Page 7 of Edge of Stars

Before Kara and I can muster stunned reactions, Kell handles the guy’s assholery for herself. The crack of her palm across his jaw is muffled from outside by the towels and toilet paper stacked around us, though that doesn’t stop a bang of insight in my brain.

“Wait. Clio?” I inject. “As in one of the Musai? She’s the muse of history, right? The shy bookworm?”

“Define shy,” Prieto drawls.

Kell’s vicious sniff rips the air. She draws back as if readying a full punch for the guy but sags into a seethe when Kara hits her with a warning glance.

I join my censuring stare to Kara’s when Prieto whips a new look at his betrothed, lips twisting with the sadistic cocktail he’s prepared to mix for her.

“Okay.” I straighten my shoulders and firm my jaw. “As much as I’d love to grab boxing gloves for you two and some popcorn for Kara and me, time isn’t an expendable commodity at the moment.” I pulse my hand around Kara’s hard enough for them to witness. “You guys probably thought we were getting away for some fast face sucking. And also as fully as I wish that were the case—”

“You’re planning something,” Arden inserts as calmly as asking where we’re going to honeymoon. “Aren’t you? About all the whispers of the war?”

“Potential war,” Kara cuts in, her form stiffening even more. I wish the change didn’t triple her elegant, ethereal effect in that gown… “Nothing has been that plainly stated.”

“Not yet,” Arden says.

“And not ever, if we can help it.”

I peer harder at the incubus. “But you already knew that…didn’t you? How? What whispers are you talking about? How loud are they?”

Arden sweeps out a reassuring hand. “Deep breaths, please. It’s still well below the main gossip radar, at least in the underworld. A few of us are just trained better about the frequencies to listen in at.”

“And they’re chattering about it there?” Kara steps forward, a tremble across her delicate features. “How loud? How often?”

Arden arches his brows. A wave of something—simple reaction? Deeper emotion? Overt conflict?—is an odd flicker on his own face. It doesn’t disappear either. “Not as often as the conjectures that your belly is cooking the world’s most unique hybrid, my sister.”

Kell sews her tension onto Kara’s now. Neither of them is comfortable about the incubus’s tendency toward the familial liberties, but it’s not the most important point at the moment. Thankfully, Kara understands my gentle reminder in the form of my subtle weight shift.

“All right, let’s just hope you’re on a sharper edge than everyone else, Prieto,” I state, “and we’ve still got the element of surprise on our hands here.”

Kell’s expression narrows. “Surprise? About what?”

Kara’s the one to readjust her stance, giving me an entrancing view of her profile as she pulls a long breath in. “Right after we learned about the pregnancy, Persephone sought us out. She was as worried as us about Hecate’s commitment to taking out Zeus and Hera.”

While Kell’s stare stiffens, Prieto cocks his head. “Fascinating.”

“No,” Kell says. “More like terrifying.” She darts her focus between her sister and me. “How does she know? Hecate confided in her?”

“More than that,” Kara divulges. “Hecate retrieved her from Olympus ten days early. Told her that she needed help and couldn’t even entrust any of the Iremia magistras with it. The goddess needed help in ‘keeping an eye’ on us.”

“Very fascinating.”

Kell backhands Arden’s shoulder. “Keeping an eye on you,” she echoes. “I assume not in the please watch my cat while I’m out of town kind of way?”

Kara sputters an ironic laugh. “I’d let you scratch my chin if that were even half true.”

During their exchange, Prieto’s clearly processing the new input of information. “She came for Persephone ten days in advance. So she’s been suspicious about your suspicions for a while now.”

Kara nods. “Most likely the largest reason for Persephone’s effort.”

“Which came down to what?” Kell queries. “Don’t tell me she was just rolling around to give you a friendly heads-up about stuff.”

“No. There was more.” Kara sobers by at least a dozen degrees. “She implored us to take action. To try to stop Hecate’s crazy plans.”

“Now that’s past fascinating.” Without altering his frown, Prieto prevents Kell’s new bicep punch by snatching her wrist in midair. “Wouldn’t Persephone stand to benefit in many ways from an upset of the realms?”

I hike up my jaw. “Not if it was going to take out the one she loves the most.”