“I’m trying to figure out how best to ask for what I need.”
“Try opening your mouth and forming words. That’s what I do, and I can assure you my methods are always stellar.”
Sienna ran her tongue over her teeth, not allowing herself to issue a snappy retort. She didn’t think Viola meant to be so haughty, but hello, a girl could only take so much. “Well, I’m running out of time.”
And there was the main reason for her recent string of temper tantrums. Her time here was ticking, ticking away. Soon she would have to leave. Not just because she had heard some of Paris’s friends plotting her downfall, and not just because those same friends hated her guts and would never trust or forgive her, but because she really was going to Galen, keeping him away from Cronus, so that Cronus could keep Rhea away from his throne, no matter how sickening the tasks she had to perform.
“Do you want me to buy you more time?” Viola asked, as if such a thing were possible. They reached the stairs. Without pause, she took them. Bounce, bounce, bounce. “You’d have to pay me back. I mean, with two-hundred-percent interest, but—”
“No, I…well, when I leave, Paris will weaken.” Her head slammed into the roof of the vehicle. Oh, please, please don’t let my next death be in a tragic golf cart accident.“I don’t know if you know this, but he has to have sex every day or his body shuts down. His demon is…needy, you know.”
“Yada, yada, boring.” Landing smoothly, the cart erupted into full speed. (Twenty-five miles per hour.)
She bit her tongue to hold in her retort. “When I leave I want you to make sure Paris sleeps with the women Lucien brings him, and that he keepssleeping with them.”
And there was the second reason for her temper tantrums. Due to pressure from Sienna’s staunchest haters, Lucien kept disappearing and reappearing with a new woman in the hope that one would entice Paris away from her.
While Paris could easily ignore his friends, the persistent and determined Viola would find a way to get her way. Otherwise, she would be a failure, and the goddess would never allow herself to be a failure.
“What I’m hearing is, I’m the only thing standing between your man and his certain death,” Viola said. “So what’s in it for me if I save him?”
For a moment, Sienna couldn’t reply; there was a giant lump in her throat. This was killing her. She wanted Paris all to herself, now and always, and oh, she really did love the man, didn’t she? Body, heart and soul, she loved him. She’d been falling slow and steady, but now she was flat on her face, nothing but a puddle of love.
He was everything to her. Her light when things became too dark. When she cried, he comforted her. When she laughed, he laughed with her. He treated her as if she were a special treasure. He protected her, cared about every ache and pain she might experience.
She would tear the world apart to keep him safe. She would willingly suffer without him, as long as she knew he was out there, alive.
“What would you like from me?” Sienna wasn’t going to quibble. What the goddess wanted, she would give. It was as simple as that.
“You’re Wrath, right? Well, when I call on you to slay one of my enemies, you have to slay him. No questions, no hesitation.”
“As long as the enemy in question isn’t someone Paris or his friends know and like. Or want alive.”
The goddess thought for a moment, nodded. “We have ourselves a deal.”
“Good. Now, I have one other request for you.” She outlined what she wanted.
Viola shot her a sly smile. “Wicked, and quite shocking coming from you. I had no idea you were into that. You look so mousy. But it’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it?”
“Will you do it?”
“You’ll owe me two slayings, same conditions.”
“Done.” It was done.
“Now, hold on tight because I’m cranking this baby up. I’m just certain they won’t start without me, but these Lords sometimes defy logic, so you never know.”
“Oh, good.” A woman with curly dark hair, a face as innocent as a cherub’s and wings of the purest white appeared just in front of them. “I found you.”
Viola slammed on the breaks, and the cart skidded to a stop mere inches from crushing the newcomer under the tires. “What’s with all the ladies jumping in front of me and keeping me from where I want to go? Jealous much?”
“I seek Sienna.”
“Me?” Sienna’s heart suddenly felt as if it had been injected with adrenaline. That had been a close call, sure, but that wasn’t why she was palpitating. “Heaven,” she whispered, the reverent yearning in her voice flowing straight from her demon.
“Yes, you. I’m Olivia,” the angel said with a sweet smile. A white robe draped her from shoulders to ankles, making her look as if she’d just stepped from a dream.
Viola jumped out of the cart and hurried past Olivia. “Have fun girls, I’m needed elsewhere.” Pale hair streaming behind her, she disappeared into the ballroom about a yard ahead.
“I recognize you,” Sienna said, even though the two of them had never met. She stood on shaky legs, closed the distance— heaven, my heaven—and reached out, pinching a strand of those curls between her fingers. Soft, silky. “Wrath loves you, I think.”
Olivia’s smile went full-on sunshine as she scratched Sienna behind her ear. “How’s my darling boy doing?”
Wrath purred like a kitten.
“He’s, uh, good.”
“I’m glad. He really is a sweetheart, isn’t he?”
Wrath?
The demon rolled to his back, kicked up his legs and shook as great tides of rapture swept over him.
“Let’s you and me chat later, all right?” Olivia said, arm dropping to her side. While Wrath pouted like a toddler, the angel added, “Aeron sent me to find you. He wanted to speak to you himself, but he can’t see you and conversing with the woman who has his Wrath through a third party would be a little too painful. Maybe one day. But I digress. He’s ready to leave this castle and hunt for Legion, but won’t because Paris is about to have an aneurism. At least, that’s what Aeron said, and he thinks you’re the only one who can calm his boy down.”
Paris. Worry instantly flooded her, her demon’s preoccupation with the angel overshadowed. “Where is he?”
“Just follow the trail Viola blazed.” Stepping to the side, Olivia motioned toward the ballroom.
Sienna darted into motion, flying through the open doorway and once again stopping dead in her tracks. A group of the warriors and their mates stood under a banner that said only INTERVENTION in big block letters. They each held a piece of paper. Viola had taken her place in the center, shifting eagerly, ready to say her piece.
Sienna’s gaze locked on the warrior named Aeron, the man who’d once hosted Wrath. He had closely cropped dark hair, beautiful violet eyes, and his body, which had once been covered in the tattooed images of the victims of his blood rages, was now slowly being covered with tattoos of his angel.
Seeing him, Wrath went crazy inside Sienna’s head, wanting to reach out, to touch the warrior. Friend. My friend.
I know, but now’s not the time to catch up with him.Honestly? She wasn’t sure any time would be right. The guy scared her. He looked like he ate kittens for breakfast and thumb tacks for lunch. His dinner wasn’t something she dared contemplate. Organs might be involved.
Wrath pouted. The demon had wanted back inside of Aeron as much as Sienna had wanted to get rid of him. But she had changed her mind, and she hoped Wrath had, too. He wasn’t begging to escape her. For all she knew, he was as addicted to Paris as she was.
Friend. Talk to friend.
Soon,she promised. Wrath whimpered, and she had to force herself to look away. Paris stood in front of the group, his back to Sienna. His sun-bronzed skin was bare from the waist up, and his muscles were knotted. At his sides, his hands were fisted.