“What did Hunter want?” I asked Gray.
Gray picked me up off the ground, my legs wrapping around his waist and arms around his neck, and he carried us back towards the manor.
“Your services are no longer required, Erik,” Gray called out.
Looking over Gray’s shoulder, I watched Erik chuckle to himself and then he disappeared in a flash of red, leaving my coffee mug and the umbrella surrounded by lilies.
“Tell me what Hunter said,” I demanded.
“We can take you home.”
“What?”
I didn’t want to believe it. Hope blossomed so rapidly in my chest that I felt lightheaded and my mouth grew numb. I tried to school my emotions, knowing that there would be a catch.
“In a week,” Gray continued. “I need to make sure you can control your aura. He wants to go back and finish the project, and once it’s complete, he’ll call a council meeting to decide what to do with you.”
“That seems a little too… simple.”
This had been my plan, but it felt too serendipitous that Hunter had the same thoughts with no prompting.
“Agreed,” he said, walking through the house and up the stairs. “I don’t know what he’s thinking other than proving he can still make this a success through any obstacle.”
“What does that mean for me?”
“We do what he wants. I’ll teach you what I have to and we get you back on Earth. There’s something else I need you to do.”
“What?”
Gray placed me on the bed in his room, and I looked up at him, waiting for the stipulation.
He pressed his knuckles into the mattress on either side of me and leaned in. His forehead rested against mine as he spoke. “I need you to be a social butterfly. You need to win over the rest of the Gods, golden girl.”
It was worse than I imagined. Gray wanted me to play nice and convince the Gods that my life was worth living.
“Would you like me to don a pageant dress and crown as well? Should I bake and ask them all around for tea?” I retorted.
“Is it really that difficult for you to be pleasant?”
“Do you ever ask yourself the same question?”
Gray laughed, forcing me back on the bed and climbing onto it with me. One arm tucked under my waist while the other rested on my thigh, and despite the situation I was caught in, I traced one, four, three across his chest.
“I don’t know if I can lie that well,” I admitted to him. “I don’t know if I can play nice with people who voted to end my life.”
“You sound so much like Mallory,” he said, squeezing my thigh.
“My mother?” There’s a small tremble as I said the word. It didn’t feel right on my tongue. “Did you know her?”
Gray nodded, and I followed the motion.
“Can you…” I stumbled. “Will you tell me about her?”
“I can show you,” Gray answered.
I blinked at him as he lifted a hand from my thigh and held it out to me. Hesitantly, I placed my hand in his and watched the scene unfold in front of me.
* * *
