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And that’s where my ‘other’ family found me: covered in chocolate and icing and an embarrassingly-large number of sugar sprinkles.
“How many cupcakes have you had, Leda?” my foster mother Calli asked, her wide eyes fixed on the big pile of discarded paper baking cups.
“Hey, cut me some slack. Stress makes me hungry for unhealthy stuff,” I replied, licking the icing off my fingers.
“Be honest,” Tessa said, grinning. “You’re always hungry for unhealthy stuff.”
She wasn’t wrong. But dealing with gods and demons made me especially hungry for unhealthy stuff. I suppose death by chocolate sounded a hell of a lot more appetizing than death by stratagem and subterfuge.
“I think I’ve had quite enough deity drama for one day,” I declared, grabbing another cupcake. This one was pastel pink—and smelled like strawberries with a splash of vanilla.
“Uh, guys, why is Aerilyn staring at us?” I wondered.
“She’s not staring at us. She’s staring at Zane,” Tessa informed me.
I tried to get my head around that, but it just didn’t make sense. “Ok, but why?”
“Because Aerilyn has a thing for him, and she won’t take no for an answer,” Gin said brightly.
I snorted.
Zane’s gaze snapped to me. “This isn’t funny, Leda.”
“Yeah, it kind of is,” I told him. “So, how…” I dissolved into chuckles.
Zane glowered at me.
“Sorry.” I took a moment to reel myself in. I waited until I could speak without laughing before I continued. “How did this happen?”
Zane let out a heavy sigh. “We crossed paths in Sunfire’s Lost Workshop, and she’s been stalking me ever since.”
“I heard that, Foxy!” Aerilyn called out to him across the ballroom, smirking. The crowd parted between them, and people started whispering. “And actually it’s you who’s stalking me. Might I remind you that you tracked me down and came to my castle?”
“To get back what you stole from me!” he called back.
She winked at him.
“Ugh, she is so insane.” Zane turned his back so he couldn’t see Aerilyn anymore, but there was no way he wasn’t hearing all the gossip that had suddenly flared up in the room.
“Yeah, my family’s kind of cuckoo,” I said flippantly. “But let’s rewind to the part where you found Sunfire’s long-lost workshop. What did you find there?”
“Lots of immortal artifacts,” Zane told me. “Aerilyn stole most of them, but I got the one item that mattered. The one that led Bella to her mother.”
“So that’s how Bella found Thea,” I said. “I always feel like I’m missing half of all the stories. And most of the romantic drama.”
“Oh, please.” Zane rolled his eyes. “There is zero romantic drama in my life. Aerilyn’s just messing with me because she’s bored.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure that’s all there is,” Tessa said, winking at him.
Zane ignored her. “Can we please focus on the most important thing here?”
“Your non-existent love life?” Gin suggested, then she and Tessa started giggling.
“No.” Zane scowled at them. “The fact that the demons are hunting for immortal artifacts. There were a bunch of demon soldiers outside Sunfire’s workshop. Luckily, they couldn’t find their way inside, but that wasn’t the only site they were at. They’re everywhere, searching for weapons.”
“The demons are looking for powerful immortal artifacts. That’s hardly news, Zane,” Calli told him. “They’ve been doing that for years.”
Calli was right, of course, but I did find the timing…interesting. Around the same time the demons had suddenly, after millennia of searching, found Sunfire’s workshop, someone was tracking down the last remaining Immortal-hunters and stealing the immortal artifacts they’d collected.
