Free Thunder Road (Rain Chaser Book 1) by Sierra Dean Page B

spreading my name among the gods. It was hard to fly below the radar if everyone knew who you were. Especially when you had a penchant for breaking the rules more often than not.
    “That’s nice,” I said.
    “Mmm.” Her lips formed a thin line, and she looked us over. “I’ve come to offer a few friendly words of advice, if I may.”
    Like we could stop her.
    She moved towards us like light dancing across water, graceful but spooky in how disconnected it was from human motion.
    I backed up instinctively and ended up with my butt pressed against the open trunk of the Dodge. The smart thing to do would be to put the tire iron down, but it made me feel better having it in my hands, even if I knew I wasn’t going to use it.
    Badb was close enough now to see all the fine details of her face. Her eyes were coal black with no iris, just solid black circles in the middle of the whites. It was creepy the way they reflected whoever she was looking at, as if they were mirrors made of ink or oil. Everything about her was meant to entice, intrigue, and repulse. This form put people off their guard, made them uneasy.
    It was working incredibly well, because my skin was crawling, but I also wanted to stroke the feathers of her cape.
    Her gown beneath the feathers was made of smoke. Not merely resembling it, actual shifting layers of deep-gray smoke. Behind her insects were skittering across the highway, trying to get out of the orbit of her presence. All the previous chattering of birds in the trees had died away, and even the wind was gone.
    All was silent.
    Badb and Manea were pretty on par as far as scariness went, but Badb had the upper hand at the moment, in that she was standing right in front of me.
    She touched my cheek, and I recoiled. Her skin was warmer than I expected, but I still didn’t want her hands on me. No good could possibly come of having her here.
    “You’re a beautiful girl. Isn’t she beautiful, Luckless One?” Her dark eyes darted to Cade, reminding him he had not escaped her notice.
    “She is,” he replied quietly.
    “What a pair you two make, mmm.” She cocked her head much as her bird form had. So much of her resembled the crow still, the sharp mannerisms and jerky gestures. It was more than a little creepy. “It’s a shame you’re otherwise bound to your lieges. I would love to have my time with either of you.” She smiled thoughtfully, and it didn’t make me feel any warmer. “Or both of you.”
    Yeah, a threesome with the goddess of carnage and painful death was so not on my bucket list.
    “You flatter us with your attention, Badb.” Cade at least remembered what he was supposed to say. “But you said yourself, we are bound to others. Ardra does not share.”
    “She is sharing you with Seth.” Badb feigned a pout and pulled a strand of my hair loose from its messy bun. She wound it around her finger, and the black strands looked extra dark against her glimmering opal skin.
    I cleared my throat and turned my head so the hair fell out of her grip. “You came to tell us something.”
    “Did I? Oh yes, I suppose I did.”
    Fuck me, talking to a goddess was like asking a toddler to read an advanced physics dissertation. Seth might be cold, but at least he was good at getting to the point.
    Badb regarded Cade for a while, then returned her focus to me. “Manea has marked you.”
    Duh.
    “I know.”
    “No. Manea has marked you among our kind. She has promised great gifts to the one who brings you to her. She doesn’t only want Seth to pay with the life of his child, she wants you to pay for embarrassing her.”
    Cade was staring at her, and I know they were both waiting for me to react, but I’d gone numb.
    I could handle having a price on my head.
    Dealing with a pantheon of gods out for my blood, on the other hand, wasn’t exactly in my job description.
     

Chapter Ten
     
    “Tallulah.” Cade shook my shoulder gently, then a little harder when I didn’t answer.
    I finally came