“I can handle Decimus, since you certainly seem to have your hands full.” I cringed violently when the door opened, revealing a very pissed off Odysseus, whose eyes were pure gold with rage. Xenobia sunk into the bed to hide behind me, as she knew the same I did that he was beyond boiling. “Whatexactlyare you two up to?”
My voice shook on its way out. “Um, well…?”
“Spit it out!” he demanded.
“Just, come in here!” I grabbed his wrist and wrenched him forward while Xenobia shut the door, and this time, placed a barrier around it so no one else could listen in. I sat Odysseus down and massaged his shoulders to try and ease his temper, but he was in no mood for my antics. “Ok, before you completely lose your shit, let us explain.”
“It was Nick’s idea!” Xenobia cried.
I whipped around to her with black eyes that made her yelp. “You’re a fucking traitor!”
“What was Nick’s stupid, idiotic, grand failure of a fucking plan?” Odysseus barked.
“I wouldn’t say grand failure…”
“NICODEMUS!”
“Ok, ok, stop yelling!” I let my bottom lip puff out to try and gain some sympathy points, but he wasn’t budging. I explained the situation fully from top to bottom, going over every detail we had collected up until this moment. Odysseus listened with a wary look of confusion but still let me say my piece before casting judgement. Finally, I finished and let myself fall slack. “So, yeah, that’s what we’ve been up to.”
He pinched the space between his eyebrows and exhaled loudly. “So, let me get this straight. You had the bright idea to go after Pandora on your own, and invited not only your ex-abuser, but her ex-husband to track her down? And you’re dragging a fifteen-year-old down with you? All while going behind all of ours backs, especially yourhusband?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” I admitted.
He set his hands on my shoulders and shook me once. “Nicodemus, I love you, but you are going to send me into a fucking mental breakdown before I’m twenty-five.”
I patted the hands he had on me. “I know you’re mad, but we were planning on going to you anyway with what Xenobia found out yesterday. I swear, this isn’t me jumping the gun. I just didn’t want too many hands in the pot while I was trying to sort all of this out.”
“What part can I play?” he asked.
“I’m glad you asked!” I kissed him repeatedly to try and break up his scowl, and luckily, he finally broke a half-hearted smile for me. Once I knew he was more himself, I slid into his lap fully and showed him Seraphine’s journal. “She has the bracelet hidden away in a special door in Caelum. If we can find that door, we can find that bracelet before anyone else does.”
He scanned the contents of the journal curiously. “You guys are banking this whole mission on a piece of jewelry? How are you so sure Ambermourn or Pandora are going after this?”
“We’re not, but this is something that would not only aid Pandora, but it’s public knowledge for those who know where to look for it. Ambermourn is obsessed with books, so of course he knows the ins and outs of things like this. I want to eliminate all possibilities that he can get his hands on before we’re too late.”
“I see…” He took the journal and opened it to the page we had left off on. “She didn’t drop any hints whatsoever about which door it could be? I mean, guys, there are billions, trillions, of doors to sort through. We could be doing this for an eternity!”
“Records, my love, records. Your people are good at keeping these things, aren’t you?” I asked in tune with tapping his cheek.
“I suppose we are. Yuri can access all of the files for me. We would just need to narrow it down to doors requested by Gods of Death I presume?”
“Not Yuri!” I whined in defeat.
“You guys got bad blood or something?” Xenobia questioned.
“Like you wouldn’t believe…” I huffed.
Odysseus smooshed my face with his palm. “Ignore the dramatic one. We should head to the Life Realm and see what we can dig up.”
“Should I call for Decimus?” I squeaked into his hand.
“Should I beat your ass?” he snapped back.
“Depends on the circumstance,” I said with a wink.
“Ok, EWW…!” Xenobia screamed at the top of her lungs.
Odysseus and I laughed loudly at her reaction and decided to get going instead of scarring the poor thing more than we had.
