Page 69 of Until the End of Ever
I had to excuse myself in order not to lose it in front of the poor kid. Running to the bathroom, I clung to the sink, heaving.
I knew someone had been trying to enslave me, yes, but given the fact that I was a powerful witch, I figured their end goal was to use my abilities for nefarious reasons. I even pictured someone taking advantage of me while I was powerless to stop it, in my worst nightmares. But enslaving me for life? Irrevocably?
Desperate to do something, anything with my trembling hands to distract myself, I let go of the strands of hair I was compulsively braiding, and started to fiddle with the bits and pieces at the bottom of my purse.
I always picked up interesting stones. It had been a while since I’d found any, but I still had a few from Silver. I didn’t have my kit, or metal, but I ripped a piece of fabric from a top and morphed it into a leather-like strand, before twisting, gluing, sewing it into place, just for something to do.
“You’re good at that.”
I didn’t lift my eyes from my work, but out of the trance-like focus, I could see what I’d been up to. The smooth sea glass and cream stones formed a leaf, or perhaps a peacock’s feather.
“It’s just for fun,” I dismissed. “It calms me down to do something with my hands.”
Lucian joined me on the bed I was using as my work bench, seating besides me, not hindering me at all.
“You ought to work with silver and gold, emeralds and diamonds,” he told me.
I snorted. “Says the man earning a hundred golds an hour. Glass picked up by Silver is what I can afford.”
“Mm.”
Sometime over the last few minutes, Lucian’s hand had steadily started stroking my back. The moment I noticed, I let out a sob, unable to stop.
“Nothing happened to you, Kleos. Yes, they tried. And they failed. They’ll continue to fail. Understood?” he whispered. “Nothingwillhappen to you.”
I allowed myself to cry on his shirt, clinging to him as all my fear and anger came out in great, ugly sobs, and Lucian held me through it all, shifting me to cradle me on his lap.
I didn’t know how long I stayed like that before remembering we had guests.
“Elias—” I started.
“Cassius took him back to my parents’, with baked good leftovers, so he was suitably distracted.”
That surprised me. “Cassius never leaves the house.”
Lucian shrugged. “You needed me. Cassius does what he needs to for his family.”
The implication, that that included me, made me blush and shed another tear against his chest. “I ruined your shirt.”
He smiled against my hair. “No one gives a fuck about my shirt, Valesco.”
I managed a snort that was almost a laugh. “Your shirts must cost the price of my phone.”
“More. Your phone is a piece of crap. And I still don’t care.”
Done bawling my eyes out, I flushed, embarrassed by the panic attack. “Thank you. For covering me with Elias, getting Cassius to take him away, coming for me,” I enumerated.
“I find your thanks offensive. Of course I came for you,” Lucian replied, his winning, panty-melting smirk firmly in place. “And I completely understand the fear. But Kleos, you do know you’re safe here? We are going to figure out who did this to you, and handle them.”
The way he said “handle” made no secret of what he intended for the guilty party. I only hoped I got a chance to torture them before Lucian got his hands on them.
“I mean, yes, we can take care of the puppet. But Apollo implied agodis behind it. How do we stop a god?”
That was the true source of my fear. Not the marks long faded underneath Lucian’s runes, but whoever had ordered it in the first place.
“Wedon’t. We negotiate with another god, and let them take care of it.”
I glanced at him, dubious. “So, what, we pray?”
