Page 61 of Another Damned Storm

“Unrelated to your situation,” he said firmly.

“One of your strongest goes missing, and the shady ass weak link—that I’m apparently related to—might get to come home from exile early? Right around the time all of this shit is starting up?” She huffed out a bitter laugh. “That’s all a little too convenient if you ask me.”

A sound of dissatisfaction rumbled out of him, and I stepped to put myself between them.

“Relax,” Never said. “He’s just pissed because he knows I’m right.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but you do make a good point,” Emerson said.

“Where does that leave us?” Lily asked. She’d been standing stock still the way only a member of the feline family could. Watching. Waiting.

Emerson glanced between us. “It’s just a theory. If we’re going to do anything, we need confirmation.”

“Can you summon your source, the guy who told you about the god?” Never asked, looking at me expectantly.

“Possibly.” I turned to Emerson. “Can you find out what LaPalme has been up to?”

He dipped his head. “I’ll need time.”

“How much?”

“Give me a few days.”

A few days of digging for information while Never defied the fates and I defied the council of gods to remain at her side. What could go wrong?

21

NEVER

Hook dragged his hands down his face. “I don’t like any of this.”

After giving us a little more information on the terms of Lapalme’s exile, Emerson had taken off to investigate his possible involvement in our stormy little shit show, but the three of us hung back.

“Should we tell Matt?” I asked. I was torn. Part of me wanted to be brutally honest with him about what was happening, but the big sister in me still wanted to protect him.

Lily shook her head. “Not yet. There’s nothing he or his crew can do anyway.”

“We could at least give him a heads up,” I argued, but one look at Hook told me I was the odd woman out. “Fine, but when we have a better idea of what’s happening, I’m going to tell him. He needs to know, if only to keep his people safe.” Not to mention his daughter.

Lily had taken up a spot on the bench, sitting with her elbows resting on her knees as she scanned the mostly empty park. “Is there any reason you can’t summon Criton here?”

“This is as good a place as any, I suppose,” Hook replied.

“Will having us here make him skittish?” I asked.

“Likely, but I’d like to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

Her gaze bounced between us, and her eyes picking up the late afternoon light, reflecting it with an iridescent green tint that hinted at the fact that she wasn’t human. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

He pulled me to him and planted a hard kiss on me. “Just in case,” he whispered against my lips. He’d shut me out earlier and hadn’t let me back in, but I didn’t need our connection to know he was worried.

I held up my wrist. “Does this need to come off?”

“No.” His eyes searched mine. “Leave it on. I’ll just lower my wards.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but it wasn’t worth arguing about it. At least he wasn’t trying to get me to go hide somewhere. “How long does it usually take?”

“It depends on where he is.” The look on his face said the rest of what he was thinking.