“He can’t stay here,” Thea said.
No conversation. No wavering. Just an immediate shut down.
“Of course he can. That’s what we do.”
“We used to do a lot more than what we’re doing now, P. Quill comes first and if she grabs on to those feelings of his, it’ll be devastation for all of us. We’re barely holding on as it is. The Syndicate members won’t come here anymore. Not since Aeris renewed the city. Things have changed since you’ve been gone. It’s best if you get caught up fast.”
“Who’s Aeris?” I asked, looking between the two women.
Elowen shifted in her chair, showing her discomfort. “She’s the Goddess of Renewal and the only reason Quill came out of her room the last time she’d locked herself in.”
“Well, that ends today. There will be no more gods in or around this house. Period.”
“So you just get to come back and start making rules about who my friends can be?” a tiny, angry voice asked from the kitchen door. “Maybe you should go back to wherever you’ve been hiding.”
3
Thorne
Countless hourglasses were meticulously arranged throughout the Goddess of Time’s prison; each one a perfect cell containing a captive just like me. There was a clear difference between the poor souls that’d been trapped in time for eternity and those that were freshly caught or simply waiting for their time to be up. Those with no end in sight sat in a cage of defeat, lying on the floor of their hourglasses. Some had legs resting up the walls of glass, twiddling their fingers. Others paced, screamed for mercy, or cursed the constant sand that rained down on them. The temple itself was a monument to entrapment, an endless gallery of suspended lives, each one housing a prisoner frozen in their own personal slice of hell. Vesalia loved the appearance of control. And this was why making bargains with gods was a foolish game. I’d done it for Paesha though. I’d willingly given my time to keep her safe and I’d fucking do it again. And again. As I always had. A thousand lifetimes of trying and failing to keep her out of my brother’s murderous sight. He didn’t hate the Huntress, but he hated the idea of her, what she could bring to pass. What he’d seen in his visions.
“Hello, poppet.” Vesalia stepped out from behind a grandfather clock across the room. She sauntered forward, silver hair flowing behind her. She tapped her nails on the glass walls of my prison and smiled. “It’s quite admirable to see the things you do, the lengths you will go to continue this game with Ezarius. One would think, after all these lifetimes, you would grow bored of the Huntress.” She leaned closer, tapping again. “Do you ever wish for someone more… refined?”
“Not even a little bit.”
She glanced over her shoulder with a wicked smile as Serene stepped into the room, wearing nothing but an equally daring smile. Her eyes locked with mine and she all but floated across the floor, stopping at my neighbor’s hourglass to blow her a kiss before she joined the Goddess of Time’s side.
“I know you remember what I taste like, Keeper. I believe you called it… divine nectar.” She slid her hands over Vesalia’s stomach and her dress vanished, leaving both women standing naked.
I crossed my arms over my chest, leaning my shoulder against the glass as I stood knee deep in red sand. “Which only proves even gods have to learn some lessons the hard way.”
Serene’s golden gaze dragged down my body and her power pulsed through the room. “I do so love it when things are hard. Shall we let him out to play, Vessie?”
Vesalia shook her head. “I think he needs a little reminder first. He is, after all, very distracted with his task at the moment.”
Every lifetime, every sacrifice, every lie I’d told Paesha flashed before me. The revulsion crawling up my throat wasn’t only for Serene’s display. It was for the man I’d become. A manipulator. A liar. A keeper of terrible secrets. The irony of my title wasn’t lost on me. I’d given up the scraps of my honor, my waning integrity, all to keep her breathing. And now Paeshalooked at me with those eyes, those fierce, beautiful eyes, filled with nothing but contempt. The thought of her hatred burned worse than any torture Ezarius had ever devised. Any amount of time locked into one of Vesalia’s many hourglasses.
Still, my skin crawled at Serene’s suggestive words, memories of a mistake made in desperate loneliness centuries ago. What a fool I’d been to think I could fill the Huntress-shaped void with flesh. The taste of divinity had been ash in my mouth, every touch a betrayal of the only woman who had ever truly mattered. I pressed my forehead against the cool glass, welcoming the discomfort as penance. Let Vesalia and Serene play their little games. Let them parade naked for their own comfort. They could offer me eternal bliss, pleasure beyond mortal comprehension, and it would mean nothing. Nothing. My body wouldn’t respond, and my soul, whatever remained of it after all these cycles, belonged irrevocably to a Huntress who wanted nothing to do with me. And that was the cruelest prison of all.
“Go find something more fucking productive to do with your time,” I said, spinning around so I didn’t have to look at them.
I knew Vesalia too well, though. The hourglass spun at the base, forcing me to face them as a few of the other prisoners shouted in protest to my words. It would always be about power. Even if I felt the flicker of hers falter, sheneededto feel like she won something by trapping me. That was the real bargain. The stakes weren’t about glass walls or her having power over me. Simply time. I was giving her time. And feeding her power with it. Every second I let her know how much this irritated me was a drop in a bucket for her. Strengthening her. I needed to be careful. Play the game I’d built myself.
“You will watch, Keeper. Or I will hunt her down myself. You’re lucky I’m not already doing that. You do wish to keep the Huntress for yourself, don’t you?”
I could lie to her, but she knew the truth already. “Get it over with, Vesalia.”
Serene made the first move, snatching Vesalia’s mouth in a kiss, filling the prison with the sounds of a feminine moan as she moved. She sent a wave of lust rippling through the room until every other prisoner was on their feet, pressed to their glass and watching. I almost felt bad for the damn mortals. So vulnerable to Serene’s vast power, they likely couldn’t help the ache to touch themselves. But that wasn’t what intrigued me. It was the reckless use of her power in such a time. That she’d willingly used it for the chance of an orgasm.
There was a time when I would have demanded this show. Before the Huntress. Before my ruin. I would have brought these goddesses before me for pure entertainment, letting Serene’s magic melt over me until I couldn’t resist any longer and I’d join them, taking my pleasure from them, turn after turn, until all three of us, and any others that wanted to join, were well and truly spent.
But those days were long gone. Many, many centuries had passed since I’d touched another woman. Even when I’d tried, my dick refused and that was that. Which made me a challenge for the Goddess of Lust.
Vesalia dragged her tongue down Serene’s abdomen, stopping at her navel before plunging lower. Serene spread her legs, grabbing Vesalia’s head and guiding her forward as she made eye contact with me and slid her tongue over her bottom lip.
I clenched my jaw, fighting the urge to look away as Vesalia’s head bobbed between Serene’s thighs. The sounds echoed off the prison walls, mingling with Serene’s breathy moans. Her fingers tangled in Vesalia’s hair, pulling her closer, deeper.
“That’s it, pet,” Serene purred, her eyes still locked on mine.
