Chapter 31
Elysia perched on the edge of a table they’d brought into Aidan’s office, looking down at a map.
Kava, along with two of the smaller southern kingdoms below it, had black flags pinned to them.
Black meant Garrison had already overtaken the kingdom.
Yellow, like the flag pinned to Sagondia, signified it was on the chopping block.
Elysia knocked over the yellow flag in frustration.
It had been a month since the events in the White Sands.
She’d been holed up in the death realm while her ankle healed, forced to watch the grid as her friends courted gods and built ever-expanding black markets for magical goods and weapons.
Maya had set her bones and reduced the healing from what would have been at least three months to one, but still.
She was going out of her mind.
It didn’t help that Aidan seemed to be keeping a solid distance from her.
He was polite, he was attentive, but he was distant.
She didn’t want polite. She wanted him to grab her hair and talk in that godsdamn voice again.
The aftermath of their bathroom escapade was that she had become painfully aware of every glance, every brief touch.
And she loathed him for it. How the fuck was she supposed to get anything done like this?
She sighed loudly, and Aidan looked over at her from his desk, his pen poised in the air above a ledger. It was a purple pen. She was going to have to steal that, she didn’t have a purple pen yet. Aidan noticed her gaze on his pen, and his eyes narrowed.
“Don’t even think about it, you little thief.”
Elysia threw him a completely untrustworthy smile. A chime rang throughout the house, and she straightened to attention. “What in the realms was that?”
Aidan stood with a frown. “The doorbell.”
She jumped up, glad for the excuse to stop staring at the map. “I’ll get it!”
His frown deepened. “The only people who ring doorbells are ones I don’t care to see.”
He strode out of his office, still gripping his purple pen protectively.
Elysia laughed, he’d put it down eventually.
And she’d be there! Trailing after him, she stopped in the living room, peering into the foyer.
He had a point about unwanted visitors. Better to take stock of things from here.
Crusher trotted up beside her, letting out a whine of annoyance as she stared into the foyer.
Well, that wasn’t promising, but she also hadn’t turned into a massive man-eating creature, so maybe it was fine.
Aidan shrugged on his suit coat, buttoning the front, and cracking his neck like he already knew this was going to take something out of him.
Then he flicked his wrist, the door swinging open to reveal the front walkway congested with people she assumed were his siblings.
The garrulous chatter cut off as they all craned their necks to look at Aidan before flooding in the door with obnoxiously loud remarks about how they always forgot how small and quaint his home was.
Elysia glanced around. Small? She still wasn’t sure she’d seen all of the estate.
It was like there were rooms for the rooms.
The woman she recognized from the grid as the goddess of pleasure spun around in a sleek, long leather trench coat. “Show us your magical wall then. Oren said your mortal mentioned there would be betting and games.”
Oren lumbered in last, ducking his head to fit through the doorway.
“Francesca, that’s not how you greet someone.
” He clapped a hand on Aidan’s shoulder, and Elysia bit back a grin as she watched Aidan grimace and shirk the touch.
“Little brother, tell us of your troubles. Your mortal, whom you really should take better care of—you do remember how fragile they are, don’t you?
She said your realm is crumbling by the day.
You never did take me up on my offer to teach you the art of realm stewardship, and now see where you are. ”
Elysia could practically hear Aidan’s jaw grind from the living room. She grinned. Today was going much better already.
Francesca frowned, giving Aidan the once-over. “What is wrong with his lover? Have you not been able to woo the one fated for you? Is she turned off by all the…dead? Does she not know how we are made?”
Oren tutted. “She was helping my boy blow up an old temple of mine and got busted up by a bone-breaker. Looked like her foot was hanging on by its skin. Didn’t look right at all.”
She waved him off. “No, no, nothing so boring as bones. Where is she? I want to see her. I’ll determine the cause of your bedroom problems, sweet brother. Nothing a little of my power won’t fix.”
A short angular woman with pin-straight brown hair, thick glasses, and chunky sensible shoes looked seriously between them all and interrupted. “I came here to see your invention. Can we get on with it, please? Oh, Loretta is going to make an entrance, so be prepared for that.”
Aidan made a gesture down by his side that Elysia could only interpret as him silently telling her to get the fuck out of there while she still could, and though she appreciated that given the obvious headache his family was going to be…this was the most fun she’d had in weeks.
Elysia strolled into the foyer with a bright smile and years of Crown training in hand.
“I can take you to the grid. It’s a bit of a walk, but the weather really is warming up, and I think you’ll be quite intrigued with what you see.
” Crusher cemented her butt to Elysia’s foot and glared at the gods, but none of them seemed to notice as they looked Elysia up down, judging and weighing her with zero effort to hide it.
Francesca pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I am embarrassed to be your sister right now, Aidan. The woman is starved and practically enraged with neglect. Look at her sexual energy. She is young and ravenous, and you ignore her like an old maid.” Her voice heated.
“You should be flogged. Flogged and left to consider your actions for a few centuries. This is not how I taught you to please a woman. I would not love you either.”
Elysia blinked, stunned and unsure of whether to laugh, cry, or run.
“Franny.” Aidan’s voice chilled the room instantly. “I am well-aware of what I’m doing, and there will not be any further comments on the state of my future queen’s sexual energy. Are we understood?” His final words could have cut glass.
She sniffed, the leather of her jacket squeaking as she readjusted herself.
Ignoring Aidan, she wrapped an arm around Elysia’s shoulders, pulling her into her side as she glared at him.
“He always has been so delicate. You just come to me and we’ll get you sorted.
” She walked toward the door, tugging Elysia along with a tight grip on her shoulder.
“Now show us this grid before Ramona loses it.”
Nothing like being called sexually ravenous and deprived in front of the man who had been acting like he hadn’t pinned her down with his sooty little shadows and made her come harder than she ever had in her life.
So much for acting unbothered. Francesca had just sold them both out in five seconds flat.
Elysia shook it off with a practiced smile.
“Right this way.” With a crew of gods on her heels, she guided them through the woods and into the village.
Throwing open the entrance to the warehouse, she called back over her shoulder.
“Now, once we’re up these stairs, you’ll be able to see the grid.
Feel free to watch for a while, and then once you’re ready, Aidan, Maya, and Grim can answer your questions.
” She was going to get the heck out of here before anyone else took a look at her sexual energy.
She lingered by the top of the stairs as they all traipsed in, oodling at the massive wall that held the grid. Eyes on the gods, she made to take a single step backward to begin her escape when she found her feet stuck to the floor.
“What the f—” she mumbled, ripping at her legs, trying to get her feet off the ground. Suddenly, he was there behind her, hands in his pockets, ducking his face down so his words tickled the back of her neck.
“Got that potion from Maya. You’re not going anywhere, Thorn.” He brushed his knuckles down the back of her neck and then he strode past her into the fray of his siblings, looking every bit like a god who had once run gambling rings.
Elysia tried to pick her foot up again to no avail. In the distance, Franny cooed at Aidan. “See? Was that so hard? She blooms for you, little brother, there is hope yet!”
“I am begging you to shut the fuck up, Franny.” Aidan gestured to Grim and Maya, who begrudgingly wandered over from where they had been skulking and likely hoping not to be needed.
Aidan cleared his throat, about to explain the magical mechanics of the grid, when an old woman with short white curly hair stomped up the stairs and shoved her purse at Elysia.
“Be a dear and hold this.”
Elysia reflexively accepted the overly large carpet-style purse, looking over to the group in befuddlement.
Dressed in a smart skirt and lady-jacket, the older woman grouched as she approached the rest of the gods.
“Whatever happened to formal invitations? Sending a messenger?” She scowled at Aidan. “Poor form, young man, poor form.”
Aidan stared over the slightly hunched woman’s head out the window, his nostrils flaring briefly as he attempted but failed to look remorseful. “Loretta, this was an unplanned event, as I am sure you are well-aware. Had it been planned, you would have received an invitation.”
She folded her arms and made a sharp noise. “You should have had us here months ago. I watch and I watch. I wait and I wait. And still you all sit on your immortal asses doing nothing. And you know the odds. I know what you’ve been fretting and spiraling over in those ledgers of yours.”