15 - STAR
Ya know, to be honest—I’m not all that upset about being stuck with them. I mean, not Quaid. He can go fuck himself. But Aric and Declan—two gods? Or demigods, maybe? I’ve never had much interest in ancient history, so the technical jargon isn’t exactly second-nature.
But half-god or whole, they’re both very hot. Very sexy. And in two completely different ways, which is nice. Declan is all charming and fun while Aric is all stoic and strong.
I don’t know what ‘being merged’ means when it comes to magic, but I can certainly use my imagination for how it might play out in other ways.
A chuckle comes spilling out of my mouth and I blush and look down a little, and when I look up again, for some reason I’m staring at Quaid and he’s glaring at me.Again. “What?” I snap.
“What are you chuckling about?”
“Nothing.”
He turns to Aric. “There’s something wrong about her.”
“What?” I say.
Aric looks confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Look at her, she’s smiling. She’s happy. She chuckled. Shedidthis.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I say. “That’s not why I was smiling, for fuck’s sake.”
Quaid narrows his eyes at me. “Then whywereyou smiling?”
“It’s none of your business.”
He laughs. “None of my business? That’s funny. You’re the whole reason we’re here.”
“No,” I say. Getting defensive. “Aric is. He just said so.”
We all look over at Aric who shrugs. “Fuck it, it’s my fault, I guess. But like I was saying,” and I get a little thrill of satisfaction here, because he takes a moment to scowl at Quaid, “—we’ve been merged.”
“But what does that mean,” Declan asks.
Aric takes a moment to think, then shrugs. “I’m no expert on the rules of power distribution in Olympus, but therearerules, ya know? And I know how it works under normal conditions.”
“How?” Quaid asks. A little too eager, if you ask me.
I think Aric is thinking the same thing, because he throws Quaid a look of suspicion. But he doesn’t act on it. “Frequencies,” he says.
“Oh, yeah,” Declan says. “I knew this. That’s how I travel. What’s that got to do with anything?”
But I’m looking at Quaid while Declan is talking, and it’s pretty clear to me that hedidn’tknow this was how power was distributed in Olympus. In fact, he’s so intent on listening to Aric’s upcoming explanation, he doesn’t he noticed me watching him.
Which allows me a few moments to study him. Which, unfortunately, is enough time for me to appreciate that he’s… maybe… attractive. In an asshole kind of way.
“Well,” Aric says. “Frequencies can be combined. That’s not how it works in Olympus, though. So…” He shrugs. “I don’t know why it happened here, but I think it did.”
“So what’s this mean?” Declan asks. And again, Quaid is seriously paying attention to this conversation between the two demigods.
“Well,” Aric says, blowing out a breath. “It means that… the rules must not apply to us.”
“How do you figure that?” Finally, Quaid asks a question.
“Because,” Aric says. “We did it and it shouldn’t have happened.”
“Heshouldn’t have happened, either,” Declan says, pointing to Quaid.
