“I’m sure they’d take you on as an informant. The data from your ‘hiking’ trips could prove useful.” She put “hiking” in air quotes with her stilettoed fingers.
“Maybe one day.” I wasn’t convinced telling them the locations of the fields I discovered wouldn’t lead to more slaughter. “How’s Faeryn doing?”
“Funny you should ask,” she laughed dryly. “She’s struggling with the isolation. Graysen is going to ask you if she can work at the pub.”
I froze. What a horrible idea. Was hetryingto get her abducted?!
“Before you object,” Mykie sighed, scratching the back of her neck, “I already tried talking him out of it. He’s caving to her request for a job either way, so it might as well be at the pub. She’s safer working close to home and having you there would be good if things went poorly.”
“I won’t always be around the pub, Mykie! I’ll be gone all next summer!”
Torn between helping my dear friend protect his mate and repaying the goddess who saved my life... what an awful decision to make.
“Still. It’s near their house and E.A.R.T.H. tends to avoid your turf. Graysen and I can handle the precautions, you just need to agree to hiring her.”
E.A.R.T.H. “Energy Alternatives: Resources for Trebianna’s Healing”.
As if naming the predatory operation after the goddess’s home planet—Earth—wasn’t sick enough, they threw in a shitty nod to their powers. The healing energy that was being stolen, harvested, and sold. They were meant to healpeoplewith their gifts, not the economy—not that making rich people richer wasactuallyhelping the economy.
Of course, E.A.R.T.H. took low blows with the naming conventions. Mocking something makes it feel less abhorrent. It made their staff less likely to revolt.
“He can’t be talked out of this dumbass idea?” I groaned, rubbing the tension from the forehead muscles between my horns.
“I don’t think so. He’s really struggling, Theo. I can only talk so much reason into him right now.”
“Did you try explaining it calmly? Instead of—” Her pink scales creased as she squinted, threatening me to imply she wasn’t handling the situation properly.
“Talk to him however you’d like when he shows up. But you won’t change his mind.”
I didn’t have a mate—probably never would—but I imagined being in love with a goddess would be torture. So much fear and anger. Graysen knew the ugly truth of that reality intimately and had been dancing on insanity for years because of it. There was no reasoning with that level of stress and anguish. Maybe that’s why he only trusted Mykie, who complemented his demons so well.
“Alright,” I agreed reluctantly.Not my choice to make for them.
“You’re a real one.” Mykie slapped me on the back. “Erase it from your oh-so-heavy conscience. I’ll carry the burden.”
“You’ll drink yourself to death if you keep carrying their burdens,” I remarked flatly. As her former-colleague-turned-bartender, I had a front row seat to her pre-existing alcohol abuse spiraling out of control since Faeryn came around.
“Good thing death is afraid of me.” She winked as we stopped outside of the pub doors. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an E.A.R.T.H. scout to eradicate.”
“Sorry I’m late,” Graysen said as he unwrapped his scarf.
The Pyran emblem glowing brightly on his neck suggested he was riled up. It looked like it was about to shoot flames if his palms didn’t. Those obvious tells aside, it was a strange greeting. Graysen had been late more times than I could count over the years. He didn’t typically apologize for it.He mustreallywant to be in my good graces today.
Right. He was about to ask me for a very big, very careless, favor.
“All good.” I continued setting up the bar, noticing him staring at my limp out of the corner of my eye. He wouldn’t say anything. If he started asking me questions about my oddities, I’d return the favor. And I knew he didn’t want that. He bristled whenever I brought up anything related to Faeryn or his past.
“It’s been slower recently. I guess the snow is keeping people inside.” Small talk: another tell that he was anxious.
I grunted in response. I didn’t want him feeling too comfortable asking this favor. It’d be better if he didn’t.
He began flipping chairs down from tables. “Do you remember meeting a new female at the bar before you left for your trip? She had gray hair. Her name is Faeryn. I think Mykie maybe introduced you to her.”
Unbeknownst to him, I was well-aware of his mate. “Yeah, she had a ribbon around her neck.”
I made a mental note to make one for the goddess I’d be returning to in the summer. It was an easy way to pretend they were a native Trebianna species. The goddesses were practically identical to Pyrans in their masked states, aside from the absence of a glowing emblem on their neck. Hide that missing piece and dye their hair, and nobody would know the difference.
“Right. She’s staying with me, and she wants a job. I told her I’d put in a good word.” He didn’t sound thrilled, but he also didn’t hesitate.
