“That doesn’t mean she’s in love with—”
Helio clears his throat uncomfortably. “She is.”
“Sorry, sweetheart.” Avery flashes me a sympathetic grin. “She wants Tate’s cock.”
I swear my eye fucking twitches, especially when Tate’s smile turns smug. The mere thought of Athena placing her slimy hands on my man has me wanting to destroy the world.
“We need to talk about what we remember before…all of this.” I extend my arms to emphasize what “all of this” means before dropping them to my lap. Pinching down on my wrist, reveling in the familiar burst of pain, I confess, “I don’t have any memories leading up to this moment.”
“Me neither,” Avery concedes. Helio grunts in agreement, and Sin begins to cackle malevolently.
Only Tate remains silent, face impassive.
“One second, we were in the Realm of the Gods, and the next, we were here,” I continue, biting down on my lower lip until blood drizzles down my chin. Sin, without preamble, arches his neck forward to lick it away. “It’s strange. I have such vivid memories of my childhood.”
Perfect, wonderful memories.
“Me too,” Avery agrees. “So it’s impossible to know how long we’ve actually been on Earth with those fake memories. It could’ve been only days, or it could’ve been years. Hell, even yesterday could’ve been nothing but a fake memory.”
“Fuck, this is making my head hurt.” Tate groans, lowering his face to his hands.
“What type of god or goddess could do something like that?” Sin muses, voice muffled from where his lips are still pressed against my skin. “Give us fake memories. Send us to Earth… Those are definitely not skills Athena possesses.”
For once, we’re all struck speechless by Sin’s words. He’s right. The type of power this takes is beyond my comprehension. Very few gods and goddesses have the skills to do this to us.
“The God of Deception would be able to,” Avery says quietly, his voice like the crack of a whip. It seems to have the same physical effect as one too. That one sentence flays open my skin. I’m bleeding again, and I don’t know how to stop the steady flow.
I expect Tate to be furious, to leap to his feet and confess his innocence. Instead, he merely leans further back in the armchair, hands clasped behind his head.
“You think I did it,” he says simply, face bereft of expression. He leans forward suddenly, one of his long fingers tapping the underside of his chin. “It would make sense, wouldn’t it? Athena has always been in love with me. Maybe I fell in love with her as well.” As he talks, he maintains eye contact with me, each word a metaphorical kick to the gut. I hold his stare defiantly, face apathetic, and a frown curls his lips at my reaction…or lack thereof.
“So we came up with a plan to eliminate the Goddess of Pain,” he continues. “Obviously, she’s too powerful to destroy in the Realm of the Gods, so we sent her here with fake memories. Over time, the human world will drain her and her men of their powers. With my powers of deception, I’m able to distort her memories, and I’m also able to change Athena’s appearance so no one would recognize her. While the rest of Emily’s men were running around like headless chickens, I was making sweet love to Athena, the Goddess of Virtue.” Throughout his entire speech, his inflection doesn’t change once. He could’ve been doing something as mundane as discussing the weather. “Is that what you believe?”
“You’re such a fucking prick, Tate,” I say, just barely holding the tears at bay.
His smile is slow and cruel. “I told you before that you shouldn’t love me, Emily. You’re just too stupid to listen.”
Helio is across the room before I can even take a breath. With one swing of his fist, he renders Tate unconscious.
“You know, I would’ve set him on fire if I knew we were going down the murder route,” Sin drawls lazily. He once more flops himself onto my lap, only this time, his face is in my pussy.
“No. Murder,” Helio growls out. He stares at Tate in disgust. “He’s a lot of fucking things, but he didn’t betray Emily.” He presses a fist to his chest, just over his heart where I know his power resides. “He loves her more than anything.” As if he can’t help himself, he kicks Tate’s unconscious form.
“I could’ve told you that.” Avery is the only one who seems relatively unperturbed. He’s currently setting the table for breakfast—though the French toast is no doubt cold by now. “He’s an asshole, but he’s not who we’re looking for. No, someone else did this. Maybe the God of Chaos?”
“God of Memories?” Helio pipes in.
“Goddess of Orgasms?” adds Sin before he begins to cackle at his own joke.
“So there’s a shit ton of gods and goddesses who could’ve done this to us,” I surmise, sighing heavily.
“I need you to think,” Helio grunts out. “Any noticeable enemies?”
“Besides Athena? None. At least, none that could do something like this.”
Fuck, I wish I could remember the days leading up to my memory loss. I just know the answers will be there, interwoven in an intricate web of lies and deceit.
“And the god or goddess who did this to us might have been hired by someone else,” Avery points out, using his spatula to emphasize his words. “You originally hired Helio as your executioner, remember? It’s not uncommon for rulers to outsource.”
“You’re right,” I agree, groaning. “I think the first thing we need to do is find the person who hired you to kill me. There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re related.”
“I might be able to help with that,” a familiar, cocky voice states from the doorframe. Avery immediately grabs the closet knife, holding it at the ready, but Helio doesn’t even budge from his spot against the far wall. Obviously, my gentle giant heard and saw the intruder before we did.
Desmond—the God of Combat
