Page 38 of Right Hand Of The Reaper
“He found me,” she said with a smile that spoke of fondness. “He said he had been sitting in his office when he’d had an urge to go for a walk. He found me stood in the middle of a field crying as I stared at the sky.”
“Why were you crying?”
“I don’t know. I just remember this overwhelming sense of loss and grief, but I didn’t understand why.” She cut her gaze to mine, the sadness there nearly had me jerking out of my seat and wrapping her in my arms. “Even now, when I think about that moment, I still feel grief, but I don’t know who or what I’m grieving. I just know I’m missing something.”
My heart clenched for her, which was an uncomfortable sensation considering I usually lived surrounded by the terror of others. For her to arrive in the afterlife with no memory of who she was, and the only thing lingering was a sense of loss, she must have felt so off kilter and alone. Part of me was glad she had Thane take her under his wing. Another thing that was unusual.
The more I thought about it, the more that everything about Roux seemed unusual. I’d checked the records and there was nothing linked to her previous life. She’d never existed before arriving here as a Reaper.
“Do you think Thane did it?”
Her face turned fierce. “No. Absolutely not. I think he found out something Zeus was keeping secret, and that asshat had Thane framed.”
My eyes blew impossibly wide. “Did you just call Zeus an asshat?”
“Yep,” she replied, popping the ‘p’.
“I hope he’s not listening in,” I said with a laugh. “But, on a serious note, what do you think Zeus did?”
“I don’t know exactly but—” she stopped talking and I knew she was worried about what I’d report back to the Guild.
“This conversation stays between us. I want to solve this as much as you do. If it’s any consolation I don’t think Thane did it either.”
Her eyes turned to slits. “Why?”
I sighed and leant back in my chair. “Because Thane seems like he’s ridiculously meticulous. I meaneverythingis logged in minute detail. There’s no way he was stealing souls on the side.”
The tension left Roux and she seemed to heave a sigh of relief. She dropped her feet off the edge of the desk and leant closer. “I think it has something to do with Erebus and Nyx. The Fates said that Thane was asking about them and then they went all floaty and creepy and started mumbling about a darkness before vanishing faster than a snow cone in Hell. And Helios said Thane was raging like a madman, accusing Zeus of lying to us all and keeping secrets.”
“Well, you’ve been busy. And what does Hades think?”
“What?” she asked, the hint of a blush creeping up her cheeks.
“When you came in you said you were out getting answers with Hades.”
Her blush darkened. “I was, I was just… um…”
Oh. “You werewithHades?” Her spine straightened and I realised I sounded judgemental. “Sorry, I’m not judging, just curious. I thought Hades wasn’t interested in anyone since, you know…”
Her expression softened. “Since his wife died.”
I nodded. Just something else Roux had managed to change. He must have had lovers since then, but I had a feeling he felt differently about Roux andthatwas the interesting thing.
But the Erebus and Nyx connection was odd. I wondered what that was all about. And how was I going to figure out the mystery that was Roux?
“Would you let me enter your mind?”
She grinned. “Want to bring me to my knees again?”
My cock throbbed at the memory of her reaction to my power. If I hadn’t been so freaked out by the fact that I’d just impossibly found my mate, I’d probably have fucked her over the desk, and Gods, did I want to do that now. Especially with the way she was looking at me, like she wanted me to devour every inch of her.
I stood and walked around the desk towards her before taking her hand and pulling her to her feet.
She needed to know the kind of monster that I really was beneath the corporate suit. What she was going to be letting between her legs. I might have freaked yesterday, but today, I was all in.
I turned her so her back leant against my chest, and I brushed her hair over her shoulder to expose her neck. I gripped the pretty column of her throat between my fingers and squeezed gently.
“I’m not a gentle man, Roux,” I whispered by her ear. “I will want to break you, pull you apart into tiny little pieces before fucking your tight little pussy and making you scream so hard that you’ll be begging me to stop.”
