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Daphne’s eyes dropped to her lap, and she wrung her hands together. I gripped the arms of my chair to prevent myself from reaching for her.

“Then you’re right,” she said, not an ounce of levity in her voice. “We should delay the power transfer as late as possible. Probably do it at the actual ceremony to keep with what Rose did.”

I nodded, my throat too tight to respond with words. I grabbed my fork to try to distract myself with food.

“That would also give you time to decide if it’s even wise to get married in the first place.”

My fork bent in my hand. “No.”

“But it might not be smart to—”

“I said no, Daphne.” This distance between us was fucking painful. My skin felt empty and wrong without her touch. My days felt hours longer without her laugh and company. But I felt like I might die if I didn’t have the twisted comfort of knowing that I was bound to her for the rest of my life.

Daphne’s eyes were bouncing around my face, seemingly trying to translate my expression. And then she just had to go and argue with me, which was far hotter than it should have been. “I’m just saying that if I can’t fix my power, then you’re probably better off marrying someone—”

Zale’s arrival was well timed for two reasons.

One, it cut off Daphne’s sentence, saving me from having to hear the last word.

Two, it distracted from the fact that I was halfway out of my chair, about to grab Daphne’s face and kiss the living daylights out of her in a last-ditch effort to remind her that she would never,neverbe getting rid of me. She left me once. That wasnothappening again.

“Alright, campers!” Zale clapped his hands together, sending a loud boom through the room. “As this year’s lead counselor, I’d like to direct your attention to the portal that will be appearing momentarily.”

Sure enough, a second later a portal cracked open in the middle of the dining room.We both stood, and Daphne took a few shocked steps away from me.

I knew what this was about, but Daphne didn’t. My head whipped toward her, finding her curious eyes blown wide from shock.

I stomped up to her, ignoring the way she seemed to tense from the proximity and clamped my hand down on hers. It seemed like Zale was directing us to the same room, but there was no way in hell I was sitting through this without her.

Zale ushered us through, but not without clapping me on the back and saying, “Did you like that announcement? I practiced it in the mirror.”

I barked a laugh. “Award-worthy performance.”

With a nod and a far too pleased grin, Zale stayed on our side of the world, watching as the portal closed around us. I turned to find Daphne still somewhat stunned from the whirlwind, so I took that as an excuse to plant my hands on her shoulders and walk her back toward a large couch and make her sit.

When I got my fill of staring at her safe and in front of me, I bent and whispered a muttered explanation in her ear, imparting Adrian’s grand plan to shack us up like schoolchildren.

Chapter 12

Daphne

The room Zale shoved us in was...not what I expected. It looked more like one of those high-class summer camps in the Dolomites than a safe house.

There were cots scattered around the room, interspersed with large couches and canvas chairs. There was a table big enough to fit the entire Council and their partners in the center, already decorated for a feast, candles and all.

It could house us for a long time it seemed. Adrian must have had this set up for a while.

Or so Lukas said. My ear still tingled from the brush of his breath as he explained what this was.

It seemed like there were multiple versions of this little safehouse, seeing as there was a random collection of gods, with and without their partners placed there.

I knew it was truly random when I saw Sabina. You’d think it would be smarter to separate us, leaving me as the spare, Zeus forbid something happened to her. But planning to split us up would leave an opportunity for someone to organize a specific attack against one of the hideouts.

Smart. To do it this way. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Sabina was the one to come up with it herself.

Besides Sabina, it looked like we got about a third of the gods. Specifically, Sebastian, Julian Mars, both Lia Vulcan and Quinn Hephaestus, and the Hestia twins.

And Dominic, who was currently trying to wrestle Raiden back out the door. I watched him from the spot Lukas planted me in.