“Maybe.” But he’d been headed toward this decision for longer than that. If anything, the night in Bruxa’s Eye had tipped him over the edge. He’d backed away from Ana since that night because the things he was starting to feel freaked him the hell out. But he couldn’t avoid it any longer.

“Well, whatever the reason, thanks for the help.”

“Sure. Don’t know what the hell we’re going to do though, because I’m not too keen on going back.” The idea made a muscle at the corner of his eye twitch as memories of Otherworld surfaced. He wasn’t cut out to be a god. When he’d been young, he’d assumed he was destined for greatness. How could he not, having been born into such power?

He’d been wrong. As the years had passed, he’d grown to hate Otherworld and the other gods. He’d been the only one to feel emotion, that lowly element that separated the mortals from the gods. Becoming enamored with Ana all those years ago had led him to fuck everything up. No matter what he’d thought as a kid, he wasn’t destined for greatness. Certainly not as a god.

“We’re going to the university first, right? I called my friend Esha to see if she knows anything about Druantia. Hopefully she’ll learn her location or something else useful.”

“If she discovers something, we can stop by.” For someone on the run from gods, it was safer than anywhere else in Scotland. Gods who hadn’t been granted permission to be on campus couldn’t trespass on the grounds.

“Good.”

“You’re really friends with a soulceress?” Creepy and dangerous, they were.

“She’s not as bad as everyone thinks. She gets a bad rap for stealing people’s power, but she doesn’t mean to.”

Perhaps not, but Cam didn’t fancy having the strength of his immortal soul sucked out of him. But he stayed silent, not wanting to insult her friend. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore how good it felt to hold her hand.

Just as he was debating letting go, her voice broke the silence. “Do you think about Otherworld at all?”

He shrugged.

Of course he’d thought of it. If you escaped prison, how could you stop thinking of it?

“So you don’t miss anything about godhood?” she asked.

“Parts of it, sure. Aetherwalking. My bow. Miss that a hell of a lot. Having a role and a job that’s valuable.” Though he’d been shit at being a stone cold god after he’d met Ana, he’d been a damn good god of war. He’d kept the battles even—for the most part—and the casualties not overwhelming.

Her eyes caught his, her brow scrunched. “Is that why your drug company is non-profit?”

He twitched. She’d always been insightful, but it was annoying when she caught something he felt weird talking about. At her unwavering stare, he said, “Yeah, I suppose so. I guess I got used to making a difference in Otherworld, doing something important. The company is my way of doing that here on earth.” And of making amends for everything that I screwed up by sticking you in an awful fucking afterworld.

“Interesting choice. Most Mytheans wouldn’t care about helping mortals.”

“Yeah, but I started out as a god. That’s our job. Doing that on earth, albeit in a different way, just made sense to me. Though it took me some time to figure it out.”

“It suits you, running all over the Amazon looking for fancy plants. Fighting in bars at night. Making out with nymphs.”

The word nymphs made him flinch, though he didn’t know why. But she was right, the life did fit him. Adjusting to life on earth had taken centuries. The more fun he’d had, finally free of responsibility and with access to the lowlier pleasures earth offered, the guiltier he’d felt about ditching godhood. He’d run from his problems and was probably still running from them. He shook the thought away.

“Yeah,” he said. “The Amazon works for me. No rules, not too many mortals to worry about.”

Plenty of things to keep his mind occupied. So what if the nights in places like the Caipora’s Den had started to get lonely? He still liked the fights, if only as a way to temporarily clear his head, and the women were nice. But even variety got old once you’d had enough of it.

“And you’re doing good work there, with your cures,” Ana said.

“Yeah. The work has taken decades. For the two cures to be available at the same time, because of the same plant… Huge deal. We had a sample of the plant, Rosa McManus. We just have to find the source of it now.”

It was the main reason he could never even consider going back to Otherworld.

Cam blinked. Consider going back to Otherworld? He’d never had that thought before. Was he really considering it? Fuck, ’course not.

But he looked down at Ana, the one who was suffering in his place there. He rubbed his chest absently. Shit.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ana was screwed. No doubt about it, she was falling hard for the man sitting next to her in the plush seat of the small private jet. She could believe he’d agreed to help her get out of Otherworld—that’s just the kind of guy he was. He’d tried to protect her so many years ago by letting her take his place in Otherworld. It might suck up there, but it was better than being an automaton or having her soul obliterated. He even understood what it was like for her to be away from her bow. He was like Marrek, in the way he understood her.

Tags: Linsey Hall The Mythean Arcana Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net