Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
“In your defense, darling, none of us knew. Not even those of us who have access to powers greater than ourselves.”
“That does make me feel a little better,” Charlotte admitted. “I met one, you know. A god. Goddess, actually.”
“Can you stop shielding the woman for five seconds?” Arick grumbled, and those tattoos of his started slithering around way too quickly. Agitated? I wasn’t sure anyone had ever mentioned Arick being agitated before.
That agitation made the beast inside of me only want to pull her closer, but the part of me that was starting to, at least a little bit, understand how humans interacted, understood that he wanted to see her face.
So my wing slid down, but stayed around her from the neck down.
“What do you mean you met a goddess?”
“Well, it’s kind of funny. She was working at my job. Making a male professor suffer. But she was screwing with me too. I thought I was losing my mind.”
“Who was it? Atë?” he asked.
“Yes! Very good,” she said, and I couldn’t help the way my lips twitched at that. She sounded very much like the teacher she was right then.
“What did she say?”
“Just that I was sort of… in danger because of my knowledge. Which I don’t get. A lot of people have a lot of knowledge about the old gods now.”
“Humans know what their blockbuster movies tell them about the gods these days and that’s about it,” Arick said.
“Yeah, I’ve had to… undo a lot of damage done by some of those movies,” Charlotte agreed. “But I still don’t understand why they care if some of us know. Isn’t that what they want? To be known?”
“I’m not so sure. The world is different now. Humans are a lot different now. If they were expecting to wake up and have people still using sponges for toilet paper and writing on scrolls, they have had a swift reality check. They might be looking to show themselves in a different way than you and I may have been expecting.”
“But they’re already doing so much damage.”
“Yes. But have you seen any of them trying to claim it?” Arick asked.
“No,” Charlotte agreed.
“So what are you thinking?”
“That they don’t want everyone to know. So any expert who might, eventually, as things get worse, start to put the pieces together, they want to silence. Fuck, maybe they’re having a re-branding,” Arick said, sighing as he reached up and raked his hands down his face.
“Are you worried for yourself?” Charlotte asked, and I could damn near feel the empathy emanating from her. Hell, I could almost… feel it burrowing in and becoming a part of me.
It was no wonder humans were so fucking stressed out all the time if they felt everything like Charlotte was feeling for a man she’d just met.
“Yes,” he said. “And for all the other supernaturals and powerful people. We tend not to fare well when wars wage.”
“That’s why shit is so calm around here?” I asked, looking around his empty house that was so notorious for its wild, never-ending parties. “You don’t want to draw any attention more to yourself than necessary?”
“That about sums it up. I’m not even taking on any clients right now. They’re, understandably, freaking the fuck out. But I’m trying to save my powers to work on this bigger issue at hand. That being said, I will put feelers out about your brother,” he said, giving me a nod. “If for no other reason than Daemon finds the best ‘shrooms I’ve ever had.”
“That sounds like him,” I agreed, feeling something I wasn’t sure I ever really had before. Worry. Mixed with something that felt like what the humans called… missing him?
Fuck.
I never thought I would miss that pain in my ass.
But, clearly, I was starting to.
“Is there anything else you can tell me to bring back to Ace?”
To that, he looked away for a moment, eyes going almost black as he, I don’t know, saw shit or whatever the fuck he did.
“That you are going to have a visitor soon,” Arick said. “Don’t ask me for more. I don’t know. But what I can say is that they are powerful.”
“So a supernatural of some sort? Or are we talking about a god?” I asked, my wing subconsciously pulling Charlotte closer.
“I can’t tell. I can just say it is powerful.”
“That’s not helpful,” I told him, sighing.
“No,” he agreed. “But you know to prepare. That witch of yours should be powerful enough to set some wards. Protect those of you who are vulnerable to attack,” he said, glancing at Charlotte.
“How soon is soon?” I asked.
“A day, no more,” he said, squinting, seeming to try to get a better feel. “That’s the best I can do. And Charlotte,” he called, making her jump because she hadn’t given him her name. “Your father is coming home. Should be interesting to explain this to him,” he said, waving at the two of us. “If that’s all, I have work to do,” Arick said. “But I will be in touch about Daemon.”