Page 39 of For the Love of the Gods

“We aren’t exclusive. Besides, I saw him looking real cozy with a girl from his court the other day.”

She waved a hand in dismissal, but I reacted protectively, loyalty to her pushing out a threat.

“If he fucks you over,” I warned. “I’ll send a Shadowwalker after him.”

Thea laughed as she wrapped a strand of my hair around the curling wand.

It was a helpful, but smaller aspect of my power. I could conjure figures made of smoke and pure death and pull them practically out of thin air. It came in handy for shitty exes. One of Thea’s ex-boyfriends was a royal pain in the ass, but he got his payback in the form of a willowy, black surprise spooking him so badly he jumped off a boat fully clothed in front of his seedy friends.

Thea and I caught up more, and she pressed about Dominic, but I didn’t really have much to offer her.

“I don’t know. I don’t trust him for shit, but—”

“He’s hot.”

I gasped, offense forming on my face. “That was not what I was going to say!”

“You were thinking it.” I didn’t drop my shocked expression, because Ihadbeen thinking it. Thea thankfully moved on before I could admit to it. “Right, what were you going to say?”

“I was going to say that I think he’s starting to figure out I might not be as much of a cold hearted bitch as he used to believe.” The act was easy to keep up in short bursts, but when he was so much in my space, it got tiring to keep fighting him. Keep fighting a lot of things where he was concerned, actually.

Thea scrunched her eyebrows together. “And that is a bad thing because?”

“I don’t like him.”

Thea tipped her head back and laughed, “Sure you don’t.”

“Thea!” She was not letting me win today.

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Thea lightly scolded, waving the curling wand at me in warning.

I caught a glimpse of a clothing bag hanging off the door of my closet behind her in the mirror and took a moment to thank the Fates for the chance to change the subject.

“The dress,” I said, jerking my chin to the bag.

Thea shot me a look that said she caught onto that less than subtle subject change, but this was her craft, she’d talk about it at even the subtlest hint someone was interested.

She looked back whimsically over her shoulder. “This beauty took me three weeks to make.”

Thea made quick work of the rest of my hair, speedily but artfully spinning soft curls through it. When she was done, she ran towards the dress in excitement.

I followed, giving her a moment to dramatically present the dress, this was always her favorite part. Thea unzipped the bag in a flourish, then lovingly reached in to pull out the dress.

I gasped when I saw it. “Oh, Thea, it's beautiful.”

It wasstunning. The gown was composed of a deep, rich purple gauzy fabric that would allow the light to shine through and show my legs. There were purple gems and crystals sown into the bodice and down to fan out at about mid-thigh.

“Some of my best work, if I do say so myself,” Thea said, as she reached over and physically lifted my stunned jaw.

“It is gorgeous.” I reached my hand out to feel the material, already excited to put it on.

Thea read my mind. “Ready?”

“Please."

I stepped into the dress, threading my arms through it, the material touching every part of my body but the unclasped back. A tingly feeling ran through my body as I looked at myself in the mirror. This was a good color on me.

Except the tingles got worse until they turned into a scorching burn and I yelped, jumping out of the dress.

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