Page 77 of Gods of Prey
I don’t answer. My attachment to Jovie is still a weakness I can’t afford to fully admit, not even to myself. After everything we’ve been through—the friendship we built, the secrets we shared—she’s become as dear to me as my twin.
“We’ve convinced Sebastian to return,” Revel continues when I remain silent. My body relaxes as my anger dissipates. “That’s all we needed to do. Everything else is just...uncertain.”
“Give us some credit. Convincing him has been a much larger task than we anticipated.” I sink back down beside him. “We’ll handle this next part with the same finesse.” Digging my elbow into his ribs, I flash all my teeth in a teasing smile.
He doesn’t think it’s funny, though. Instead, he takes another long drink, then sets the bottle down with too much force. It nearly shatters against the cement. “I didn’t think it would be this complicated.”
“No one ever does.” I reach out, letting my hand hover above his. I can’t touch him, not really, but sometimes I can make him feel a whisper of cold where my fingers pass through his skin. “We’re not just retrieving a wayward god. We’re asking Sebastian to abandon love.”
“For duty,” he insists, but there’s less conviction in his voice than before.
“And how has duty served us?” I gesture to my translucent form. “Look at me, Revel. Look at what duty has cost me. All this pain and death, and for what? Because Sebastian and I dared to question the Divine Council’s wisdom?”
He stares at me, and I see something shift in his expression. He’s quiet for a long moment. Then he reaches for the bottle again, but I drift my hand through his wrist, sending a shock of cold through him. He jerks back.
“Enough,” I say. “You won’t solve anything by drowning yourself in that.”
“I’m not trying to solve anything.” There’s a rawness to his voice that catches me off guard. “I’m trying to forget.”
“Forget what?”
He looks at me then, really looks at me, and the intensity in his eyes makes me wish I could step back. “You.”
The word hangs between us, heavy with meaning I’m not ready to face. Meaning I’ve been avoiding all day as we worked with my brother and Jovie.
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” I whisper.
“I do.” He stands suddenly, unsteady on his feet. He’s closer to the edge than he should be, but there’s no fear in him. “That’s the problem, Sienna. I know exactly what I’m saying, and I shouldn’t be saying it at all.”
I rise to his level, hovering just before him. “Revel?—”
“No, let me finish.” He runs a hand through his hair, disheveled from the wind and his own restless fingers. “I’ve spent centuries in Aurelys, surrounded by everything beautiful and alive, and none of it—noneof it—has ever made me feel the way I do when I’m with you.”
“Dead?” I darkly joke, biting my lip. I hate the warmth silently flooding me at his admission.
His head snaps toward me. “Not even close.”
My heart would be pounding if I still had one. “You hate me,” I remind him, grasping for the safety of our old animosity.
“I tried to.” A sad smile tugs at his lips. “It would be so much easier if I did.”
“This is the whiskey talking,” I excuse again, though we both know better.
“Maybe.” He steps closer to the edge, and for one terrifying moment, I think he might step off. But he just looks down at the street below. “Or maybe all of this has made me realize some things.”
“You know, you didn’t have to come here with me,” I say, the words coming out sharper than I intended. “You had everything to gain by staying in Aurelys.”
“That’s not how I saw it.” He turns back to me, swaying slightly. “I saw my best friend caught in a mortal trap. I saw someone I care about in danger of losing everything.”
“Someone you care about,” I repeat, unable to keep the skepticism from my voice.
“Yes.” The honesty in his eyes is unbearable. “Someone I’ve grown to care for. Deeply.”
I pull back slightly, creating distance. As if my body is repelled by such thoughts.
Who could care for me?No one. I am coldness and darkness and Death. I’m to be feared, not loved.
“You don’t know me.”
