Page 9 of Until the End of Ever
Right, but I’d be damned if I admitted it now.
The smile she shot at me was torturous.
I made myself recall why it didn’t matter.
"And what would it mean?"
"You'd become a member of the house of Nyx. Without the words to complete the binding, it's vague. It wouldn't result in a soul bond, if that's what you're afraid of."
"If it's this unimportant, why not just do it?"
I’d informed her I could bind her to my line, and she’d deemed it unimportant.
I’d made a decision right then, the moment I heard those words. I had to guard myself. Yes, I was pretty, and like every woman—and some men—I knew, she was happy to fuck me, but she didn’t see me as anything more. Being bound to me wasunimportantto her.
It was fucking unfair that she could say things like that and look at me with this softness in her blue eyes, while smiling.
I made myself move again, retrieving sandwiches from the basket. “Who wants beef?”
“Me!” said everyone.
“I only have two. The others are ham and cheese or turkey club.”
It turned out, no one cared what they were eating, so long as they could eat. Silver waited after I’d given her the last sandwich before grinning. “Thanks, Daddy.”
“I think I preferred you when you were trying to kick my ass.” In an attempt to return her to her former animosity, I added, “And, you know, failing.”
She beamed at me. “Too late, sucker. You’re clearly a decent bloke. And a great group mom on a field trip. You’re either Mummy or Daddy, your call. I figured you’d prefer the latter.”
The good thing about most of my acquaintances was that deep down, they recognized I was something to fear. For the longest time the only exceptions were my family, Ronan, and Lucky. Then Gideon and Kleos showed up, utterly unbothered by the fact that I could murder most people with a simple touch. Now I had to add bloody Silver to the list.
“I think I hate you,Edith.”
“Too late. We’re going to be great friends,” she announced. “You fed me. You can even call me Edith without being murdered.”
I shook my head, speeding up to put as much distance between us as possible. With her short legs, she remained behind.
“So, godsdie?” Ronan reminded me when I’d caught up with him, at the head of our group.
“Yeah, I was going to ask about that,” Kleos said. “I thought the whole point was that they’re immortal.”
“There’s a difference between immortal and eternal—you all know that,” I replied. “Most of us with elder blood are technically immortal. After we’ve reached our optimal physical form, our cells don’t degenerate. It’s not that uncommon in nature; there’s even a type of jellyfish that’s biologically immortal. But wecanstill die, by taking our bodies to a point where they can’t heal fast enough. It’s the same for any god. They’re just much harder to destroy. It usually takes a god to kill a god.”
“And then, they can come back?” Silver asked. “Like Apollo.”
Silver and usingnames. We were not instantly evaporated, so I supposed there wasn’t much harm.
“As for that, most of my knowledge was acquired less than an hour ago. I wasn’t certain of anything. But nothing ever disappears; matter is transformed by the universe. It makes sense that a god’s power wouldn’t easily be disintegrated. They remain in the cosmos until something or someone that feels familiar calls them.” Ihadread that theory before, I just never expected to have it confirmed by an Olympian god. “From what our new friend implied, the god and its vessel fight for dominance of the body.”
I couldn’t help an apprehensive glance to Kleos. We’d all seen her, golden, shining, and real, speaking in an unfamiliar, ancient language, the meaning of each word echoed in my mind.
She’d been possessed;enthusedwas the exact word. And I doubted the goddess was done with her.
Her wide opened-mouth look told me she was coming to the same conclusion.
The god usually won.
We could be losing her. My heart tightened in my chest, demanding I comfort her. I also needed to feel her here, alive, herself. I crossed the three steps separating us and brought one hand around her back, pulling her against my chest.
