Kyra

Chapter Forty

Kyra planned relentlessly.

But what did she have to work with?

The Rogue Witch didn't know where to find Nadine, so that was a dead end. Then what? Her only other lead was a man made from the darkest of evils.

Ronan couldn't be her only option. He just couldn't be.

After a week of extensive research, Kyra sat in her office with Fallon. The two of them were brainstorming, figuring out the best option. Kyra had told Fallon all she could—everything she could say that didn't expose the Gods for their stupidity.

Still, even then, they had close to nothing to work with.

"I don't know which is worse," Kyra complained, dropping her head into her hands. For the first time in years, she felt utterly useless. "Being indebted to Ares or to Ronan."

"Going to Ronan for help would be as good as suicide," Fallon pointed out wisely. "You'd land yourself in the exact same situation, only your executioner would be different. At least Ares doesn't seem intent to end you."

Maybe his true intents were worse.

He wants to wife me up.

Kyra was so not wifey material.

She was brutal and overly-dominant and busy. Far too busy to maintain a marriage.

"No, but he's not happy with leaving things as they are either. Ares comes with expectation. Ronan wouldn't. It would be as simple as making a deal and having something terrible happen. The terrible thing would end then and there. It'd just take time to fix it."

Ronan wouldn't have her stuck in a white dress, promising her life to him forever.

"But the God might lose interest in time," Fallon mused. "From my dealings with Gods, I can say they have short attention spans and little patience." Fallon worked closely with the stone Gods—judgement Gods living in Peru who decided the fate of wrong doers. She knew better than anyone how quickly they lost interest. "Maybe he'll move on."

"In an ideal world, yes. But he's been pining over me for a thousand years now. Our story takes up a year of his life. Just the one." And yet he was still obsessed. After all this time, she didn't see him giving up any time soon. "So my options are signing my soul over to Ronan or agreeing to an indefinite amount of time with Ares."

"If it's a year of time, maybe he's over-romanticised it," Fallon suggested. Kyra appreciated the help—but Fallon was wrong. She'd lived through that connection herself. Ares had cared for her passionately. Deeply. She might just be the only person he'd ever spared the life of following a betrayal. "He might be remembering your story differently to how it actually happened. Men do that from time to time. If he's thinking through his cock and not his—"

"He's thinking through all three. Heart, cock and brain. Rash, sappy and smart."

"Not good."

"Not good at all."

"And there's still no direction on Nadine," Fallon pointed out.

She'd communed with her judgement Gods. With Nadine being such a profound wrong doer, she'd been certain her enchanted compass would've led the way. Only Fallon couldn't locate her. The best trackers in the Other World were failing to do so.

"None at all," Kyra said. "The allies are focusing on the bigger threat, namely the warlocks. Nadine's falling out of interest."

"But Claudio's still looking."

Claudio being the King of the fire demons. Following his love for fallen angel Meg, he had more reason than anyone to hunt Nadine—the villain of his lover's upbringing. But even he'd had to pause his search for a time.