Instead, my mind was filled with other things and one of those other things was the fact that I kind of forgot why I was so pissed at him.
He’d saved me from Pol.
His reasons for doing this were because the wife he obviously adored had died and he wanted her back. Clearly being a man of action, when he found the impossible—that there was something he could do about that—he’d done something about it. This was slightly unbalanced, but I could get that.
But then he made the heartbreaking realization in having me, he couldn’t get her back.
Sure, he was a jerk about informing me of that but I could kind of get that too.
Then he’d understandably taken off to get his children to safety, and get away from me, the woman it hurt to even look at. But he’d left me in a beautiful house in a beautiful country with kind people. He’d given me gorgeous clothes. He’d provided me with a guard of great guys who saw me here, and in doing so gave me the best time of my life.
Now, he was forced to endure my presence and he was doing it as a kindness to me so I wouldn’t have to be around the this world children I couldn’t have in mine.
So he was arrogant and autocratic. He was the head of an aristocratic line in this world. What did I know of how they behaved? He was the only one I knew. Hell, others might even be worse than him.
And, truth be told, if I thought about it (which I hadn’t until then), his men said something about him.
Actually, if I really thought about it, Apollo had often displayed a sense of humor and he definitely displayed a sense of duty. He was clearly intelligent. He was also generous. There were reasons he inspired loyalty from those men, especially the ones from different Houses. They didn’t have to stay with him.
And he’d been displaying those reasons since the night I met him.
Chiefly, him traveling to another world to save me from Pol.
Okay, so this world was living under the threat of misfortune raining down on it through witchy she-gods.
But the misfortune Pol had rained down on me was pretty danged bad and it threatened to last a lifetime.
And I was safe from that.
Forever.
Because of Apollo.
So what did I have to be a bitch about?
I pulled off my fabulous fur cape (another reason not to be a bitch, seriously, it was awesome), moving to the table to throw it over a chair, thinking I was going to have to sort myself out.
This wasn’t easy on either of us. There was no reason to make it harder.
I tossed my cape over the chair and was about to move to my trunk when I noticed on the table that the wine and glasses were gone. In their place were a teapot and two teacups.
My head tipped to the side as I stared at it.
It wasn’t unusual for the finer establishments to have a pot of tea or a bottle of brandy waiting for you in your room when you came up from dinner.
But usually, you ordered it.
Maybe when Apollo was downstairs without me, he’d ordered it.
The thing was that the teapot and cups were made of fine china, embellished with gold engravings around which were beautiful emerald green designs. In my experience of that world, this was not something an inn like that would have.
“Maybe they pull out the good stuff when the gentry come to call,” I murmured, reaching out a hand to lift the top off the teapot.
I did this because I was curious. I didn’t intend to drink it. I needed to get to sleep, and fast, hopefully before Apollo showed, and the tea here had caffeine in it.
But the top dropped with a clatter to the table when I released it in surprise as a soft glow emanated from the pot.
“What the…?” I whispered, leaning in and peering closer.