with your friend here.”
“Fenrir,” Kore cried, running up to him. She looked him up and down, taking in the change in form. They’d certainly gotten cozy when he was stuck as a wolf, and while I had no idea how he’d gotten out of it, I wondered if that was going to change. “How did you shift back?”
“Your father,” he answered, his tone guarded as he looked over at Ares.
“The wards around the Ether prevent certain forms of magic being used without my allowance, and shifting is one of them,” he explained.
