“Gods take women like that all the time.” He shrugged.
“Rapist, asshole gods,” I said. “For their sake, I hope those are just myths that humans made up about them.”
“Not all of them; I know for a fact that Zeus did it. He even impregnated women in that manner,” he went on.
“Zeus. Why am I not surprised that he's a rapist too?” I huffed in disgust. “I rest my case.”
Then I noticed our surroundings. We were in a human home. Well, a house, actually. It was empty; just a shell waiting to be filled with laughter and love. Oh, and maybe some furniture. A full moon shone in through the bare windows and for some reason, the place gave me a chill. It felt familiar, even though I was certain that I'd never seen it before.
“Where are we?” I whispered; my eyes darting around warily.
“A little town in Illinois,” Katila said with a smirk.
“Illinois,” I frowned and set my stare back on him. “Why did you bring me here?”
“I thought you might like to know that you're not the only one keeping secrets in your marriage,” he said smugly. “Or is it marriages? Do you consider it all one big relationship or several?”
“They are individual relationships,” I growled. “And what has this house got to do with any of them?”
“It belongs to Odin,” Katila said as he watched me carefully.
“Odin?” I frowned as I looked around again. “You said; Illinois?”
“Yes.”
A memory surfaced. It was of a conversation I'd had with my grown son in a broken future; the same son who was even now growing inside me. In that future, Odin had left me. He had let his new body and its cellular memories influence him into giving up his godhood. He gave up on us in favor of building a human life. With a human wife and a human daughter. I never saw the house they'd lived in—not this me, at least—but I was pretty sure Vero had said it was in Illinois.
“You know about it,” Katila said in disappointment.
“I do,” I said.
It wasn't true in the way he meant, but I'd be damned if I let him know that he'd gotten to me.
“I'll find more secrets,” Katila vowed. “Your marriages are not as perfect as you believe.”
“So you hope,” I said. “And hope will fail you. My husbands and I have been through too much to ever distrust each other. There's nothing you can show me that will shake my faith in them. If any of them are hiding things from me, it's for a good reason.”
Katila considered this with a sour expression, and then he asked suddenly and suspiciously, “What did you do to Trevor?”
“What do you mean?” I smiled at him smugly.
“I tried to visit you last night, but I couldn't possess him,” he admitted.
“We fixed the chink in his armor,” I said. “You'll never possess him again. You'll have to find another way to use your new, demon magic.”
“Oh, I will,” he promised me.
“That reminds me; thank you,” I said.
Katila's determined expression went blank. “For what?”
“For what you did to me.” I lifted my chin and met his stare. “It brought something out of Trevor that I've never seen before. He healed us and strengthened us. I've never felt more alive. And it was all because you hurt us; showed us where we were weak. So, thank you for that. I'm still going to kill you, but I wanted to say that first.”
I spread out my arms as dragon claws sprouted from my hands. Katila's eyes gleamed as he stared covetously at my claws and then at my face.
“Oh, one more thing before I kill you.” I cocked my head and considered him. “There's something that's been bothering me.”
He smirked; so certain that he could conquer me. “What's that? Ask me anything, and I shall be honest with you. I will prove my good intentions.”
Good intentions; my scaly ass!
“How is it that a god whose only magic is to be forgettable can use a death god's weapon to harvest souls?”
Katila's eyes widened before he smirked. “You think you know all about me.”
“I believe I just said that I don't.”
That seemed to mollify him.
“I'm far more than a vanishing god,” he said proudly. “I am my father's son.”
“You're a death god too?” I asked in surprise.
He gave me a mocking bow. “All hidden beneath my secondary magic. Gods have always made the mistake of underestimating me.”
“Hidden death,” I murmured as I flexed my claws. “I prefer an in-your-face approach.”
Katila looked as if he were going to speak, but then something over my shoulder caught his attention. I felt the shivering magic of the Aether and knew the God Squad had just traced in behind me.
“How?” Katila gaped at them.
“She's our wife, you fool,” Azrael said as he lifted his scythe again. “We can find her anywhere.”
Technically, that was true. Between our bonds, vows, and enchanted rings, we could sense each other when we were in danger and find each other. It didn't work all the time—wards could pose a problem—but it had come in handy often enough.
Azrael swung at Katila, but Katila danced deftly out of the path of the blade; moving faster than I'd ever seen a god move.
“I'll show you the truth, Vervain,” Katila vowed from across the room. “None of them are good enough for you. You'll choose me in the end.”
I could feel the energy of the Aether gathering around him; ready to pull him in. Katila was about to escape again!
“Here's some truth for you,” I said as I tossed Lunacy at him.
I'd had enough with Katila's escapes and manipulations; I was using the last
