Page 92 of Crimson Skies

Atropos eyed the faint flush on her fiancé’s cheeks with a trace of suspicion. “What’s in his glass?”

“Absinthe and Champagne,” Menippe said casually.

Orena pursed her lips. “Isn’t it a bit early for liquor?”

“It’s called Death in the Afternoon.” Menippe indicated the sinking sun outside. “It’s afternoon.”

“When the hell did she get into the drinks cabinet?!” Morgan snapped.

“Don’t be a tightwad, Ivmir,” Hecate said. “It’s not an attractive trait.”

The Goddess of Magic sipped her martini and popped an olive in her mouth.

Menippe worked the cocktail shaker like a pro and poured Pyri a drink. The fire deity tasted it tentatively.

His face brightened. “This is nice.”

“Mind you don’t get your flames near it,” Menippe warned. “That cocktail is thirty percent whiskey—oh.”

A blaze engulfed Pyri’s face as he accidentally set his drink on fire. Boreas put it out with a wave of his hand.

Mortis studied the cocktail Menippe had made him hesitantly. “My tongue’s all tingly.”

“That’s okay, my pet,” the Reaper God said affably. “As long as that’s the only part of you that’s tingly right now.”

Mortis blushed furiously.

“Ugh,” Pan groaned.

Demetrius stepped on his foot.

“Ah.” Myrdin’s expression turned wistful. “Young love.”

Tenebra rolled her eyes.

Archon glowered at everyone. “How about you all take a hike?! We’re trying to have a serious conversation here!”

Hesperia sniffed. “How rude.”

Her eyes were slightly glazed, indicating she was well on her way to getting drunk on whatever Menippe had made her.

“Your conversation is pretty much done and dusted,” Tisiphone told Archon dismissively. She ignored the Guardian’s annoyed sound and exchanged a determined look with her sisters. “We have something more important to talk about.”

Cassius looked at them blankly. “We do?”

A worrying smile lit up the Fury’s face as she studied Cassius and Morgan like a hunter would its prey.

“Yes.”

39

Cassius fiddled nervouslywith the neckline of his silk shirt. “Do I look okay?”

Theo beamed. “You look wonderful.”

Kalliste nodded confidently on the other side of Cassius. Theo’s cream, satin shirt and lustrous, green, double-breasted groomsman outfit matched the dress of the queen of the Nymphs.

Cassius’s heart thundered wildly in his chest as he gripped his bouquet. It cascaded over his hands, a dazzling arrangement of anemones, tulips, juniper, eucalyptus, pine boughs, orchids, and sprays of baby’s breath.