Brilliance (Circle of the Stars #4) - Sadie Jacks Page 0,49

them.”

“Damn straight, they don’t, corcra.” Drace thrust her fist in the air.

Stretch dipped her chin. “See?”

Jeremiah walked up to his queen. “She is not your typical goddess, my queen.”

Arasne’s laugh bordered on hysterical. “Indeed! Kiema is atypical.” She shook her head, looked at Stretch. “Hollyn is —”

The room was suddenly awash in dragon snarls.

“Well protected and allied, Queen Arasne. I suggest you mind your thoughts,” Ari said stiffly.

Arasne shook her head, waved away the concern. “I was going to say Hollyn is ballsier than the Horde King on All Soul’s night.”

Jeremiah burst into laughter. “That’s an excellent reference. But I’d say the Horde King has nothing on Hollyn. He’s practically a eunuch up against our Goddess here.”

“Our goddess,” Tag snarled as he glared at Jeremiah.

Jeremiah dipped his head. “As you say. But the comparison is in Hollyn’s favor. Trust me.”

“And us. Even Felix would think it true,” Atlas said.

I nodded. “Then we’ll take your word for it. You all seem very…awed by Chaos and Aether.”

Arasne snorted. “Awed would be the least of a very long list.” She laughed. “I so very much appreciate you newer gods and goddesses. None so stuffy as the old guard. I, for one, am loving it. So much more approachable. And yes, I would like some food.” She walked over, stood in line behind Stretch.

Well, that crisis seemed to have been averted. Thank the sweet fucking stars. We didn’t need infighting. We needed to destroy Merlin and get our lives back. Without a penthouse full of people.

The three new—well, returning—visitors stepped forward. They had bags that looked loaded down with books and other paraphernalia. The tallest man, the one with the glasses, had at least three bags. The shorter man and his lady friend had bags similar to Tove’s when he carted around his computer stuff.

“You guys can eat. We can fill you in on what we have in our archives about Merlin,” Glasses Guy said. He turned to the room at large. “I’m Kord Sova. Mate of Kiema, goddess of…a lot of different shit.”

The thunder waved. “Hello, Kord. Welcome to Ladon house,” Ari said. She rose from her chair, offered to him. “Please. Sit here and use the coffee table as you need.”

Kord walked over, set his bags on the table softly. “Thank you.” He stuck out his hand.

“Ari.” She shook his hand.

“Right. Now I remember. I’m the book nerd. Xan and Scar are the tech nerds. So they’ll need –”

Xan rattled off a list of things that made my ears want to bleed. Tove nodded, shot up from his stool. “I’ve got that in my office. Come this way. We’ll put Hols in here and I can chat with her on what we find.” He grabbed his plate and strode off down the hall. Xan and Scar followed him.

“Thank the stars,” Drace said softly. “My brain revolts when people get too technical.”

I nodded. “Every freaking time. That or my ears rupture.”

She snorted. “Truth.”

Stretch came over and sat on the floor next to Kord’s chair. She kept her plate in her lap as she looked at all of his books. “These are very old.”

Kord nodded. He winced a bit. “Could you scoot back, please? I don’t want you to accidentally spill anything on the books.”

“Kord Sova!” Lukas snapped. “This is her house. Don’t you be rude to her in her own house.”

Kord blushed. “But what if sh—”

Stretch smiled, waved away Lukas’ remarks. “It’s okay. I’m not offended. At least he didn’t hit me. Hell, he didn’t even threaten it. And he said please. I can scoot back.”

Kord’s face suffused with color. “Hit you?”

Stretch nodded, put another slice of cheese and cracker in her mouth. “The cult were assholes.” She didn’t say anything else. Didn’t seem to notice that everyone in the room looked like they were searching for something to beat the shit out of. “Where did you get books that are so old? Do you have a library?”

Kord blinked a couple times. Smiled. “Yes. Although Kiema blew most of it up. Graysten let me copy a lot of the books from the embassy.”

Arasne cleared her throat. She stood to the side, full plate in her hand. She popped a strawberry in her mouth.

“I mean,” Kord hurried to clarify, “Arasne let Graysten let me copy a lot of books.”

Arasne snickered.

Kord glared at her. “Anyways, yes, we have lots of old books. Very old books in some cases. They wouldn’t have survived the trip through the Gateway, so I didn’t bring them. I did read