Page 218 of Bonds of Hercules
Kharon’s hand never left my spine as he walked closely behind me.
The heavy door slammed shut.
Fluffy Jr., the hellhounds, and Poco were squeezed into the narrow space at the end of the bed, snoring in an adorable pile of fur and bones.
The lump on Fluffy Jr.’s back still had a faint blue hue, but he wasn’t whimpering, just sleeping soundly. It suddenly struck me that we’d both been glowing lately.Is it connected?
Silence stretched.
My husbands were both looming above me, waiting.
I studied the bed, barely big enough for the three of us, courage flagging.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Pick a number,” Kharon ordered as shadows settled into the sharp edges of his face. “One … or two?”
Augustus clenched his hands into fists.
A sinister aura filled the room.
“Two?” I offered tentatively.
Kharon opened the bathroom door and held it for me, his smile cruel.
“The shower it is.”
39
THE PATRON SAINTS OF SIN
ALEXIS
“Ineed to get something off my chest …” I trailed off with a quiver, hugging my knees to myself, words dying in my throat.
Confidence had drained away.
I was fully clothed on the closed toilet seat, afraid if I took off my toga, my flesh would come off with it.
Hair frizzy, I had a narrow field of vision, and a ringing in my left ear. I wastooquiet, wary of touch, abrasive when I should be soft, gentle when I should be ferocious.
A scalding stream of water sprayed behind us inside the empty shower, sputtering through ancient pipes as a single candle flickered.
Kharon and Augustus dominated the small space; we barely fit.
Sirens flashed inside my mind.
DANGER. Do not touch the predators.
“Speak, carissima.” Kharon loomed above me, his eyes a piercing, fatal blue—the shade of frozen lips, stretched across chattering teeth, in a Montana winter. The color of hypothermia. “Say your piece.”
I was mute.
“Alexis.” Augustus rolled my name in his mouth like he was caressing it. “Darling …please.”
Steam mixed with shadows, casting both of them in darkness.
Merciless, malevolent gods.
