Page 102 of The Gods Forbid

The next to approach were Daphne and Lukas. I could breathe easier with Daphne at least, knowing she was the most comfortable around Sebastian. Their greeting was quick and seamless, though my breath hitched when Lukas followed his wife.

“My brother tells me you were the one to give him a kick in the ass to tell Kostas how he felt,” Lukas said, his huge arms crossed over his chest, though he wore a smile. “Thanks for doing it so I didn’t have to waterboard him until he listened.”

At Sebastian’s answering laugh, I thought I felt tears spring to my eyes. I was going to be begging Kostas to keep Lukas stuffed full of treats for weeks.

The little bit of relief I felt was quickly squashed when Daphne and Lukas moved to sit down at the sprawling table, leaving Reyna and Adrian as the last to say hello.

Reyna, in her wonderful, graceful glory smiled like her and Sebastian were old friends. You’d never guess she’d been pierced by an arrow at his hand mere months prior. “Hello, Sebastian,” she said, walking up to him.

I was still behind him, so I could see how taut his muscles had grown. “Reyna,” he said, voice sounding thin. Reyna opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by Sebastian’s next words. “I’m glad to see you are well and healthy.”

Reyna didn’t miss a beat, whereas I was trying not to cry. My brother was so laser-focused on the back of Reyna’s head, I wasn’t sure he’d even heard what Sebastian said. “I am doing well, thank you,” Reyna said, with a slight smirk, perfectly toeing the line between cheeky and sincere.

Five down, one to go.

I held my breath as Sebastian’s eyes slid to my brother, standing behind Reyna looking like he was seconds away from snapping. “Adrian,” Sebastian said, dipping his chin once.

Please, I silently begged my brother. A very tense, drawn-out moment later, my brother nodded at Sebastian in greeting. Certainly not friendly, and clearly done so that my brother could continue clenching his jaw, but I was at least glad that it hadn’t resorted to physical blows.

Sebastian turned to me, cocking his head as a small smirk grew on his face. That went as well as one could hope, he said, not even needing to open his mouth to communicate the words.

My answering smile said, made it through the hard part. When I looked away from him, everyone was staring at me. My stomach tightened a bit under the attention, not sure what to do besides say, “Good morning.”

Everyone seemed to snap out of it then, coming up to hug and greet me. Rose gave me an odd look, that I knew meant that she wanted to talk to me later, and Reyna hugged me a bit tighter than normal. It was my brother that made me think I was missing something. When he hugged me in greeting, he did so with his attention still on Sebastian, distracted.

“Please, Adrian,” I said, quietly. His eyes snapped down to me, brows drawn in confusion.

I could tell he was seconds away from asking to speak to me in private when Rose clapped her hands decidedly and said, “Alright, pancakes are ready.”

“Don’t let them get cold,” Dominic snapped at the group, then placed a light kiss on Rose’s head. I found Sebastian’s eyes, having to keep my smile hidden the same way he was trying to restrain a grin. We’d both get punted into the Styx if we said anything about Dominic’s change into a doting husband over the last year.

When I tore my gaze away from Sebastian, I caught the tail end of Lukas literally picking Daphne up and moving her away from the spread of pancakes and toppings, grabbing two plates.

I made a step towards the counter, but somehow found myself looking at Sebastian again. He made a small jutting motion with his chin towards the table.

I narrowed my eyes in return, silently protesting his consistent demand to serve the both of us. His expression didn’t move an inch, which meant I wasn’t winning this one. Maybe I invited the loss, but that was of no matter.

Walking towards the table and taking a seat at one of two chairs that appeared unclaimed, I saw Daphne give me a small confused look, like I’d failed to tell her something. I wasn’t sure what that meant, and I was starting to get a little nervous about this brunch.

It was certainly a problem that I was hoping Sebastian would hurry up and sit down, claiming the free seat next to me.

After several moments of watching three grown gods fuss over pancakes, Sebastian calmly loaded our plates up.

A small crack opened up in my chest. Sebastian should have been a part of that. The entire table was silent as Sebastian walked over, taking the seat across the table from Adrian, and slid my plate in front of me.

Adrian’s eyes moved over the table slowly, snagging on my plate. I looked down, expecting to find ants crawling all over my food based on his reaction. All I saw was a delicious stack of pancakes with my preferred toppings on it.

I guess I hadn’t realized that I never told Sebastian what I wanted. I didn’t see a problem with that, given we’d eaten pancakes multiple times together, including one unfortunate instance where he and Kostas tried to teach me how to make them and I ended up flicking batter in Sebastian’s face in frustration.

I looked up to find Sebastian staring at Adrian looking at me, his thumb braced under his chin while his fist was in front of his mouth. This certainly couldn’t continue. “How was everyone’s morning?” I asked the table in an attempt to cut some of the tension.

Why was everyone staring at me like my hair was on fire?

Daphne was the first to respond. “Lukas and I were at Sounion last night so we were able to sneak in a swim this morning.” I would be thanking Daphne for years for having my back, answering genuinely.

“I’m sure that was fun,” Dominic quipped, double meaning clear in his voice.

Rose swatted him on the arm then stole a bite of pancake off his plate. “What he means to say is that sounds lovely.” Rose turned to me, adding, “Spent most of the morning cooking with a shadow.” Dominic smiled like a fiend at that.