Page 15 of Gods of Prey
Revel nods, serious now. “How do you want to approach this?”
“I can’t just knock on the door,” I remind him, gesturing to my transparent form.
“No,” he agrees, “but I can feel Sebastian’s energy inside. It’s turbulent. He must be using divine power unconsciously, creating a protective bubble around them both. I’m not sure he would see either of us right now.”
I press forward, passing partially through the door, just enough to see into the apartment while remaining mostly in the hallway. The space hits me with a wave of longing. Jovie’s mismatched furniture, photos on the walls, several featuring me and Sebastian together in our mortal forms. It’s so opposite of everything Bash was when I left.
And there they are: Jovie curled against Sebastian on the couch. My brother strokes her hair with such tenderness, it makes my nonexistent chest ache.
He’s found it. That feeling we’ve been chasing for centuries. The tether we both need to prevent us from becoming the cold, soulless creature who created us. Gods live for such a long time, they lose their sense of morality. Who could have guessed hewould find his in a being that lives a fraction of the lifetime he will?
Then, they shift positions, and I see it.
And the breath I don’t need catches in my throat. There, nestled against the hollow of her throat, gleams a delicate gold chain. And hanging from it?—
No.
My locket. My heart-shaped locket that I’ve hidden and found through thirty-three lifetimes. The one I imbued with a fragment of my own divinity in a moment of rebellion against the Divine Council’s sentence. The one that my brother should have buried somewhere safe the moment I died. It should not still be hanging around the neck of a mortal who has no idea what she’s wearing.
Rage floods through me, cold and sharp as winter moonlight. My form flickers, becoming more solid with the force of my emotion.
How dare he?
How dare Sebastian allow something so dangerous, so precious, to remain in her possession?
Jovie looks up suddenly, her eyes scanning the room. “Did you hear something?”
Sebastian glances over at her. “Hear what?”
“I thought—” She touches the locket absently, her fingers closing around the gold heart. “Never mind. Probably just the building settling.”
I watch in horror as her skin seems to glow faintly where she touches the pendant. The divinity in the locket recognizes her somehow, responding to her touch. That should be impossible. Mortals shouldn’t be able to access divine power, even the small amount I’d infused into the metal decades ago.
Unless . . .
Unless Sebastian’s own divinity has somehow awakened hers. Unless being loved by a god has changed her on a fundamental level.
If the Divine Council discovered this—if they knew I’d hidden pieces of my power in mortal objects, if they learned that Sebastian’s mortal had been touched by divine essence—the punishment would be swift and absolute. Not just additional lifetimes. True death. Erasure from existence itself.
I have to get it back.
But how? I’m barely corporeal, and she’s not supposed to be able to see me. Even if I could manifest fully, I can’t exactly walk up and demand she return jewelry that technically doesn’t belong to me anymore.
Shoving my anxieties aside, I turn my attention to assess their space. While they lounge on the couch, I allow myself to sink further into the apartment. I see their kitchen, their bedroom, and a bathroom. Everything is a mix of order and chaos. A meticulously organized bookshelf sits beside a makeup vanity with products haphazardly thrown around. Coats are hung neatly above a mess of shoes. It’s a physical representation of both their personalities and makes me wonder how my brother can even handle her mess when he’s become so rigid.
On the opposite end is an office that I assume is his. In true Sebastian fashion, it’s void of any personal effects. A large mahogany desk takes up most of the floor space with nothing more than a slim laptop sitting on top of it. But what gets my ghostly heart pumping is the wall across from the desk—the one he likely stares at all day as he works.
It’s got a map of the mortal world hung on it with several red push pins jammed into different spots. Strings connect each one to different places, but most are spun around one singular pin: the one in the center of New York City.
Immediately, I have the sense that this is related to my death and the men who executed it.
He’s hunting them still, just as I suspected. An entire mortal year later.
And out in the open, where Jovie has likely seen. Does she know of his crimes?
The irony cuts deep—my brother mourns me while simultaneously forgetting his true nature and responsibility. The mortal side of him grieves his sister while his true self abandons his divine twin.
I pull back into the hallway, finding Revel watching me with an odd expression.
