Page 18 of A Subtle Scar
I nodded and stood because the permission to leave was like a spell all its own.
“You should give life advice, have your own podcast or something.”
She giggled. “A Dragon Mother has no time for such things when there are younger gods around who enjoy flopping about instead of doing things properly.” She pointed up, presumably to the first floor. “Don’t think Lucy was the most difficult of the lot. He might just have the best hair out of all of them.”
I blinked a few times. “Wait. I’m sorry this just occurred to me now, and I don’t mean to be rude. Are you everyone’s mother?”
After a three-second wide-eyed stare, Tiamat laughed. It was a happy sound, a good sound, the auditory equivalent of a sunrise or of watching a kaleidoscope of butterflies paint the sky with gemstone wings.
“Graces, no! Could you imagine caring for that many eggs and seeing all of them hatch? No, but I am one of the older deities, and as I said, we take care of our own. Especially of the good-looking idiots among them. You can’t get by with only your looks in this world, but it seems few of them are aware of that.”
“Right. Well, whether they were your eggs or not, you are a mother and look stunning being that.” I smiled at her.
Tiamat chuckled. “Satanic charmer, you. Drive safely.”
“Always do,” I said and headed for the door, although I stopped to grab one of those cinnamon rolls for the road. They were still oven-warm, and it seemed wrong not to at least take one.
I got back home around noon, dropped my bag in the hallway and myself on the couch. On the drive back, I’d considered what paperwork I could reasonably do. All of it combined would take me less than an hour.
I glanced over to my too-large kitchen, which took up space behind a wide archway separating it from the living space. I could head to the market and do some shopping, cook something. My skills in the kitchen were by no means grandiose, but I had the basics down, and I could follow a recipe.
“Filing, market, cooking. Maybe drop by the office before I head to the market,” I said to the ceiling.
I rose from the couch and got to work.
Forty-five minutes later, my overnight bag was restocked with a clean set of clothes in case I needed to hit the road fast for work, everything was filed, and all emails were answered. I was standing in front of the closet in the bedroom. The comforter on the bed was dusty, which meant I could do laundry later. Unless there was stuff to do at work.
I quickly pulled out a suit and tie and was on my way to the office less than ten minutes later. The truth was I’d left my phone on and charged in the hope that someone needed something, but it wasn’t meant to be. Julia had probably used her HR clout to tell people to leave me alone for the week.
A text came in as I pulled into my parking spot in front of the FIS building
and before I got out of the car, I opened my messaging app.
Heads up, both Charon and Hermes were looking for you,Lionel had typed.Lots of sexual tension,he’d typed next, followed by alternating eggplant and angry face emojis.
“Huh?”
What do I have to do with their sexual tension? They spent the night together, right?I typed. The two gods hadn’t seemed like the obvious pairing, but I didn’t like to judge. I’d once caned and flogged a bouncer a head taller and double my width. He’d cried after and had been in it for the aftercare, and I didn’t judge.
Lionel started typing, stopped, started again.News to me. Lucy says they always bicker like brothers, whatever that means.
I barely talked to them. They are probably confusing me with someone,I sent back. Apart from that exchange with Charon, and Hermes trying to charm me into orgying, I'd barely had a conversation with either of them.
If you say so. Hey, thanks for the psychedelic spores by the way ;)
The best gifts are experiences,I sent back.
If you want to join me for harvesting, let me know. Lucy will be our sober minder.
Lol, I think he prefers minding you,I typed because doing shrooms with a colleague was far from being professional.
He likes you, so let’s do drugs together:)he sent back, and if I wanted out, I had to be working on the day of, it seemed.
I sent a thumbs-up and put my phone away before heading inside.
Dustin was still doing the security checks, but he walked right up to me, his palm out.
“Agent Chandler, Julia told me to stop you from entering the building,” he said. “She said you might try to sneak in, but that you were on vacation, and so you weren’t allowed. She said to tell you that, legally, you are not supposed to work when you’re on vacation, and that it’s a liability issue.”
