“You should be far away from me when I summon her. Distance might help, although I’m not certain. I’ll give the shard back.”
“Why wouldn’t distance help?” Sophie’s blue eyes ate up half her face. So scared. So beautiful. Sohis.
A chasm cracked down his chest.Why?Punishing him shouldn’t mean punishing Sophie. Later, he would rail against the Fates, but right now, he could sacrifice without question as long as she was safe.
“The price is a soul close to me.” That likely meant someone he cared about, but it could maybe simply mean a person in the room.
Her breath shuddered out. Piers would give anything to comfort her. He even thought there might be a small chance at a way for them to stay together, but he refused to get her hopes up. And maybe his own.
He glanced at her phone. He’d have to make a call before he started chanting. He’d have to time it well.
“Why would this happen? Any of it?” Sophie abruptly sat on the edge of the bed. Her fingers curled into the blanket. “If the gods are all-powerful and everywhere, why not just pluck the shard from Novalight’s people in the Mediterranean? Or from Aaron? Athena could’ve just knocked on my door in Pinebury and asked for her shard back. What was the point of letting any of this happen? Of letting us…” She choked back a sob.
Piers sat beside her. He took her hand. “Kardoula mou.” He brushed his lips over her knuckles. “The gods don’t work that way. There’s nothing straightforward about their machinations. They arrange, nudge, influence, sometimes shove. But it’s all with apotentialoutcome in mind. After, it’s up to us, their players and pawns, to make our choices and move our pieces around the board. If it all comes together the way the gods desire, then it’s done, and they move on to something else. If it doesn’t, they begin again with a new set of players who make their own moves, just as we did.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes as she looked at him. “I never thought of there being a balance between fate and free will. I never even believed in destiny, but now…”
Piers gently kissed her. “I don’t know if there’s a balance, but it’s not all or nothing. It’s both.”
She nodded. It was unsteady and forced. “So, this is it? I should call my parents. Say goodbye. Just in case.” Her voice broke, and Piers’s heart crumbled to dust.
“No, my love. You get in your car and go home.” He glanced at Sophie’s phone again. “You said it takes about three hours? That’s how long I’ll wait. Then I’ll summon Athena and give her the shard.”
Sophie sniffled, straightening. “But I have to check us out of the hotel. No.” She shook her head. “No, Piers. None of this works.”
“I have at least thirty gold coins. Surely, the hotel can find a way to exchange them for little green papers and settle this debt. I’ll leave the money in the bathroom.” He grimaced, regretting his fit of temper. He could’ve left that gold with Sophie instead.
Piers unbuckled his belt and slipped the leather pouch from it. Rising, he strode to the bathroom and set the coin purse on the counter, hoping there would be steaming-hot showers wherever he ended up next. After Sophie, they were what he liked best about this place.
Returning to the main room, he sat beside her again. “The gold just needs to be turned into a useable currency. You can leave without worry.”
“Leave without worry?” She frowned at him. “What if youdon’tget taken? What will you do then?”
He reached for her phone. “Call you. Show me how.”
Her lips thinned. Then she took the phone from him. “AssumingIdon’t get taken, either, you’ll have to dial my home number if I leave my cell phone with you.” She openedContacts, scrolled toHouse, and showed him how to launch the communication. “If I don’t answer, leave a message. I’ll come back and get you. I can be back tonight.”
“Tonight is Christmas Eve. It seems special to you. You’ll spend it with your family.” He hoped.
“I don’t care if it’s the freaking apocalypse. I’ll come back for you.”
Piers’s heart swooped in his chest. “We’ll meet again,Sophronia mou. In this life, or in the next.”
She shivered at his words. “Maybe the gods will be merciful,” she whispered, her voice thick with tears.
Piers drank in the sight of her, memorizing every detail of her face. His soul recognized her as his, but what that really meant was that he washers.
“Maybe.” It was his deepest wish. More so than even to return home. Sophie was his home now.
They reached for each other, and there were no more words. There were long kisses and tender touches. There was breath-stealing passion that might have to last them a lifetime, until they met again in the Underworld.
Piers watched thesnow fall outside and waited for the call that would change everything. It wasn’t the one he’d made earlier. That had taken some trial and error, but he’d finally reached Novalight Enterprises and then the all-powerful man himself—after a long time spent persuading person after person thatMr.Novalightreallywanted to talk to him.
Sophie had left nearly three hours ago, and Piers still felt as though a Cyclops sat on his chest, the crushing weight keeping his lungs from expanding. His heart seemed to beat out her name, and he couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d stopped him from using one of her little sheaths when they made love. She hadn’t wanted it. Maybe they both hoped he’d left a part of himself with her. Although the idea of his child growing up without him made Piers’s stomach plummet. But Sophie… She could handle anything. The week she’d just endured would’ve broken a lesser woman. She would persevere. She wouldthrive.
The hotel phone rang, and Piers nearly jumped out of his skin. His pulse pounding, he picked up the handle and put it to his ear. “Yes?”
“There’s a man here to see you. Mr. Smith.”
