Free Gods Save the Princess (Grace of Gods Book 2) by Kyleigh Castronaro

knocked on his door and found a scruffy hair, watery and wide-eyed boy looking back at me when it opened. I had woken him up.
    “Napping?” I teased with a grin, watching him suppress a yawn as he nodded.
    “They wouldn’t call it beauty sleep if beauty came to the Gods naturally."
    “Well, I guess that’s one way to a girl’s heart.” I laughed slightly at him and let myself into the apartment and closed the door. As I looked back up at him, really looked, I realised he had forgone clothing when he answered the door and I felt a heat rush up high on my cheeks at being so intrusive.
    The relationship I had with Jed was nothing more than one of familiarity and not sexual - not sexual by any means because I was sure he saw me as a little sister as I saw him as an older brother - but it didn’t make it any less awkward to see him so disrobed.
    “Well, I don’t want to take up too much of your beauty sleep time so I’ll be quick.” I smiled up at him, taking a deep breath for a dramatic pause. “I’ve found the party venue.”
    “You have? Awesome!” It was not nearly as exciting as he made it sound but I still felt important. But then again, that was part of Jed’s key steps to being the life of the party. Make everyone feel important so you are important.
    “Yeah, I actually found a club in the mountain with a full bar, dance floor, music, everything. It seemed an appropriate venue to celebrate the arrival of the God of the Gods, right?” Jed nodded his head in agreement and excitement. “You’re going to need people to work the bar though. I don’t know if you had anyone in mind... I mean, unless you’d prefer a chaotic free-for-all.”
    “No, you’re right. I actually think I know of a few girls who could do it for me. For us.” He amended himself quickly.
    “Awesome. Well, I’m really excited. I’ll see you tonight.” He nodded, suppressing another yawn, which I took as a polite way of him telling me he wanted to sleep a bit longer. I excused myself quickly and walked out, back into the hallway. With nothing to do now I felt a little listless and decided to go to my garden.
    I liked all the free time that was offered here, but there were still down periods where my past would come back to haunt me. Even if that life was behind me it wasn’t forgotten, and thinking so much and being around Griffin only reminded me of that. He wasn’t coping with his past and could I really say I was coping with mine?
    I had completely shut off my memories of my former life. I didn’t even acknowledge the existence of that other life anymore. I rarely thought about the condition I had been in when brought to Mount Olympus or the beliefs I had held onto when I first got here.
    It probably wasn’t healthy to have sailed right past those complicated emotions, accepting that they were complicated and I didn’t want to deal with them. I simply kept avoiding them by launching myself right into work that would occupy my mind - like helping Griffin, doing the parties with Jed, and my garden. I was busy burying myself away hoping that so long as I didn’t think about those things of my past everything was going to be okay.
    I wanted it to be okay.

Chapter Seven
    The party came and went but I never made it to the party. Not for any catastrophic reason but simply because I had lost track of time in the garden. At least, that’s what I assumed happened. I eventually rose, brushed myself off and went back to my apartment to get ready. When I finally went to the club it was empty, not a single trace was left behind to indicate people had been there.
    I wondered if Griffin had tricked me, leading me to believe that I could use the club but when people came it didn’t exist. A part of me said gently that this didn’t entirely make sense but it was too late. I was angry. So, I stormed to his apartment, knocking unrelentingly on the door. When he finally came to open it his eyes were red rimmed and watering; I knew that