Liam’s face was blank. He was staring at his hands is if he’d only recently discovered they were attached to his body.
“I knew it was true,” Mrs. Morris said. “And now everything is going to be okay.”
“Everything…” A chill traveled through Charlotte as she watched the woman inhale hard on her cigarette.
“A deal is a deal.” She winked. “Take it from me, chicky, the art of the deal doesn’t end with this life.”
“What did you do?” Charlie glanced toward Liam as a pinprick of light sparked against the wall behind his mother.
“What the fuck is that?” Spencer knocked over his chair getting up and stumbled backward toward the window.
“Liam! Come to me.” Charlie held out her hand. She could protect him. She could jump with him to another dimension if she had to.
The golden glow spread into a human shape, but that was no human. Her only question was, which one. Which god had Mrs. Morris made a deal with and why?
The light gathered until winged shoes and a helmet came into view. “Hermes.”
The messenger god formed beside Mrs. Morris and dropped a coin onto the table in front of her, a Greek obol. “Your passage to Elysium, courtesy of Plutus.”
She snatched the coin from the table and gripped it in her palm.
“What did you trade for the obol?” Charlie asked, pinning her with a stare.
She shook her head. “Nothing more than helping Plutus continue what he started, girl. He was blinded to keep him from discriminating. He wants to discriminate. Liam’s existence and acceptance of the gift means he gets what he wants for another generation. Everyone is happy.”
Kara thrust her hand into her purse and pulled out a gun, pointing it at Liam. “Not everyone.”
Liam raised his hands. “Kara… Come on…”
“Put it down, you fool. If he dies, you lose everything,” Mrs. Morris said.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think if he dies, we lose the magic but we keep the money. All of it.”
Her gaze connected to Spencer’s.
Charlie observed all that in her peripheral vision as her attention was locked on Hermes, who hadn’t left the room. He was studying her and smiling in that unreadable way of the gods. And he was waiting. Waiting for her to confirm what he already suspected, what he could likely feel across the room just as she could feel him.
Her stomach cramped with the need to spread her wings.
She’d never taken her parents’ warnings about the danger of leaving Paragon too seriously. As far as she was aware, the gods were too wrapped up in themselves to have much interest in people’s everyday lives. Certainly, her small life wouldn’t attract much attention, or so she’d assumed. But here was proof that she was wrong about that.
“Do it!” Spencer yelled.
“Don’t be stupid, Kara!” Mrs. Morris yelled. “Look at me. Look at me!”
Charlie’s power snapped to attention as Kara’s breath left her lungs. She blinked once, and then her finger twitched, discharging the gun. Liam threw himself out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Crossing her arms, Charlotte extended her shield, catching the bullet before it could burrow into Liam’s neck. But the celestial magic it cost Charlie came at a price. Her wings unfurled with a snap. She grunted with the effort, panting and staggering. The bullet dropped harmlessly onto the table, but she was drained. Liam caught her around the waist.
“Guardian, who sent you?” Hermes boomed, his head cocking to the side.
“Guardian?” Mrs. Morris scowled. “What are you talking about? What is she, Liam? What have you done?”
“You are mistaken, Lord Hermes.” Charlie said. “I am no guardian. I am a demigod, descended of Circe.”
His laugh rippled in the room around them. “Of course you are, princess of Paragon. What a pleasure it is to finally make your acquaintance.” He bowed. “Although you must know that Olympus will have to be informed of your visit to this realm.”
“Why?”
