Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Alone in the bedroom he’d chosen, he pulled out the same fortune sticks he’d been carrying since the damn prison. He sat on the bed and turned them over, inspecting each one. They were battered and worn, but he could still read the symbols. He could feel his magic within the old chicken bones and nothing else.
So, why had the readings been so strange recently?
During their long wait in the forest for Jules, he’d taken out the bones and started tossing them to waste some time, but also to check his own magic. When he’d made these things, he’d been the God of Luck and nothing else. Now he’d accepted the magic for the Goddess of Nightmares and the God of Accidents. Were they affecting his ability to control luck? Was his ability to glimpse into the future in a very limited way cut off?
A gentle knock on his door had him snatching up the bones and holding them in his fist. Jules was not to know who he was, and the best way to do that was to hide all magic-related things from him.
“Yes?”
The door opened, and Shey peeked his head into the crack. “Everything okay?”
“Of course,” Tyche replied, but the man whose kisses made his toes curl didn’t buy it. Shey slipped into the room and closed the door behind him.
The sexy man sat next to him on the bed. He bent his head and nuzzled into the crook of Tyche’s neck, pressing kisses until a sigh slipped between Tyche’s lips. “Wanna try that again? Everything okay?”
Tyche closed his eyes and soaked in the affection. He’d always thought if someone touched him as much as Shey did, his skin would jump right off his body. Physical contact had always been a strange thing. He’d associated it more with pain than pleasure. There had been too few pats on the back, hugs, and caresses. If someone was close enough to touch you, they were close enough to kill.
But with Shey, there were just sweet touches. Kisses. Hugs. Simply being held as if it gave Shey a feeling of completeness. And well, sex was fucking amazing.
Shey wasn’t the only one with gentle touches. Haru also liked to touch, but Tyche imagined his were what it felt like to have an older brother. His were small, grounding touches that reassured and connected. Both were nice in different but pleasant ways.
“Ty?”
“Hmm? Oh! Sorry. When you do that, my brain wanders,” he mumbled. He turned his face so that his cheek brushed Shey’s. “The bones are saying strange things, and I’ve been wondering if they are saying these things because they are true or because my magic has changed.”
Tyche jerked so he could stare into Shey’s dark-blue eyes. “Are you worried about this mission?”
Shey’s mouth crooked into a wry smile.
“No, wait! Let me check,” he said before Shey could speak. He shook the bones cupped in his hands and concentrated on the odds of Shey being worried about this mission to destroy the leader of the Federation of Order.
He tossed the bones into an open spot on the pale-green duvet and wasn’t at all shocked by the results.
“What do they say?” Shey inquired.
“That there is a very good chance that you are worried about this mission.”
Shey shrugged and shifted his position so that he was reclining on his side with his legs behind Tyche. “I’d say that your magic and the bones are working fine. How about we ask them another easy question?”
“Sure.”
“What are the odds that after all this is over, you’ll stick around for a while in Sirelis?”
Tyche’s eyes widened, and his heart did its crazy flip-flop that he was still trying to get adjusted to. “You want me to stay in Sirelis? For a while?” He tacked on the last bit to make it clear that he didn’t think Shey was asking him to stay permanently.
The smile that spread across Shey’s lips was warm and inviting, but Tyche couldn’t help but think that there was a hint of nervous uncertainty in his eyes. Did he really think Tyche wouldn’t want to spend as much time as possible with him?
Tyche gathered up the bones in his fist and squeezed, making them click together. “I don’t need to throw the bones to know the answer to that question.”
There was a long pause, and Shey shut his eyes, his body shaking in silent laughter. “Is there any chance you’re going to tell me the answer to that question?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you’ll tell me, or yes, you’ll come stay in Sirelis?”
Tormenting Shey was making its way to the top of the list of his favorite things. Right up there with coffee and sex.
“Yes, I can come live in Sirelis for a while.” Tyche leaned close, bumping his forehead against Shey’s. “You can help me find an apartment near the palace to make it easy for you to visit me.”