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But I couldn’t feel her right now.

I stepped back like she’d burned me, forcing distance between us. My lungs weren’t working right, not letting enough oxygen into my body.

She kept everything I'd given her. She willingly hurt herself to prove that she was loyal to me.

Fuck.Fuck.

I’d never once felt out of control like this, like my body had fully detached from my mind. Thunder rumbled outside and I forced my eyes closed to try to prevent a lightning strike too close to her house.

“Whothe fuckput their hands on you?” The question was hoarse, barely above a whisper. But it sounded like a clap of thunder in the silence of her house.

Reyna answered me with eerie silence. Then another broken sound from her throat. My hand shot to her neck, blindly finding her. “Don’t try to speak,” I said, while my thumb smoothed over her skin, like that would do anything to fix this.

“Okay.” The word was soft. The first she’d said in minutes. And it felt like a knife to the chest. Fucking hell, what was this?

Before I could think better of it, I moved my hand around to the back of her neck and up to twist in her hair. I pulled her impossibly closer, settling my lips on her forehead and breathing her in.

She seemed to settle against me after a relieved exhale, enough that I could feel her chest pounding against my upper stomach.

I was such a fucking asshole. This whole thing had gotten so out of control that I'd let my own doubt interrupt the fact that my soul knew I could trust her.

I'd chosen to believe that she betrayed me, but someone had fucking kidnapped her. Stole her right out of a store and clearly poisoned her to keep her from talking. Because ofme.

I should just be glad she wasn’t hurt.

Sure, there was relief that she was okay and that she hadn't betrayed me.

But uglier, darker emotions were winning out.

Fuck, I'd added onto the stress of her day, too furious to check her for injuries under that fucking torturous dress.

The thought had me pulling us through a portal to a place I knew I could trust to take care of her, needing to know for certain that she was okay.

What if she was bleeding internally? What ifher dress was hiding bruises? What if she’d gotten hypothermia out in the cold and the mist in a dress that was clearly made of nothing but thin silk?

“Are you okay?” I asked, the words placed against the smooth skin of her forehead. I prayed to every Jupiter and Zeus to ever exist she could answer me.

Reyna pulled away, looking up at me. “Yes.”

“Thank the Fates,” I cursed. My hand smoothed down her hair, only for the strands to stick to my hand with static. I released her, taking a long step back to try to save her from my lack of control right as the door to the room opened and two voices shot through the room at the same time.

“What the fuck?” Lukas barked, while Daphne’s voice came out softer. “What happened?”

Chapter 19

Reyna

Adrian wouldn’t look at me.

He’d gone to the far end of the room, taking a seat in a chair, and hadn’t looked up in minutes. His hands were clasped tightly together, his head hanging down in between his shoulders.

And he hadn’t looked at me once.

Daphne’s hand grasped mine, checking my pulse, while Lukas was leaning against a table watching her. I couldn’t say anything, so Adrian had spoken for me.

Ordered, really. He’d answered Lukas and Daphne’s joint questions by saying, “Someone kidnapped her. Gave her whatever they gave to Piper.”

Daphne had ran toward me the second Adrian explained what we were doing there, hugging me tightly.