Free Broken: Hidden Book Two by Colleen Vanderlinden

have been.”
    I studied him. He shook his head and laughed a little.. “I’m not going to be disgusted by you. You have this idea in your head that you’re a monster and I’m an angel or something. Neither is true. We’re all monsters here, Molly. We just also happen to be the good guys.”
    I watched him. He must have seen disbelief in my gaze. “If you would have seen me when I caught Branford, you would have no doubt how much of a monster I can be. It took several of your imps, plus Eunomia to pull me off of him. And the only reason I stopped was because I figured that pissing off a Guardian was probably bad luck.”
    I had an idea, of course. I knew what it felt like when Brennan used his power in anger. And I’d seen the teeth and claw marks on Branford’s throat and arms.
    I nodded, ceded the point. “Well. You can worry about me less now, I think,” I said, watching as Eunomia and her sisters escorted Branford’s soul away. “I’m pretty sure there’s not much that can kill me.”
    “Yeah. Pretty sure. Crazy thing is, I’ll still worry about you. It’s what I do.” He shrugged.
    I walked past him back toward the elevator, and Brennan reached out and snagged my back pocket with his fingers, pulled me back to him. He stepped closer to me, meeting me halfway. I tensed as he folded me into his arms, gently, mindful of my sensitive skin. My stomach fluttered, and I was uncomfortable, unsure of myself near Brennan. After a moment, I relaxed, put my hands on his hips, leaned into him and rested my forehead against his chest. I breathed him in, and it smelled like home. We stood there for a long time, and I tried to tell myself that it didn’t mean anything.

Chapter Seven
     
    After my Lazarus thing following the fire, Ada and Stone seemed weird around me. Not mean, or unkind. Just nervous.
    “They think you’re a god,” Brennan finally explained to me one day a couple of weeks later, when we had a minute between meetings.
    “Uh. What?”
    “A god. They think you’re a god and they want to show you the proper amount of respect,” he said, plopping down into one of the other chairs in my office.
    “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered.
    Brennan laughed. “Language, Molly,” he murmured, smiling and shaking his head. I had decided to try curbing it, mostly for Shanti’s benefit. I wasn’t doing a very good job. Old habits die hard.
    “You don’t think I’m a god, do you? Please tell me you don’t,” I said.
    He grinned. “Well, I’ve always thought of you as a goddess, but that’s probably not what they’re thinking.”
    I flung a pen at him. He ducked it and laughed again. “You haven’t told me about the gateway Eunomia mentioned,” he said after a while.
    “Speaking of gods,” I muttered.
    “Yeah.”
    I took a breath. “So, there’s a gateway between here and the Pit, which is a Nether prison, basically. Baddest of the bad, worst of the worst. All that. And it’s weakening. Something or someone, or several somethings, are trying to get through. Eunomia thinks it’s related to the whole Astaroth mess last year.”
    He sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking it over. “No ideas who?”
    I shook my head. “She says they’re looking into it, but they’re mostly concerned with keeping the gateway strong. She said some of the Nether’s strongest demons are helping guard it, as well as a Fury, Tisiphone. But she thinks it’s just a matter of time before they break through.”
    “Where is it?”
    I shrugged. “I haven’t been able to grab E for more than a second or two. I guess when she gets worried enough, she’ll tell me.”
    “And you’re just going to…”
    “Yeah. Kill anything that comes through.”
    He sighed, leaned back and closed his eyes. “Like you don’t have enough going on.”
    I shrugged--. “If they get through, anything else I’m doing will seem kind of pointless.”
    He was silent for a few seconds. “Demons, right?”
    “She said some