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“Is Paul okay?”
When no one answered her, she scrambled to her feet and hurried across the kitchen. Rachel and Huxley were kneeling on either side of Paul’s prone body. Tears were streaming down Rachel’s face, and Huxley’s jaw was clenched tight as they both stared down at him with a mixture of shock and horror.
At first, Autumn didn’t understand why they were just sitting there frozen. Then, she had to force herself not to recoil when everything suddenly became clear.
The empty space of Paul’s missing left arm was now being replaced with a macabre skeletal structure and a combination of muscle and tissue was slowly knitting itself back together over the bones. Sweat beaded Paul’s brow, and his eyes were clenched shut as his entire body shook from the obvious strain he was under.
Holy shit, his fucking arm was growing back.
Autumn tried to swallow back her own tears. Had she done this to him? Was it really possible that she had the ability to give him back his arm? Even with her new god powers, healing a missing limb seemed like a big ask, and witnessing his agony made her curse herself for causing him so much pain.
Devlin came to a stop next to her and stared down at the scene with interest. “You didn’t heal him…exactly. You used your power of revenge on the god who had injured Paul and somehow reversed their fate.”
“Are you saying I gave him someone else’s arm?” Autumn asked, truly appalled by the very idea of it.
Huxley’s head whipped around. “You did what now?”
“Nothing! I didn’t do anything to anyone,” she quickly denied, desperately hoping that she was telling the truth.
Well, besides Paul, that is. She had definitely done something to him. That was clear enough from the way he was sprawled out on the floor, trying to hold back his screams of agony. But the idea that she had stolen a limb from someone made her feel a little sick, even if the bastard deserved it. She really didn’t want the shifter she loved like a father wearing someone else’s arm.
That thought was just too disturbing for words.
“You did,” the dark god countered. “Though, not in the literal sense. You just transferred the injury back to the one who caused it, which in turn reversed the loss of Paul’s arm. It’s quite a fitting form of revenge. Not bad for your first day on the job.”
She hadn’t wanted her first official act as a god to be so gruesome, but it was a little too late to change any of it now.
“I can’t help him. I can’t even shoulder some of the pain for him.” Rachel finally tore her gaze away from her suffering mate. “What does that mean? Autumn, did you do this? And why in all the worlds are you glowing? What happened to you?”
Before she could respond, Jordan teleported into the room with Aidan, the second oldest Bazin brother. Aiden was a gifted surgeon who’d inherited his mother’s fae talent for healing, but he still had trouble with some of the other skills, like teleporting. He was still wearing a pair of blue scrubs indicating that the fairy had gone to fetch him at the hospital where he was a surgical intern.
“Dad!” Aidan cried out as he rushed over to Paul. “Holy fuck, his arm! It’s growing back! How is this even possible?”
Jordan glanced down at the scene, then she let out a loud sigh and pinned her gaze on Autumn. “Seriously? I’ve only been gone for a few freaking minutes. What the hell happened now?”
Autumn just closed her eyes and groaned.
Being a god was turning out to be a lot harder than it looked.
Chapter Four
Autumn and theothers had settled around the dining room table with their drink of choice as they waited for Paul to recover. Still suffering from his miraculous ordeal, Paul had been transferred to his bedroom to ride out the remaining time he needed to heal in a more comfortable setting. Rachel had stayed with him, keeping a close eye on every twitch and movement his arm made as the muscles, tissue, and nerves slowly reconnected.
Huxley had taken his seat next to the head of the table where Paul usually sat, while Aiden was seated across the table from him next to his mother’s chair. It was clear that his focus was still fully on his father since his gaze kept drifting back toward the stairs that led up to the next level. He’d wanted to remain with his parents to observe the rest of the healing, but they had kicked all of their sons out of the room, opting for privacy instead.
The two younger Bazin brothers, Declan and Murphy, had shown up while some of the bones in Paul’s arm had still been completely exposed. Instead of being shocked and horrified like the rest of their family, the teen twins had been gleefully fascinated by the entire grisly process. They were part of why their mother had decided to move Paul into the bedroom to finish the recovery process, but the main reason was it had been difficult for everyone to watch him suffer.
The twins were seated next to Huxley at the table, but they hadn’t taken their eyes off Autumn and Devlin since they’d sat down. She could practically feel their penetrating gazes and knew they were mentally compiling a list of questions they wanted to grill her about.
She found herself being glad that Devlin was intimidating enough to make them keep quiet. That wouldn’t last for long, though. The twin troublemakers were too damn curious for their own good.
Autumn had deliberately taken a seat at the other end of the table, trying to stay far away from everyone else for their safety. Despite the danger, Jordan had insisted on sitting next to her. When she’d tried to protest, the fairy had shut her down with the stubborn lift of her chin and a dark glare.
Devlin had chosen to sit on Autumn’s other side. She wasn’t sure why the reaper had decided to sit next to her, yet his presence gave her a strange sense of comfort. Granted, they hadn’t had the best introduction, but he was a powerful safety net. If he could stop her from accidentally hurting her family, she was all for him sticking around.
He was also a valuable source of information.
While Paul was being transferred into the bedroom, Huxley had sent word to the pack’s betas to keep watch over the property and ensure no one approached the main house. He wanted to keep the rest of the pack members away until they had a better handle on the situation, and Autumn couldn’t blame him for that since she was like a magical explosive, just waiting to go off.
