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“You are attempting to distract or manipulate me,” I growled, pushing her arms away.

Her smile was as radiant as the garden around us. “Who says it can’t be both, darling?”

I stood, taking deep breaths. The verbal sparring felt good; normal, even.

Don’t let that distract you either.

“I am not a god or even a demigod, just a lowly fucking sin.” I finally said, exasperated. “But I thought we were f-friends.”

I stumbled a bit on the word, my throat closing up. I hated appearing weak, being vulnerable. Ever since Clio–

“Gluttony. You are letting your paranoia from a failed relationship color how you see the world,” Diana answered.

Something in me shriveled and died. Once again, I had bared my soul and opened myself up, only for a woman to dismiss me and stomp all over it.

Her teacup was on the way back up to her face, and that was the only reason I saw the slight shake of her wrist. It was quick–merely a blip of a movement that a human would likely not even notice.

“And because you’re my friend, G, I’ll let you in on a little secret,” she began again, trailing off with relish.

Glancing over my shoulder, my stomach sank at the look of glee on her face.

“What?” I asked, trying to breathe through the dread.

“Apollo is dead.”

Whatever I thought she was going to say, it certainly wasn’t that.

“Dead?” I echoed, a bit dumbly. I shook my head. “Clio?” I asked. My ex was a vindictive bitch after all, but didn’t see her as a cold-blooded murderer. The gods and goddesses had a stake in that territory. She’d left me for Apollo, after all.

“No, surprisingly. Hades’s new daughter, Melinoe. He killed a lover of hers, I guess.”

I blinked. As I said, the gods had a proclivity for murder that couldn’t be helped.

“Ah,” I said, not sure what else to say.

But the death did remind me of my true purpose here.

“How did Juniper die?” I asked pointedly.

Diana went still, before shrugging her shoulders. “Seems like an awfully personal question. Have you asked her?”

I pushed the urge to growl back down in my throat. “I know you know, and I can just ask one of my brothers, but her safety is my concern and if she is in immediate danger I need to know NOW!”

Diana blinked at my vehemence, hot magick stirring in the air.

“Calm down! Some werewolf strangled her and buried her, but it isn’t like he’s just going to waltz into–”

I didn’t sit around to finish the conversation. I had to make sure I alerted the others to our little ‘dog’ problem.

Chapter

Seventeen

JUNIPER

The empty apothecary bottles gleamed in the moonlight streaming through my cottage windows, each one reflecting tiny pinpricks of silver-blue light. I sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by them—seventeen glass vessels of various shapes and sizes, waiting to be filled with emotions I barely understood.

I'd been staring at them for hours, ever since returning from the office. Since learning I had actually died, and not just been strangled unconscious.