Page 46 of Paris and the Reaper

Paris squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. “I made them an offer. I’d actually do for them what my father promised. Protection. And if they didn’t want to take my offer, they could leave without retribution.”

“Without even holding them? We could have questioned them.”

Mac moved forward, sliding a hand into the groove of Paris’s lower back, ready to intervene if he needed, but Paris seemed keen to spar with Robin.

“As I understand it from Mac,” he said, “half of them were questioned already, and correct me if I’m wrong”—he split a glance between Mac and Adam—“but technically you have no authority to hold them. In fact,” he leveled his gaze on Mac, “I haven’t seen or heard you once mention going into the station or wherever it is you’re supposed to work since you rescued me from that altar.”

“They know to leave me alone this time of year.”

“Sheriff’s a pack member,” Jenn added. “It’s why he and Adam left the YB force to join the Talahalusi department.”

Paris nodded, then cut a glance through all of them, eventually landing back on Robin. “I won’t be my father. I won’t have people working for me out of fear.”

“We’re all afraid right now,” Robin admitted in a rare display of truth and vulnerability.

“And that’s more than enough. They don’t need to fear me too.”

“Can we move on?” Adam said from his barstool.

“I want to know why he’s after Atlas,” Paris insisted, and Mac barely bit back his curse. They’d been so close to a break in hostilities, and then Paris had to go and throw a grenade into the mix.

“Because he killed my sister and brother-in-law.” Robin nodded toward Adam. “His spouses.”

Paris’s response was immediate. “No, he didn’t.”

And so was Robin’s, flying off the wall at him. Mac shot between them and flexed every bit of magic in him, every bit of growl in his own voice. “I love you like a brother, but if you lay a fucking paw on him, I will end you.”

His eyes flashed gold, and for a second Mac feared he’d have to follow through on his promise, but then Robin thankfully backed off, his gaze sliding past Mac to Paris. “You’re playing a game you don’t understand, kid.”

“I understand I can help,” Paris said. “And that’s what I intend to do.”

“We have just over a week until Samhain,” Mary said, reentering the conversation. She snapped shut her laptop and stood, rounding the table to prop herself next to Icarus. “The giants need to be our focus. They’re the ones trying to bring through Chaos, not Atlas.”

“So you say,” Robin bit back.

“So I know.”

“One day you’re gonna spill.”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

Robin huffed off to reclaim his spot on the wall, while brother and sister rolled their eyes. Mac almost laughed out loud. Behind him, Paris did, trying and failing to muffle it against the back of his shoulder. He didn’t need to, the moment of levity easing some of the tension in the room, Mary smiling widest of all.

Mac directed Paris to the open chaise by the wall, the two of them sitting side by side, as Mary brought them up to speed. “We talked to Pati. Both giants, the one from the ridge and the one who chased you,” she said to Paris, “chased her and Quinn through those tunnels.”

“What about the other two giants?” Mac asked.

“No sign of them.”

“I need to go to the Stick,” Paris said. “If I can get one of the souls to talk, then maybe they can show me which giant was there.”

“We have to be careful,” Adam said. “Outside of the Canyon Lands, it’s the only remaining altar site not under our control.”

“And the one in La Purisima,” Paris said, tossing another grenade. “I checked,” he hurried on, peppering the playing field with landmines. “Dad wouldn’t dare go down there himself, but he did make investments there. The only three people who can safely travel there are me and you two”—he gestured at Adam and Icarus, the only other two humans in the room—“but you both got the same look on your faces just now as Icarus’s sister when I first brought it up, so I’m assuming that’s a no. And I know he”—he jutted a thumb at Mac—“won’t let me go, so let me send someone on Dad’s—sorry, my team to check them out. ”

“There’s unlikely to be any Samhain activity there,” Mac said. “The religious cultist won’t allow it.”

“Send your people,” Adam said to Paris. “Assuming no activity there, then that leaves us two giants here to deal with. The one who took Paris, and one other, possibly responsible for the Stick massacre.”

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