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Cassius smiles at me and mimics one of Essos’s moves. He cups my cheek and smooths his thumb over it. I flinch back and out of his grip. Cassius laughs. Talk about living for chaos.
“In all seriousness, your girlie Zara was talking about how much she hated the media blackout caused by the zombie apocalypse, so I popped into the mortal realm to check on things, because I’m nice like that. She gave me your address and her parents’ address and Cat’s family’s address, and the address of some chick named Tiffany. It’s a hotbed of zombies in those areas, except for where that Tiffany girl is. Her boyfriend’s got some sort of survivalist cabin in the mountains, so as long as Hadeon doesn’t break off the state of California with a massive series of earthquakes, she should be fine. But mortals are much too fragile for my liking.”
I turn my back on Cassius to look at my husband, fear threading its way through every last drop of common sense I have. The idea of having zombies clustering around my family’s home, around Cat’s and Zara’s families’ homes… It’s unacceptable.
Essos shakes his head, mouthing the wordNoto me.
He’s not wrong to do so, that last piece of common sense whispers to me. I am pregnant.Iam protected, but until our child is born and breathes their first breath, they don’t have my immortality.
But then fear reaches that corner of my mind, and I know I’ll do what needs to be done to protect my family—all of them.
* * *
I tellKai to meet me outside in twenty minutes because I want to brush up on my training, but first, I need to grab Cat. On my way back to the library I find Zara and drag her along too. Going to the mortal world is going to be a group effort, which means we all need to be prepared. When I break into the library, I find that Rafferty is gone and Cat seems eager to hit something. It’s not a trial to convince her to come train with me.
“Everything go well with Rafferty?” I ask cautiously as we walk toward the training pitch.
Cat hums for a moment, like she’s looking for the right words. “Well enough. I asked him to just block the memories of my past lives, and I already feel lighter.”
I jump on that and slide my arm in with hers. “Lighter already? We like feeling lighter.” She nods her agreement before slipping back into her shell. I can feel that there is something else on her mind, but I don’t want to push her too hard. “Anything else to add? I know Rafferty isn’t the most palatable of all the gods.”
“He was, whatever. You know? To his credit, he did help and showed me some easier power basics, like how to tap into my abilities intentionally.”
“That’s great!” I say with too much enthusiasm for even me. Zara shoots me a look over Cat’s head and I just shrug.
The training pitch only has Kai warming up with a staff until my husband steps forward out of the shadows to watch.
Kai glances up at Essos before focusing on me. “You should take it easier on him.”
I scoff. “I should take it easier onhim?He’s the one who is ready to lock me up and throw away the key.”
“Did you know that someone tried to have a cursed object delivered to you?”
I hesitate and glance at Essos, who has his arms crossed, his face blank.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” Kai continues. “It was lipstick, something so innocuous, but if you had put it on it would have sealed your mouth shut. Yes, Daphne, youshouldtake it easier on him.”
Another thing Essos didn’t tell me, but it casts a whole new light on his behavior.
Essos tracks every movement we make from warming up to progressing from one-on-one to two-on-one up to three-on-one. To get us to work together, it’s three-on-one as Cat, Zara, and I take on the hulking god. Kai is brutally efficient, blocking blows and striking against us, trying to drive us back. As he turns, his elbow glances off my cheek, but I shake it off.
“Enough,” Essos calls from the sidelines, where he’s been watching reluctantly, allowing me to prove to him and to myself that I’m still capable. He’s changed from his usual suit into something better suited for working out. A black T-shirt clings to his body, outlining his abs. The shorts he has on hang tantalizingly low, showing off not just the top trim of his boxers, but the start of his Adonis belt and that line of hair from his belly button that disappears into his shorts. My heart skips a beat and then starts again, seeming to chant,mine, mine, mine.It’s a struggle not to fling myself at him.
His hands on my chin are soft as he tilts my head and studies where the blow connected, and I want to roll my eyes. But I know this comes from a place of love, so I hold back instead.
“You’ll live,” he reassures Essos, and I hate the smile that spreads over my lips before I remind myself that I’m supposed to be a little pissed at him.
“Sure I don’t have to lose the face?” I tease, and he relaxes infinitesimally. “I’m really okay. It was just my cheek.”
“Love, there is no ‘just’ when it comes to any harm you endure.”
“I’m no longer the fragile flower of Spring. I’m stronger now, more resilient. You need to accept that. You don’t need to shelter me from the storm. I am the storm.”
Essos’s reaction is unexpected. His mouth crashes over mine, and he hauls me against him in a kiss that is devastating to my anger at him. My knees go weak as my desire rises. He catches me, holding me firmly against him, never breaking the kiss, and scoops one leg under those traitorous knees to lift me.
He takes two steps away from our friends before I feel that familiar drop in my stomach as we move through space and time. I don’t stop kissing him, needing him more and more with each passing moment.
We don’t stop kissing until he lays me on our bed. He takes his time looking me over, long enough that I’m squirming under his gaze. It morphs from being watchful and full of promise to desperate. He climbs onto the bed, looking away from me. I get the feeling that whatever he wants to say will be too difficult if he’s looking at me.
