AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Actually it was nice to hear him call her by her nickname. Sidonie, the High Priestess of the Temple of Seth, was also my mentor, and happened to be Leo’s half-sister. They both had the bad luck to be the demigod offspring of Seth, and I hadn’t been sure Leo would warm to Sido or his role as Seth’s son. He’d been in Seattle since we left Louisiana in August, and it looked like he was starting to settle in. If he was using Sido’s nickname, maybe that meant the siblings had finally started to bond. Good.
Leo had spent a lot of his life floundering, from what he’d told me. Moving between a variety of mostly illegal jobs, feeling like he didn’t fit in anywhere in particular. I understood that.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Not that I don’t appreciate the coffee and the reminder that I was half naked. That could have been chilly.”
“Personally, I’m a little sad I didn’t let you make it to the lobby at least.”
“Bernard would have stopped me.” My seventy-year-old doorman was always watching out for me. He’d never have let me get as far as the street. “Plus I’m sure I’d have figured it out when I got to the elevator.” Maybe. I’d been pretty focused.
“Sure.” He took a sip of his coffee and looked through the windows, taking in the skyline view that was incredible in spite of the mist hanging in the air. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”
“What?”
“The mountains.”
I followed his gaze, trying to see Mt. Rainier through his eyes. The sad truth was I had gotten used to it, but it didn’t take a lot of effort to appreciate it like he might have been. It was a pretty darned majestic sight.
Even after being almost crushed to death by a mountain god in Colorado, I still found the peaks beautiful.
“Are you intentionally avoiding my question?” I set my cup down and turned my focus back to him. After a few seconds he met my gaze.
“Sido sent me.”
She’d sent him, which meant this wasn’t a social call. So this was official temple business, then. But she also hadn’t wanted to deliver it herself, so that set me on edge right away. Chances were I wasn’t going to like this, and she was hoping that by sending Leo instead of coming herself I might not flip out.
I hated that she knew me so well.
She was right, of course. I liked Leo, and he was still so new to this world I wasn’t sure I wanted my spitfire temper to be the thing that sent him running back to his life in New Orleans.
Though it might be safer for him in Louisiana.
I let out a sigh and steeled myself for whatever he was about to say. “Okay, but can we make this quick? I have a date with death.”
Leo winced. Guess he wasn’t quite over that whole thing where Manea had wanted to kill him. My bad.
“Sido has suggested that I should prepare myself to take on a bigger role at the temple, if that’s something I might be interested in. But in order for me to do that she wants me to follow you around so I get a better sense of what it is that Seth has you do.”
I stared at him. It was all I could do to not let my mouth hang open in abject horror at this idea.
“No.”
“But—”
I was already shaking my head. “No. I don’t need a sidekick. I don’t need an assistant. I work alone.”
“First, I’d like to think of it as a partnership, not babysitting. And second, I don’t particularly love the idea of spending all day every day with your grouchy ass either, for what it’s worth.”
We glared at each other briefly across the counter.
“Let me guess. Third is that this isn’t a suggestion, she’s forcing me to do it.”
“Force is an awfully strong word, Tallulah.”
r />
Yup. I had no say in this at all.
“Is she expecting me to take you to the convention next week?” The annual Convention of the Gods was taking place in Las Vegas, where all the North American clerics would come together to air grievances between their gods, come to terms over territories and hash out how best to help answer prayers over the coming year.
