Page 120 of Thanatos' Craving

Loki’s eyes went dark. He looked far older than he should be, and now I was really regretting my choices. I felt the sharpness of his nails digging into my wrists as he tugged me to the door, and I kept telling myself he was doing this to get an audience withher.

As we entered the pet shop, a bell tinkled overhead, announcing our arrival. The quaint little store was dimly lit, and the air was heavy with the smell of sawdust and animal fur. Cages lined the walls, filled with various creatures—rabbits, guinea pigs, and even a couple of snakes slithering around in glass enclosures.

Loki marched me toward a counter at the back of the shop where a woman stood, her back hunched as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. She looked up at our approach, her tired eyes meeting Loki’s mischievous gaze. Recognition flickered across her face before she masked it with a smile.

“Welcome to The Littlest Pet Shop,” she greeted us, her voice barely above a whisper. “How may I assist you today?”

Loki’s grip on my wrist remained firm as he leaned forward on the counter, his gaze locked onto hers. “We have an appointment with the Matchmaker,” Loki interrupted, an air of confidence emanating from him. “I’ve come a long way, and I have come bearing a gift.”

The woman’s eyes widened slightly, but she quickly composed herself and nodded. “Of course. Do you have a gift for me?” She batted her eyes several times and Loki rolled his eyes.

Loki reached behind his ear and pulled out a long black feather and tossed it on the counter. The old woman snatched it up and held it close to her chest. “Yes, yes, this is perfect.” She brought it to her nose and let the length of it tickle her nose as she breathed in its scent.

Gross.

“That’s enough,” Loki snapped. “Let us in.”

“Fine, fine. Since you have an appointment, and come bearing me this gift, you can follow me.” She gestured toward a door behind her, concealed by a faded tapestry. Loki released his grip on my wrist, and I stroked it, trying to banish the lingering pain.

As we followed the woman through the door, I couldn’t help but notice how the atmosphere shifted. The dim lighting gave way to a soft glow that bathed the room in an ethereal aura. The air was infused with a delicate scent of roses mixed with a smokey incense, mingling with an underlying hint of something mystical.

We entered the room that was cluttered with both plush velvet curtains and beads, antique furniture, and shelves filled with books and trinkets. On a leather scaled couch faded into dark green sat an elegant figure, draped in a bohemian skirt and midriff pink top.

When she rose from her seat, I immediately knew who she was. Her hair was as teased high as the night I saw her and I took a step back to leave the room, but Loki’s had reached out and grabbed my upper arm yet again.

It was her, and she trained her cold eyes on me.

“I see you have brought her,” her cool voice sliced through the embrace of the room. “Good little birdie.”

I swiveled my head back and forth between the two, desperately trying to unravel the hidden knowledge they seemed to possess.

She let out a low chuckle and turned her back on Loki and was gliding across the floor. It was too perfect. Her body didn’t walk, her body was floating and when I looked to see where her feet could be I was stunned to find it wasn’t feet at all I was looking at---but a damn tail.

I gasped and tried to rip my arm from Loki’s grasp. “Do you see that?” I pointed at the tail that continued to unwrap around what I thought was a leather couch. But it wasn’t a leather couch at all, it was her body. “You’re a snake!” I yelled out at her.

Loki’s brow rose and turned to her all to narrow his eyes at her. “It is true. She can see your true form,” he said.

The matchmaker smacked her lips and flipped through papers on her desk. “Yeah, so what? One person out of thousands? Soon it won’t matter at all.” She pulled a piece of paper from the bundle and slithered toward Loki and hung it in the air for him. She wrote her signature, Medusa, in big bold red letters at the bottom. “Here you go, Loki, God of Mischief, son of Hades, God of the Underworld and Ember, the Keeper of the Sphere, who could do nothing to save your mate before she was even born. This is a binding contract, that of my word, that your mate will be born and no harm will come to her parents, so she can be conceived.”

My mouth dropped when Loki took the paper and shoved it into his pocket.

“W-what? What the hell, Loki? What did you just do?”

He shrugged his shoulders and wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“What I had to do. You’d do anything to save your mate, wouldn’t you? You should have bonded with Thanatos when you had the chance.”

No words could leave my mouth as Loki literally handed me over to Medusa. “And now you are handing me over to Medusa! This snake!”

Medusa slammed her hand over my mouth. “I suggest you don’t repeat my name to your parents or anyone else, otherwise you will lose your mate. Do you understand, little bird?”

Loki made a face of disgust and nodded.

Could he not see her name written on the paper?

I bit into Medusa’s hand she pulled away with a yelp. “Loki, she’s lying. She can’t possibly know that! Your mother even said no one can know who their mate is except for her! How could Medusa even know?”

Medusa’s tail slithered up around my body as fast as a viper, wrapping me, suffocating me until it reaches up my neck.

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