“And I will chop off his balls,” Mossy firmly states, and I try not to chuckle at that image. “You get dressed, and I will get coffee.”
“Doesn’t Sword sleep at all?” I question as Mossy jumps off my shoulder and onto the door handle. The door swings open, and he holds it with his back to stop it shutting.
“No. The anal weirdo is always awake,” Mossy tells me before leaving the room. I take my time getting into my clothes and seeing that it’s five in the morning, way too early for a weekend. Knowing Poppy will be sleeping in until at least nine, I quietly make my way out of the room. Mossy yawns as I sit down in front of the steaming cup of coffee, Sword nowhere in sight.
“Thanks, Sword,” I say quietly, hoping he can hear me. Mossy yawns one more time, and I sigh.
“Go and sleep. I’m going to head outside and have a walk around. I need some fresh air,” I tell him. Mossy looks unsure for a moment before giving in.
“I didn’t have time to nap yesterday as I was busy with getting revenge,” he claims, standing proudly.
“Revenge?” I nervously question.
“Let’s just say Seth should not drink anything in his room. There may or may not be poo in the drinks,” he suggests, and my eyes widen.
“One day, you’re going to get caught,” I point out.
“But that’s not today,” he replies.
“Smartass,” I reply as he jumps off the counter and makes his way to our room, snickering along the way. After finishing my ah-mazing cup of coffee, I use the lift and go outside. Snow has littered the ground overnight, making the forest look like a winter wonderland. It’s pretty but damn cold as I start walking, having no clue where I’m actually heading. After five minutes, I pause, hearing someone nearby. I spin around as Finn comes into view in the distance, walking straight towards me. Wearing a dark navy, fitted suit, he looks way too sexy and perfect for my liking. I pick up a ball of snow, and when he is close, I throw it. It hits him square in the chest, melting against his white shirt, and Finn stops, a look of pure shock on his pretty face.
“Are you a child?”
I laugh, leaning down and rolling up another ball. As I stand to throw it, a snowball hits me in my shoulder, and I glance at Finn in surprise. He shrugs but with the biggest smile on his face, and then there is chaos. I lose track of how many snowballs we throw at each other before giving up and sitting down on a fallen log.
“This suit is drenched and cost a fortune,” Finn tells me, not to brag or because he cares about the suit, just putting it out there.
“If it helps, it looks better wet,” I murmur, my eyes tracing his defined chest through the wet and nearly see-through shirt. I clear my throat and look away.
“Your leg is injured, I saw you limping before I came over,” he says into the silence. “When were you hurt?”
“I fell down the stairs,” I lie.
“There are no stairs in your apartment tree,” he replies, his eyes searching my face. “But if someone has hurt you, you only need to tell me their name. They will be dealt with.”
“This whole test is here to hurt me, and I do not need anyone’s protection,” I reply. “Though, thank you for the offer. Aren’t I lucky to have a demi-god want to protect me?”
“I will protect everyone in my class,” he counters, but I don’t believe him. He doesn’t even look like he believed himself.
“Are we friends enough that I can ask a personal question?”
“Yes,” he answers, and I’m a little surprised. I expected him to say hell no and walk away. Maybe not hell no, but that’s how I pictured him saying it in my head.
“Who were your parents then? Who was the woman I saw in that memory?”
He leans back, crossing his arms and watching the treetops as he tells me. “The woman you saw in the memory was my aunt, and she brought me up from the ages of two to fourteen. My aunt didn’t want me, or any kids for that matter, but my father left her me in his will, and only if she looked after me did she get the mansion and money that he also left. So she dragged me up, making sure I knew daily how much she didn’t want me there. When I was fourteen, I noticed I was different from other humans, and the first time I used my powers, I accidentally killed my aunt in a fit of anger. She blew up into gold dust.”
“Shit,” I whisper, hearing the pain in his voice and in the story of his past. “That must have been so difficult for you.”
He humourlessly laughs. “After all that time, you would have thought I hated her, but she was the only mother I knew, and I thought I was a monster for what I did. That night, my real mother came to me, and I met her. Finding out your mother is the goddess Artemis shocked me silent.”
“I bet,” I whisper. Tentatively I place my hand on his, and he stares down at it.
“My mother brought me here after a year with her in Olympus. She was allowed that time with me in exchange for something she never told me. My mother then made a deal with the queen. I could not leave for a few years to be with the gods,” he explains. “So this place became my home.”
“I can see why you would like being the son of the goddess of wisdom and moonlight,” I reply.
“So you know your Greek gods?” he questions.
“My uncle was obsessed with them. I remember his stories and paintings in his study,” I reply with a small smile. “My mother loved music and songs, and my uncle was a Greek god history nut. Together they mostly brought me up, well, until I was eight.”
“Then what happened?” he questions.
I meet his gaze. “Earth happened. You saw me as an eight-year-old and how lost I was. No one would help me, and eventually I found help in the form of a powerful demon. He taught me to fight, to steal, to kill. He turned me from a poor, helpless little girl into an assassin.”
“I’m sorry you were alone, Daesyn. That is not a fate I would wish on anyone as a child. I know it too well,” he gently tells me.
“For the record, Catherine is a shithead, and you couldn’t have worse taste in women,” I blurt out, needing to end the tense moment.
Finn laughs, a deep laugh that makes me shiver. Gods, I could hear him laugh all day. “Catherine and I are not an item. When you saw her in my rooms, I had just come back and found her naked on my bed. I asked her to leave and kindly suggested she was not my type. She then asked for private lessons, and I promised to find time, publicly, to help her train.”
I smile and look down. “I’m glad she isn’t your type.”
“No, I seem to have a thing for sassy and dangerous assassins,” he softly mutters under his breath. My head shoots up, and I lock my eyes with his. I’m speechless, and I don’t know what to say as he stands up, his expression going cold and all of his body looking tense. I don’t think he meant to say that out loud. “I must leave. See you in class, Daesyn.”
He walks away, and I stand up, my leg hurting a little, but my healing is kicking in. “I was jealous of Catherine, by the way. I’ve never been jealous of anyone because they had someone I want before. You’re a shock to me too, Finn.”
He pauses, just briefly, his hands in tight fists at his side. “Déesse.”
