Page 96 of Another Damned Storm

“Ah-ah.” The black-haired man who oozed strength and self-importance ticked his index finger back and forth. “You have made your point.”

Oh, no I hadn’t. I bared my teeth at him and let the power inside me swell and rise until it filled every cell in my body to the brink of bursting.

With another snap of his fingers, another man appeared in front of me. This one looked similar to the first, but rougher. His hair and clothes were singed, his amber eyes haunted, and the scowl he wore was tight with confusion.

I knew him, knew his face. I could imagine his voice without hearing it, but each time I reached for his name, it flitted away.

He dropped to his knees in front of me, and when he reached out, I jerked back. He stilled, his hands hovering in the air like he meant to wrap those strong hands around my neck. Then that amber gaze focused on mine. “Breathe, Never.”

That voice. It sounded just like I knew it would.

And he wanted me to breathe?

Did I know how?

It felt like all I knew how to do was pant like a feral wolf. To fight and kill and rain destruction.

Something vulnerable inside me opened wide, and I was overwhelmed with a flood of emotion. Joy, relief, love. It was the last one that had me sucking in a deep breath. Then another.

Tears stung my eyes, and I swallowed hard. “Hook,” I whispered.

He moved slowly, bracketing my face gently in his big hands. “Hello, love.”

I started shaking. How the fuck had I forgotten his name? And so fast.

I leaned my cheek into his palm. “What the hell am I?”

“Now that is a very good question,” said the black-haired man.

Hook went rigid. He turned his head slowly until he found the source of that voice. Then he was on his feet in a blink, blocking the black-haired man’s view of me with a snarl of his own.

Without him there to hold me up, I crumpled forward, catching myself with my hands. The seemingly endless energy I’d been basking in moments before was a distant memory, replaced with fear and doubt and enough confusion to choke an elephant.

“Iapetus.” Hook spat out the word like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

I knew that word. Its meaning was buried in the back of my mind, but when I dragged my head up and looked between the two men, it came to me.

Iapetus, the Titan god of mortality, head of the Council of Gods… and Hook’s dad.

32

HOOK

I stared at my father for several moments, struggling to wrap my head around what I was seeing. Thousands of years. That was how much time had passed since I’d seen his face.

What was there to say after so long?

After every single attempt I’d made to contact him, to contact anyone in the realm of gods, had gone unanswered?

“Atlas, my dear boy.” He motioned me forward, but I stayed where I was. My head was swimming with too many questions.

“Why would you bring us here?” I glanced over my shoulder, wanting nothing more than to wrap Never up in my arms and take her home with me. “What did you do to her?” I snapped.

His brow twitched up. He motioned to the other gods seated in their ostentatious stone thrones. “We have done nothing to this woman.”

“Then why bring her here?” I demanded.

His gaze shifted to the stormy god slumped on the floor several paces away. “It was he who brought her to see us.”