Page 78 of The Gods Forbid

“Good,” Sebastian said, making my heart clench. “If we don’t finish that book tonight, I’m going to lose it. Too many loose ends.”

I laughed again, understanding him completely. “I would never leave you in pain like that.”

Sebastian’s grin made me hesitate, something in my body telling me to stay. But I had responsibilities, something Sebastian knew, because he planted his hands on my shoulders and turned me around, lightly shoving me toward the door.

I let myself be pushed, only because his hands were burning, lightning erupting in my veins. I left him with a quick goodbye and hurried quickly to the old cells of Prometheus, chugging the coffee he’d made me on the way.

I probably shouldn’t have been drinking it. My limbs felt jittery and there was a horrible feeling in my stomach. Normally, my instincts were pretty good, but there was always the chance that I was in my own head and nerves were getting to me.

No matter my feelings toward the situation, this was necessary.

Quickly dropping the cup off in my office, I made it to the old cells to find several staff members hanging against the wall furthest from the cell, while a man who looked to be about in his forties thrashed against the iron bars.

When he saw me, his lip curled in disgust. “Ah, so you’re the bitch everyone has been telling me to wait for.” His words made my back straighten, that uneasy feeling in my stomach growing. “I guess I should be thanking them. You’re a delicious little treat. I was always a fan of blonde hair.”

“In your victims,” someone snapped from behind me, horror in their tone. I knew all of this. This man was a serial killer, favoring young, blonde women and brutalizing them beyond recognition.

He’d be staying here for the rest of his life, unless he decided to change, but that didn’t mean we were going to torture him. I looked over my shoulder and flagged over someone who had a tray of food prepared for him. As they stepped forward to push it through the cell, I went with them, stepping closer to this horrid man. “This food is for you. It’s fresh.”

He looked at it like it disgusted him. “Why don’t you come a little closer, sweetie? Let me get a taste of you, instead.”

Disgust curled through my stomach, low and horrid. “No,” I said firmly. “I’m only here to inform you that you will be given three fresh meals a day. If you’re hungry, please tell one of the guards and we will bring you more. Someone will be by once a week to talk with you, and should they decide that your interest in redemption is genuine, we may discuss altering your sentence.”

The prisoner scoffed, so forcefully spit flew from his mouth. “Fuck off.”

Well, that was expected, at least. “Alright,” I said, turning to leave right as he crouched to pick up his food. This was all we could do for him now.

I didn’t think he’d change. The type of evil required to systematically take innocent life wasn’t one I understood, nor knew to be redeemable.

“Hey!” he yelled at me, just as I took a step away from him. I turned, the motion obscuring my vision just enough to miss his arm reeling back. Just enough to miss my opportunity to duck, so that the plate of food he threw at me nailed me straight in the face, sending hard plastic slamming into my nose, my forehead, my chin, and food splattering down my front.

The last thing I heard before my mind decided to shut off was someone’s distant cry for help.

Chapter 16

Sebastian

I’d been feeling off all day.

Sure, I felt off-kilter most of the time in Persy’s presence, but today was different.

Over the course of a month, she’d managed to completely destroy me.

I was pretty sure she’d made me nice. Kind, at least.

Or, as Calpurnia preferred to say, had simply given me the space for my kind tendencies to revive themselves when I wasn’t shoving them down to focus on a conspiracy I truly didn’t give a shit about.

There was absolutely no validity to the statement that time moved a bit faster when you were enjoying yourself. None. Especially not when you considered that most days prior to my grand arrival to Prometheus, the minutes had felt like they were pushing themselves through thick amber.

Most days, one might describe the feeling in my chest as rather pleasant. Calpurnia had just managed to weasel it out of me last week, and she looked so happy with her success I didn’t bother to tell her that I was pretty sure Persy already knew through sheer force of observation.

Prometheus had given me distance from the world. I loved every aspect of my power, I would be a fool to ignore that fact, but I had never been in love with the fame. It had been a product of my parents pushing me into it and then me taking on that mantle to make sure people were happy with me stepping in as the new king.

But I never loved it.

Being able to step back and just focus on the actual components of my power had made me … happier.

That was why the odd feeling in my stomach was so haunting. It wasn’t because of that poor girl at the hospital, though that had made my chest ache, enough that I forgot that I wasn’t allowed to be a protective asshole around Persy and touched her far more than was appropriate.