“You’ve just moved, Cassidy,” I replied. “I have no intention of taking your sister away from you. I’d reside with her here.”
“You know she’s been down this road before, Gray. She’s been messed about. If you want my blessing, you better be damn sure you want her for life.”
I almost laughed. Life was never ending for us. “I give you my word as a God, Cassidy, that I have every intention of staying with your sister for the rest of our days.”
Cass regarded me for a moment and, for the second time in my life, I felt my heart in my throat. The first was when I saw Quentin lying on the road that night.
Why should I be so nervous? No matter what his response, I would continue to ask her.
“After Ethan, I really thought she would close herself off to falling in love again. It pulled her apart in a way I didn’t think was possible.” He glanced at the floor before looking back up at me. “She took time putting herself back together. If she gave you the chance to get to know her, to love her, then I trust you are the right person for her.”
“It means a lot to hear it from you.”
“You have my blessing to ask her to marry you. She… well, I mean, she wouldn’t be able to do any better, would she? You’re a God, for fuck’s sake.”
I laughed because, under normal circumstances, he was right. But Quentin was a demigoddess who had the entirety of Elysia to court her if she wished. She sparked enough interest in her short stint in the heavens.
“Let’s pray she says yes,” I muttered, leaving out the words ‘this time.’
Icrossed another item off the notepad on the office desk as the clock ticked towards five. Lists helped me to feel organised and like I wasn’t completely wasting my time.
After the shock of Cass coming home last night, I didn’t touch a thing. We sat up talking until the early hours of the morning, picking through Chinese takeout until he couldn’t keep his eyes open. While he went to bed, I returned to the lab with a spring in my step. There were no secrets between us and no ocean either.
James and I had started to decode Emmanuel’s work, devising a new plan for the experiments we’d need to run. I’d already drafted the outline for the paper so we could slot the information straight in as we received results. Gray reluctantly agreed to help me find James’ prayers in the flurry of other voices and the optimism hit me hard. I could actually do this.
At the bottom of the page sat the letters ‘BC’ for birth control. I tapped my pen beside it a few times before getting out of my chair and taking myself down to the sixth floor. The ripple from my intuition notified me that this wasn’t a wasted trip. Knocking on the lab door, I waited for someone to let me in.
“I just wanted a quick conversation with Sloan,” I said, but she’d already seen me and made her way over.
“Is everything okay, Quen?”
“Yes. Can we talk somewhere private?” I asked. “Maybe step outside the lab.”
“Of course.”
We walked into the hallway and I waited for the door to click shut.
“What can I help you with?” Sloan asked.
My face flushed slightly. It was one thing talking to my doctor, but it was another thing coming to Gray’s sister-in-law and asking her for help with this matter.
“I need to replace my birth control,” I explained. My hand went to the opposite arm where my implant sat beneath the skin.
The pill was never an option. I was too forgetful and I couldn’t trust myself to take it as I should, meaning it wouldn’t be effective. The implant had always been my choice and had served me well.
I shuffled my feet. “Could you?”
“Oh, Quentin, I can’t. I can,” she corrected herself, “but it’s not really what my gift was designed for.”
“I thought your gift was fertility.”
“Exactly. I answer to those who want to have children. I rarely prevent it.”
Biting my bottom lip, I said, “I know you’ve helped Larkin.”
Sloan blanched, rosiness giving way to pale white. “Her situation was different. There was no other option and it was painful to go against my nature. She mentioned you helped her as well. Thank you.”
“I didn’t really do anything.”
