Chapter Twenty
She should have eaten the pizza.
All right, not the whole pie. It was just the fast, cheap stuff from the joint nearest the portal, not the gooey delight Dionysus’s chef whipped up for him on request at the Athens Bar.
But if the stubborn woman had stopped to take even a few bites of what he’d brought, he wouldn’t be here playing peeved caveman with her now.
Not hungry?
Bullshit.
He’d heard her snarling stomach from all the way around the corner. On top of that, she wasn’t even adroit about the lie now. Every inch of her pursed lips and every conflicted speck in her averted gaze was a total tell about the fib—and a glaring giveaway about her actual truth in the line.
The actuality he’d wrest out of her now, damn it. Either that, or she’d have to donate her arm to her cause.
Shit. He meant that less than she’d pretended her stuffed stomach.
She didn’t have to know all that, though the stubborn lift of her bottom lip declared her awareness to his frequency anyhow.
But why did she have to be so adorable about the whole thing?
Especially now, with her curls tousled by the early morning bay breeze, then every angle of her peeved frown highlighted by the gold and mikan orange shades of the approaching dawn.
Her glittering greens exposed a host of other conflicted feelings, confirming one inescapable truth in his own psyche.
She was better than adorable.
Beautiful blazed into his brain first, but certainly not last.
She was incredible. Unfathomable. At times, completely and wonderfully dependable. But at others, outrageously uncontrollable.
Times like now.
“Irow—”
Then like the next second, as she stepped back from him in full.
Then the next, as she swept up her newly freed hand.
But unlike her motion, so determined it was daunting, her lips noticeably quivered. “So . . . Apollo . . . let’s not make this more of a bad-bathos-boo-hoo moment than it has to be, okay?”
He released a heavy sigh. Yet somehow managed, “Sure. All right.”
She gave up the quivering for a tight frown. “So now you’re just going to growl about it instead?”
Or maybe he hadn’t.
“I’m not growl—”
“You are. And we’re both grownups who benefited from this deal, right?”
She might as well have asked it of the wind, since the gusty bastard stampeded across the bay again and turned his own hair into a wild mess.
For some reason, the sight of it made the Little Monster wince.
She subdued the expression with perturbing speed, lowering her hand and balling it against her waist.
“Fine. You’re right.” He managed to murmur it and not reach again for that sweet little fist, no matter how shitty she was at hiding the new trembles beneath her white fingers.
And the twin lagoons of soft sadness in her suddenly wide eyes .
. . “Let’s just move forward and talk about practical next steps from here. ”
He had to admit, the pivot back to his perfunctory pitch was a perfect start for the effort. Though he had a great deal more to learn about how the woman’s brain worked, one of them was not her appreciation of solid tactical focus. Now that they were back in her personality wheelhouse—
“Let’s? As in, conjunction for let us? Errrm, you’ve got a definite typo there, Glow Worm.”
And when was he going to learn there was no such thing as a perfect direction for this human? Or a right way to predict her?
Especially in the next moment.
When the maddening Little Monster abruptly stepped forward, re-closing the distance between them for herself. Then exacerbated the shocker by reaching and wrapping her hands around his.
He wanted to be pleased about the move, except that her hold seemed more soothing than sultry. A maternal cuddle instead of how she’d caressed him at the condo a few hours ago. And stroked him. And exchanged a lot of hot saliva with him . . .
“But you’re right about one thing, Mr. Phoebus on high,” she ventured with a mix of mirth and melancholy that tugged deep at his chest. “It’s probably best to move forward, so let’s just do this now. Something tells me you hate goodbyes, so I’ll go first, okay?”
And there was his cue to take a turn at backing up.
For that matter, the one to swear and ask questions of the wind.
“Really? You don’t think I’m used to fucking farewells by now?
” Because he’d endured plenty in this damn eternity of existence.
Too many. Mom’s banishment. Daphne’s curse. The entire shit show of the Trojan War.
Why was he so irked about the inconvenience of one more?
“Hey. Listen to me. I’m five thousand shades past grateful that you pulled that arrow out and healed me. Because of it, I’ll get to see Genny again. It’s a debt I’ll likely spend my life repaying . . . ”
And that settled things.
He wasn’t irked. How did she phrase it? He was a thousand shades past it.
Because this wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was . . .
What?
What the hell was it? And why did the shadow of that answer have him turning a damning glare at the burning star in the sky?
Summoning his look of complete command . . .
Around them on the sidewalk, people paused and peered around. Then straight up. Some gasped and gawked harder. Others started commenting to each other, forming a stunned chorus of a hundred different languages.
“Eh? Nani ga okite imasu ka.”
“Dude, this is weird. What’s going on?”
“éclipse? Comment?”
“Honey, was an eclipse predicted for today?”
“Kowai desu.”
“Holy crap. It’s so eerie.”
“So desu ne.”
He relished the reactions a few seconds longer than he should have, especially knowing the stunt would put him on the hook with Selene, Artemis, and Hecate for years.
They were fine if he messed with heat waves, sunrises, and sunsets, but unauthorized eclipses meant countless recalibrations on their end.
If he knew the three well—and he did—all three would be exacting payback in the form of big purse payments at Elle’s magical jewelry store.
Worth it. By every last shiny coin.
All he had to do was turn and claim his own reward in the pretty astonishment across Irowen’s—
What the hell?
She was still there. That was his only silver lining takeaway off the moment.
She didn’t offer anything more. Certainly not with the droll regard across her face, ticking up only one side of her mouth and its coordinating eyebrow. Definitely not with the really, cowboy? ennui defining her eyes, the emotional lagoons now all but drained.
What did remain?
She at least gave up a long sigh, before crossing her arms and hazarding a fast peek up at the sky.
“Come on, Glow Worm. You do know it’s not the gesture but the attitude, right?” Then beneath her breath, nearly to herself: “Dude’s mixed and mingled with mortals for how many eons and hasn’t figured that one out?”
And again, didn’t that just settle things with a big fucking bow?
Like him taking his every right to go full eclipse boy throttle. And also, as the morning became an eerie lavender twilight, to snap back, “You didn’t eat your pizza.”
She rolled her eyes. “Holy shit.” And then again, as if she intended to launch her irises all the way around the globe.
“And what else? I didn’t tell you how good your pie is too?
Or say you look really pretty today? Tonight?
” As she blurted the correction, she gestured sharply at the dimness he still ordered in place around them.
“My freaking hell. Okay, you’re pretty, Apollo.
You hear that? No, screw it. You’re beautiful.
I—you—well, you blow me away. You have since the second I stared at you, through the feathers of the arrow you put in my chest.”
“Wait.” He gaped wider, attempting to wrap his mind around every word that had just spilled from her. “Is that why you’re insisting on breaking it off? Because I shot you with—”
“Whoa. Excuse me?” She rocked backward but gave good face, framing her astonishment behind the new flash of her palm. “Break what off?”
“You know what I meant.”
“No. I’m not sure I do.” The syllables were still gruff, but her decibels softened.
“I’m serious, okay? What are you going for here, buddy?
You have no more obligation to me, Apollo.
I thought I made that part clear. You’ve got me closer to finding Genny than any of my own efforts would’ve.
As for the arrow thing, let’s just say it zeroes out the ledger.
We’re settled up. You’re off the hook and I’m on my way.
” She began a firm nod but jerked the movement short.
“Though if you can do me a solid and turn the sun back on, I’d appreciate it.
A little light goes a long way in canvassing a new neighborhood. ”
You’re going to need him for a lot more than that.
If any moment validated that Kaw Kleos should reincarnate as a ballet dancer on a wire in a windstorm, here it was. But as thoroughly as the thought made Apollo smirk, it also granted freedom for a little sarcasm.
“Bird in a bush? Really, filarákos?”
Kaw’s guttural volley was as good as a chuckle, repeated with more gusto as he darted a glance around the gingko tree in which he’d alighted. Yeah, yeah. Guess I asked for that.
Though he likely could’ve bantered with the bird for a few more lines, editing the effort felt smart in light of Irowen’s mindset. Sure enough, his Little Mothra marched in like the conductor’s baton now bore her name and the band awaited parade orders.
“Captain Kleos,” she greeted, perfunctory but professional, usually a recipe for instant unease from his corvid buddy.
But it was actually another occasion for the woman to flip his expectations without trying.
He’d never seen Kaw tauten to such attention, head rising and wings flattening.
Did the dork even raise his beak a little higher?
“You got a SitRep for us? What do all the sharp eyes see?”