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Peyron smiled. "And I want to know how to get Savi back. You're devoted to your god. I'm devoted to my goddess. Something is changing; I want to know what. It doesn't hurt that both of you are beautiful, I happen to like sex, and my options for male lovers aren't exactly overflowing. I'm willing to trade. You help me figure out how to bring Savi back into the world and I will give you all the protection of Perception that I have to offer."
"Trust him."
The voice was calm, feminine, and directly behind me. I flinched. Talin tensed, his arm jerking toward his boot. Peyron quickly leaned away from my guardian, and Ela looked at me, but Wraythe just lifted a finger. That was enough to stay Talin's hand. Slowly, I turned to find a dusky-skinned woman with wild curls and iridescent eyes squatted down behind me.
"I'm not foolish enough to kiss you," she explained. "Not after Zeal's reaction when Will tried. Instead, I nudged my priest to realize you were sitting right here."
"So you sent him," I realized.
"Who?" Talin asked, proving he couldn't see her.
I chuckled, my eyes still on the goddess. "Is this supposed to be a secret?"
"No," she assured me. "I think the sensual one would also like the confirmation that I'm not gone. He's devoted. I nearly put him on the Path of the Word, but he's too interested in helping."
"Peyron?" I asked. "That's what you call him?"
"Peyron," she breathed, tasting his name. "I have plans for him. Just look at his hands! I couldn't have put more patterns on him if I tried. You should see his back. The blocks are elegant, well matched, and nearly solid. I was hoping you might notice."
"What's she doing?" Peyron whispered to Eladehl.
Ela chuckled. "She's talking to a god."
"Goddess," I corrected. "It's Savi. She's giving me the scoop on Peyron."
And the priest's mouth fell slack. He blinked a few times too many, his head twitching as if he wanted to deny what I'd just said - and yet he couldn't. Not really his best look, but I was starting to get used to the disbelief.
"Savi?" I asked, looking at her again. "Can you give him a sign? Something to prove to him that I'm not insane? I think it would also make my guys feel better."
"I cannot speak to him," she explained. "I can nudge. I can persuade. I cannot kiss him, because it doesn't work unless he kisses back." Then her head tilted as her eyes dropped to the base of my throat, right beneath the hollow. "But I have an idea. Have him hold his wrist out?"
"Pey?" I asked. "Can you hold your wrist out?"
"Like this?" he asked, flopping his arm forward, braced on his knee so that his wrist was pointed up at the sky.
"Perfect," Savi said, pushing herself to her feet so she could weave between the guys on her way to her priest.
I nodded, lifting a finger for him to stay like that, but the goddess was clearly on a mission. When she reached his side, she knelt, then leaned over his arm to kiss the soft skin covered in dense green marks. Peyron's brows twitched as if he could sense something. Then Savi lifted her lips.
There, right across the tendons on his wrist, was a dark green hawk. The color was just a little more intense than the rest of the lines on his hands, and the shape was a perfect replica of Savi's own symbol. Peyron's breath rushed out as he touched the mark with his other hand, trying to smudge the color to make sure it was real. It was.
"Shit," Talin breathed, reaching out to grab Peyron's wrist for a closer look. "That just formed out of nowhere!"
"She kissed him," I explained.
"Does that work as a sign?" Savi asked. "Because I am offering him to you, Nariana. I'm not as strong as my brother. I can't come as often as I want, but this one hears me. He doesn't realize that's what's pushing him, but it is. I'm offering the sensual one to help you help us. We don't want you to carry this all on your own."
"That's a very good way of making the point," I assured her. "Tell your siblings about it? I mean, the signs of your temples aren't usually seen in our markings, so when we do..."
The goddess nodded. "I will. Please be gentle with him? He's my favorite." And then she vanished, gone between one blink and the next.
I just let my breath fall out. "So..." The guys all looked up at me, clearly wanting to know what was going on. "Zeal is a jealous god, Will is in trouble, and Savi says the rest are more powerless than we thought. She's offering Peyron to help. That's why he noticed us, because she nudged him."
Peyron stumbled through a few random syllables before managing to get out, "Really?"
I nodded. "See, that's the thing. I'm descended from the very first priestess. They gave her and her descendants the ability to see them no matter what. If they're in our world, I can always see them. Otherwise, only their most devoted can. The truly devoted. Those who have no doubts that they can be seen." Then I sighed. "And most people don't truly believe in them anymore. Most people think they're a story to explain morality at best, or a method of gaining power at worst. Priests believe in their temples, and our patrons believe in the priests. The lack of faith is killing them. Peyron, our gods are dying."
"And that's why you're different," he breathed.
