Page 50 of Monsters of Mayhem

“I am indeed,” he said, grinning at Laney. “For your information, Lassie, my mother is Minerva the goddess of wisdom and law. “

“Your mother’s a goddess?” I asked in surprise.

“Aye,” he said. “She fell in love with an Irishman and ended up having me a few thousand years ago and well, here we are.”

“How do you become the VP of Magical Objects?” I asked, completely confused. “Shouldn’t you be a lawyer?”

“You’d be surprised how many magical objects get caught up in the law,” he said, “but at the end of the day, a title’s just a title, right? They had to make me the VP of something. So that’s what I was given.”

“We want to find out if we can have a cancer treatment center,” I said. “A laboratory where we can find out more about cancer. We want to know if the Demigod Corporation will fund it.”

“You came to me, why? Maybe you need the VP of health.”

I looked at Magnus with my hands on my hips. “I told you this sounded like the wrong title.”

“He can get you back your wedding rings,” Magnus said.

“Really?” I asked, suddenly feeling my breath tight in my chest. Was that something Ryder wanted? Clearly it was something Magnus seemed to think was important. Maybe after the night we had spent together, we were getting back together. I took a deep breath. “That’s not what we came here for,” I said. “I want to speak to the VP of Health.”

“I can introduce you to her,” Mikal said.

“You should get your rings back while you’re here,” Magnus said. “Ryder will be really pleased when he sees you’ve retrieved them.”

My heart skipped a beat. Was Magnus right? Was there an opportunity to get our wedding rings?

“Could I really collect them?” I asked.

“It’s the law,” Mikal said. “We can’t hold property that belongs to somebody else unless that person asks us and the marriage bond is strong, so if you come here asking for the rings, we have to give you both the rings. That’s the law.”

“Then you can introduce me to the VP of Health?” I asked.

“Without a doubt,” Mikal said.

It didn’t take him long to produce the rings. He pressed a button on his desk and before long a young woman, or at least someone who looked like a young woman but was probably some sort of magical creature hundreds of years old, showed up carrying a small velvet pouch.

I opened it carefully and dropped the rings into my hand. They reminded me of our wedding day. We had a small ceremony with Laney and Ratchet at the courthouse. How many years I had worn my ring around my neck?

“I can hold those for you until you see Ryder,” Magnus said.

“No,” I said. “I’ll wear mine. “I am afraid of losing Ryder’s, would you hold that one for me.”

I was nervous that Ryder wouldn’t want to wear the wedding ring. I wondered what he would say when he saw me wearing it, but it seemed like the best move possible. To have Magnus help me.

I handed him Ryder’s ring as I slipped my wedding ring back on my finger for the first time in four years.

Chapter 31

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked as Caroline and Laney came through the portal.

“I told you they went with Magnus to the DGC,” Ratchet said. “Now they’re back.

“I don’t see Magnus,” I frowned.

The women looked around as the portal closed. “He was right behind us,” Caroline said waving her hand about.

“What did you go to the DGC for,” I asked, dread crawling under my skin.

“I want the DGC to ask them to sponsor a cancer lab for me, but we didn’t have enough time. The portal opened and we had to come back,” Caroline said. She stopped and stared at her finger. “Shit.”

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