Page 136 of For the Gods' Sake

I was staring at that spot when two portals cracked, revealing four gods, bringing a mix of fury, exhaustion, and relief with them.

"You realize staring at it will only make it worse, right?" Lukas said, clearly thinking himself a genius.

I looked up at him with a stiff neck and his expression sobered immediately.

"Is she okay?" Daphne asked softly from her husband's side.

"Sleeping," I responded, my voice still hoarse. As much as Reyna wanted to convince me, and herself, she was okay, I could see the strain in her face every time she moved.

Even if her skin was healed, her body hadn't fully recovered.

Which only served to make my desire to kill Sebastian churn even darker.

"I can check on her if you need, if she is still in pain or if she's is trying to convince herself that it's not that bad—" Daphne's nervous, caring rambling was cut off by the soft slide of Lukas's hand over her mouth.

"She's okay, baby," Lukas said, as he removed his hand. Daphne looked up at him and nodded, considerably less nervous than she was a second ago.

"Your office looks like shit, man," Dominic decided to chime in, standing behind Rose like her shadow.

I scoffed in agreement. "The whole thing can go for all I care."

"Well, now that we all have sufficient reason to want to serve up Sebastian's head on a platter," Dominic drawled, "Should we draw straws to see who goes first?"

Rose was the only person who laughed at that gruesome imagery.

"I'd venture to say we should let Reyna take the first shot at him," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "He threatened her family and Adrian enough times that I thought her head was going to pop off in anger."

What I wouldnotdo was have any sort ofinappropriate reaction to Reyna getting angry in the face of a threat against my life.

My pants simply felt a little tighter for an entirely different reason.

"Until we can force him to reinstate at least one heir," I said, darkness curling around my tone. "No one gets to kill him."

Even though my anger was churning, the weather outside remained shockingly calm. And it wasn't just because I let most of my energy pour out last night in my panic.

Something Reyna had told me had resonated with me. When her mind seemed to betray her, she simply let it pass instead of bearing down and trying to fix it.

That was what I'd always done with my power. Tried to grab on and force it into submission, instead of embracing it.

Even if it felt like there was too much of it to fit in my body at times, I'd tried to let it slip over my limbs with a deep breath instead of trying to catch it on its way out of my hands.

It had worked quite well so far. But I had a lifetime to try and control it.

"I don't know how easily he'll be convinced," Rose hedged. We all knew how deep Sebastian's stubbornness ran, especially now. "I'm just still a little shocked."

Daphne snorted. "I want to know when this all started. If his parents had anything to do with it."

Sebastian's parents were...well, they were probably the least respected gods among the other divine for as long as our family lines went back.

But Daphne was right, there were too manyunanswered questions.

"Oh, don't worry," I said. "We'll be getting answers from him. He is going to help us tie up any loose ends of this fucking conspiracy if it's the last thing he does. Actually, it might be."

Dominic's head cocked skeptically. "You really think he'll help?"

"Not now. But if anyone can get something out of him..."

"It's her," Lukas supplied, knowing first hand how much her work could change a person in such a short time.

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