Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
His eyes sparkled through the lenses of his glasses, and his voice was very, very still when he said, “They called him Thanatos, and I was known as Hypnos.”
The god of death, and the god of sleep. I should’ve known.
I nodded at him before turning to walk out of the room.
I didn’t make it past the bed when a hand caught mine, a moment before amber irises did the same. His eyes roamed my face as I looked up at Henri. Concern was etched over the strain at his mouth and the creases at the corners of his eyes.
I wasn’t the only one upset.
And his worry did something to me I had no business spending too much time on.
“I’m all right,” I tried to tell him. “I just need a cuddle right now.” I caught myself, not wanting him to get the wrong impression. He was the one who’d taught me that word. He was the person whose face came to mind when I heard it now. But… I wasn’t doing this with him anymore. I couldn’t. I shouldn’t. “A Duncan cuddle, I mean. I’ll be fine. Today was a long day.” Flipping my hand in his, I squeezed his fingers for a split second before slipping them out of his hold. “I’ll see you later, Henri. Thank you for coming with me. You’re a good friend.”
His features darkened at the same time his head jerked enough I could have called it a flinch, and it made me feel bad.
But I didn’t have the emotional capacity right at that moment to make him feel better.
Instead, telling myself it was all friendship, which was what he was sharing with me being there, I leaned into him and pressed my lips to the part of his arm level with my mouth, avoiding his eyes while I did it. Then, with my boy at my side, we went upstairs.
I laid on my bed, took out my phone and searched through my messaging app for the group chat I was looking for. It only took a couple minutes before one of my aunts replied with who I could contact. My parents didn’t leave their house often, but I was grateful they were visiting someone I could reach out to easily at that moment.
It didn’t take long for a loud female voice to answer my app call and talk to me for a moment before she called out, “¡Marcela! ¡Felipe!”
And somehow, I managed to hold onto my tears long enough to hear my mom’s familiar voice on the other end. “Nina?”
“Hi, Ma.”
Chapter
Twenty-Two
I blinked at the two furry faces currently staring at me from their spot on top of my bed.
So different and yet so alike. One was dark, with a short coat, long and narrow features, and brilliant red eyes. The other the complete opposite with a pale, longer coat, shorter and fluffier, and bright blue eyes. One loved me, and the other… let me do her hair sometimes. They both blinked at me again.
One of the things I had never, ever considered was how often—as a guardian—I was going to be stuck being stared at by a bored face, expecting me to help entertain it. I was well aware that I was lucky Duncan enjoyed watching TV, wasn’t high-energy, and napped a good amount throughout the day.
But every once in a while, he got ants in his imaginary pants, which was going on at that moment. Only it wasn’t just one set of puppy dog eyes boring a hole straight into my soul, it was two.
Neither one of them were vocalizing that they wanted to do something, but words were unnecessary.
I could feel what they were asking for, and that was for me to figure out something to keep them busy.
It was the weekend, after all.
And maybe they didn’t need to forget things that were going on in their lives, but I wouldn’t have minded.
It had been a long week, and I’d spent more time trying not to think about men than I ever would have imagined. Men as in Henri, Franklin, Ilya from Alaska, and Franklin’s freaking brother. When I’d been younger and dumber, boy problems would have sounded like fun.
They weren’t.
But I’d been trying my best not to let any of them get me down—I had promised my parents after all when we spoke on the phone for an hour after my conversation with Franklin—which meant I’d been keeping myself as busy as possible since the night that had changed everything and nothing at the same time.
“It’s only eleven. Do you want to go for a walk?” I suggested, standing in the doorway between the bathroom and the bedroom.
Nothing.
I tried again. “What about an ATV ride? We can have a picnic, play hide-and-seek?” They both had such good noses, it wasn’t exactly challenging, but Duncan hadn’t outgrown the game yet.