“You can’t protect yourself, Emmanuelle. You need me.”
“Maybe,” she hedged, her chin tilting up stubbornly.
“Frustrating woman,” I grumbled, striding up to her and wrapping my hands around her upper arms, drawing her up onto her toes and against my chest.
Those damn eyes were wide again, tiny hints of need swirling behind the blockage offuck offthat she was trying to muster. I turned on the spot, pulling her with me through a pocket. I held her weight against me as we landed, the grass soft beneath us. A forest rose high around us, soft purple flowers dotting the grass of the clearing we stood in. Emmy drew closer to me, instinctively driven to shield herself with my body.
“What is this place?” she asked, her tone quieter than usual.
“This is where Terrance lives. It’s his magic that you’re feeling. Don’t worry, it can’t actually harm you. His magic cloaks the gods with something he calls apredatorshield. It communicates to his animals that we are not to be hunted.”
“Hunted?” Her tone was no longer quiet, but tinged with a shrillness that had me biting back a smile.
She scrambled away from my chest, putting her back to me and turning about to examine every edge of the clearing slowly and carefully.
“Terrance is the—”
“Bestiary God,” she supplied distractedly. “I know. Why are we here?”
“He is a little more ...attunedto the base nature of beings than most gods are,” I explained, reaching out and wrapping my hand around a section of her robes.
I figured she wouldn’t let me touch her to lead her forward in any way, so this would have to do. “We’re going to ask him if he can tell us what your power is.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to be showing me to outsiders?” she goaded, sticking close to my back as I picked my way through the trees.
The animals were gathering about us, but they stayed out of our way. I could feel the heat of their bodies close by, and hear the rustle of leaves along the ground.
“As a general rule, yes. But I have leverage over Terrance, and I don’t have leverage over the builders.”
“What leverage?” she asked, as we reached a small footbridge.
I didn’t answer because Terrance himself had just emerged from the water beneath the bridge. His saturated robes were half pulled off, tied about his waist and draped in reeds. His green eyes were like the moss he loved to play in; his long, brown hair slicked back from his face.
“What leverage indeed?” he asked, his voice a whisper.
Emmy jumped, and then ground to a halt, her eyes riveted to the Bestiary God.
“How long will you lord that over me?” Terrance continued, walking toward us, his feet bare against the grass. “It was a harmless little prank.”
“If Staviti ever found out that you and Pica had sex, he would make it his mission to end you just as he’s made it his mission to end Rau,” I reminded him. Leverage was the currency of the gods.
“I’m sorry,” Emmy spoke loudly, stepping forward and holding up her hands, before addressing Terrance. “You slept with ... Pica? Pica who loves Rau to the point of creepy obsession?”
I could tell that she had paused to give Terrance a more thorough inspection, and I fought not to drag her back to my side. Especially when her eyes caught and lingered on his bare chest. Eventually she turned to me, her eyebrows arched.
The question in them was clear: Pica had once diverted her attention from Rau? And shestilldidn’t want anything to do with Staviti, her own creator?
“Pica is a complicated goddess,” Terrance drawled, coming to a stop a few feet away from Emmy. “She taught me everything I know about women.”
“My congratulations to your lucky future partners,” Emmy muttered dryly.
“We are not permitted partners,” he returned with a smile in her direction, though he glanced toward me at the last moment.
The bastard already knew that I wanted her.
“And yet Pica and Rau are together, and Abil and Adeline are together,” Emmy returned, completely missing the hidden meaning behind his words.
“And countless others.” Terrance waved his hand dismissively in the air. “As much as he tries to stop it, love is an epidemic, no matter which world you live in. Try as you might to cure it, another strain of the disease will always emerge. It seems to evolve beyond us, always one step ahead. Don’t you think?”
Emmy didn’t answer. Her jaw was set, her eyes hardened. It seemed he had already sensed something in her as well ... and she didn’t like it.
