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Adrian smoothly turned his head, giving Gus his ear in a silent command to privately pass on whatever the problem was.

I could only rely on touch, feeling Adrian’s leg under my hand and his arm pressed against mine, to try to figure out what happened.

Gus’s low murmur buzzed into the space around us,pouring the news into Adrian’s ear.

And with each passing word, Adrian grew more and more tense under my touch, his entire body turning to steel.

He nodded once, crisp and final, then said something to Gus that had him crouching and running back through the shadows, disappearing somewhere.

Adrian let out a rather creative string of curses under his breath, one I would have teased him for in any other circumstance—so foreign in the face of his composure.

A shock shot up my arm a second later, jolting me upright.

Adrian’s head snapped to me, looking down at my hand then up my arm, like he could see the pulse of electricity under my skin. His eyes went dark, with something like sorrow in them.

Like he had done that to me. I opened my mouth to tell him that he hadn’t, that even if it was the case, it wasn’t painful. It was even comforting.

But before I could, before I could even let reason stop me from saying something so raw, Adrian cut me off.

“I’ll be right back.” Anyone else would read his tone as final, terse even. But there was an undercurrent of stress that I caught that prevented me from listening to him. He slowly rose from his seat, nodding at Chiara respectfully before walking into the shadows.

Leaving me alone.

“Fuck that,” I whispered, rising from my seat. As he’d done with Chiara, I gave her a small, gracious smile. Hoping she understood my meaning. I couldn’t let my boyfriend slink off into the shadows to deal with something without me.

Obviously, Adrian needed my support.

It had nothing to do with being nosy or feeling strangely untethered without him.

I took a long step after him, nowhere near enough to compensate for his long strides. But it was movement enough that he realized I was following him.

He stopped and turned, looking at me with surrender. When I reached his side, he grabbed my hand, pulling me after him.

I had to wrap my free hand around his forearm for support, needing to anchor myself to him to keep up with his long strides.

Adrian walked with purpose, knowing exactly where Gus was. Two lefts and a long curving corridor behind a row of columns and he ducked into a free corner of the gallery. It was haunting, surrounded by sprawling landscapes large enough to span half the wall and towering sculptures older than the Roman line of gods themselves.

Gus was standing next to one of those statues staring at it with interest, speaking low under his breath to himself.

But when we got close and Adrian casually—far too casually, in my opinion—sent a spark into three candles at once, bathing the room in soft light, I realized Gus wasn’t speaking to himself at all.

Two long, thin snakes were winding themselves around the arms of the statue, one a brilliant shade of blue, the other a coral pink.

“He won’t kill you,” the blue one said, poking its head over the shoulder of the figure.

“He’s right behind you, though,” the pink one hissed, its voice sliding through theswith ease.

“Hush,” Gus commanded, whipping around to faceus. His blonde hair still had that windswept look, even more disheveled now. “Jupiter,” he greeted with a hurried nod at Adrian.

“Gus, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you Adrian is fine.” He nodded at the snakes then. “Hello, you two. Pleasure to see you, again.”

A wry smile broke over Gus’s face as the snakes flicked their tongues at Adrian. “And Miss Romulus, it’s a—well, I’m…nice to meet you,” he said, a blush sitting high on his cheeks as he stumbled over his words. Then after a pointed hiss from his snakes, he turned to them extending his arm. They slithered onto his arm, curling around it in opposite directions, meeting with their heads in his hand. “This is Cady,” the pink one lifted her head in greeting. “And Ceus,” the blue one hissed at me, wagging his tongue like a dog. “Together Caduceus.”

“Well,” I said, smiling at them. They were honestly pretty cute. “Nice to meet you. And you as well, Lord Mercury. Congratulations on your ascension.” He’d only taken power a few months ago, thankfully in a peaceful handing down from his mother before him. “I insist you call me Reyna, though.”

If I thought Gus was blushing before, his face was on fire now. “Thank you so much Miss—Reyna.”

Adrian cleared his throat and Gus’s back went stick straight. “Right. Um, here,” he said, conjuring up a stack of papers from nowhere and handing them to Adrian.