Page 78 of Curse the Flame

“You ain’t askin’ me to take you up there,” he rumbles.

I use my free hand to place it over his. “I’m asking you to save it.”

His face tightens.

“You promised I would always be safe with you,” I remind him.

“You will.”

“Then help me make sure there’s still somewhere left for us to be safe by doing whatever you can to stop this battle.”

His breath shudders out.

Behind his dark eyes, white fire burns. Aiden and Hades arguing. Or perhaps not arguing at all. Perhaps both of them already know there was never a choice.

I wait.

Aiden closes his eyes. When he opens them again, they belong to my husband.

“Fine,” he says. “But you will not be in any danger. If anyone turns their weapon your way, I’ll incinerate anyone that stands between you and me, Blossom. Then they can fight their battle without either of us.”

That’s more than I expected from my overprotective husband. “Thank you, baby.”

Aiden points at Alex. “And you… if you call me uncle one more time, I’m throwin’ you into the pit before we leave.”

Alex’s grin widens. “Whatever you say.” A beat. “Uncle.”

Aiden loves me. He absolutely loves me.

How do I know?

Despite his fingers flexing at his side, courtesy of Alex’s light-hearted tease, he doesn’t make good on his threat. Oh, do I think he’s capable of throwing the sun god into the pit? Of course I do. It doesn’t hurt that Alex is basically immortal, and if he went into the pit, there’s a good chance he’ll come out and the only difference might be singed eyebrows or something. Still. The fact that Aiden shudders out another breath and, instead of grabbing Alex by his gaudy gold torque, he tucks me under his arm, I know that he’s only sparing Alex his well-deserved fate because he loves me and I love Daphne and, for some reason, she loves this golden smart ass.

With a wave of his free hand, he summons a portal of shadows to bring all four of us to the above. I know how much Aiden wants me to stay behind, but proving he knows me all too well, he doesn’t even try to talk me out of going. He just clings to me, then steps through the portal.

Daphne and Alex follow right behind us. Thanks to their report, I know that the battle is taking place on Olympus, the main mountain in the Other that overlooks the Greek settlements. As I learned from personal experience, this realm of magic doesn’t just belong to us. There are elements of countless mythos and lost cultures here; like the Roman soldier who once tried to make me his wife. It’s rare for one of them to cross onto our territory—one of the reasons why he needed to brew that strange potion that made it so he could understand me and I could understand him—and usually the Romans in particular live far beyond Olympus.

Lucky them.

Aiden’s shadow portal opens onto the edge of the dark woods where I spent that fateful first day in the Other. The mirror spat me out there, and Sir led me through it on our way to the only River Styx entrance to the Underworld you can find above.

I got lucky. In the time since, I’ve learned that the dark woods don’t just hold the witch in the woods and a cyclops, plus a poor princess who was probably as much a victim of Kronos’s evil machinations as Aiden was. There are countless monsters in there, only Sir’s presence as my guide—and my guard—through the woods had kept all dangers away.

Well, except for the Roman soldier, but that was just bad luck all around.

Now I’m back again. Only I’m not stuck in the middle of the trees where I have no idea where I am. Instead, we’re tucked just on the inside, facing the towering mountain ahead of us.

Olympus rises impossibly high over the treetops. It belches black smoke over its peaks, and the warning that Hephaestus is the god of volcanoes has never rang more true than when I tilt my head back and watch the entire range quake just enough to be noticeable.

Aiden’s arm settles around my waist before I can wander toward the tree line to get a better lock. Not because he thinks I’ll do anything so ridiculous as run toward the battle in its beginning stages. He just has to keep me safe for the moment, knowing that he agreed to leave me in the shadows of the trees while he goes off with Alex to fight.

His fingers squeeze my hip. “Stay here. If I think you’re in danger, I’ll be right by your side. If you need your husband, call. You know I’ll hear you.”

I go up on my tiptoes, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. “I do. And be safe, baby. I want you coming back to the Underworld in one piece.”

His lips twitch. “I made it through four years of war, my blossom. If a great war couldn’t defeat me when I was mortal, I doubt that one battle against an entitled god and his pet soldiers will do anything when I have a god of my own on my side.”

Next to me, Daphne gags. “Jeez. And I thought Alex was full of himself.”