Page 53 of Apollo

And desperation.

Now more than ever.

She couldn’t not admit it again.

In Lois’s screenwriting jargon, she was certain they called this a classic case of a “ticking time bomb”. Only this time, the fuse was a god who looked like an angel and had decided to try the seraph stuff on for size. Yet the kaboom packet itself was her life, and the diffusion switch wasn’t as easy as inputting a secret code.

She had to get back topside. Back into the real world.

Once there, she’d call on every contact and allegiance she had to help her grab a pin on Genny and free her from Ito’s clutches. Yes, even if it meant hurting some people. A lot of people. The man had already exacted the same price from her in every drop of blood her men had spilled in the atrium at DeLux. That was before she’d nearly murdered two members of Olympus royalty—all of it in allegiance to his greed. Now, she was done with the tactical tiptoeing. If the yakuza fiend wanted another target to twist to his will, Natasha Korra could step up for the job.

Yes. The new mission was clear. Within the next twenty-four hours, she vowed to be boarding a plane back to LA with Genny by her side.

On their way back home.

To normalcy.

Mortality.

For sure, that too. A reality she’d eventually accept once more, even if it already felt odd to consider it.

But . . . she’d do it.

She’d exist without this constant, masculine glory before her eyes. Silver lining: she’d be able to decently adjust her heartrate and calm her soul. She’d fall asleep with the certainty that only the sun waited for her in the morning, not the freaking sun god. No more wondering out how she’d deal with a daily diet of his Jagger audacity, Bowie sensuality, and silky soundcheck hair.

Most importantly, finally ditching the stupid hope that life could be more. That she’d be more to someone.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

It was better this way. No, it was best this way. Safer. Sounder. A hell of a lot less painful.

The sooner she drilled that into her psyche, the better.

More mental room cleared for ensuring Apollo got the point, as well. Because as she raised her gaze once more, mentally preparing a new request to be portaled to the latest location Kaw’s team had seen Genny, the towering Glow Worm moped more like a half-charged Halloween decoration. While his aura was still overt enough that a dozen swoony teenagers, three businessmen, and two Haneda traffic officers stopped to watch him leave the terminal with her, the luster had changed.

Between the Underworld crossroads and here, he’d unplugged half the circuits.

Maybe he should’ve had a slice of that pizza before they left.

Then again, maybe his crabby scowl wouldn’t have changed one bit. Or the flagrant fires in his eyes as he notched a large hand around her elbow and hauled her out to the curb.

Damn it.

The gorgeous ghoul hadn’t accepted their new reality at all.

He’d declared war on it.

CHAPTER TWENTY

She should have eaten the pizza.

All right, not the whole pie. It was just the fast, cheap stuff from the joint nearest the portal, not the gooey delight Dionysus’s chef whipped up for him on request at the Athens Bar. But if the stubborn woman had stopped to take even a few bites of what he’d brought, he wouldn’t be here playing peeved caveman with her now.

Not hungry?

Bullshit.

He’d heard her snarling stomach from all the way around the corner. On top of that, she wasn’t even adroit about the lie now. Every inch of her pursed lips and every conflicted speck in her averted gaze was a total tell about the fib—and a glaring giveaway about her actual truth in the line.