I grinned. “I couldn’t let my BFF do time without me.”
Chad moved up beside me and handed Cordea a tablet. She signed her name across the screen and handed it back, then motioned me to follow. “I’m the Head of the House of Phoenix.” She glanced at me and grinned. “That means you answer to me. I make the schedules based on your punishment and the things you need to work on to be reformed. I also deal out the punishments for any rules you break.”
Oh this was going to be fun. My inner phoenix and the godly part of me hated rules. We hated to follow anyone’s command but my mother’s. “I’m determined to pass.” Even if that meant submitting to Cordea, so be it.
We crossed the campus to large mansion-like house with a sign over the door that said, “House of Phoenix.”
Cordea opened the door and motioned for me to enter. “House rules are no fighting. We are all here for with the same goal. To reform. If you fail, you die.”
Yeah, I got that from Mom when she told me not to make her choose another heir.
Cordea went on. “I’ll have your schedule for you in the morning. Breakfast is here in the house at 7:00 a.m. Classes start at 8:00 a.m. Every evening after classes you report back here, have dinner and social activities with your house mates. Which we are doing now.”
We entered the great room of the house and all eyes snapped to me. The room fell silent. Lucent was the last to look up from where he sat alone in a chair on the far side of the room. His features brightened as he looked at me, then he got up and rushed toward me.
I was wrapped into a hug within seconds. “I had a feeling she’d send you.”
“Mom doesn’t miss much.” I pulled back, taking his hands in mine. “You okay?”
He chuckled and punched me lightly in the shoulder. “Of course. I should be asking you that. How pissed are you at me?”
“Not as much as I was.” I grabbed his black shirt and drew him to me. “Don’t kill me again. We face shit together. Got me?”
“I got ya.” He laced his fingers with mine and pulled me to the chair he sat in when I got there. “You’re just in time. We’re about to watch a movie.”
The way he said told me I wasn’t going to enjoy movie time. “Which movie?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “You’re going to love it.”
I doubted it, but what choice did I have? The social bonding time was mandatory.
The lights dimmed and the movie started. I groaned out load earning a few shhs. The movie was a Hallmark holiday story. Someone shoot me now. I was so tempted to go play with the cyclops.
3
Zelphar
My twin and I materialized in the office of Caleb Foster, Director of Security Operations for Foster Industries. Scanning the room, I curled my upper lip. It was apparent from the high-quality furniture, original paintings by an artist long gone from this plane, and Italian marble flooring, the Fosters had more money than they deserved.
No one should waste money on expensive things when there were so many others living their daily lives on survival instincts alone. I should know. Karn and I lived like that the first ten years of our lives under the same roof as a sadistic bastard human who kidnapped us and killed our mother. Of course our biological father and god King, Zeus, had a hand in our kidnapping when we were infants. It was his way of protecting us from his wife, Hera.
Of course we didn’t know any of that until Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, found and adopted us. Being raised in Hades wasn’t exactly a step up from the bastard Persephone took us from, but there were no more punishments or beatings. Plus our aunt and uncle loved us in their own ways.
Persephone had taught us to live in the human world and blend in, while giving us what we needed to provide for ourselves. That included education so we could start up our own company.
“Did the mage say why we were meeting here?” I stopped in the center of the wall of glass behind Caleb’s desk. The view of the ocean and clear blue sky with a few puffy clouds was breathtaking. The waves rolled over the surface toward the shore where it broke into white sprays and fanned out over the wet sand.
Karn came to stand beside me. “He didn’t say, which tells me this mission will be different.”
Yeah, I got that impression as well. I also suspected the fucker brought us there to show off and taunt. Caleb was an arrogant bastard on his best day. Just because Karn and I operated our company in a modest contemporary building we purchased a few years before didn’t mean we were poor. Far from it. But we didn’t need flashy offices with high-end flooring and paintings worth more than the billion-dollar company itself.
At our backs, the office door opened followed with a low growl. One corner of my mouth lifted in amusement. Slowly, I turned to face the mage, drinking in the sight of him. Karn and I didn’t have a preference of the sex of our partners. Not that Caleb was our partner in any way. We tolerated each other because our alpha personalities clashed too much to be considered friends. That didn’t mean I didn’t like what I saw.
Caleb’s pitch black, curly hair was free from its usual leather tie that bound it to the back of his neck. The silky waves brushed the tops of his shoulders, making my fingers twist, wanting to sink into those curls.
It was a shame that his lean muscular body was covered with a white button-down and black dress pants. However, he didn’t wear a tie and left the top two buttons undone. His sleeves were neatly rolled to mid-forearm.
“Do you two ever enter a building like normal beings?” Caleb pressed his lips together as he advanced to his desk.
Karn and I moved away from the window. I bumped Caleb’s shoulder as I passed and had to fight not to grab the male or lean in and smell him. Fuck. I needed to get the meeting over with and put distance between me and the mage.
“If you’re referring to like humans do because they don’t have a choice, then no. Porting is much more efficient.” I stood in front of his desk and crossed my arms.
Karn dropped into one of the chairs in front of the desk.
“Forgive me. You are only half human. Why would you try to blend into this realm?” Caleb sank into his leather chair and motioned to the empty seat across from him, next to my twin. “Zelphar, don’t be a pain in my ass today.”
Any other day I’d enjoy taunting him because his scent sharpened when his was angry or annoyed. Today, he had a hint of fear mixed in with his ocean and vanilla scent. Sitting, I stared into his violet depths, that had a ring of silver around his pupils, marking him as a mage. “Why are we meeting here?”
“The three of us are going on assignment together.” Caleb let out a tired sigh. “Do you know Boreas?”
Karn cursed and I straightened. “The God of the North Wind?”
“Yeah, that’ll be the one.” Caleb threaded his hand through his hair and I tracked the moment. “The bastard showed up in my room in the middle of the night wanting to chit chat. Three o’clock in the fucking morning.”
Karn leaned forward, worry and fury rolling off him. “What did he want?”
Boreas was banished from Olympus centuries ago. I wasn’t sure what he did and neither did Persephone or Hades. Seph—as we called our aunt—loved to tell us stories of gods when we were younger. Even now, she likes to catch us up on all of the last Olympus gossip when she returns to the Underworld from visiting her mother during the spring and summer months.