consumed, and doing so might make him unbeatable, but it could also kill him.
“Ian, don’t!” I said as Remnants burst from Marie in response. “Morana can’t harm me. I’m also Marie’s guest, so her ‘safe passage or else’ rule applies to me, too. Right, Marie?”
The Remnants stopped before attacking Ian as if Marie had suddenly yanked on a hundred invisible leashes. Then, tinkling laughter interrupted whatever Marie had been about to say.
“Is that the death demigod I hear, Marie?” Morana asked. “If so, what a delightful surprise!”
A hooded, cloaked figure opened the doors to the living room, ignoring Jacques’s sputtered protests that Majestic hadn’t authorized her entrance yet. The Remnants haloing Marie shot toward Morana before Marie’s hold stopped them short again. They coiled above Marie, their diaphanous forms a silent, deadly threat.
Morana threw off her cloak when she entered the living room. I blinked, an involuntary reaction to seeing too much beauty, too fast.
Sapphire hair shimmered around Morana’s shoulders as if a massive jewel had been divided into thousands of strands. I barely had the time to register Morana’s crystalline skin, her red lips, the dazzling pearl-encrusted bodice over a full blue skirt, or her almost eerie loveliness before her wings unfurled.
Jacques gasped.
I bit mine back, but only just. Morana’s wings glittered more than the crystal chandelier above her, but that wasn’t what was almost mesmerizing. Her wings were made of ice, and though their length and breadth didn’t alter, the icy shards contained within them seamlessly formed into different, intricate patterns, like a living, magnified slideshow of snowflakes.
I didn’t know how Morana had transformed the body she inhabited to reveal her true, goddess appearance, but she had. Then again, transforming a host body was probably easy compared to her other abilities.
The supernatural cuffs my father had given me now almost burned against my skin. I glanced at the Remnants above Marie. They swirled and writhed with greater urgency, as if begging to be freed so they could feed from our pain and life force. Only Marie’s power held them back, and I could no longer freeze time to stop her from unleashing them. I’d burned myself out on my time-freezing skills when I held back that volcano. I’d be lucky if I regained that ability within the next two weeks.
I would also ensure an enemy for life in Marie, if I survived the Remnants long enough to cuff Morana and send her back to my father. I might be willing to risk that, but the vampire nation couldn’t, and Marie would definitely take her grudge against me out on them. She already didn’t trust vampires. I didn’t need to give her another reason to hate them, too. Not when there were two more renegade gods on the loose who would take full advantage of any ghoul animosity toward vampires.
That left doing nothing, which burned me more than the supernatural cuffs that now felt white-hot against my arm.
“Ian,” I said in a quiet tone. “Stand down.”
Maybe he’d also realized all the reasons why we couldn’t attack Morana, because his power whooshed back into him, and he sheathed the sword in one swift, fluid motion. Then, he bowed in a courtly way to Marie.
“Pleasure to see you again, Majestic.”
Marie gave him a look that had me poised to rip all her blood out if even one of her Remnants twitched toward Ian.
“You dare say that when the last time we met, you were blackmailing me with pictures you’d just taken of me?”
Ashael’s palm slapped against his forehead. “You didn’t.”
I hadn’t known this, either, or I definitely would’ve tried stopping Ian from coming in here. Then again, how could I? I wasn’t faster than teleportation even on my best day.
“Did,” Ian said, flashing an unrepentant grin at Ashael. “Come, now,” he added to Marie. “You admire cunning, and that was cunning. Besides, you agreed with the cause behind the blackmail, or I wouldn’t have lived out the day after that.”
“You’re fortunate that you’re correct,” Marie said in her frostiest tone. “Now, get out before I decide against forgiving you for trespassing, too.”
Ian doffed an imaginary hat. “Ladies,” he said before sauntering out instead of teleporting away.
Morana watched him leave, proving that my vampire side was back at the helm because I had the sudden urge to slap the lustful look off her face.
“Do you know I recently discovered chocolate?” she said with a flirty little smile. “As it turns out, I love white, milk, and dark,” she added while looking from