Page 12 of God Touched

"It is done," Arawan said softly. He lifted her still bloody thumb to his mouth and sucked hard before his power healed it. Imogen swallowed, staring at nothing and wondering what she had just done.

"Now, I should be getting back." Arawan stood gracefully and lifted her chin with the silver head of his cane. "I expect you to return to my castle by sundown tomorrow.Don'tmake me come and fetch you, darling."

Imogen pushed his cane away. "I'll be there."

They all stared as Arawan's warriors encircled him. He tilted his head as he stared at Imogen, and then he slowly lifted his hand and flipped her off.

Checkmate.Shadows surrounded them, and they were gone before she could toss Bayn's dagger at him.

Freya squawked angrily in Norwegian and threw a pastry at Imogen. "What the fuck did you do?"

"I owed him a debt." Imogen stared at the fresh gray scar on her thumb. "He saved my life."

Kian let out a sound between a growl and a groan. "The god of the dead doesn't save lives, Imogen!"

Imogen lifted her shirt to show the matching scar on her waist. "He saved mine."

Kian shook his head. "No, Gen, death godstakelives. And from where I am sitting, he just took yours."

6

Imogen left all of them arguing and went to call Layla. She knew that Charlotte would only yell at her, and she was over being yelled at for one day. She couldn't deal with Kenna either, and the last thing she wanted to do was stress David out.

"Big sis, what's wrong?" Layla answered.

Imogen sat down on the floor in her room and rested her back against the bed.

"I have kind of fucked up, and I need to tell you that I won't be home in a while," Imogen replied.

"Okay, what happened? You sound all weird. What do you mean fucked up? Stole a motorcycle fucked up? Slept with a married guy fucked up?"

Imogen blew out a tight breath. "I was minding my own business, checking out some Wales beaches, and I got attacked by horde creatures. Don't freak out. I'm fine. I had some help turn up unexpectedly."

"What kind of help, Gen?" Layla always knew when she was lying, so she was careful with how much bullshit she spun her. There was no escaping it this time.

"Arawan?"

"As in the God of the dead?

"The very one."

"Huh, I wondered when he would turn up again."

Imogen frowned. "I'm sorry, what do you mean by that? Why would a god turn up?"

"Because of how he looked at you that night he took Morrigan. It was like…fascination. I kind of had this feeling he would be back, and after Aneirin released his rival, I thought it was just a matter of time," Layla explained. She was always the most pragmatic of them, and her being so calm about it made Imogen relax a little too. "He turned up in a fight to save you? That's kind of romantic."

Imogen rolled her eyes. "I was about to get eaten by a Kraken. It was very far from romantic."

"Have you met you? Killing the Kraken is probably one of your top ten date ideas."

"Shut up." A graphic image of Arawan and his silver sword flashed in her mind's eye. "Okay, it was pretty cool."

"Ha! As I thought. Tell me what happened next."

Imogen ended up telling Layla everything except her cutting her own wrists. Even laid-back Layla would probably kick her ass for that stupidity.

"Wow. You're going to be like a liaison? An ambassador? Damn, he really has no idea how undiplomatic you can be," Layla said and laughed loudly.

---