Page 80 of The Gods Forbid

Fuck it, she could yell at me for this later. My hands came down on her shoulders, and the second our skin made contact, she jerked forward roughly.

I waited, holding my breath, for her to snap out of it and shake me off. Yell at me for touching her like this. Without her scolding me, all that jerk did was press her shoulders harder into my hands.

On instinct, my thumbs made a pass over her the curve of her shoulder, moving in towards the edge of her collarbones. I forced myself to look up and meet any one of the gawking faces staring at us. “I assume you have this handled?”

Someone who looked fairly competent nodded at me.

That was all the permission I needed. “I’m going to take her to get cleaned up. She’ll be back later.” I knew her well enough to know that the second she was back in her body, she’d be trying to go back to work.

This time, she had me to contend with. She needed a fucking break and I’d give it to her if it was the last thing I did.

I’d handled speaking to everyone around us. Now, I’d only speak to her. “Come on, love. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

I waited for Persy to react. A full five seconds where I was sure my heart was about to fall through my stomach, before I had enough. I’d deal with this later.

She could scream her fucking head off at me for all I cared.

Who was I kidding, I’d probably love it.

I wound my arm around her back and tucked my hand right at her ribs, careful not to move too much to the front. In one quick motion, I bent down and tucked my other arm under her knees and hauled her into my arms.

I heard someone gasp, then the distinct sound of a hand slapping over a mouth. I had half a mind to make a sarcastic comment about it before Persy wound her arms around my neck and I almost made the exact same sound.

She tucked her forehead into my chest, moving it back and forth in two quick strokes like she was trying to burrow her way into my skin.

That was it.

I shoved my way back through the small crowd and strode out back down the hallways as quick as I could. I couldn’t use a portal in this section of Prometheus, but the second I was able, the next step we were taking was onto her front porch.

There was no way I’d embarrass her by carrying her through Prometheus.

“Woah, what the—” Nikolas yelled, coming around the corner and stopping short when he saw us.

Actually, he was one person I would be entirely content holding Persy in front of. Beautiful timing, really. Despite the fact that I would begrudgingly say that we were now friends, or the fact that I knew they weren’t dating, I still had the urge to shove this in his face.

“Good morning, Nikolas,” I said coolly, not stopping my stride. Persy didn’t move an inch, which I was choosing to believe meant she didn’t prefer Nikolas over me in this situation.

She really was smart.

Nikolas sputtered from behind me, turning on his heel and running to catch my stride. “Persy, are you okay?” he asked, jumping up as he spoke to try to catch her eyes. I didn’t even have to dip my chin to know that they were closed.

Persy’s only answer was to tighten her hold around my neck. I wasn’t sure Nikolas could even see that she’d done it, but I was too busy lighting off fireworks in my head to give a damn.

“She’s fine,” I responded for her, never stopping my pursuit towards the outdoors. Only another stretch of hallway to go, which with my legs, meant seconds. Nikolas could try to keep up. He was about Persy’s height, but luckily, that still meant shorter than me.

“What happened?” There was real concern in his voice, which I begrudgingly had to respect. I understood the fear.

“A prisoner threw his lunch at her, then tried to drag her into his cell with him.” Even that simple explanation ignited a rather painful fury in my chest.

“Shit,” Nikolas cursed, trying and failing to jump up and glimpse Persy’s face. I didn’t want him anywhere near her in this state—their friendship be damned.

“They could probably use a bit of help back there,” I said, jerking my chin back down the hallway.

Nikolas blinked rapidly, remembering his responsibility. “Right. I’ll go help. Go help Persy.” I nodded stiffly, ready to do just that before he had to go ahead and add, “Thank you.”

This time, the thank you didn’t grate as hard. I was doing something purely selfish.

The only thing Nikolas was getting from me in response was a low, non-committal grunt. It seemed to work on him, because with one last look in Persy’s direction, he took off down the hall.