Page 120 of The Gods Forbid

“You do this?” I asked him.

“Oh, yes I did,” Nikolas shot back with a grin on his face. “No way in hell I’m missing this shit.”

“What shit?” I said, dragging my gaze over to my guests.

Lukas was the one to take the lead on answering, crossing his arms over his massive, amphibian chest. “We need to talk to you.”

“Is this an interrogation or something?” The timing was far off if that was the case. I’d expected their presence early in this torture.

“Kind of,” Dominic grunted out, legs in a wide, threatening stance. “You going to let us in?”

“Seeing as this is Persy’s house, she gets to decide who gets let in or not,” I snapped back. I expected grunts or smirks or a fuck you, but I didn’t expect their backs to grow straighter and for them to start looking at each other.

“That is confirming we needed to be here,” Lukas said, pointing at me in accusation. Adrian looked like he was about to light off like a firework, there was so much tension in his body.

They were just going to stand outside all day if I didn’t invite them in.

I grumbled something that surely would have caused an elderly woman to blush and dragged my hands over my face in frustration. These fuckers weren’t going to let me off, weren't they? “Come in.”

Nikolas laughed, pushing through the door first, while I watched three gods decide which order to invade my home in. They settled on Dominic first, with Adrian trailing, still looking like he was about to kill me.

I had a very, very bad feeling I knew what this was about.

As they arranged themselves around the kitchen counter, they looked horribly satisfied with themselves. Persy would absolutely kill me if I treated them any different than other guests, so I waved my hand around the counter aimlessly. “Can I get you all anything?” Given the greeting that question garnered, I had to add, “Alright, what the fuck? Normally you say thank you when someone offers you something.”

When no one made any move to answer me, clearly satisfied with just staring at me. I looked to Nikolas, begging him to help me. We were friends again, this was his responsibility.

He caught my drift, because he pointed at where Dominic, Lukas, and Adrian were all leaning against the counter. “They have something they want to know.”

Right as I was about to yell at Nikolas for being vague, Lukas decided to jump in. He thought he was hilarious, and unfortunately, he often was. But on this day, I wanted to punch that grin right off his mouth. “Just so you know, I wanted to know from pure curiosity.” He pointed at Dominic, who was doing his best version of stereotypical god of death, glaring at me with his arms crossed. “He said that he cared because his wife would care—great answer, by the way.” Yeah, they were in love with their wives, we got that part.

Then he pointed at Adrian, who looked like he was about to start sparking, “And he wanted to make sure you weren’t full of shit with his own eyes.” Then he pointed at his own brother, who was failing to hide a grin. “He, well, he was very excited by the prospect of you getting punched, so he came. Can’t blame him.”

Nikolas clapped a hand over his chest dramatically, looking at his brother with clear affection. “I appreciate the brotherly support.”

Lukas’s answering nod told me everything I needed to know about where they stood. If I didn’t want to kill Nikolas, I would be happy for him. “Can you dickheads stop being vague and weird and just tell me why you are here?” They were giving me a fucking headache.

“We can’t hang out?” Dominic said, pushing his lower lip out in an expression I’d never seen him make before.

“Dominic, what the fuck is that look? Are you pouting?”

“Stop staring at my lips, asshole,” he shot back, though his grin went nowhere.

“What do you want?” I was seconds away from going to get the bow stashed in my closet to threaten them, but in light of past events, I didn’t think that was the best idea.

They all looked around, like they were silently begging the others to bring it up first. Nikolas looked at them skeptically, then threw his hands up dramatically. “They are all under the impression you have a thing for Persy.”

Thing was the understatement of the fucking century, but sure, they were right. Did I let my face show it? No, no fucking way.

“What makes you think that?” I said, carefully keeping my voice level to not give myself away. I’d gotten good at hiding how gravely obsessed I was with her, and I wasn’t going to give it up for these dickwads.

“I knew at that art gallery,” Dominic said, speaking with a tone far too casual for this situation. “He practically had her pressed to the wall.”

“I do not want to hear that!” Adrian yelled, sounding more like an upset child than a god.

Lukas smothered a laugh under his hand, then said, “I knew when Daphne told me about the baking.”

“What baking?” Dominic said, looking at Lukas like he’d sprouted a second head.