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She could guess: countless.
Had to tear him up inside, being seen as such a terror by the people who loved him.
He focused on her, and if eyes were the windows to the soul, his now teemed with menace. “You’re staying here. What if you get sick?”
She gulped. Yeah. There was that. The only thing worse than being sick would be being sick alone.
Torin released her to rub the spot above his heart. A sure sign of his guilt.
Never should have pushed him to be with me.
He cleared his throat, then said to Lucien, “How are the others?” removing the attention from Keeley.
“I didn’t tell anyone you’d called,” the scarred warrior admitted. “Not yet. First I wanted to make sure it was really you.”
“Understandable.”
“You’ve been gone so long. So much has happened since your disappearance.” Lucien massaged the back of his neck.
“So long? I’ve only been gone a few weeks,” Torin said.
“No. A few months.”
“Time passes differently in different realms,” Keeley explained.
“Well, hell,” Torin said.
“A Phoenix warrior killed William’s daughter, White,” Lucien said. “She exploded into thousands of tiny bugs and they are sweeping through the world, infecting people with evil. Needless to say, crime is on the rise.”
Torin popped his jaw. “What else have I missed?”
“Kane married Josephina, the queen of the Fae, and she’s pregnant.”
Kane...keeper of Disaster.
Josephina...didn’t ring a bell. Last Keeley had heard, a male blowhard ruled the Fae.
“Kane is going to be a dad? Talk about surreal.” Torin frowned “How will he not kill his child? Last time I saw the man, plaster was falling on his head and a lightbulb was shorting out. And that was a good day.”
“He is no longer possessed,” Lucien announced.
Torin gave a slow, disbelieving shake of his head. “He actually survived the removal of the demon?”
Lucien nodded. “He did.”
“How?”
“Josephina. She pulled the fiend out of his body and healed his damaged spirit with love, which is, apparently, something of a spiritual medicine.”
Torin’s gaze flipped to Keeley.
Wondering if she could do the same for him?
Only if you fall for me, Charming.
Or when she found the Morning Star.
“What else?” Torin asked his friend.
“Taliyah took over our fortress in the Realm of Blood and Shadow; according to a bargain she made with Kane, we have to stay away. Atlas and Nike, the Titan and Greek god and goddess of strength, moved to town. Cameo and Viola are still missing, and no one has heard even a whisper of gossip regarding their whereabouts. Anya is still planning our wedding. Like Kane and Josephina, Gideon and Scarlet are expecting their first kid. Amun and Haidee are discussing opening a halfway house for wayward teens. Gilly is planning a party to celebrate her step into adulthood and when William isn’t on a violent rampage about his daughter’s death, he’s watching Gilly with such intense hunger everyone else wants to pluck out his eyes, then their own.”
The updates seemed to hit Torin like bullets, one after the other.
A few of the names Keeley had recognized. William, the brutal, savage immortal of mysterious origins was one of Hades’s adopted sons. He had lived in the underworld during the time Keeley and Hades had dated. He’d been an unrepentant rogue, seducing his way through the female population. The married population. He’d cared for nothing but pleasure—his own—and his sense of humor had been as dark as a black hole. He’d laughed every time he’d killed an enemy and had chuckled every time he’d stabbed a friend.
Keeley had always liked him, but had never thought one woman would be able to hold his attention. Especially not a human. She’d heard this Gilly was an emotionally fragile teenage girl whom Danika, the keeper of Pain’s wife, had befriended.
Emotionally fragile...young...single. Not even close to being William’s type.
“Well? Why are we just standing here?” she asked. “Let’s go see everyone.”
Torin did a double take and stumbled away from her, paling.
“What?” She glanced down at herself—and gasped. Boils had popped up all over her exposed flesh.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
TORIN HAD ONCE thought he’d plumbed the deepest depths of his guilt, that he’d treated it like a lover, stoking and satisfying its darkest desires. He had been wrong.
This was guilt.
I might just be the dumbest kid in class. Apparently I have to have every lesson pounded into my head with a hammer.
Do not touch a woman skin-to-skin—the path to a regret-free life was as plain and simple as that. But time and time again he’d failed the test.
Now all he could do was care for Keeley’s every need. And yet, like the other times before, it in no way made up for what he’d allowed to happen.
Idiot!
He knew exactly how he’d gotten to this point. He’d been enraged with Hades, jealous that the male had kissed her, and the emotions had rammed through his defenses in a matter of seconds. Hardly an excuse. Definitely not good enough. But then, nothing would have been.
The need to put his mark on Keeley had consumed him. He’d wanted to brand her as surely as a ward. Had wanted to bind her to him in the basest way so that others knew who, exactly, she belonged to. He’d wanted her to crave him above all others. And maybe she had. But it certainly hadn’t lasted. Her regret had come even before the illness.
