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“No,” I said slowly. “I’d never heard it before this week.” I told him what Mirrim had shared about Perun. “Serak—though I think it was the fiery arserag speaking through him—said he was a worshiper of a lesser god. Mirrim said I have his eyes.”

“He was killed?” I nodded. Skadi lifted one hand to cup my chin and examined my face. “It could not have been him. Humans do not live that long.”

“Humans pass their names down sometimes,” Lachlan said, his eyes sparkling. “Did you know a Perun, Your Eminence?”

He nodded slowly, wincing like it hurt. “The one who fashioned himself my most loyal priest. Who cultivated the flowers. I sent that Perun to the Southern Seas after I defeated my brother, and went to sleep. He carried one of the three daggers with him, the one that was a match for yours there, little spy. Among other things.” His face went very still.

“Other things?”

“Tears,” he said at last. “My kind do not cry often. Our tears are powerful.”

“You cried not long after we met,” I said when he fell silent. “I… found them on the beach, in a tide pool, later on. I gathered them and put them in my cloak.”

His gaze sharpened. “Do you have them still?”

I shook my head, then hesitated. They’d had sharp edges, like he did. “No.”

Skadi tilted his head thoughtfully, not wincing this time. “Their magic may linger on the fabric of the cloak.”

“Good. There’s an Omega going into heat who’s using the shreds of my cloak for her nest. She needs all the help she can get.”

Lusca spoke from the other edge of the raft. “I can find another cloak for you. Many of the Assassin’s Guild travel by boat.”

“Sink a ship filled with them,” Lachlan suggested. “Then she’ll have extras.”

“I thought I was the bloodthirsty one,” I joked.

Skadi licked a stray droplet of blood from his white lips. “You consume blood? I did not realize. When I am restored to my glory, perhaps I will allow you a droplet. It could lengthen your life span, of course. A very generous courting gift, I would think.”

That was the second time he’d spoken of courting gifts. I wasn’t quite brave enough to ask if he truly believed he was courting me.

Lusca laughed. “She’s already my Empress. She’ll live until the seas run dry. I gave her the oceans of the world when she bonded with me, and power over all my subjects and the waters. What can you give her, Snowflake?”

I was curious, too, and batted my eyelashes at the ice god beneath me, who must’ve been feeling better. His glacier cock was starting to thicken and lengthen, inching up between my knees and pressing on my thighs. I squeezed my legs together. We were going to have to have a talk about the size differential. I was brave, but that thing was more of a threat than a promise of a good time.

Not that I was thinking of fucking Skadi. Or was I? It was possible I’d given too much of my blood for the tonics.

“Only she may call me that,” Skadi hissed, slapping Lusca with his tail, or trying to. Lusca caught it with a tentacle and threw it back over me.

“Our mate is hungry. Let her up.”

My jaw nearly dropped. Our mate?

Skadi did not let me up, but Lusca brought a fruit of some kind out of the water. It appeared to be a type of coconut. When he cracked it open and handed me a half, I drank the watery milk and scooped out the soft meat with a mumbled, “Best mate ever.”

Lachlan gave an offended huff, but Skadi made a terrible hissing sound. “Pathetic.” He reached around to his back with his tail and brought out a small container. It was rusted, but he wrenched open the thick wax seal. The sweet smell told me what was inside the box before I even saw the wrapped treats.

“Honeyed cakes?” I almost shouted. “Where did you find those?”

“You ass,” Lusca spluttered. “Those were my gift!”

Skadi’s smile was like watching sunlight on a pristine field of snow, and almost as blinding. “Can I help that I am a superior thief?” When I laughed so hard, I almost rolled off him, he caught me with both arms and whispered in my ear, “One of his little orca pets brought this to the raft while he dallied with you on the dry. Here.” He brought one of the small cakes to my mouth. It was wet in places and stale in others, and the best thing I’d tasted in so long that tears sprang to my eyes.

“A good courting gift for a thief?” Skadi asked.

I stared into his face, my mouth full of crumbs, and saw something I’d never imagined. His gorgeous eyes were still cold, of course. Calculating. But there was a hint of vulnerability, too. And something soft that I might have said was affection, if I knew him better.

A line appeared between those ice-blue eyes. “If you don’t like them, I can steal you something else.”