Free Broken God by Nazarea Andrews Page B

pull her into my arms, closer, and press a kiss
into her hair and brush it back, letting the barest curl of my power slide out
and wrap around her.
    “It’s bright ,” She-they-whisper. “There’s so much . Apollo,” she shudders, and shakes.
    “ It
gets easier, love.” I murmur.
    “Too much. Too much.” She repeats it, a long chant and then
screams and my grip tightens over her, holding her steady as she shudders and
screams, her eyes wide and sightless and staring.
    She speaks, then.
    They all speak.
    I hold her close, and listen, and make sense of her words as my
chosen girl speaks the prophecy that will kill her, parsing out the golden
shining threads of future that will be true.
    Speaking the endless possibilities and speaking the true one.
    I hold her and whisper reassurance and wipe away her tears, and
I wish like hell there was any other way to do this. To remain sane without
driving my Del into the depths of madness.
    My girl. My favorite, the girl I love more than any other.
    And the one that I will use the worst, and break the most and
always, always, come back to, despite knowing that I am killing her.
    Until I walked away, my gift intact, and forsook the Delphi.
Until I chose to leave them all behind because I couldn’t bear to kill another.

 
 
    Chapter 11.
     
    I wake with the
sun, with Iris wrapped around me in my bed. I don’t remember when we moved
here. Sometime after the second time we fucked, but before the third.
    She fell asleep
after that, so I suppose it was good timing on our part.
    The sun is creeping
up, a sure wash of power spilling over me, filling the apartment. I can feel it
like a wave, intoxicating and so fucking strong I could drown in it. For a
moment, as it fills the room, I stretch, let it linger there, the power of the
sun pushing against my skin like a lover’s kiss.
    Del snarls softly,
bites my earlobe and I laugh, low and free, and let my defenses down, let my power
swell in, filling me until my skin tingles and glows and I am more gold - touched - god than I am man.
    I shiver and I
whisper soft, a low Greek greeting to the Sun.
    Power swells again,
and I smile, fondly.
    Then I look at the
girl sleeping at my side.
    I didn’t expect
this. This wild , laughing girl who smiled as she fucked me and moved over my body like worship.
Who grinned like there was some secret joke that only she knew, and if I was
very lucky she might share it with me.
    I want to keep her
and I know that I can’t.
    But I can fix the
things that break her. The brother who is dying that she would grieve. I press
a quick kiss to her forehead and carefully extract myself from her, leaving her
wrapped around a pillow, naked and lovely in my bed as I scoop Del up and
retreat to the kitchen.
    I start coffee and
open a can of tuna for Del who watches me with disgusted impatience, too dignified
to twine around my ankles as I prepare her breakfast. I run a single finger
between her ears as I put her and the can on a different counter and she hisses
softly, but arches into my touch, and then dismisses me completely as she turns
to her food.
    With one girl set,
I hum softly and turn to make food for the one in my bed.
    I have a few eggs
and a little bit of rabbit that Artemis brought last time she visited, and a
few vegetables that aren’t rotten. And a sharp white cheddar. It’s enough, I
think, to make a quiche that she might enjoy.
    Smiling, I set to
work, slicing and sautéing some onions with the rabbit and dicing a few
potatoes to add to the mix. Tomatoes and a few leaves of wilted spinach, then
I’m tossing it all in the pan with the onion and rabbit. The oven dings, this
ancient sound that tells me it’s starting too warm and I pause, pouring coffee
and sidestepping Del as she mews grumpily at my feet, before she begins to
groom herself.
    Soon the quiche is
assembled and I slide it into the oven. My coffee is empty and I’m hungry, so I
slice a piece of bread and toast it, munching absently