Page 50 of Another Damned Storm

“The god was the one who told you how to use it?” I’d already forgotten his name, but it hardly mattered. “What did you give him in exchange?”

“We split it. He took the bulk, I kept the rest.”

“That was it? No other on-the-sly deals or arrangements?” It seemed too easy. And convenient. “How did he know about the pixie dust? How to find it? How to use it?”

“In some immortal circles, it has more recreational uses.”

“You mean it’s a drug.”

“A powerful one. Even more so when it is the dust of a dead pixie as opposed to the dust her wings shed.”

“Addictive as shit, I’m assuming.” That or it was worth something. Why else would a god venture to the Nassa to get it?

His gaze drifted around the abandoned space before settling on me again. “It can be.”

And just like that, the sick feeling was back. “What about the way you used it?”

“That was very different from those who ingest it for fun,” he assured me.

Relief filtered through my thoughts, and it was only then that I realized how fucking tense I was. I rolled my neck out. Then my shoulders. “Are there any side effects?”

He shrugged. “As a drug, yes. Euphoria and a pleasant numbness. As a travel aide? Aside from a rather violent trip, none that I can tell.”

That was something. “Well, I’m glad you’re here.”

His expression softened. “As am I.”

“I don’t know what to do here. I thought we were supposed to have decades. Maybe a lifetime or two before my impact was really felt.”

He finally moved closer and pulled me into his chest. “That was what Nerebis alluded to.”

“So, why is this all happening so fast?” And where did the time go?

Hook stiffened against me. It was a small thing, but I knew. “Spill it, pirate.”

He huffed out a tired laugh. “Nothing gets past you, does it?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

He told me about how he sent Criton to Othrys and how one of those divine creepers might have been watching me. I’d made a spectacle of myself on plenty of occasions, but the idea of some decrepit old god going all voyeur on my life kind of pissed me off.

“You think he’s up to something?” I asked.

Hook lifted his brow in the subtlest of confirmations, then he reached into his back pocket. “Give me your hand.”

I did as he asked. We might have our differences, and more than a few secrets, but he’d earned my trust. That wasn’t easy to do.

He slipped a familiar copper bracelet around my wrist. The one that kept prying eyes from finding me in the Nassa.

“Nope.” I immediately took it back off.

If some rogue god really was watching my life for sport, or whatever reason he might use to justify it, he would notice if I suddenly went missing. And if he really was involved in what was happening in the human realm, what would he do when I wasn’t there to keep him entertained?

“I appreciate the gesture. Really. But think about it for a second,” I said.

“Just for now, Never.” He took it from me and gently slid it back on. “For a little privacy.”

“If you were so worried about privacy you probably should have given it to me before I apologized.”