Page 71 of Third Offense

“You do,” she replied with ease. “But I’ll save that argument for my husband.”

“A very kind gesture,” Ketos murmured.

“I’ve always been giving,” she replied, her eyes sparkling with some sort of joke I didn’t understand. But Ketos laughed, suggesting he was in on the double-meaning.

When he caught my confused glance, he arched a brow and looked at my mother. “You’ve not told your daughter about your lineage.”

“She hasn’t asked,” my mother murmured.

I frowned. “I don’t understand. What do you mean by lineage? Like grandparents?” I sat up a little straighter. I knew my father was the son of the gods, similar to Ketos. But I hadn’t thought about my mother’s line.

“Yes, your grandparents,” my mother mused, her gaze still glittering with mirth. “Otherwise known as the gods.”

“Oh.” I felt a little deflated by that. Because I couldn’t exactly meet the gods.

“Your mother is being purposely elusive,” Ketos murmured, his violet gaze glinting with knowledge. “She’s quite powerful, though. Because her mother was a direct descendant of the gods. Similar to Vasilios. Making your mother a second generation with a very strong bloodline.”

My eyebrows lifted. “Which god?”

“The goddess of fertility,” my mother said softly. “Hence, I’m always giving mate advice or the gift of procreation.”

I gaped at her. “Procreation?”

She nodded. “I’ve helped more than a few mate-circles.”

“It’s why she always finds the changelings—otherwise known as my kind, or the godlike children of my generation—first, too,” Ketos added. “The gods leave them for her, trusting her with our protection.”

I frowned. “But I thought… I thought you said the gods left them near powerful mate-circles?”

“They do,” she murmured. “But I’m the one who senses them first.”

“Including Ketos?”

“Including Ketos,” she echoed, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him. “He was the latest gift from the gods.”

“Changelings have been appearing every five-to-seven decades since a little over two centuries ago,” Ketos added. “Which means you should be receiving another soon, if the gods continue to bestow favor upon us.”

She nodded, her fuchsia hair glinting in the afternoon sunlight streaming in through her balcony doors. Similar to the suite she’d given me, hers had a wrap around terrace that stretched along the sitting room to what I assumed were bedrooms at the back. I’d only been in the main living area, where she preferred to serve tea and cookies.

“Ketos is the youngest of the changelings,” my mother told me. “Just turned sixty human years last month.”

I glanced at him, appraising his youth-like appearance. Similar to all angels, he’d aged very well, his features forever frozen in his late twenties. “You look very good for your age, Ketos.”

He grinned, his gaze roaming over me with equal interest. “As do you, Princess.”

“I’m only twenty-one,” I said, my cheeks heating as he continued to study me. “In… Nora years?” It came out as a question because I wasn’t sure if there was a difference.

“Time moves the same here as it does in our home realm,” my mother explained, clearly reading my uncertainty. “Most aspects are similar, apart from the mortality and fragility of humans. And they can’t fly.” She focused on Ketos. “Your betrothed knows far more about the mortals than I do. The changelings all pretend they’re human in their early years, even going to their schools and universities, too.”

Ketos nodded. “Yes. I studied at Oxford in England. I actually had plans to start a new enrollment at Yale in the States soon to work on a medical degree. But I suspect that’s all about to change now that you’re here.”

“Medical degree?” I repeated, fascinated. “With a focus on humans?”

His chin dipped again. “Their basic anatomy is similar enough to ours. We’re more invincible and immune to their diseases, but I thought it might help me understand mutations and potential plagues a bit better.”

“It’s what Kiya studied, too,” my mother interjected. “One of the other changelings. She’s a physician in Seattle.”

“Kiya, a female changeling?” I asked slowly, an unexpected sensation rolling in my stomach.Is Ketos compatible with her, too?