Page 101 of Bride of Death

But in reality.

With Maliki.

Chapter 26

Maliki

I shadow into my room,aware that Hades is already there waiting for me.

Because he sent me a fucking summons.

It was like a bloody doorbell going off in my head, right as I was considering giving up my life in exchange for a kiss.

“Have you taken to spying on me now?” I ask Hades as I appear. Because there is no way this summons wasn’t timed on purpose. “You’re the one who told me to seduce her. Remember?”

He stares at me from the favorite recliner chair, his hand on Fleur as she purrs in his lap. She looks up at me with big blue eyes, not caring at all that we haven’t seen each other in almost a month.

No.

She’s too busy enjoying Hades’s hand on her nape.

Traitor, I think at my familiar.

Granted, she’s probably pissed that I’ve been gone. But the reason I’ve been gone is currently petting her.

Ironically, he’s also the one who has been feeding her in my absence. So she probably doesn’t view the situation the same way I do, despite our mental connection.

We have a strange bond, one formed throughout the last two hundred years since I saved her from a psychotic Midnight Fae.

So she’s nottechnicallymy familiar. She’s a conjured animal with immortal life. And I imprisoned her former master.

It’s complicated.

And irrelevant to the current situation. “What do you want, Hades?”

He hasn’t said a word, his contemplative gaze giving nothing away. “Well, now I want to know what you meant by reminding me that I told you toseduce her. What did my summons interrupt?”

I stare at him. “Really? You’re going to sit there and pretend like you have no idea how close I just came to kissing Sera?”

His eyebrow arches. “I trust you implicitly, Maliki. So no, I was not spying on you. And no, I was not aware of how close you just came to kissingmy mate. But please, elaborate.”

Those last few words are underlined with power and possession.

My jaw ticks.

He merely stares at me, his patience steadfast.

Shaking my head, I leave him with my cat and head into my bedroom. I’m not in the mood to verbally spar right now.

I need a shower.

Preferably a cold one.

Stripping out of my sweater, I kick off my boots and socks, then rip off my jeans and leave them on the floor.

Hades can see everything, including the fact that I’m aroused. And I just do not fucking care. He’s seen me naked more times than I can count. Styx, he’s witnessed me do a lot without clothes.

Fucking voyeur.