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“But,” he continued. “There’s something we must discuss before that happens. Before anyone defends me.” He punctuated his words with a loaded look at Gus,who still looked ready to walk into the line of fire for Adrian.

“Thank you, Gus,” Adrian said, taking his hand from mine to grab Gus’s and pull him in for a quick clap on the back. One that had Gus looking borderline giddy after the fact. “I’ll see you tomorrow. And for the moment, please keep this between us.”

“Of course,” Gus said quickly, the snakes curled around his hand hissing in agreement.

“Bye Adrian, we’ll miss you,” Cady said, flicking her tongue at him in a move I could only assume was provocative for a snake.

What I wouldnot dowould be allow myself to get territorial over Adrian because of a snake. I’d already been exposed enough with Corrina.

“Bye, Gus,” I said, smiling kindly at him. “It was lovely to meet you.”

And with a cheerful nod, he was gone, stepping back through a portal and leaving Adrian and I among the paintings and sculptures.

Alone.

“He was cute,” I said, pointing to the space that Gus had been standing in.

Adrian’s hand came down on my shoulder, brushing down my arm. “Oh yeah?”

I laughed lightly, if only to dispel the tightness in my stomach from Adrian’s touch. “I think I scared him a little though.”

Adrian scoffed. “I think he has acrushon you.”

I shrugged my shoulder. “I guess.” The blushing and rapid speaking and clear nervousness would point to that being true, but I was playing nonchalant just to see what Adrian would do.

His face went serious. “Well, I’m going toguessthat if he tries to flirt with you again, his snakes might lose their heads.”

The only thing to do—besides obsessively pick apart the possibility that there was a current of something real, something genuine in Adrian’s possessiveness throughout the night—was to distract by speaking. “Adrian, he’s like eighteen. And besides, I don’t think Cady would appreciate that. She likes you.”

Adrian pushed right through that statement, focusing back on Gus. “He’s old enough to recognize how beautiful you are.”

Do you?I had the urge to ask.

I shoved it down. I wasn’t going to beg for a compliment. He’d told me I was beautiful before. It would be violating the careful rules I’d set in my head for this arrangement—then promptly violated—to try to view his words as anything other than flattery to get me to agree to this relationship.

“What’s tomorrow?” I asked, changing the subject.

Adrian breathed out, long and heavy. “It’s Council weekend.”

“Oh, Daphne told me about that.” She’d told me it was nothing special, but there was a certain allure that any human would be victim to, imagining the gods, in all their upsettingly beautiful, powerful glory sitting in one room together. “You have a meeting tomorrow?”

Adrian nodded, sliding his hand down my forearm to interlace our fingers. “I do. Which is why I’m taking you home.”

Oh. He just grabbed my hand to take me through a portal.

“But,” he said. “We need to talk beforehand. I—” hecut himself off, breathing deep and running a hand over his jaw. “I wanted to keep you out of this. For your own safety. But there’s something you must know.”

“Okay,” I said carefully. He said he was dealing with unrest, but his tone made it seem like that was a gross understatement.

He gathered a portal then, the air ripping open to reveal my living room. As Adrian pulled me through and I felt that drop in my stomach as we stepped through worlds, he said, “Rose, Dominic, Lukas, and Daphne will need to be there too.”

It took me a second to process what that meant. That the rulers of the Underworld and the sea were just going to casually sit in on this thing.

Once we were fully settled in my living room, the portal closing and leaving us in the dark, with only the barest light from the moon, breaking through storm clouds, to illuminate the space, Adrian splayed his hand firmly across my back, keeping me close.

For a fleeting, stupidly hopeful second, I thought he might try to kiss me.

But he looked far too haunted for that.