Page 57 of The Gods Forbid

That was fucking ridiculous.

She needed to stop pressing this subject, because she would never, not in a million years, get the truth from me.

I breathed in, uncaring if my nostrils flared and my expression turned threatening. She’d do well to heed that warning. I’d never lay a hand on her, but this subject was off fucking limits in ways she couldn’t even begin to understand.

My silence, as usual, only spurned her on. She leaned closer, and for the first time I realized why people kept tables between them while they ate. Sitting next to each other, there was no barrier between us.

When she leaned in, she came dangerously close. “If something had happened to him and I stepped in as heir, would you have done it? Would you have killed me?”

The way she was asking seemed more curious than anything. Trying to figure me out or whatever.

“No.” The word was nothing more than a grunt.

Persy leaned in even closer, her hair slipping over her shoulder and coming dangerously close to brushing my knee. I could feel the static wafting off her, like her power was starting to flare. “Why?”

“I promised to help you shut down this conspiracy,” I said, pushing back into the chair to try to get some fucking space, even though my knee itched with the urge to bump into the smooth ends of her hair. “Answering that is unnecessary.”

Persy didn’t like that answer. Not one bit. Her lips turned down in a frown, the expression entirely unnatural on her face. She was supposed to be smiling. “Why?” she repeated. “Is it something I did?”

“No.” It was a half-truth. She didn’t do anything intentionally.

Persy’s eyes raked down my form and up again, like my legs or torso could give her the answer she was looking for. “I don’t want to push, but I need to know. Adrian is convinced it means you’re planning something. I told him that wasn’t true, but without an answer…”

She didn’t have to finish. He’d believe the worst. I wasn’t sure that wasn’t accurate.

I breathed in, needing to close my eyes to flight the flash of heat that lashed through my chest when Persy’s perfume snuck it’s way up my nose.

“What if I gave you something else?” I cringed even as I said it. I should just lie and hope she believed me, but something was stopping me.

“I can’t promise that will work,” Persy said, and it sounded like she was speaking directly in my ear. “But if you promise that it was—if you can give me some assurance that it wasn’t to keep me alive for something else, I can give you time.”

I scoffed opening my eyes. “So you need to know, you’re just giving me time?”

Persy’s eyelashes fluttered, like she was trying to keep her expression neutral. “I do.” Her voice was soft, but firm. “I cannot change the fact that as a consequence of your actions, there are some things I need to know. All I can do is try to find the easiest way for you to tell me.”

I had half the mind to just tell her and suffer the consequences, but there was no good way to do it. Not when there was simultaneously no explanation at all and a very good one. I ran a hand down my face in frustration. Then, I made a choice. “I’ll tell you.”

I expected Persy to smile. I did not expect her to rear back slightly like that wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. “Just,” I said, speaking with a forcefully calm tone. “Give me a second.”

There was her smile. Guess it worked for both of us to keep the truth a secret for longer, though I wasn’t sure Persy even realized it. “I can, um,” Persy blinked, like she’d spoken without intending to. “I can tell Adrian to give me some time.”

There was relief in her voice.

Suddenly, it became very important to me that she realized that she couldn’t trust me. There was no relief where I was concerned.

She was good, but she hadn’t changed me enough in a month and a half to find comfort in anything I said. No teaming up with me against her brother.

“Go ahead,” I snapped, the words feeling bitter and wrong on my tongue. “I’ve been kind enough, healing his wife and giving him a list of people involved. He can stay the fuck out of my business. You don’t need to play messenger. If he has something he wants to ask me, he can do it himself. He doesn’t need to trick me into answering by making you smile at me and hope I spill my guts.”

Shit.

Fuck.

No.

Persy’s eyes flooded with sadness. It was almost as if I could see the rain pouring from the clouds hanging there. If her eyes welled up in real life…

“Persy,” I said gruffly, the words scraping my throat. “That wasn’t what I meant.”