Page 34 of The Queen & the King

The smirk returns to his face. “I guess you have a week to figure it out. Tell your mother I’ll be in touch.” He winks and disappears in a puff of smoke. A single white feather gently falls from the sky, landing on the table.

I pick up the feather, gliding my finger along the edge. It softly tickles the pad.

“Did he leave already?” My mother’s cold voice draws my attention, and I lift my gaze to look at her. It’s obvious she’s still fighting the effects of his spell, but it’s rapidly diminishing.

“He says he will be in touch,” I reply, smiling placidly.

Mother places the tea tray on the table and sits in the seat Eros recently vacated. There is a look of confusion on her face, and I do my best not to laugh.

“How did it go?” she asks, pouring some tea.

“He didn’t say much. Just that he would return. He spoke a lot of riddles about love and marriage,” I reply honestly. The best way to get around my mother is to give her just enough of the truth so she doesn’t suspect.

My mother bristles, sipping her tea. “Flighty gods,” she murmurs into her teacup. “Well, I suppose we will have to hold off until he returns.”

“I suppose we will,” I reply, sipping my tea to conceal my smile of relief.1

1 The Nightmare & The Daydream Chapters 29

Twenty-Two

Hades

THERE’S EVEN LESS RESISTANCE WHEN I DREAMWALK THIS TIME.Is this time. Is Persephone remembering me? Seeking me out? Or is that just a foolish fantasy, seeing things that aren’t there? She’s resting on a blanket, her eyes closed. Her hair is a dark wave around her, free and unbound, like I know she longs to be. I lay down on the blanket next to her.

She turns her head and opens her eyes. “I had a visitor today.”

Adonis.My teeth grind, and I manage to hiss, “Oh?”

“You ever heard of Eros?”

I blink, tension leaving my shoulders. I was not expecting that, but I give a terse nod.

She laughs softly, the sound like wind filtering through sunflowers. “Not a fan?”

I sigh, shifting more toward her. “I’m not a fan of tricksters in general, but Eros, least of all.”

Tricksters don’t behave according to any form of logic and reason. They act on awhim. As someone who worships logic and reason, everything about them seems wrong to me. However,Eros is an enigma. He claims to be a trickster, and the way he acts certainly lends to that idea. Yet, I cannot shake the feeling that he is playing some larger game, that every seemingly innocuoustrickis a part of another plan.

“Well, that trickster just bought me a week,” Persephone says with a smirk.

“A week?” What the fuck does that mean?

“Mother asked for him to approve the match,” she adds as if that makes any sense.

I sit up suddenly with realization. In old times, they would summon Eros to approve betrothals. He even officiated at weddings.

My jaw ticks, and I grind my teeth. “Your mother moves fast.”

She sighs, sitting up next to me. “I’m pretty sure… she’s told Adonis that he cantrybefore hebuys.”

Try before he buys? The fuck does that?—

Realization settles in on me, and my entire body goes still. I’m not even sure I’m breathing. The shooting sensation of those swirling black tattoos climbing higher up my arms begins, and I know when I wake up they’ll be even higher than before. The dream shakes with my rage, and I have to breathe deeply to rein in my temper. I roll my shoulders, moving my head from side to side to control myself again.

“Persephone,” I say, my tone flat and uncompromising.

She looks at me, her eyes showing a glimmer of the fear she’s hiding from me.

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