“As insane as all this sounds, I believe you. And I’m not half as scared anymore. Two is stronger than one, and together is way better than alone.” Sophie’s smile punched Piers right in the chest and left him short of breath.
Sophronia’s was a thousand-ship smile, the kind nothing was off-limits to protect. His heart drummed. His world shifted.
So, this was how lightning struck.
“Then consider me your other half,” he rasped.
Her smile gained a playfulness he hoped she’d never lose. “I might not be great at math, but don’t two halves usually make one?”
Exactly.
Sophie finished her coffee, her spirits brighter than before, and Piers kept watch with new vigilance. The Olympian treasure she had in her possession was no laughing matter, and whoever wanted it would send more soldiers. He’d be ready when they did.
Not long after, Sophie caught the waiter’s attention and asked for the bill—apparently, a multipurpose word.
Piers narrowed his eyes. Luckily, he hadn’t let her call himthat. It was almost as bad as Bob.
~4~
“It’s just asmall detour,” Sophie insisted, linking her arm through Piers’s and tugging him in the direction of Rockefeller Center.
Man, this guy was stubborn. When he set his mind to something, he was like a donkey with a carrot. Only way hotter. He smelled good now, too. Too good. She kept trying to sniff him, and she wasn’t usually a sniffer. Was anyone? She’d have to read up on pheromones. There was definitely something like that at work here. She’d seen a book back home in the window of her local bookshop:Alchemy and Opposite Sexes, The Mystery of Attraction. That was what she needed—information. Maybe it would explain why she couldn’t stop staring.
“Don’t you think we have more important things to do?” Piers grumbled.
Yes, in fact, she did. But she’d been on the run for days, scared out of her mind, and totally alone. Right now, she had company, felt almost safe for the first time since Aaron’s package turned her life upside down, and was actually starting to believe there might even be a way out of this mess that didn’t involve someone from Novalight Enterprises prying the Shard of Olympus from her cold, dead hand. Sophie needed a break, so she was taking one.
“You’ll love it. I swear.” Who didn’t like a little holiday sparkle? “Christmas is in two days. You’ve gotta see the tree all lit up.”
“Fine. Shiny tree.Thenthe ice shard.” Piers gave in, letting Sophie drag him beyond their hotel. He glanced back at the revolving door as if he wanted to give it a whirl. Earlier, he’d gone through one at a department store just for the hell of it. She’d tried really hard not to laugh, especially when he did the whole circle a second time to get a better look at the cheery window displays. That was when she knew they had to do the most touristy thing in New York City in December.
“Good. You won’t regret it. I’m not letting you get sucked back to wherever you came from without seeing Rockefeller Center at Christmas.” A stab of apprehension tried to dim Sophie’s smile. She didn’t like the idea of Piers suddenly getting plucked from her life by some unknown force. In half a day, she’d come to rely on him for safety, appreciate his insight, and crave his company. Talk about quick work. Her rational mind had whiplash.
She wasn’t sure how—possibly all those paranormal romance novels and fantasy TV shows—but she’d adjusted surprisingly quickly to the idea of Piers being from a different world where they worshipped the gods of Olympus. Aaron’s wholethe-Greek-gods-are-REALthing probably helped. And the glacial-blue shardglowedfor her. She’d inspected it from top to bottom, her fingers turning numb, and there was no reason for the chunk of ice to shine, let alone not melt into a puddle. Piers said it was magic, and she believed him.
As to why it glowed forher… Apparently, that had something to do with her beingHeracleidae. It really wasn’t such a stretch to accept that she truly descended from Heracles. Herakles to Greeks. Hercules to the modern world. Sophie didn’t believe—or rather,hadn’tbelieved—a lot of that stuff about him completing his twelve herculean labors and becoming immortal, but she’d always thought he was a real person who’d become famous thanks to a certain number of monumental exploits. Heracles supposedly had sex with the fifty daughters of King Thespius in one night and impregnated every single one of them. They gave him fifty sons, and that was on top of his other children, so it wasn’t crazy to think there were Iraklidis all over the place. Maybe they didn’t all have the name, like she did, but they were out there. She knew that. Besides, as insane as everything sounded, she didn’t feel unhinged. Piers, for all his weirdness, didn’t seem unhinged, either. And if they didn’t mutually require a psychiatric hospital, then they needed to figure out how to contact Athena and give her the Shard of Olympus.
Okay, that sounded a little crazy. But she was going with it.
Sophie savored the smell of roasting chestnuts and smiled to herself as they walked, light snow falling around them. She wasn’t alone in this anymore. The Olympian gods had sent her a guardian angel. She didn’t care that she was tragically mixing her religions. It felt right to her.Piersfelt right. Like destiny.
“Do you think I’ll getsucked back?” he suddenly asked her. “To Thalyria?”
“I don’t know.” It was on the tip of Sophie’s tongue to say she hoped not, but that would be incredibly selfish. She had no idea what Piers wanted, but it probably wasn’t to be stuck on a foreign planet helping a woman he’d only met a few hours ago. She was honest, though, so she added, “If you do, I hope we figure out how to get the ice shard to Athena first. I don’t think I can do this on my own.” She didn’t have the first clue where to start. A trip to the Acropolis? Manhattan was expensive enough. Last-minute tickets to Athens would break her bank account.
The helplessness she’d been feeling for the last several days flared up again, though not quite as bad. At least her family was safe in Pinebury, but she couldn’t go back until Novalight knew she didn’t have the shard. She couldn’t risk her family being used against her. She’d hand that magic icicle over in a New York minute, global consequences be damned. Unfortunately, there was nothing stopping Novalight’s hired guns from going to Pinebury anyway and using her family as leverage. Just because they hadn’t done it yet, didn’t mean they wouldn’t. Which meant she and Piers had to resolve this fast.
Sophie shivered. Piers stopped and pulled up her hood even though she had a hat on. Her heart tumbled. She murmured a thank-you as he gazed down at her, his gray eyes dipping to her mouth. Warmth coiled through her, and her pulse sped up. Sophie’s lips parted. She hadn’t been kissed since a not-too-tragic date ages ago. The kiss had been utterly uninspiring, and she’d felt so muchnothingshe’d started to wonder if her girl parts were broken. But lack of use apparently hadn’t damaged anything. All Piers had to do was look at her like he was thinking about kissing her and a hot thump sprang to life between her legs.
“Sophie.” The soft, low rumble of his voice caressed something deep inside her. He brushed a wisp of hair off her face.
Heat shivered down her spine. She swallowed. “Yes.”
“Your nose is very red.”
She blinked and burst out laughing. “Like Rudolf?”
Piers frowned. “I don’t know this Rudolf.”
