“Apparently,” I sigh, although I can’t stop the smile on my face. There’s just something about him.
I should probably be freaking out more than I actually am, but at this point, what’s one more thing that makes me odd?
“Does the person you’re speaking to have a name?” Mayhem asks.
I love that he’s not calling me crazy.
I probably would be calling me crazy.
“Nicodemus Quillian Rhodextus, tell them my full name.” He immediately tells me, and then his lips tilt up, “You can call me Nico, pretty girl.”
I snort.
“What?” Loki asks.
“He’s a flirt,” I reply. “His name is Nicodemus Quillian Rhodextus.”
Nico side-steps, and I’m confused for a moment before Rast is suddenly in my face, his anger practically palpable as his eyes glow with flames and his pupils become slits.
“Don’t you dare say his name,” he practically spits, but behind the anger, the devastation and grief are clear to see.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Farren
“Mate, you need to back the fuck up,” Khaos warns. “The only reason you are getting some leeway right now is because we like you.”
Nico shakes his head and takes a step toward me. “What the fuck is he playing at?”
“I don’t know what is going on, but that’s the name that Nico told me to tell you,” I explain calmly. I know that I need to handle this delicately, but I also know that he needs to know that I am being serious.
Rast roars. More of a beast than a man right now. Instinctively, I know that he would never hurt me, but saying Nico’s name has clearly affected him.
Nico moves between us quicker than the eye can see, puts his hands on Rast’s chest, and pushes him backward so he’s no longer all up in my face.
Rast stares up from the ground in shock as he lands with a thud.
“You didn’t push me,” he mutters, sounding confused.
There wasn’t much space between Rast and me anyway, so I start to lose my balance and grab onto Nico’s shirt, pulling it free of his trousers. My fingertips brush against his skin, and he shudders, glancing over his shoulder at me in wonder and pure shock.
The realm trembles beneath me, and my magic swells like it usually does when I arrive here injured. I have no control, and I try to move my hand to move away from Nico, but before I can, a blast of magic releases from me into Nico.
He glows and shudders, spinning around and giving his back to a deathly pale Rast.
Nico’s hands gently cup my face.
Panicked, he asks, “What did you do, Pretty Girl?”
“Nico?” Rast whispers brokenly.
“I . . .” I open my mouth to hopefully deliver a scathingly brilliant, sarcastic comment, but before I can, pain seizes my whole body, a scream lodges in my throat, and my world goes black.
I’m briefly aware of arms catching and frantic questions before I’m pulled into a nothingness like nothing I have felt before.
Nico
“What the fucking is going on?” Hades asks sharply as Rival takes Farren out of my arms, and I reluctantly let her go.
