“I'm fine!” Hermes snapped. “I need you with your team, looking for my snakes.”
“Caduceus,” Pan said softly.
“Yes, that!” Hermes stormed out, knocking his shoulder into a mushroom stem as he went. He bounced off it, growled, and spun around to face us as if he'd meant to do that. “And what about investigating my territory? That's what you should be doing.” He motioned at me. “I need your noses.”
“If it's the trickster, we won't find a scent trail,” I said. “But that in itself will be damning.”
“Whatever,” Hermes huffed. “Are you coming?”
“Not tonight,” I said. “I've had a long day and you aren't in any danger. We'll visit you tomorrow. Make sure we can get through your ward.”
“Fine.” Hermes sighed, turned around again, and left a little calmer.
Chapter Five
Even with my immortality giving me a little boost, I was exhausted by the time we stepped out of Pride Palace's tracing room. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. I trudged into the elevator with my husbands and went up to our suite on the top floor of the palace. After trudging down the short corridor, we opened the suite's door, then filed into the main room—an open-concept space with a kitchenette on the left, a sitting area with a TV on the right, and a massive bed on a dais in between.
And on that bed, there was an Angel.
“Hey, babe,” I said to Az as I walked past him to go into the bathroom.
“Hey, what happened?” he asked.
Odin started explaining as I unzipped my dress. As I tossed it in the hamper, I realized the shower was running. Right. Kirill was home too.
“Hey, honey,” I called out. “We're back.”
Kirill poked his head out of the shower to say, “Is Hermes all right?”
“Yeah, he's fine. He just had something stolen.”
Kirill grunted and ducked back into the stall.
I washed my face while several more of my husbands came in to get ready for bed too. That's why the bathroom was enormous and we didn't just have double sinks; we hadquadruple. We all did our nightly routines, then headed out, no one even glancing at Kirill when he came out of the shower. Especially not me. I left the bathroom to find Odin and Azrael still talking, but I was too tired to get involved. I climbed under the blankets and tried to go to sleep.
It wasn't their talking that kept me awake. Well, not entirely. I did hear them, but my thoughts were the problem. They kept bombarding me with images of a dark-skinned man with short, curly hair and brown eyes full of mischief. Unfortunately, that wasn't the trickster. It was the face he used to trick me yet again. That face belonged to Ekwensu, the Igbo God of Confusion. Yes, Confusion, which the trickster used. The disguise was ingenious, sending us off after an innocent god. We apprehended him and questioned him, but while Ekwensu was in our custody, the real trickster had struck, launching what I thought was the culmination of his plans. I mean, they were. He ended his game. With us.
Now, the trickster was starting a new game. With new players. Except that we had just been invited to join it. Would the trickster target us again if we got involved? Or would we be treated like pieces on his gameboard? It was stressing me out. A burning sensation was growing behind my breastbone and my face was getting hot again, but not for a naughty reason. I hadn't been this anxious since the time I'd been turned human and my family had turned against me. Although back then, my stress had been buried beneath a mountain of misery. At least this time, I had the support of my family and friends. I could do this.
I took a deep breath and let it out.
“Vervain?” Azrael asked.
I opened my eyes and looked over at him. Odin was sitting on the bed beside Az, and both of them looked concerned.
“I'm all right.” I turned to face them and stroked Azrael'sleg. “I was just having a tiny little panic attack.”
“If this is the trickster—and that's just a theory at this point—he may have messed with our lives, but he also saved us in the end. I don't think we have anything to fear from him,” Odin said.
“I agree.”
“However.” Azrael paused to look from me to Odin. “He's not a sane individual. You can count on crazy people to behave in only one way—erratically.”
I grimaced. “Thanks, Az.”
He shrugged. “We need to be on guard.” Azrael's expression softened. “We've got too much to lose, Carus.”
Carus was Azrael's pet name for me. It was Latin for beloved and it normally made me feel warm and fuzzy. Not so much at the moment.
