Page 47 of The Gods Forbid

“There’s a studio. Has everything we need,” Penn said, a clear note of affection in his voice. One obviously dedicated towards my live-in menace.

I nodded once, a small dip of my chin. “Alright. You fine meeting there tomorrow?”

Penn’s excitement was back, looking like he was seconds away from morphing into a rainbow. “I could do around three in the afternoon,” he said, voice vibrating with excitement.

That was fine. I’d just have to make something for dinner that didn’t take too long. No more soups that needed hours to simmer or meat that needed time to roast, but that was fine. I could handle that.

“Done,” I said, reaching into my pocket. “And if you even remotely try to stop me from paying, I’m canceling.”

Penn’s mouth closed. “Thank you,” he said forcefully when I handed over coin. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

My chin dipped once in agreement. Anymore talking and I was liable to cancel the whole thing. I didn’t need this kid thinking I was a hero.

When Penn looked calm enough, I turned, leaving him to stew in his excitement, almost as bright as the shirt he was wearing. The entire walk back to the house, I didn’t even register anything about my surroundings other than the utter dread rolling through my chest.

Not at the prospect of helping Penn. No, no.

The truth of the matter was worse, because I'd be an idiot if I denied the fact that pleasant excitement was rolling through my chest.

Chapter 11

Persy

“I don’t like him,” Nikolas said for the millionth time that day, causing my headache to surge powerfully in my temples. I dropped my pen, rubbing my fingers over my skin and trying to regain even a second of composure.

I hadn’t felt steady since I saw Sebastian’s bare back that morning. The low note of fear that always threaded through my chest around him flared dangerously at that sight.

There was something so … primal about the way he’d ripped his shirt over his head with one hand. Like he was preparing to walk into a fight. Pick someone up and throw them to the ground.

I’d barely been able to make it through the walk to Calpurnia’s office, so much so I was tempted to postpone Sebastian’s session with her and demand that hour for myself.

She was going to see right through me, especially since I’d done an awful job of listening to her other demand—that I start getting comfortable delegating.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know how or didn’t think it was necessary. It was just that I’d grown so used to the control. I had to do everything at the start, just to prove that I could.

In fact, I didn’t really care to control that much at all. The small, minute details, not unlike steering a ship through rough waters and having to calculate the exact path and coordinates to safety, was what gave me a pounding headache.

It was much easier for me to come up with a more abstract solution.

Luckily, the nuisance sitting across the desk from me was very good at the stuff I wasn’t. “I know you don’t,” I said, keeping my eyes closed. It was easier to think like this. “But can you please try to remember that you were once friends?”

Nikolas sighed so heavily that it forced my eyes open. He ran his hands down his face, looking so much like Lukas for a second I thought they’d switched places. If you really analyzed them, Lukas took after their mother a bit more, while Nikolas almost eerily resembled their father.

Nikolas had just gotten around to talking about his father without tears welling in his ocean-blue eyes.

“He doesn’t give a damn about whether or not we were friends,” Nikolas shot back and I tried not to react to the bite in his tone. “He had no consideration for our friendship when he targeted me to betray my brother.”

All fair points, but that didn’t mean Sebastian didn’t deserve the grace of a second chance. “Niky, I don’t mean to pry, but are you sure it’s him you’re mad at for that?”

Based on the look of guilt that flicked across Nikolas’s face, I was— “You’re right.”

I couldn’t help my smile, the corner of my mouth ticking up.

“Don’t you dare smile,” Nikolas shot back, affection in his tone. “I’m growing and changing and all that. I can admit when I’m wrong.”

I leaned back in my chair, pulling my knees up to my chest. “I’m proud of you.” It was half a light-hearted jab and half an earnest statement. He hadn’t grown so much as uncovered who he really was. His natural state certainly wasn’t the drunken, hollow version of himself Lukas pulled into Prometheus all those months ago.

“But that fact remains,” Nikolas said, grabbing his water glass. I wasn’t going to tell him that the condensation building on the glass jumped into his hand inches before his palm actually connected with it. Siblings of gods often had little pieces of their full power, but Nikolas had lost it entirely after he abdicated. He needed to notice for himself that it was coming back. “I still don’t like him.”