He’d caught on. Finally.
“Fine, fine,” she snorted. “Seriously, though, some information would be helpful. You know…about basilisk culture and customs. The normal stuff.”
His shoulders dropped a fraction. “I can explain that.”
She grinned.
“Not those other things,” he added sharply.
Zara wiggled her brows. “Oh, I wasn’t even going to ask about those.”
He glared.
Zara hid her smile behind her coffee cup, watching the way Hektor started to relax again. Not much, just a millimeter or two in his shoulders. But she noticed. She always noticed.
He had no idea how transparent he actually was.
Not to her.
He thought he was stoic, unreadable, impenetrable. A wall of Drakkon discipline. And maybe he was, to everyone else. But she’d already seen the cracks: the way he froze when she touched him, the way his golden eyes darkened when she mentioned other males, the way he never quite looked away first.
He wasn’t admitting anything yet.
But he would.
Soon.
Zara set her cup down and straightened, a tiny thrill curling warm and triumphant in her chest. This was going to be fun watching him unravel, watching him realize he wanted her, watching him try so hard to pretend he didn’t.
Poor Hektor.
He had no idea she’d already decided.
She was going to enjoy every second of this…and he was going to admit he liked her, whether he meant to or not.
Chapter 6
Hektor
“Welcome to Orunai,” Medusa said as they reached their destination. “AKA your first assignment as a team.”
After what seemed like an eternity of boring meetings and training sessions, Medusa and Perseus finally deemed them ready to go out on their first mission.
They chose Orunai, the plains in the southeast. The grassy steppe was home to a particular race of creatures, namely, the half-man, half-equine beings known as centaurs.
According to their research and sources from Mount Olympus, Zeus had been known to visit the area every few years. Though they didn’t have proof, it didn’t take a genius to guess why. After all, the former king of the gods only had one motivation for leaving his palace—secret trysts, away from the prying eyes of the other gods and goddesses and, of course, his harridan of a wife.
And so, they made the long drive out to Orunai, leaving Alindale very early in the morning, just as dawn painted theskies in shades of pink, orange and blue. By the time the landscape changed into the vast, treeless landscape of the plains, the sun was high above them.
They all filed out of the van, yawning and stretching their legs after the long drive. Hektor shielded his eyes from the harsh daylight with his hand as he stepped out. Drakkons were not built for this kind of environment as they had no lashes or eye ridges to protect them from the blinding sunlight. Their vision was much more suited to the darkness of the shadows underneath the mountain ranges and thick forests of their homeland. In the wide, treeless plains, there was no hiding from the harsh rays of the sun.
Of course, the bright rays weren’t the only things that were difficult to hide from.
Or ignore.
Especially when one was trapped inside a moving tin can, sitting next to the very person one was trying to avoid.
Particularly a half-human, half-geryon empath.
