“You don’t think this is her work, do you?” I point back up toward where we came from.
“No,” she says with certainty in her voice. “That goddess preferred to explode people’s heads from the inside out, but she left the rest of the body intact and whole.”
Again, I’m left chasing after Phoenix’s retreating back as she walks quickly toward the car. But this time, I’m also trying to process everything she just told me. A goddess possessed her mother while pregnant with her. Phoenix has been researching ancient deities. And she’s been carrying this fear alone, maybe for a long time.
I catch up to her at the car. “Phoenix, wait.”
She pauses with her hand on the door handle but doesn’t turn around.
“Thank you for telling me. About your mother. I know that couldn’t have been easy.”
Her shoulders tense for a moment. Then she opens the car door. “Yeah, well. Now you know I take this seriously.”
“I always knew you took it seriously,” I say softly. “I just didn’t understand why until now.”
She finally looks at me over the roof of the car. There’s something in her expression I can’t quite read. “We should go. I need to call Sabra and probably your brothers too. If spirits are coming through, we need to know what we’re dealing with.”
I nod and get into the passenger seat. As she starts the car, I watch her profile. The determined set of her jaw. The worry lines between her eyebrows that won’t smooth out.
I wish she’d let me help carry some of this weight she’s put on her own shoulders. But I’ll settle for being here beside her while she figures out how to save the world again.
Even if she won’t admit she needs me.
EIGHTEEN
LAYDEN
We meetProfessor Dickhead for lunch at a cafe near campus.
I glower at him as we approach the outdoor seating area. The tables are arranged under a pergola covered in flowering vines. It would be romantic if I weren’t about to watch another man touch my wife.
“John Paul!” Phoenix says warmly when we get to the table, and he stands immediately. He grasps her hands and pulls her in to air-kiss each of her cheeks in that pretentious European way. My eyes narrow as I watch his hands linger on hers.
His eyes only come to me when he finally pulls back from her. “And who is this?” He looks me up and down with clear distaste on his face, like I’m something he scraped off his shoe.
Phoenix waves a hand dismissively. “Just a family friend who’s staying with us for a while. I told Grandpapa I’d let him shadow me and see what university life was all about.”
Family friend. I grit my teeth so hard my jaw aches. Can he not see the ring on her finger? But when I look down, I realize she has the strap of her purse coiled around her left hand in away that strategically hides it. Purposely hiding the ring so he won’t see it?
Just how far does her interest in her dear professor actually go?
“We adored your lecture this morning. I’m so sorry about the disruption at the end.” Phoenix smiles at him in a glowing way that makes my chest tight.
“Alas,” the Professor says with a long-suffering sigh that makes me want to roll my eyes. “That is the way of things wherever you go with progressive ideas lately. The world is so on edge they are unwilling to listen to the truth.”
He reaches across the table and grasps Phoenix’s hand again. She allows it and doesn’t pull away immediately like she does with me.
“Shouldn’t we order drinks or something?” I say loudly, causing both of them to look at me. Phoenix finally pulls her hand away from his and nods, starting to stand from her chair.
But Professor Fuckface just waves a hand dismissively at her. “I already ordered for you, bellezza. I remembered your favorite.”
They smile at each other like they’re sharing some private joke. Like I’m not even sitting here.
Then the Professor looks back at me with barely concealed annoyance. “But feel free to go to the counter to get yourself something.”
And leave the two of them alone at this intimate little table? Fuck this entire situation.
I lean forward, causing the metal feet of the table to screech loudly on the tile. “You’re her advisor. Is itadvisableto be so casual with a student you’re supposed to be supervising?”
