Heart of Fire (Blood of Zeus #2) - Meredith Wild Page 0,53

the verbal lashing I want to dole out right now. Because as pissed off as I am, Z is still my best bet. I can afford just about anything I could ever want, but I can’t afford to lose him as a resource right now. I force myself to take a deep breath, a concerted effort to calm my nerves.

“So what now?” I finally bite out. “Another night at the bar?”

“Perhaps. Po and I have had it out, so it’s time to wait. The ball is in Hades’s court. I’ve staked a claim, if you will, and he knows now that there won’t be peace between us if it isn’t settled properly. But it could take time. Try to be patient.”

My breathing is labored, despite all my efforts to calm myself. I’m not patient, and I’m not empathetic whatsoever to his deity boredom. I take a step closer to him. I feel strong, but not from my height now. From the fire roaring inside me.

“If you can’t fix this… If Maximus loses me, he will never forgive you. Never. I hope you realize that.”

He has the decency to look solemn in that moment, and with a small nod, he says, “I know.”

Chapter Fifteen

Maximus

An ox with the flu is tromping through my head. I clutch my stomach, ordering him to back the hell off. That’s before realizing the dumbshit animal is me.

“Fuuuck…”

Never has such a tormented sound erupted from me. It comes hot on the heels of feeling like I’ve licked a summer sidewalk after a fighter jet joyride. I’ve never done either but am sure I don’t want to after this.

And the kids run out of class, excited to do this every weekend at their dorms and frat houses, why?

At least I know where I am and how I got here, which is nothing short of a miracle. After Hades poofed out of Labyrinth last night, I’d finished his bottle of the good stuff, hoping it’d soothe the chaos in my thoughts. Huge mistake—one I acknowledged in that moment but traded for the hope of erasing what had gone down minutes before. To forget, if only for a little while, how it had felt to be the psychological filing cabinet for the greedy demon king.

It hadn’t worked.

Even an hour later, when I’d forgotten my birthday, my address, and damn near my name, every moment of the ordeal haunted me. The protest of my nerve endings. The scream from my blood. The schism of horror, up and down my spine, as he invaded any thought he desired and looked at every vital intimacy…

A new groan erupts from me. This time, it has little to do with my hangover. The pounding at my temples is smothered by the protest march in my heart. The roil of my gut has nothing on the bile in my throat.

The symptoms only worsen when I realize Kara isn’t sleeping next to me. She isn’t in the room at all. And the air in the spacious hillside house…

Too damn still.

“Shit.” I vault out of bed. The downy sheets tangle around my legs, hindered even more by my jeans-clad legs, but I finally leave them behind and sprint for the door. I don’t skip a beat before hauling it open.

As light blasts my eyes, I throw a hand over my face and snarl. Just as quickly, I lower my hand. It’s only sunlight. The full, midmorning version of the stuff. And in the middle of that white-gold blast from the heavens is an angel—in the form of my gorgeous demon sitting on the couch.

The new air in my lungs is warm and welcome, especially as she lifts a curious gaze toward me. She’s beyond beautiful. Her casual little dress, with its short hem and suspender-style bodice, is a shade between red and purple. She’s still barefoot, meaning I get the chance to appreciate her sparkly gold toe polish, as well.

Headache or not, I want to run over and flatten her into those cushions—in all the torrid senses of the phrase. Kara flares her gaze, obviously picking up the force of my craving. But she only gets two seconds’ worth before other thoughts rush to the surface.

“Hi.” Her tone is cooler than I’m expecting.

“Hi.” I scrape my hand through my hair, gripping it at my nape before adding, “You’re here.”

Kara drops her brows. “Where else would I be?”

“You’re right,” I concede. “I just thought—well, I was afraid that…”

“What?”

I drop my hand, thrumming it a few times against my thigh.

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