Page 47 of Marked by the Demigod

Aimes exaggerates a grand motion. "Sure, Katya, come on in, it'll be grand."

Katya narrows her eyes at her, reading her face, before her eyes widen. "Oh you slept with him again," she says, voice all of the sudden soft. "That's what happened."

And it's 2018 and people should stop being judgy about her sleeping with guys.

"He was there, it was...it was Maine and there was nothing to do."

Katya pulls out a water bottle from her purse and sits on the couch, and both the cats jump up next to her for cuddles. "He just showed up? No reason why?" Her eyes are sharp, not leaving Aimes's face. "Did you...try to contact him? Bring him there?"

With a sigh, Aimes flops on the other side of the couch, all her internal resolve crumbling in the face of Katya's questions. "A guy was flirting with me, and when the guy went to the bar, Jake just...showed up."

"Iakov, Aimes. His name is Iakov." Katya snaps, before scowling into her water bottle. "So he teleported directly into the bar, I take it?"

Her jaw sets without her controlling it. "I didn't see him, but one moment he was just sliding into the booth. And then he teleported me to a bunch of snow to hear a bunch of wolves or some shit and then back to the bar, and then he wouldn't give me his phone number."

Katya's eyebrows steadily rise through the whole thing. "Wolves?"

"He said they were Arctic wolves. It was cold." Aimes hugs herself in memory of the frigid.

Katya scratches the smart cat's head. "He probably took you to Siberia," she says, thoughtful, as if it isn't a big deal. "We know he does a lot of business there, it wouldn't surprise me."

Aimes shrugs into herself. Siberia is a hell of a lot farther than whatever part of Canada she thought he took her to. "He then took me back to the hotel and I, I dunno, thought I could get him to talk to me."

Katya scoffs. "Yeah that's not gonna happen." Her eyes spot the large packet of paper, still sitting on Aimes's dinner table. "I take it you haven't read that yet?"

"He… suggested he had me under some kind of watch. He knew about the dryad punching me out."

"Makes sense," she says, voice as carefully government neutral as possible. "It would be bad for him if something happened to you."

"But he didn't step in." Aimes flops her head back on the couch. "He knew that shit was happening but he didn't step in."

Katya looks woefully out of her element. "I wish I could tell the other people at the support group who your guy was," she starts. "Cause then you could actually talk about it and not have to be like… this."

"Thanks."

They lull themselves into a quiet moment, and for a few brief seconds it almost feels like it's like any breakup, with her ranting to her friends. Like there’s anything normal about it.

"Then why does it hurt?" Aimes blurts out, and immediately wishes she hadn't, horridly vulnerable. "It's just, I hardly know him, it was a hook-up -"

"- and then another one, apparently" Katya interjects.

Aimes steamrolls on ahead. "And him disappearing like that hurts! It actually hurts! Like he was..." She trails off, scowling down at herself. Like he was an actual boyfriend? Like she actually knows him?

Katya briefly closes her eyes, then leans forward. "Aimes, just cause he came and saw you..." She takes another deep breath, the stress line deepening between her eyebrows. "It doesn't mean that what he did isn't any less messed up than it was before."

It stings, but Aimes pets the smart cat for a few second, and the smart cat sort of disinterestedly purrs at her. "Well, at least we know that me flirting will get him to appear."

The crease deepens dramatically. "Aimes, don't."

"Why not?"

"Because he is a dangerous man." Katya says, simple, blunt. "Because he's dangerous, and now he's scared." Katya's phone beeps, a simple ding of a sound, and she falls silent as she digs it out and reads the text.

It's only the months she's known Katya that Aimes can read her face falling before her official "things are fucked up but I can't reveal that" mask snaps into place. "Something bad?"

Katya stands up, shoving her phone into her purse. "Something unexpected." She clips out, then hesitates. "Read the packet, don't text me any questions that have his name attached."

Aimes nods, really not wanting to read the packet. "I took a picture of him," she blurts out. "When he was asleep."

---