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“If you will excuse me, I see someone I’ve been needing to speak with.” West nodded goodbye to them and walked away. His shoulders tense as he grabbed a drink from a tray and disappeared into the crowd.
“I apologize for his behavior. He has not really been himself the past few days since he returned from overseas. A friend of his died recently, and it has been incredibly difficult for him. They seemed to have been close,” Dr. Murphy explained as she watched her son walk away, a look of concern in her eyes.
Mr. Murphy placed a hand on her shoulder, but his eyes were not on his son’s exit.
They were focused squarely on Devon.
Had he not known better, he would have thought the man had somehow put the puzzle pieces together, but there was no way he could truly know what happened, or who Devon was now.
Persephone put two and two together herself and slid a quick look to Devon. He gave her an almost imperceptible shake of the head.
“I am so very sorry to hear that, Dr. Murphy. You will let us know if there is anything we can do to help your family through this time of healing?” Persephone asked as West’s mother turned back to look at them, her smile saddened.
Mr. Murphy grabbed and kissed Persephone’s hand one more time.
“Of course, and please always know that no matter what, we at Oceanus Industries are here for you, too. Tides are changing, my friend. Take care not to get swept away.” A concerned smile crossed his face as he used his other hand to pat the top of hers.
Persephone gave him a smile of confusion, as if the words carried a heavier meaning than either of them could decipher at this point in time.
“And Devon, so very nice to meet you.”
Something transpired between Persephone and Mr. Murphy right then. He watched two shades of blue smoke create a haze around the two people and realized Mr. Murphy was more than he seemed.
Mr. Murphy nodded in goodbye and turned him and his wife to another couple that had been waiting for their turn to speak.
It turned out he didn’t know his friend, the heir of an empire, quite as well as he thought.
Devon went back over their conversation only to realize that Persephone never gave Mr.
Murphy his name and yet the man had called him Devon.
“We will find Weston after the event,” she whispered, only to receive a distracted nod from Devon. His mind whirled and tried to put together any clues about West’s identity that he could have missed.
Something to reconcile the man who had just stood in front of him as the one he had fought alongside, been deployed with to every dangerous place left in Zephyr.
His mind was consumed by this new information and he had no idea what Persephone had said or with whom she conversed. Everything was a fog around him.
Persephone touched his arm, and the world filtered back in. He heard Medusa instructing everyone to have a seat for the speeches as he blinked back into his new reality.
They found their tables where their names were adorned in a gold script on dark green place cards. He took in the formal tableware and really wished he had some idea what to do with all the forks.
It was like a novel where the poor boy goes to dinner with the fancy family. He sits there with his thumb up his ass as he eats stuff that is probably a garnish and slurps his soup much to the embarrassment of everyone at the table.
This entire evening was well outside of his comfort zone.
He watched other people, copying them in the hopes he didn’t make a bigger fool of himself. Not something that bothered him before, but he didn’t want his actions to have repercussions for Persephone in the mortal world.
A man with dark brown hair and eyes sat next to Persephone. He was obviously one of those guys who looked like he spent his entire youth breaking girls’ hearts. The man oozed the type of confidence that said he knew he could score with minimal effort.
Devon was immediately annoyed by him. He didn’t miss the way Persephone’s posture went rigid as the man sat next to her and Devon’s eyes moved to the place card where the man had seated himself.
Tristan Wade. Of course, it was her ex-lover because tonight was not already a nightmare. His eyes swung to where Hera was seated next to what he assumed was her date, with Amphitrite and her date next to her. She winked at his scowl, and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
He had hoped she’d not caught on to his embarrassing internal jealous rampage earlier, but
of course she had. She would no doubt enjoy making him incredibly uncomfortable. He was learning Hera was adept at making any situation a battle of wills.
“Tristan,” Persephone said in way of greeting. His smile in return made Devon want to knock all of his teeth out. When Tristan leaned forward to kiss her cheek, Devon almost broke his water glass.
