Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 111898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
She’d infiltrated every fiber of his being, becoming a part of him. Something only a fated one could do. Something not even Lore had managed. The goddess had obsessed him, but she’d never possessed him. Not like this. A detail as subtle as it was significant. But it couldn’t mean Neeka was his. His true mate would never betray him like this.
“Ah. I see.” A delighted gleam entered Hades’s dark eyes. “Happy to say outlets are my specialty.”
In a blink, the king was nothing but a tornado of black smoke whooshing Rathbone’s way. A whirlwind of chaos, solidifying with every blow. But Rathbone was fast enough to land blows of his own. His mátia caught the slightest disturbance in the atmosphere.
They fought for hours, Rathbone unwilling to stop despite a plethora of broken bones and the many internal organs scattered across the floor. He didn’t want to think beyond this battle. Didn’t wish to exchange physical pain for emotional torment.
“If you don’t start using your words as well as your claws,” Hades said, kicking him the balls, “I’m taking my toys to someone else’s sandbox.”
Rathbone meant to remain silent. He had no desire to talk. But every detail burst from him, anyway, nothing left out. When he finished, he went still. Panting, bloody hands fisted, he hung his head. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Easy. Sell the orb to the Astra, let them deal with Lore’s evil, and chain the oracle to your bed. I’ll hunt down my great-nephew.” Hades patted him on the shoulder. “You’re welcome.”
Rathbone ground his teeth. “I could be mistaken about Lore. Neeka could’ve lied to keep me to herself.”
“You aren’t. She didn’t. Why would she?”
“Jealousy?” He rubbed his knuckles into the center of his chest. “You heard the part about being her consort, yes?”
“I did, but I chose to disregard it. My team needs an oracle willing to do anything to win, not a goddess attempting to smuggle a new breed of phantoms into existence.”
Blink. “You think the creatures Neeka described are phantoms?”
“If not phantoms, demons. Lore is a goddess, and many of the Greeks reproduce on their own, the evil inside them becoming too much to contain. That’s what happened with William.”
William the Ever Randy. Hades’s adopted son, and Rathbone’s cousin. “It’s difficult for me to reconcile this idea of Lore with the goddess I wed.”
“Do it anyway,” Hades intoned.
Rathbone scrubbed a hand over his face. “I must go,” he muttered. He didn’t wait for a reply but flashed to his not-so-secret throne room, where the plastic skeleton rested upon his throne, flipping the world the bird.
“There you are.” Lore’s voice filled the chamber. She materialized, stepping from thin air, and gliding toward him, her lovely features twisted with concern. “I’ve been so worried about you, my love.”
The sight of her fueled his frustration and roused the worst of his speculations. How innocent she appeared. But was she? With every mátia riveted on her, he replied, “You don’t believe I’m capable of protecting myself?”
His silky tone emboldened her when it should have elicited frighten. As her scent reached his nostrils, his body failed to react. There was no heating. No hardening. Suddenly, reconciling what he’d experienced with what he’d learned wasn’t so difficult.
“Where have you been?” he asked. Would she lie?
Tears glistened in her baby blues. “Doing my best to aid you. I sensed a new piece of myself and rushed to gather as much information as possible. But I was too late. Hera had already gifted the bone to the Astra.”
A plausible story. It made sense. So why wasn’t Rathbone convinced? Because Neeka had planted doubts...or because the oracle had opened his mind to truth?
“Are you playing me, Lore? Or should I call you Jezebel?” The flat questions lacked emotion. “Did you play Styx?”
A horrified noise left her as she reared back. “How can you accuse me of such a thing?” Her eyes rounded. “You have sided with the oracle. D-do you not desire me anymore, Rathbone?”
He...didn’t. There was nothing, no spark, no awareness, the sensual frenzy she once caused no longer stirring within him. The need to be near his ex-wife had vanished.
Ex. He considered Lore his ex, a part of his past rather than his present or future? He’d already accepted their end?
Relief seized him, and certainty solidified. Yes, he’d accepted their end. But did he judge her guilty of the crimes lobbed at her? Had she used him? Would she birth a new demon species?
“Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done,” he offered softly, “that part of our relationship is over. If you are innocent, I’ll bring you back, and you can live your life. If not...”
She wrapped her arms around herself, as if protecting an internal injury. “How can you hurt me this way?” she asked between sniffles. “Please don’t allow the oracle’s lies to sway you. She isn’t trying to save the world but the Astra. I’m the one who loves you, dearest.”