Page 48 of Left Hand of the Divine
“Urgh, don’t remind me about that.” The last thing I wanted to think about was the Games of the Gods, where I was probably going to get myself and my Hounds killed in a particularly gruesome but crowd-pleasing way.
Lazarra looked over the twins and me with a curious glance but said nothing. I still needed to have a little word about changing the law about Reapers and Hellhounds with Hades. I wasn’t sure it would get me anywhere, but all campaigns for change had to start somewhere.
“Thank you all for your time,” Lazarra said as she walked towards the door. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you all. If there’s anything I can help with, do give me a call.”
She handed me a business card, and Rory did the same before exiting, the scent of a sea breeze following him out of the door.
“Call me,” Avery said as she also handed me a business card, and Jefferson just rolled his eyes at her. The pair of them left squabbling, and Gods, they were going to make a cute couple.
The only Guild member left was Daire. His striking sapphire blue eyes were fixed on me, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was under a microscope. There was no warmth in the way he waslooking at me, which was at odds with the seductive, playful gaze he’d had earlier. Then he blinked, and it was gone.
Weird…
I’d be keeping an eye on that incubus while he was with us. I got the distinct feeling that there was more to him than met the eye.
“Shall we go home?” Thane asked as he held the door open for us.
“Absolutely. There’s just one thing I need to do first.” I pulled Thane’s scythe out of the shadows and held it out to him. It was time to hand it back. I didn’t know how I knew that; it was just instinctual. A feeling that I didn’t need it anymore and that it was in the wrong place now.
Thane looked at it warily. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Yes, it doesn’t need me anymore.”
The God of Death took the massive scythe from my hand, and I felt the power of it seep from my bones, travelling along my arms until it passed through my fingers and back to Thane. There was a ripple of magic through the air, tugging at my hair and clothes as Thane finally took back his scythe.
He hummed softly, a sigh of contentment leaving him as he pulled the scythe back into his shadows. “Thank you.”
I cupped his jaw and smiled. “You’re very welcome, Thane.”
His sky blue eyes held mine for a moment longer as he leaned into my touch, his expression warm and soft. There was a flutter of something travelling through my bond with Atticus, and I turned to look at him. He was watching the two of us with a curious expression, and I wondered what he was thinking.
“If you wouldn’t mind taking me wherever it is we’re going, I’d appreciate it,” Daire said, his voice a little strained as he adjusted himself in his trousers. “There’s enough sexual tension in here to feed me for days.”
I dropped my hand and stepped back from Thane. “Sorry.”
Thane went to speak but stopped himself, scowled, and then turned on his heel and walked out of his office.
What the hell was that about?
Chapter Sixteen
Magnus
Erebus was staring at the pictures in the gallery. He stood like a statue, his face turned up to the sky, bathing in the warmth of the sun. He was looking at the woman in the oldest picture, the one Thane had called from their resting place to talk to us, Sabine. She had been lost like Roux, a fragment of somebody with missing memories and this grief that formed such a large part of who she was.
I’d seen it with Roux in the quiet moments when she was with me. This stillness overcame her for a few minutes when she thought I wasn’t watching her, and she’d just sit there, hopelessly staring at nothing. I wanted to help, but nothing I did touched that grief buried deep inside her. It intimidated me, which was ridiculous, but there she was grieving a man she couldn’t remember, and I wasn’t enough to help her overcome it. None of us were. It was like it was woven into the very fabric of her, stitched into her skin and carved into her bones.
Maybe Erebus was right, and maybe Roux was Nyx, or at least a part of her. Although how, I wasn’t quite sure. And if Roux was part of Nyx, what would happen when that part came to the surface? What would happen to Roux? I feared that Roux might be lost if Nyx resurfaced. I couldn’t lose her, not now when we were making progress with reconnecting. I knew she still loved me. I could see it in her eyes and the small smile when she looked at me. She struggled with seeing me with her Hounds, though, and I didn’t know how to navigate that with her. It was like I was bumbling along in the dark without a map and with no idea which way was the right way to go. I’d just have to hope that the Fates hadn’t cursed us, and we would all make it through together.
I wanted Roux to have the relationship she craved with Rafe and Rayne. There was clearly something more between them, and it broke my heart for all of them that they were forbidden from crossing that step due to some archaic law. Hades needed his head checking if he thought that keeping Roux and the twins separate was a good idea. They were fighting it, and it was making them miserable. Any idiot could see that, and it made me so angry that Hades could be with her and not change the fucking law for her. It wasn’t right.
There was only so long that touch could sustain a shifter’s bond, but there would come a day when it would start to fester and die, potentially killing them in the process if their bond was as strong as I thought it was. That didn’t always happen, but in rare cases, the mate bond was so strong that denying it would kill either one, or both, sides of the bond. I wasn’t about to risk losing any of them.Hades was going to change that law, or they were going to mate anyway, and we would deal with the consequences.
“I can feel you watching me, vampire,” Erebus said softly, his eyes remaining fixed on the portrait.
I’d forgotten I was in the gallery with the Primordial for a minute there, lost in my tumbling thoughts. I huffed a laugh as I stared at him again and walked towards him, standing next to his shoulder and looking up at Sabine. The guy looked more like a vampire than I did. He stood there, with his billowing white shirt and fancy black brocade waistcoat, looking like some romantic hero, and I was in my usual tailored black pants and crisp blood-red shirt, looking like I belonged in an office. A fancy and expensive office, but an office nonetheless.
While the others had been summoned to GRIM HQ, I’d put in a visit topside. I was still a King, and I still had a territory to run. Cyril hadn’t been pleased to see me. I think the guy had been hoping that I’d died so he could take over. If I ever died, I’d put in my will that the power of choosing the next ruler resides with the Guild. Since I didn’t have any offspring, they had to approve anyone that put themselves forward as the next King of the Vampires. I’d taken the throne by force with bloodshed and death. I wasn’t about to let the next ruler claim it in the same way.
