Loki gestures around him. “This is my haven away from the corruption of the council. I suppose you all fixed that now, though.” He gestures to Bellamy. “Hello new Avatar of Good. Welcome to Olympus.”
Darcy pulls Loki’s attention back. “Did you kill that stalker?” he demands.
One of the other people in the gazebo joins us, and I skip around Darcy to her, hugging her tight. “Tia!”
“What the fuck is happening here?” Bellamy demands, just as strongly as Darcy did before.
Tia hugs me warmly, kissing my cheek with her kohl black lips. “Hey, baby. It’s good to see you. Eris!” she hollers, and the other person in the gazebo huffs, hollering back.
“I’m not getting a sunburn because your favorite chaos goblin is here. Eli, come over here to kiss your auntie!”
“What?” Darcy and Bellamy say in unison.
I wave at Aunt Eris, stepping back from Tia’s warm hug. “I didn’t know you guys knew Loki. How’d that happen? Are we really on Mount Olympus? That’s awesome. I thought it was just a myth.”
Tia takes my arm, leading me toward the gazebo. “We go way back with Loki. We’re all gods, so we’ve been around the block a couple of times with him.”
Loki takes my arm on the other side, laughing.
I look over my shoulder at Darcy and Bellamy. “Come on, I know them. Aunt Eris is my MawMaw’s sister.”
“Adopted sister. I adopted her,” Aunt Eris corrects me.
I shrug. “Blood or not, you’re family.”
Under the shade of the gazebo, I kiss Aunt Eris’s cheek. “So you’re a goddess? Does MawMaw know? She’s going to be mad if I found out before her.”
Eris arches a brow at me, pulling me into the chair beside her. “Please, boy. Your MawMaw and I have no secrets from each other. How’s she doing anyway? It’s been a minute since I called on her.”
Tia and Loki take their seats across from us, and Darcy and Bellamy sit on my other side.
I reach out and take Darcy’s hand again. I think we both need the connection right now. It feels right to touch him while we’re here. There’s just something about the place that has my hackles rising. Probably my Hell dragon not being comfortable in what’s essentially the realm of the gods. “Oh, she’s lively as ever, but you should call her. I’m going to get Darcy to take me home before the semester starts. I think they’d get a kick out of him. He’s my mate, you know? I’m a Hell dragon and a feu follet.”
“And an oracle,” Tiamat adds, popping a meatball in her mouth and licking her fingers.
“Of which god?” Bellamy asks, taken aback.
“Harmonia,” Aunt Eris smirks.
“MawMaw?” I didn’t realize my grandmother was a god. “Good for her.”
Aunt Eris laughs, ruffling my hair. “I fucking love you so much.”
I lean into her. “Love you too. What’s an oracle anyway?”
“It’s a person who can be inhabited by the spirit of a deity. If Harmonia’s body is destroyed somehow, she can transfer her consciousness into yours. Her current body was acquired well over ten thousand years ago, but we all keep oracles on hand just in case,” Loki explains.
“I’d never allow a deity to take you over,” Darcy growls, promising retribution if MawMaw ever tried to kick me out of my own body.
“It’s fine. I’m sure she’d find a new one as soon as possible. MawMaw loves me. Plus, I’m pretty sure she prefers being a woman, you know?”
Darcy scoffs like he doesn’t believe me. “I ain’t letting her take your body.”
Aunt Eris scoffs right back. “Harmonia would never hurt our Elijah. If she needed a body, it would be temporary, but we’re really good at keeping our physical forms alive and healthy,” she assures me.
I squeeze Darcy’s hand, leaning over to kiss his cheek. “Thank you for caring about me. You’re an excellent mate.”
Darcy grunts, but he turns and meets my lips in a chaste-ish kiss. I immediately surrender to him, taking what he offers and giving back everything he asks for. It’s just a short, simple kiss, but it’s a relief to have it in such a creepy place.
