I pressed my back to the wall, guilt churning in my stomach for listening in on his conversation, but I was worried all the same. I should step out, should ask him what was wrong, if there was something I could do, but like a coward, I stayed hidden.
“Who?” His anger seared my skin, and I shivered at the intensity of it. My heart twisted. I’d never heard him so angry. What had happened? Who was he talking to?
“I want a fucking name,” he growled. “Who put their hands on you?”
Oh God. Was someone hurt?
“Where are you? I’m coming to get you, now.”
Shit. I turned, running back for the door at the sound of snow and mud squelching beneath his boots. I slipped back inside and closed the door, praying he hadn’t caught me eavesdropping.
Damien’s brows rose when I returned to his side, glancing over my shoulder to see if Zephyr would return, but he never did.
“Where’d you wander off to?” he asked, tilting his head.
“Oh, I was wondering where Zephyr disappeared to.” It wasn’t entirely untrue.
His brows furrowed, and he looked around. “That’s a good question.”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” I said, hoping that he was, and that the person he’d been speaking to was as well.
Damien ran a hand over his right arm, massaging it as his eyes drifted from me for a moment.
“You okay?” I asked, arching a brow. “Sore from getting your ass handed to you by children?”
He huffed a laugh. “I’ll be fine. Selene’s been trying to summon me for the past couple of weeks, and it’s getting annoying.”
My eyes flicked to his arm as he stretched it out before relaxing it again. It was the arm with the tattoo of his vows to Selene. “Does it hurt?”
“No. It’s more of an annoyance if anything.”
“Why don’t you go to her?” I asked.
“I’ve just been busy, but I really should check in. I haven’t given her any updates since we took out Marcus.”
I hadn’t realized it had been that long since he’d seen her. There were many times when work had pulled him away from me for many hours of the day, but I’d always assumed he visited her from time to time. Did he really dislike the goddess so much as to avoid her for this long despite her summons? Would he get in trouble?
“Come on,” he said, groaning as he pushed himself to his feet. “Miterawill likely have dinner ready soon. We’ll eat, and then I’ll report to her.”
“Will she be mad at you?” I asked, my brows wrinkling as he extended a hand to me.
He smiled warmly. “It’ll be fine.”
As he continued, his smile faded, his gaze leaving mine as annoyance painted his face. “She’s likely just bored and wants me to entertain her with ourtrivialmatters that have no effect on her whatsoever.”
I nodded, taking his hand and rising to my feet. My eyes fell to the door where Zephyr had disappeared, and I hoped that whatever was happening, whoever he’d spoken to, he would be okay.
14
DAMIEN
My feet met cold marble as I emerged from the void, the scent of jasmine filling my lungs. Pale moonlight leaking in through carvings in the ceiling of the temple painted my skin in its glow. It had been two weeks since I’d last set foot in this place, but I’d avoided facing Selene for too long—the nudge of her summons tingling in my vows to her, the ones inked in my skin.
When I lifted my eyes to her altar atop the dais, I blinked at the sight of it empty. The warhorse statues stood in quiet solitude without their master. My footsteps echoed through the empty hall as I stepped up the stairs, searching for any sign of the goddess. The halls were unusually bare. Normally they would be decorated for Winter Solstice. I remembered how beautifully Selene decorated the castle, our home, when I was young, how she would light up under the full moon’s glow. Even if it wasn’t the castle we’d once called home, the temple was a shadow of what it once was—cold and empty, and now even emptier than it had grown in the recent centuries.
As I came to a stop beside her altar, my eyes slid to one of the massive warhorses before me, their dormant power still felt despite their slumber.
“Hello, Arion, Arete. Where is she?” I asked, lifting a hand to press against the nose of one of the beasts who towered beyond any horse I’d ever seen, but of course they would. These were creatures of legend, beasts born of power and war.
