He lounged back and propped his elbow on the stone bench. After a minute of massaging his temples, he took another gulp of his drink.
The liquor warmed his belly as he peered through the metallic streaks of moonlight glittering on the surface of the stream that winded through the hawthorn.
Augustus slipped into his thoughts. The dirt path outside the small city. Country cottages and livestock housed within a picket fence. A melody of cicadas and the breeze ruffling the leaves like wind chimes. Finnian at his side, pointing out the twinkling specks of fireflies between the trees.
Cassian slouched his head back, exhaustion fraying his mental state. Over the treetops, the luminous orbs of his souls floated across the sky. The view was serene. If only he was not alone.
He lifted his drink to his mouth?—
“Cassian, High God of Death and Curses.”
The rim of the glass paused at his lips.
He sat up, his pulse jumping to the sound of the deep, sweet-toned voice.
“Come to me.”
The summons ledhim through a veil of magic and dropped him into an alleyway hugged between city buildings. A city he did not recognize. One he had never stepped foot in.
Hooves thudded against the smooth ground, followed by the turning of carriage wheels down the narrow backstreet. And at its dead end, less than a pace away from Cassian, stood Finnian.
It had been five years since he’d last laid eyes on him. Eyes that now devoured the young god, tracking every change to his person. His hair was longer, hitting right above his waist like black silk. His features had lost their roundness. Their edges appeared sharper, more defined than when Cassian had last seen him.
The linen shirt he wore was unbuttoned halfway down his torso. At least his poor fashion sense had not changed.
Cassian’s eyes fell to the gleam of gemstones dangling over the carved surface between his pecs. Three necklaces, each a different crystal.
Finnian crossed his arms as he stared at Cassian with a look of indifference. It didn’t bother Cassian, though. Reserved as Finnian was with his emotions,hehadsummoned Cassian to him. Proof, regardless of the reason, that he’d been on Finnian’s mind, too.
“Little Nightmare,” Cassian greeted casually, slipping his hands inside his pockets. It took everything in him to ignore the steady thumping of his accelerated heart, and the puddling excitement in his chest. “Glad to see you’ve abandoned the graveyard.”
“I had no choice. Seeing as you relinquished the souls of the corpses buried beneath it.”
“All souls that were living peacefully in my Land until you stole them.”
“I do not wish to fight.” Finnian blew out a breath and dropped his arms. His shoulders relaxed, and he regarded Cassian with a milder look, turning and beckoning him to follow with a wave. “Come with me.”
Cassian stared back at him, skeptical.
Finnian paused in his step, noting Cassian’s hesitation, and gestured to the dark-stained door on the side of the building with a flick of his chin. “This is the back entrance of my home.”
Cassian gazed up at the several-story-high building and its black brick exterior, pretending to take in the structure when he was actually attempting to gauge the situation. Was Finnian’s invite friendly, or a way to lure him into another one of his magical traps?
“There are nosurprise sigilsawaiting you,” Finnian said with an amusing lilt to his tone.
Cassian dropped his chin, his expression sullen as he nodded and trailed behind him.
He stepped inside a small room and a waft of earthy, botanic scents traveled up his nose. He closed the door behind him asFinnian swiveled a hand in the air. The scattered candles lit and a glow furnished the small room.
Finnian strode over to the workbench positioned in the back corner. Above it were shelves full of oddities. A thick grimoire with tea-stained pages. The skull of what appeared to be a small animal. A black cast-iron pot. Crystals and jewels of various shapes and colors. Bundles of dried herbs. Vials and jars stocked with odd items—seashells, fuzzy brown spider corpses, roots of some kind, green leaves, mushrooms.
Finnian plucked two orchid-colored crystals from the shelves and aligned them within the sigil drawn on the wood surface of the workbench. “Do you know where we are?”
“I am familiar with this land.” Cassian kept his distance across the room, guard up. “However, it seems we are somewhere cloaked with magic. A city that is new to me.”
“Hollow City,” he said with his back to Cassian as he worked.
Cassian’s eyes grazed over Finnian’s shoulders and down his waist, noting how his lithe physique had slightly filled out. “Never heard of it.”
