“On his way to town one day, the miller encountered the King,” I read. “Wanting to impress him, the miller said, 'I have a daughter who knows the art of spinning straw into gold.'” I glanced up and found all three men staring not at me but at the picture of Rumpelstiltskin.
I had just turned men into boys. And damn it, the armor around my jaded, withered heart started to crack.
I will not be a statistic,I said to myself.No Stockholm Syndrome for me.
But then I got lost in the story as well.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
By the time I was done with the fairy tale, the men had slid down onto the pillows and fallen asleep. I closed the book and carefully crawled to the foot of the bed, then climbed over the low footboard. I was going to leave. I really was. But then I made the mistake of looking at them. The hounds had become puppies, curled up in slumber. The vacuum of my absence forced them to huddle closer until they were in a puppy pile. Harsh male faces softened and sweetened. Muscles relaxed. Big bodies folded in upon themselves. Adorable. Absolutely adorable.
A thought quickly followed that one.Nope! Not today, Hades! I have not survived the fiery torment of their slamming sex appeal only for your boys to seduce me with their cuteness. Not. Happening.
I hurried out of the room and down the hallway to mine. But then I paused at the door. They were asleep. I was not. I could leave. I could take one of their cars and drive home. I looked down at the book of fairy tales. The story of Rumpelstiltskin hadn't been very whimsical at all. It was kind of annoying. Too real. No one was innocent. The father got his daughter into trouble, the daughter agreed to Rumpelstiltskin's terms to get herself out of that trouble, and then she turned on him and backed out of their bargain. Sure, it was because she didn't want to give up her baby, but hey, a deal's a deal.She shouldn't have agreed to it if she couldn't go through with it. Maybe Rumpelstiltskin took advantage of her situation. But maybe he was a lonely old man who gave that girl everything he could in the hopes that he might have someone to love. And she betrayed him. But he was supposedly the villain.
“It's all about perspective,” I whispered.
There was so much going on in this situation that I didn't know about. Who had Hades taken advice from? How did they know that I was destined to unmask Silas? Did they also know that he was the one who murdered me in a past life? And if so, why not just tell Hades who Silas was? No, it couldn't be that simple. I was the common thread in these weaves, and I needed to pull myself out so I could see the design. That there was a design, I had no doubt.
So, no, I couldn't leave. I had to be as cunning as the miller's daughter. Silas wanted something from me. Whether it was to use me as a tool to destroy the Cerberuses or for some other reason, I needed to find out. And these hounds could help me do that. We could help each other.
And Ace too.
I closed the bedroom door behind me, set the book back on the bedside table, and crawled into bed. I was suddenly bone weary. The roller coaster of revelations I rode that day had exhausted me. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Three anxious men burst into my room in the morning. They tumbled in and stopped short, arms waving about to steady themselves. I came blinking awake, wondering if I was still dreaming. Then I saw their expressions. The thing that had occurred to me the night before must have just occurred to them—that I could have left.
“I'm after Silas too, remember?” I yawned and turned over in bed, giving them my back. “I'm not going anywhere until he's dead.”
“Uh. We know that,” Lex said.
“Sure. We were just checking to see if you wanted to go out for breakfast,” Cyrus added.
“Breakfast?” I sat up.
An inhaled and then exhaled breath came from all three of them in unison, echoing hollowly through the room and sounding a lot like Darth Vader. Cue the Star Wars music.
I looked down and saw what had them panting. My nightgown—the ridiculous lace one they had chosen—had shifted and unbuttoned during my sleep. A healthy amount of cleavage bulged over the lace.
I pulled it back into place and climbed out of bed. “Are you going to stand there gaping at me or leave so I can get dressed?”
Jake, in the center of the trio, turned around, grabbed Cyrus and Lex by the scruff of their necks, and shoved them ahead of himself, out of my room. He paused just before he shut the door and our stares met. His wasn't the lustful one I expected. It was soft and a little . . . grateful? Jake nodded and shut the door.
“Guess he liked his bedtime story.” I headed for the bathroom.
The prospect of leaving the house was both thrilling and scary. Previously, the thought of confronting Silas made me nervous, but now I knew he had murdered me in a past life. Fool me once, shame on you, and all that. I had to be extra careful. Immortal did not mean invulnerable.
I opened the closet and stomped my foot. “This is not acceptable!” I grabbed the simplest dress I could find, dragged it on, shoved my feet into some floral flats, and then stormed out of the room. “This is not acceptable!” I shouted from the top of the grand staircase.
The men were waiting in the foyer for me. They spun at the sound of my shout and then just stared at me.
“Look at me!” I waved a hand down my body. “Does this dress do anything for my figure?”
They continued to stare.
I stomped down the stairs and snatched the keys out of Jake's unresisting grip. Pushing past him, I went out the frontdoor, leaving the men to follow. They didn't bother locking up. I guess that wasn't an issue when your entire property was protected by magic. Grimacing, I went down the stone steps to the black Maserati parked in the roundabout drive.
