“Answer me, damnit!”
“Yeah, I do,” he admitted finally.
I pinched his cheek to make him smile for me. “Well, I think the same about you and have for a long time. So, let’s do something about it and see where this crazy trip takes us.”
He flushed pink at my proposal. “You have so much going on with your God stuff… are you sure you can handle having an anxiety-ridden weirdo as a boyfriend, too?”
I took his chin between my fingertips and guided him forward. When were inches apart, I tilted my head and let a slick smile cross my cheeks. “I like my anxiety-ridden weirdo just the way he is. You sure you can handle being with a messy God-to-be who’s going to be battling massive monsters and bad guys for the rest of her life?”
He mimicked my smile and inched even closer. “Sounds like an exciting life.”
“Then let’s start living it, together,” I breathed before closing the space between us.
Chapter thirty-five
Written in Blissful Language
Nicodemus
Xenobia came crashing through the door to my dorm like a hurricane. I was used to people barging into my room like this and barely paid attention to her, as I was too engrossed in the notepad I was scrawling into. “Well, do I have some shit to report to you my friend!” she yelled wildly as she slammed the door shut as hard as she could.
“I take it you have an eventful day yesterday?” I sarcastically said.
“You bet your sweet ass I did! Not only did I find out about this super-secret bracelet thing that Endymion made and my mom is hiding, but I have not only aParticeps Potestatis, but a new boyfriend!”
“YOU WHAT!” I screamed, practically throwing my notepad across the room to whip around in my desk chair.
She squealed and started bouncing up and down in place. “I know, right!”
“Well don’t be shy now! Who the Gehenna is it?”
“Ptolemy! We did the test and everything and we’re pretty sure we’re a match! We had our first kiss last night!”
I screamed like a schoolgirl and jumped up to take her hands and spin her in a circle. “Oh my Gods, Xena! That is amazing!”
“I know, I know! I’ve had such a huge crush on him since we met, and now, I have my own specialParticeps Potestatis, too! I’m so excited!”
I simmered down slightly to pull her onto the bed beside me. “As excited as I am for you, and as much as I want to celebrate, I also need to know a bit more about what you found out.”
“Yes, right, serious time.” She pulled an old, weathered journal from her school bag and handed it to me. I scanned the pages rapidly while she explained everything her mother had told her yesterday. The information rattled my brain as it had hers, and when she was done, left me with more questions than answers. “So, yeah, we got a big thing to worry about, and it’s written plain as day in her PUBLIC journals, which, I’m sure Ambermourn has his greedy hands all over.”
“This is quite unsettling news. I never thought she would be hiding something so serious.” I swallowed loudly and let my trembling fingers fiddle with the page Xenobia was referencing. “We might need to pull Odysseus into this after all.”
“He’s one of the only Gods who knows of every door in Caelum, right?”
“More or less. My mother will have a conniption if I told her what we were up to, so Odysseus is our second-best bet. I know Caelum, sure, but not the way he does, not to mention, the guys who run it aren’t very fond of me.”
“Why not?” she scoffed.
I shrugged loosely. “Guess they think I’m a bad influence on Odysseus.”
“Yeah, ok.” Xenobia rolled her eyes before taking the journal back and sliding it into her bag. “We need to find that door, asap. If Ambermourn is even considering looking for this, then we need to cover its tracks.”
“Yeah, cause we’re so good at keeping things hidden,” I snorted.
She bubbled a laugh. “I mean, notoriously, no, we all suck at it, but if it’s away from where Seraphine said it would be, that deters him, doesn’t it? Can’t you make a Realm or something that we can hide it in?”
I smacked my knees loudly. “Maybe. We’ll sort out the details later. For now, we need to report this to Decimus and see if Magnus or Geneva have any leads on Ambermourn.”
