I PLACE Sin’s head on my lap as I sit on the still smoking couch. His breathing is peaceful, his chest rising and falling steadily.
Almost absently, I rub my thumb back and forth across his high cheekbone. Sin is quite literally beauty and strength personified. I have no doubt that if he wasn’t already the God of Flames—not to be confused with the Goddess of Fire—he would be something like the God of Beauty.
But there’s a darkness behind his angelic features. Something inhuman and almost malevolent.
Helio, grunting, grabs a charred blanket from the ground and drapes it over Sin’s naked lower half.
“It’s not like you’ve never seen his cock before,” I quip, and he merely glares at me in response.
For a long moment, we’re both silent. The only sound is the intermittent pounding of my heart against my rib cage.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Helio stands against the single unburnt wall, his muscular arms crossed over his chest as he regards me with tenderness…and Arsin with unparalleled fury.
“What happened to us?” I whisper softly, glancing once more at Arsin’s sleeping face. He shifts, releasing a whimper, and I immediately begin playing with his silky hair.
He used to have nightmares in the Realm of the Gods. When I asked what they were about, he answered, “You.” That was it. That was all he ever said on the matter, and I didn’t dare press.
“Did we have our…memories wiped?” I query numbly. “Replaced? Fuck, I don’t even know what I’m saying.” I scrub a hand down my face as question after question swirls through my head. It’s a whirlpool in there, and I’m genuinely afraid I’m going to be swept away by a particularly damaging wave.
Helio scrunches his face in consideration, but he remains predictably silent.
“I’m still missing some things,” I admit.
A lot of fucking things.
I remember the Realm of the Gods, my identity, and my mates’ identities. But the days leading up to…this? Whatever this is? It’s nothing but a blank slate. It feels intrusive, almost, as if someone had dug their spindly fingers into the deepest recesses of my mind, rooting around until they found what they wanted. It’s eerie to know that you lost time, to know that anything could have transpired during those precious days.
Who did this to us?
And why?
“Don’t tell me it was that bitch Athena,” I gripe immediately. Because, yeah, my memories came with the realization that I have a mortal nemesis. Athena is a grade-A bitch. I’m pretty sure she masturbates to the lost dreams and tears of children everywhere.
Ugh. And now I’m thinking about Athena masturbating.
“I was paid to kill you.” Arsin’s quiet voice has my gaze wrenching away from Helio to focus entirely on my other lover. His eyes are wide open, a decidedly malicious grin on his handsome face. “I chose flames. For you, baby.” Maintaining eye contact, he shoves the blanket off of his body and begins to stroke his rigid cock.
Helio makes a disgruntled noise but wisely chooses to remain silent.
“I think a part of me knew it was you who I was tasked to kill,” Sin continues, stroking faster. My eyes are automatically drawn to the mushroom tip, currently dripping with pre-cum. There’s a vein on the side, one that I’m intimately familiar with. I know exactly how it feels to run my tongue up and down it, sucking it like a freaking lollipop. A—get this—cockipop.
Yeah, I’m not laughing either.
“It’s symbolic, isn’t it?” Sin’s eyes close in bliss as he tilts his chin back. The tattoos on his knuckles mock me from where they’re wrapped around his cock, pumping. Like, hey, girl, we know this is your cock and everything, but we’re going to give it a test drive. Make sure it’s still functioning.
It suddenly occurs to me that during the time we were away from each other, the time when our memories were removed, these men could’ve been with other women. The mere thought has me seeing red, and my nails automatically dig into Sin’s cheeks. That only makes him moan louder, a sardonic grin twisting up his lips as blood pours from the open wound.
“What’s symbolic?” I grit out, remembering that he asked me a question.
“For you to die in flames,” he purrs just as his cock jerks, spraying cum across his toned stomach.
“You fucking sadist,” Helio murmurs, but Arsin continues to smile unrepentantly, stroking himself through the aftershocks.
My eyes remain glued to the white liquid coating Arsin’s beautifully tan stomach. He’s gotten darker from his time on Earth, almost as if he spent most of his days lying on a beach.
Hopefully, it was just him. By himself. No males or females around him.
“Did you miss me, Flower?” Sin whispers, raising both his hands to caress my cheeks, his right one still sticky from his cum. Staring at his upside-down face, I can’t help but wilt a little bit inside like the nickname he gave me. He called me that once—what feels like an eternity ago—after an intense lovemaking session.
“I missed you all.” I lift my gaze to encompass Helio as well. “So, so much. Avery…” I trail off in stark horror.
Avery, the God of Death and my best friend. The man who’s been with me for as long as I can remember.
And the string of bodies from my childhood.
That fucker.
“Avery?” Sin sits up abruptly, eyes narrowed into slits. “Do I need to kill him?”
“He’s been with me…” I trail off at Sin’s accusatory stare and Helio’s accepting one. Of course the latter already knew that. He knows everything about me.
“Do you think he’s behind this?” Helio asks in that gruff voice of his. When his eyes darken almost imperceptibly, I know he won’t hesitate to take vengeance into his own hands if he discovers Avery betrayed us.
“No,” I say immediately, adamantly, ignoring the way Sin continues to stare up at me in abject horror. “No.”
“He’s been with you?” Sin asks slowly. “This entire time?” Before
