Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Not getting a full night’s rest definitely left its mark on us. Poor Cait and Guy both look completely bone weary. Although, I wonder if they’re more than tired. Did they talk about me at all? I never had a chance to spill the beans about the kiss to Guy.
Whether or not he knows, I need to get him alone right away. Not just to discuss the kiss, but also to share what Tara told me. He’s shared his deepest secret with me. I know I can trust him.
I’m grateful that the sky is clear, and the icy gale is calm. Yes, it’s still cold as fuck, but at least I can get a little away from the fire without turning into a snow sculpture. I want to be as far from the others as possible when talking to Guy.
When he gets up to put his bowl in the bucket for washing, I motion for him to follow me. He responds with a sad smile and then heads my way.
“Hey,” I whisper to him when he gets near. “I want to talk with you about some important stuff far away from everyone else.”
Guy gulps but nods. He probably thinks I’m about to end things.
We get far enough away that I can’t hear anyone at the campfire, but not so far that they get concerned that we’re leaving. Maybe they’ll just assume we’re out here to slip in some kissing. Though that might not be the best thing for Cait to dwell on right now.
“What’s going on?” Guy asks.
“A lot, actually,” I say. “Honestly, I don’t know where to start.”
“Is this about Cait?” he asks. “I noticed you talking yesterday.”
“Well, yes, she’s part of it.”
Guy’s lips vibrate with a frustrated exhale, and he says, “Wish there was some place dry to sit. Seems like I might need it.”
Ugh, I can’t have him in disaster mode before I get into things. He’ll read into everything Cait-related as some sign that I’m bound and determined to leave him. That will make the news of Sylvia’s betrayal even harder on him.
I brush back his dark hair and press my lips to his.
I meant for it to be short and sweet, a quick “things are good between us” message.
However, Guy deepens the kiss immediately, wrapping his arms around me as he does.
I don’t know if it’s because he’s scared it’s the last one we’ll share or because he’s grateful I didn’t straight up break up with him. I’m not complaining, though.
When one of his hands slips down from the small of my back to cup my bottom, I almost forget why we’re out here alone. God, why do his hands always have to feel so good? I can’t think. If we weren’t past our ankles in snow, I might take our physical relationship to a whole new level.
No, there are way more important things than getting into his pants right now. I pull back from our embrace and take a deep breath, letting the bite of the winter air clear my mind.
“I’m sorry,” he says, his face turned downward.
“Sorry?” I laugh. “I started it. You just made it better.”
With his head still slightly bent, Guy looks up at me with a playful smile and mischievous eyes. “There’s an inn in Ismarus, you know…”
Visions of a long night spent tangled up with Guy distract me for a moment, but I shake my head. “We’ll talk more about that later. There’s a lot I need to say and not much time to say it.”
I guess Guy hears the seriousness in my tone because he straightens up and studies my face. “Go on.”
“Two things,” I say. “I did talk to Cait last night. I told her about my feelings, and well…she kissed me.”
Guy blinks. “Wow, just like that?”
“Well, sort of,” I tell him. “She’s definitely confused about the whole thing. Her parents brought her up to believe in one man being with one woman. Not a man and a woman and a woman.”
“A man and a woman and a woman?” Guy asks.
“Well, she asked me if I wanted to break up with you, and I was honest,” I say. “I don’t want to break up with you, but that doesn’t make me want her any less. You’d mentioned maybe me being with you both, so I brought it up as an option.”
Guy’s eyes widen. “You don’t want to leave me?”
I stroke his cheek. “You’re not just a placeholder to me,” I tell him. “I have genuine feelings for you.” I sigh. “But my feelings for her run just as deep. Honestly, I’m not sure what will happen. She may not be into the idea at all, and you may get jealous of her.”
“No, never,” he says. “My brain doesn’t work like that. If you really care about me, that won’t change if you care about her, too. I want to be with you, not own you.”
“Goddamn, you’re so sexy right now,” I whisper.
I should really get on to the truly important conversation, but I indulge myself with another kiss. If there wasn’t a god trying to kill me, I would spend days in bed with this man.
When our kiss ends, I pull away again and let out a long sigh, “Now for the other thing I need to talk about.”
I tell Guy everything about Tara’s sudden warning and the suspicious behavior Sylvia displayed. His features press together as I speak, growing more concerned with every word I share.
“So, she hasn’t killed us because she’s trying to send information to Zeus?” Guy asks. He presses his fingertips to his forehead. “Oh God, this is terrible.”
“What are we going to do?” I ask.
“I guess what you’re doing already,” he answers. “Pretend like we’re clueless and give her enough believable lies to keep Zeus off track.”
I cross my arms and look up at the blue sky, wondering once again just how far that barrier in the programming extends. “Peripeteia seems less like Legends of Sacrifice every day I’m here.”
Cait approaches with a clenched jaw and stern eyebrows. My immediate reaction is that she saw Guy and me kissing and is freaking out. But why would she? She’s not even sure she wants me like that.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“No,” she answers. “Miko thinks she saw a chaos dragon in the distance, close to the water. We need to put as much distance between us and that monster as we can.”
I nod. “Got it.”
Cait studies me for a moment, her face still all business. Then she gives Guy a long look. “You told him,” she says. It’s not a question, but I nod in response. Cait crosses her arms. “The kiss was…a mistake.”
The words twist like a knife in my heart. When I opened up about my feelings, I knew her rejection was the likely outcome. I didn’t know it would hurt this much though.
“Yes, I’m attracted to women,” she says.
“But I’m attracted to men, too. Sometimes.
And all my life I’ve been told it should only be men and women together.
Now? Well, let’s just say I don’t believe that anymore, but kissing you should have been about my attraction to you, not a way to deal with my confusion. ”
My quest log told me to be patient, and I plan to be. I’ll respect her feelings in this matter.
“Your choices are your own,” I tell her. “Whether you’re with me is up to you, but I hope your heart guides you to me.”
Cait gives Guy another long look. “And you’re okay with this?” she asks. “Sharing your woman with someone else?”
“She’s not my woman,” Guy answers. “She’s the Cleric of Aphrodite. How selfish would I have to be to deprive anyone of the love she offers, when she has an endless supply of it?”
“Hey!” Miko yells in the distance. “Hurry! The chaos dragon is getting closer to land!”
“We’ll talk more about this later,” Cait says, looking from my face to Guy’s and back. “All three of us.”
“You need to know something first,” I tell Cait. “Don’t trust Sylvia.”
The chaos dragon has a body like a snake and three heads.
In every other regard, it looks like your typical European dragon—a giant fucking nightmare that can fly.
Its black scales sometimes shift to smoke, but that does nothing to lessen the intensity of its six glowing red eyes.
As if that isn’t bad enough, it’s moving in spirals on its path toward Ismarus so that it can carry a cyclone of sea water with it.
“Do you think this is a level five chaos dragon or a ‘Zeus is trying to kill Lauren’ chaos dragon?” Miko asks. “Because it seems to be catching up to us.”
“Really missing Dolius’s carriage right now,” Joshua responds. “That would get us to Ismarus in no time.”
“Being in Ismarus doesn’t guarantee that we’ll be safe, though,” Cait says. “What if it’s bringing that cyclone this way to attack Ismarus? I know we’re tired of fighting, but I think we might have to.”
Sylvia groans, giving the impression that she hates the idea of that.
Cait glances at me just long enough for me to know she’s thinking what I am.
Sylvia isn’t all that sad that we all might die fighting a chaos dragon.
Well, at least the eidola possessing her feels that way.
Our actual friend might be screaming in terror deep down.
“Cait’s right,” Guy says. “We need to put ourselves in a position where we might stand a chance against it, though. We’re in the middle of snow-covered hills. That doesn’t seem like the best tactical position.”
Miko taps her chin. “I could summon some fire elementals to melt the snow.”
“Good idea,” Joshua says, bringing an uncharacteristically shy smile to Miko’s face.
“Yeah, that will help a lot, but we’ll still be an open target,” Guy says.
“We’ll just have to go full offense, then,” Cait says. “Hit it as hard and fast as we can. Hopefully, we can weaken it before its first attack.” She turns to Alexander. “You still got your shotgun?”
Alexander pulls it out of his pack and gives a nod.
“Good, if it gets close enough, try to get it in the eyes or the brain,” Cait says.
“Wait, does that gun need to be reloaded?” Sylvia asks. “Or is this like a magical game gun with endless ammo?”
In response, Alexander points his pistol toward the chaos dragon, who’s too far away for an actual attack to land.
He fires off round after round. Even with my hands clapped tightly over my ears, every shot feels like thunder in my brain.
Then he opens up the magazine to show us it’s still full of bullets.
“Well, that’s helpful,” Sylvia says and turns to me with a smile. “Aphrodite must really want you to succeed in this Khione mission.”