Chapter 28
Wren hadn’t been able to look me in the eye for most of yesterday afternoon, going to bed early and staying there. I had my suspicions that it wasn’t heat distress causing her to hide away in her room, but a different kind of distress. I knew what she looked like when she was freshly fucked, and I’d seen her down in the pool with Milo, floating in the water. It didn’t take an Oracle to know that they’d progressed their relationship.
It should make me jealous, I knew, but honestly, I felt content that there was someone else who could ease her burdens.
I had to go and tell her all this, of course, but first I wanted to call home. I hadn’t heard from Clio in a week, which was kind of strange. Normally, she sent me three memes a day, as if I was someone who could give a damn about memes. Most of the time, I didn’t get the pop culture references anyway. Like the one with the pink frosted donut, surrounded by chocolate donuts? What the hell did that even mean?
Lifting my cell to my ear, I gently shut the door to my suite that butted onto Wren’s. It was early, so I didn’t want to wake her up just yet. The phone rang and rang, and I was beginning to worry, until the call connected to what sounded like a club.
“NéIT!” Clio yelled, forcing me to move the phone away from my ear. “I WAS BEGINNING TO THINK YOU’D FORGOTTEN ME. ONE SECOND, I’LL MOVE SOMEWHERE QUIETER!”
There was a shuffling noise, and the sound of laughter and shouting drunk people. After some quick mental math, I realized it was about midnight in Boston.
Finally, the sound of blaring house music was replaced by the steady thrum of traffic and Clio’s voice once more. “You still there?”
“Yeah.”
“What can I do for you? Because I have a hot little thing who looks like Selma Hayek on the dance floor, and I was about to help her recreate the snake dance from From Dusk Till Dawn. She was going to be Selma, and I was going to be the snake,” she teased, but I knew she was fucking with me, because who the fuck was Selma Hayek?
“I don’t know what that means,” I huffed. I also didn’t want to tell her that I was worried about her. We had a dynamic, and I wasn’t about to upset it after a couple of thousand years.
She laughed down the line. “Did you call because you missed me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. I wanted to know if you had any further news?”
She sighed heavily, and there was a level of gravitas to the sound that made my spine tingle. “It’s turmoil here, Néit. I don’t know who the fuck your girlfriend is, but there are monsters turning up in the city in droves, and everyone seems really pissed. Territory disputes have turned violent, and the wards around your house are working overtime.” She lowered her voice. “It’s not just that. Gods and Goddesses I thought faded into the abyss have turned up looking for your girl. Old Gods, Néit. Older than us. The legends of our legends.”
The actual hell is going on right now? “Any word as to why she’s so important?”
Clio let out a growl. “No, but word on the street is that Atropos threw an epic Greek hissy fit and killed off a bunch of humans in a power plant explosion. The Fates said it was the will of the threads, but the underground is humming with discontent.”
Well, at least that confirmed that Demke and the guys were partially right. If Atropos, the oldest and deadliest—literally—of the Moirai was angry, it could be because they knew we were here, in the relative safety of Crete.
Or it could have nothing to do with Wren, and they were just throwing a tantrum, which they liked to do occasionally. No one was more dramatic than the Greeks; they’d literally coined the word.
I was silent too long, and Clio—who was always too astute, hence why she was the mouthpiece of our Pantheon—picked up on my unease. “Do you know something?” There was none of the laughing Demigod in her tone now. She was all politics.
“I might.”
“Do you and Wren Mahone need help?”
It burned me that the answer was yes. It tore at my pride that despite who I was, I couldn’t protect her by myself. “Yes.”
The silence on the other end of the line told me that Clio was just as shocked. It wasn’t often she was rendered speechless. “Now? Are you in immediate danger? Do I need to come over there?”
Fuck, what a question that was. I was so out of my depth right now, I wasn’t convinced I’d see danger before it was burying a sword in my gut. “I don’t think so. Besides, the Minoans aren’t ready for you.” I didn’t think anyone was ready to come face to face with the wild battle maiden that was Cliona. “You’re more valuable where you are, Clio. We’re okay for now.”
She made a rude noise in the back of her throat, and I’d known her long enough that I could imagine her face as she did it. “I’m still going to make some calls. Get some people on standby.” She was well connected, but the idea of her calling anyone I could think of off the top of my head made anger light up my veins.
“No one from the old country, Cliona.” They would kill Wren without thought for the machinations of the Fates; they’d do it to punish me for things that had happened before human memory.
“Obviously, Néit. I’m not an idiot. You call me if you need me, okay?” When I didn’t say anything, she huffed. “Say it, you big, dumb, stubborn-ass baby!”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that rolled past my lips. “I’ll call if I need help.”
“Good. Give my love to Wren. She’s too good for you.”
Even if I wanted to dispute that, she’d already hung up. I turned over what she’d said in my mind. Why would the ancients be crawling out of hiding now? Whatever the reason, it meant that things were even more dangerous for Wren, and it probably meant we were right about reaching the tail. There would always be a large group of Mythics who were reaching their final turn, falling fast into obscurity. Maybe we wouldn’t be re-weaved in the next age of men. Me included.
Sighing, I looked out the window at the Minoans down in the courtyard. I still didn’t know how I felt about any of this, whether I should trust them or if they were the enemy, but I was outnumbered and outgunned. Wren trusted them, and more than that, their lives were now tied to hers, so I had to give them the benefit of the doubt. Milo was a nice guy, and Teron seemed to care about Wren and the babies’ health, but the rest I knew far too little about to be complacent.
Wren was still hiding out in our rooms, and I decided enough was enough. Knocking on the door frame, I strode in. “Are you feeling unwell, mo stóirín?”
She huffed something under her breath. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I couldn’t hear shite through the blankets. Lifting the heavy quilt, I slid into the bed beside her. “Wren? What’s wrong?”
Her eyes were big and glassy as she looked at me, her nose pink like she’d been crying. “I slept with Milo.”
My jaw flexed at the idea of sharing my Wren with a bunch of strangers, but the poor woman already looked guilty enough. I could ease this burden. “Did he hurt you?” Her head whipped back and forth so fast, it was a wonder she didn’t injure herself. “Was he really bad? I mean, I thought what he lacked in finesse, he’d make up for in size,” I teased.
She frowned. “You aren’t mad?”
I pulled her body into mine. She was soft and warm, and I wanted to hide us beneath these covers forever. “He is tied to your soul, mo stóirín. It seemed almost inevitable that you would eventually have sex. I understand the draw he must feel to you almost viscerally.” I kissed her cheeks, her puffy eyelids. “If he feels half of what I feel for you, then there must be an ache deep in his chest when he can’t hold you in his arms.”
She let out a shaky sob, and I stroked her back, just letting her shudder and sigh against my chest, keeping her close and safe. She gripped my back tightly. “I thought you’d be mad. I felt so… disloyal afterwards. Like you’d asked me for so little, and I couldn’t even give you monogamy.”
I kissed the words from her lips. “You’ve had so little happiness, I would never begrudge you this. I can share.” Only a small lie. I could share; that didn’t mean I ever had. But for Wren, I would try. “I talked to Clio. She said that big things are happening back home. I’m glad your gut told us to come to Amourgeles. Even if it means that you’re not just my Wren anymore, at least you four are safe, healthy and finding small amounts of joy where you can.”
She kissed me softly again. “I don’t know if it was fate that tied you to me, or if we would’ve ended up here either way, Nate, but I’d choose you every single day.”
“In a thousand years, there has been no other quite like you, Wren Mahone. I choose you as well.” And I’d choose her for a million more.