Page 44 of Gambling with Time

“Shit,” Bellamy tugged his fingers through his hair, his hands running over his horns, his frustration bleeding from him and mixing with my own.

“Alastor?” I asked, trying to calm my raging breathing and my equally dangerous need to grab her up and fly away with her.

“I have the poultice I used on Bellamy in the tower.”

“She is mortal, she doesn’t have weeks to heal,” Bellamy replied. He was right, it didn’t mean I didn’t want to punch him for even saying it.

“We have to save her, ask your father,” I demanded, pinning Alastor with a look.

“Geez, man, put some clothes on,” Bellamy groaned as his eyes flicked over me. I was sure I made quite the picture with blood coating almost my whole body.

“Really? Now? You want to bitch about me wearing clothes when you are the king of walking around naked if you can get away with it,” I replied. Not that I had my fucking clothing. No, it was probably a frozen pile in the courtyard.

“Whatever,” he said as he waved his hand. Clothing that wasn’t mine settled over my skin, and I stared at him.

“If you could have done that before, why the fuck have you let me walk around naked?”

He smirked at me but didn’t elaborate. We had bigger things to worry about.

“My dad won’t help us,” Alastor replied.

“If your father doesn’t help us, he will have bigger things to worry about than Osiris coming to claim his throne,” Bellamy threatened as he dropped to his knees next to our girl.

He took the words right out of my mouth. I guessed I could put up with the demon. He did press buttons because he could, every fucking day, but he also cared about Sammy as much as I did.

“I will help the poor child,” a woman said, stepping forward. She was beautiful in that unearthly way that screamed, ‘I’m a Goddess.’

“Mom?” Alastor’s voice cracked, and the pieces slipped into place. Persephone.

“How is she to be the future Queen if she dies on our steps?” She stepped forward, kneeling near her head. Her hands glowed, and she placed them over the crown of Sammy’s head.

Slowly, the color returned to her cheeks, and a breath lifted her chest. The skin beneath her clothing appeared to knit back together, the blood flowing away from the previous cut, leaving the tiniest of scars visible through the slice of her shirt.

A gasp parted her lips, and her eyes fluttered open like a butterfly flapping their wings for the first time. Relief sweet and pure filled me, chasing away the adrenaline, and I fell to my knees at her feet. Exhaustion crept in now that I knew we were all safe. My fight or flight response evaporated and became a need to sleep. A need to hold Sammy tight and never let her go.

She shot up between us, ready to fight off the demon. Her wild eyes swung between us as Lex talked her down with nonsense words that seemed to cut through her panic. She dropped back to the ground with a sob that was so unlike her that it cut straight through me.

“She will be fine now,” Persephone murmured. “Take good care of her.”

She pushed to her feet and climbed the steps to her waiting husband. They both looked like they’d done their part in the battle. Blood stained Persephone’s dress, whether it was hers or the hybrids I wasn’t sure. And Hades held a sword in one hand, the tip stained red with blood. When she approached, he let it clang to the stone steps. Then he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead that showed all the care in the world before he tucked her under his arm, and they disappeared into their home.

My attention returned to Sammy. The tears streaking her face tore at my heart, ravaging my insides. Lex gathered her into his arms, Bellamy and Alastor enveloped them both, and I only hesitated a moment before I threw my arms around all of them.

They were all mine now. For better or worse, we were stuck with each other, and suddenly, it didn’t feel like the worst thing to ever happen. A piece of my soul fit with the pieces of theirs, and we made a whole. None of us would survive without the others. I knew that now.

* * *

Rest, regroup, and plan our attack. That was the order of business. Hades and Persephone requested that we stay at the castle with them. They even had a room made up for all of us. It was larger than my warehouse, and my dragon imagined what treasures it could hold.

Of course, the klepto inside of me wondered how much stolen goods the room would hide from the world. I rolled my eyes as I took in the space. A large sitting area with a huge couch big enough for all five of us to be comfortable, and an oversized TV or undersized theater screen, depending on how you view it, took up the opposite wall. Floor-to-ceiling shelves on either side held a multitude of Blu-rays. It was a movie junkie's heaven.

The bed appeared to be at least three king beds shoved together. But knowing the guys, only a quarter of the bed will be used because every one of them will be within touching distance of Sammy. Not that I wasn’t included in that as well. I just slept better if she was near.

“Looks like your dad went all out,” Bellamy whistled as he ran his fingers over the foot of the bed. “This bed was made for orgies.”

“Sam needs rest not orgies,” Lex chastised him, but there was no heat in his words.

“I am pretty tired,” Sammy replied. She leaned against the bedpost and watched Bellamy.

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