Page 54 of Gods and Graves

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

THEA

O ne thing is certain. I am most definitely not a fan of dying and coming back to life. It fucking hurts.

Hades couldn’t have healed me when he brought me back to the land of the living? Even a little bit?

Dad of the year.

Awareness returns to me in stages. First, I become aware of an incandescent burning sensation in my chest, like my heart has been physically removed from my body and stomped on. Then my hands and feet begin to tingle. A pounding headache erupts behind my eyelids, drowning out all other sounds.

Finally, I hear the voices.

Their voices.

Rafe. Everett. Krystian. Zaid.

My blood fae. My shifter. My elf. My wraith.

It feels like I’m swimming through sticky black tar that clings to my skin. I’m desperate to escape it, desperate to get to them, but the darkness holds me back.

Let. Me. Go.

With one final burst of strength, I lunge to the surface, coughing and sputtering.

“Thea!”

Four faces hover around me, their expressions ranging from shocked to disbelieving. Hope and pain battle for dominance in their eyes.

Fuck, my chest hurts. And my head. And my face. And my arms. And my legs. And my?—

Can I just say everything hurts?

Dying sucks.

Arms are around me instantly, though I can’t tell which pair belongs to which guy. What I do know is that I’m in Aphrodite’s destroyed apartment, lying on a bed that smells fresh, like the sheets have been cleaned recently.

“See? I told you she’ll be fine,” a familiar voice retorts dryly from somewhere over their shoulder.

Athena?

“Don’t you ever fucking do that shit again,” Krystian reprimands me, pulling back just enough to stare at me intently. Tears glisten in his dark-blue eyes. “Don’t you dare fucking die again.”

I manage a weak smile. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Everett roars, his arms tightening around me.

He lowers his head so he can inhale my hair—which probably smells retched, if I’m being completely honest. Ugh.

“Athena told us you were making a deal with Hades to come back to us, but when you didn’t wake up…” Zaid’s voice breaks.

I flick my gaze in Athena’s direction, only to find her watching me, her gaze keen and knowing.

“What happened?” I ask, my mind racing. “How did you guys get to me? How did you know where I was?”

“Athena pieced it together,” Krystian responds, though he still doesn’t sound like his usual jovial self. When I glance at him, he offers me a tentative, wobbly smile, his eyes glossy. “She told us that Aphrodite was more than likely behind your disappearance. We came here straight away.”

“Aphrodite was the one who convinced me to create the rune in the first place,” Athena pipes up, her tone solemn.

“And she has been more powerful lately, though the change has been so subtle I’ve barely paid attention to it.

More crimes of passion. More sexual scandals.

More affairs. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together and realize she was the one behind all of this.

She would’ve wanted you close, so I told your men that she’s keeping you somewhere near her apartment. ”

“Of course you managed to break free without our help,” Zaid says, a tiny sliver of amusement entering his voice. “Then…”

“Then you fucking died,” Rafe snaps.

I tilt my head back to stare into his dark, arresting eyes, currently locked on me and brimming with unbridled anger.

“You died, and there was nothing we could do.”

“We would’ve lost our shit completely if Athena hadn’t told us you would come back,” Everett says severely.

Once again, I glance at Athena, who’s sitting in an armchair in a living room that has otherwise been torn apart.

The Goddess of Wisdom has certainly lived up to her name.

“You knew, didn’t you? About my parents?” I ask her softly, though I already know the answer.

“I suspected,” Athena says, her gaze distant. “Hades’s reaction to Ares’s attack only confirmed it.”

“Your parents?” Krystian asks, a frown marring his perfect face.

“Hades and Persephone. They’re my adoptive parents, apparently,” I say.

Quickly, I explain what they told me and about the deal I made to remain with my guys.

“You’ll be…immortal,” Zaid repeats, sounding dazed. “Like us.”

“And all I’ll need to do is reap souls for Hades,” I say.

Everett’s perpetual scowl deepens. “Do you know what that will entail?”

I know he’s thinking about the centuries of torture I endured reaping souls for Aphrodite. The insanity. The excruciating pain.

“It won’t be like that,” Athena interjects, sounding tired.

“There will be no side effects reaping souls for the Underworld. And I doubt you’ll reap much, anyway.

Hades has thousands and thousands of reapers to do his bidding.

I suspect he only offered Thea the position as a way to keep her around. ”

“Thea…” Krystian regards me curiously. “Should we even call you that anymore? Or should we start referring to you as Winnie?”

I wrinkle my nose in distaste. “Thea works, thank you very much.”

It was the name I chose for myself, the name I earned.

Winnifred died centuries ago, when she was abused and broken and left for dead.

I don’t want to remember that life. Maybe, in time, I’ll find a way to regain my lost memories.

It’ll be nice to see how I fell in love with the guys the first time around.

But that’s then. This is now.

A new story.

A new beginning.

Emotions I can’t quite articulate clog my throat, making it hard to breathe. I reach forward instinctively, not even caring which guy I’m holding on to. I need them all.

Over their shoulders, Athena stands gracefully and nods in my direction.

“Thank you,” she whispers, and I know her gratitude extends far beyond stopping Aphrodite and Ares.

I may not have been able to give her back her lovers, but I freed them. That’s the next best thing.

I nod, and for a moment, we stare at each other in silent solidarity. Then she smiles weakly and slides out the door, shutting it gently behind her.

Leaving me alone with my guys.

I hug them all to me—even Rafe, who I suspect would rather stab his eye out than engage in group cuddles. But I need to feel them against me. Their hearts pounding in tandem to mine. Their heat enveloping me.

They're alive. I’m alive. We’re alive.

Even my pain is dissipating. I can’t help but wonder if Hades had a part to play in that. I almost feel…normal.

“Is this real?” I ask no one in particular, belatedly aware of hands caressing my back, hair, and face.

“It better fucking be real,” Krystian snaps. “Or so help me god—errr gods—I’ll burn the world down.”

“You’re ours, Thea. Now and forever,” Everett says solemnly.

“You were ours then, and you’re ours now,” Zaid agrees.

Rafe simply says, “Ours.”

Their possessive ownership of me sends heat careening down my back.

I…want them.

Need them.

I defied death to get this chance with them. Not even a second chance but a third one. I’ll be damned if I waste even a single moment of our time together.

I reach for Zaid first since he’s closest to me and claim his lips with mine. It’s a ravenous kiss saying everything that I don’t dare say out loud. I put all of my feelings and emotions into it, refusing to hold back. Not now. Not ever again.

Zaid deepens the kiss, his hands tangling in my hair and tugging gently. Someone else moves behind me and slides their tongue across my throat.

Krystian.

A needy, desperate sound escapes me. I instinctively arch my neck, granting the elf better access. His lips skate across my skin, and goose bumps flutter on both of my arms.

I reach for Everett to the right of me and tug on the waistband of his pants, urging him closer.

He chuckles, the sound low and spine-tingling. “Greedy little thing, aren’t you?”

He hasn’t even begun to see greedy.

I wrench my lips away from Zaid’s just long enough to exclaim, “I died, you know. And if that doesn’t deserve a sexy five-way, then I don’t know what does.

Dying is actually quite painful. Zero out of ten, wouldn’t recommend.

Seriously, fuck death. And fuck Aphrodite while we’re at it too.

So yeah. Dying. It sucks. I think I deserve?—”

Everett cuts off my rant with another possessive kiss, one I feel from the roots of my hair to the tips of my toes. His mouth moves over mine fiercely, angrily, the scruff on his face providing a delicious amount of friction.

When he pulls away, his eyes burn with an indecipherable emotion—an emotion that looks a lot like anger.

“Don’t fucking talk about that,” he rasps out, his large chest heaving.

“Talk about what?” I furrow my brows. “Dying?”

All four of my men flinch.

“Yeah…maybe we can discuss this in a few hundred years. Or maybe never,” Krystian says with a one-shoulder shrug.

He distractedly runs a hand through his dark-blond locks.

“That was the worst moment of my life, Thea,” Rafe whispers. His dark, penetrating gaze homes in on my face. “I can’t even think about it without…”

He clenches his jaw and balls his hands into fists.

“We lost you.” Zaid grabs my hands and holds them in his. “Not once, but twice. I’m not sure how any of us can survive that.”

A huge boulder drops in my stomach. “I’m here now. And I’m not going anywhere. Pinkie promise.”

Everett snorts, some of the pain I saw before dissipating from his eyes. “Pinkie promise? You’re weird.”

“Not weird enough to keep you away,” I quip.

“Never.”

Then we’re kissing again. Honestly, I’m not sure who reaches for whom. All I know is I find myself pulling away from the others to straddle his lap, my fingers buried in his sandy-colored hair.

He pulls away to press his forehead against mine. “I lost you, Thea.”

“I know. We talked about this?—”

“No,” he interrupts, a tiny bit of a growl seeping into his tone. “I. Lost. You. You were with me, under my protection, when you were taken by Aphrodite just now.”

I’m stunned to see a misting of tears in his normally combative hazel eyes.