Chapter 17 #2
I sat forward and Riot helped me out of my coat, lying it on the couch next to us before bundling me back up in his arms and rubbing soothing circles into the nape of my neck with his thumb.
It was so good, I almost fell asleep, but we still had a lot to talk about, and I decided to start with the easy topics first.
“I pulled some history books this morning,” I murmured drowsily. “To see if I could find information on outreach trips and how to get out of them.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t find anything,” Riot replied, sounding amused.
“How did you know?”
“Call it a hunch, but it seems like the kind of information you’d lead with,” he replied wryly.
“That’s a valid point,” I said, huffing a silent laugh. “Chance, one of my fathers was there. He told me that my parents had gone to the Elders about my… situation , a year ago.”
Riot stiffened beneath me, and I cracked open one eye to peer up at him through my lashes. His mouth was set in a thin line, a muscle in his jaw ticking.
“That bothers you,” I stated, forcing both eyes open as his anger scraped uncomfortably over my skin.
“I’m a daimon, I don’t trust authority figures in general, especially not agathos ones. I don’t like that your parents deliberately put you on the Elders’ radar, and especially that they did it without your consent.”
I chewed on my lower lip until Riot tugged it free, his thumb gently rubbing the spot I’d been gnawing. He hadn’t said anything I hadn’t thought of, but it stung more to hear it from someone else.
“Well, I’m definitely on their radar. The Basilinna was at the memorial—she’s sort of the CEO of the agathos in the northeast—and she knew who I was. She was excited about what the Elders had planned for me.”
“You probably should have led with that,” Riot pointed out drily.
“I was enjoying not panicking about it for a moment,” I sighed. “The more urgent threat is probably my mother. I may have said something a little unkind to her on my way out.”
“Good,” Riot muttered. “But between that, the outreach thing and the bad luck, I’m not feeling great about sticking around here, Grace. It feels like we’re sitting ducks.”
His arms were banded around my waist, but I could feel his hands twitching restlessly. I reached between us, sliding my hand into his front pocket—blushing profusely when I realized how close my hand was to other things based on Riot’s sharp intake—until my fingers brushed against his lighter.
I pulled it out and held it up for Riot to take, and he rewarded me with one of those sultry little smiles that I felt way down low.
“Do I have a tell?” he asked, plucking the lighter from between my fingertips and immediately flicking it open.
“It’s a pretty lighter,” I remarked, inspecting the details up close for the first time. I hadn’t noticed before that the deeply carved engraving was a dragon, it’s fierce face front and center, with a long body winding around the whole thing.
“It was my mom’s,” Riot said with a shrug.
I paid close attention to his emotions, since he had barely mentioned his mom at all, but he didn’t seem overly sad or angry.
There was just a kind of resigned acceptance.
“I was 17 when she died, so I had to move in with my dad. He didn’t give me a whole lot of time to go through her things, but I swiped this on my way out the door. ”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Don’t be,” Riot replied, his lip twitching slightly.
“I never resented my abilities more than when I knew what would kill my mom, but I’ve come to terms with her death.
I tried to prevent it, but I was a kid, and I had no idea what I was doing.
I locked her in her room one weekend with food, water, and a bucket,” he added with a grimace.
“I guess I thought if I just cut her off, she’d kick the habit. Obviously, that was a terrible idea.”
“You were a kid,” I pointed out, snuggling in closer to him again. “No kid would know how to deal with that. They shouldn’t have to.”
Riot hummed absently as he idly toyed with a piece of hair he’d pulled free of my chignon.
“So, back to my get-the-fuck-out-of-Dodge idea…” he prompted, absently open and closing the lighter. “I know you’re not sure about meeting Bullet just yet, but his place is always an option. Except...”
“Except what?” I asked, feeling a mixture of nerves and curiosity at the prospect of meeting what I was almost certain was another of my soul bonds.
“Shouldn’t we wait until your bad luck has hit? We’d have to drive through a long stretch of agathos territory to get to Bullet’s place. When does your luck usually run out?”
“Right,” I sighed. That was a good point. “Within 24 hours, usually. I did give her a lot of luck though...”
I chanced a glance at Riot in time to see his grimace.
“I don’t really want to just up and disappear anyway, I think that will cause more problems than it solves,” I added decisively, feeling confident in that decision.
“In the meantime, I thought maybe I could try praying to Anesidora again. I should have already, really. I just…haven’t,” I finished lamely.
Because I prayed to the Goddess of Night and I’m waiting for Anesidora to smite me.
“Because she’s been so forthcoming in the past?” Riot deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at me.
It was beyond inappropriate—blasphemous, even. I should have been scandalized. Maybe it was because I was drained, or because my emotions had been all over the place all day, but a laugh bubbled unexpectedly out of me, and I clapped both hands over my mouth to cover up my sacreligious response.
Both Riot’s eyebrows were raised, his surprise mingling with something warm and fuzzy, wrapping around me like a familiar embrace.
“Do that again,” he commanded roughly.
“Do what?” I asked breathily. Riot could switch from cool and unaffected to blisteringly intense in two seconds flat, and I didn’t think I’d ever get used to the impact of all that intensity trained on me.
“Laugh. Laugh again.”
“I don’t…I can’t just laugh on command,” I replied lamely. “Say something funny.”
“I’m not funny,” Riot deadpanned. “I have no idea how I made it happen the first time, but you’ve never laughed like that before. Properly laughed. I’m not giving up until I hear it again. That was the prettiest sound I’ve ever heard.”
“I don’t know about laughing, but I think I’m going to swoon now,” I whispered, heart flip-flopping wildly in my chest as the corners of Riot’s lips turned up.
It should be illegal to be that handsome.
A knock on the door startled us both out of our weird, lusty reverie, and Riot tugged me closer to him as if it was instinct.
“Expecting someone?” Riot asked in a low voice, glaring at the door like there was an enemy army behind it.
“Definitely not,” I whispered, shaking my head. Maybe it was a neighbor. Or someone selling something.
Or my luck had run out.
“Grace!”
Or my mother. My luck had definitely run out.
“Grace! Open this door, I have some things to say to you. It isn’t good manners to leave your guests waiting in the cold,” she groused.
There was a low mumble of voices from the other side that told me at least one of my fathers was with her.
Considering I was owed bad luck, I was guessing it was Valor.
“Sugar,” I breathed. “I can’t leave them out there, they’ll have seen my car outside. I’ll try to make them leave.”
“Shit,” Riot muttered, shoving one inked hand back into his messy hair as I extricated myself from his grip and padded quietly to the door. They wouldn’t be able to see him from the doorway, but if they demanded to come in…
No, I wouldn’t ask him to hide. I couldn’t do it. It was one thing to keep this to ourselves until we understood it better, but even if I hadn’t been programmed not to lie or cheat, I wouldn’t disrespect Riot by treating him like a dirty little secret.
He was the first person to look at me like I mattered. Not as one small part of my community, or because I had abilities that were useful, or because I was a mutant puzzle that needed to be figured out. Riot just looked at me like I was Grace.
“Hello, Mother,” I said, opening the door and positioning myself right in the entryway. “Valor,” I added, while my heart worked triple time in my chest. Oh sugar, they looked so angry.
“Grace,” he clipped, looking expectantly between me and the partially open door.
“Let us in,” Mother demanded impatiently. “You need to practice your entertaining skills if you’re leaving guests out on the doorstep. Though I’m sure your friends from home don’t want to visit you here. Understandably,” she added under her breath.
“It’s almost dinnertime, why don’t we go out? I know a great place near here—”
“Let us in, Grace,” Valor snapped, eyes flaring angrily.
Why now? Only Chance had visited my apartment before and that was the day I moved in.
You know why , a resigned voice in the back of my mind supplied.
If Rae didn’t use this opportunity wisely, I was never giving anyone luck again.
Be sweet, I half heartedly reminded myself.
No, don’t be sweet. Be brave.
We had a good run. A whole week to ourselves. It had been nice while it lasted.
“Come in,” I rasped, my throat suddenly dry as I stepped back from the door.
This was it. The bubble of peace we’d been luxuriating in was about to burst, but I was trusting that nothing worse than that would happen. I was trusting that my parents cared about their reputation enough not to do anything rash that might potentially put me or Riot in danger.
Well, me, at least. I wasn’t convinced they’d be so compassionate about Riot. I’d just need to find a way to keep him safe.