Accidentally in Love with…a God?(Accidentally Yours #1)(66)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“Hah. You think the parrot god could handle Emma? She’s her own force of nature.”

“Yeah, and her life is as good as over if she doesn’t get away from Tommaso.”

The thought scorched his soul. “She will. She must.”

“And if she survives, my dear brother, what do you plan to do with her?”

“I’d been considering wiping her memory, her family’s, too, so she’d be free to live her life—find a mate, have beautiful babies, and grow old. But now, I don’t know. I can’t live without her, and I don’t know how to be with her. I took an oath to be the God of Death and War for eternity. How do I do that and give her a life? My world is nothing but violence.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Seems the girl can handle more than you might think. You should have seen the way she came after me. Perhaps you two are kindred warrior spirits.”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Of course not, you’re too busy coddling her like a child. Well,” Cimil added. “Personally, I’d be more concerned with her mortality. Have you thought about that? She’s going to grow old.”

No. He hadn’t. In fact, he really hadn’t thought through any of this. He just knew he needed her. “What do I do?” Guy asked.

Cimil was silent for a moment. “First you save her. Then you might try asking her what she wants—let her decide her fate. Isn’t that what you’re always telling us we must do with the humans?”

Cimil was right. He’d been treating Emma like a child, and it always ended poorly when he did. No wonder she hated him. “You’re right, but I think she may have already made her choice—it wasn’t me.”

Cimil’s energy swirled around the cenote. “Well, can you blame her? You are an arrogant, manipulative, deadly—”

“I get the point. Can we change subjects? Perhaps focus on what we’ll do when we get out of here?”

“Certainly, my dear brother. And your loyal Uchben? What’s taking them so long?”

“I’m not sure.”

“How about that sweet little Chac? He’s still running around the jungle somewhere. Can you summon him?” Cimil asked.

Guy had tried summoning Chac the last time he’d been trapped in the cenote, but the boy was a wild creature and wouldn’t come near the water. Almost two centuries ago, the poor boy accidentally drowned in one of the cenotes right as Guy had been passing through. Taking pity, he pulled Chac to the other side of the portal, attempting to reignite the limp body with the light of the gods, but too much time had passed.

When Chac emerged from the cenote, the energy from their world flowed through his veins, but only a fragment of his soul remained. Guy tried to heal him and teach him, but it was useless. Now Chac wandered the jungle like a ghost, frightened by anything that moved. He would always retreat to the area near the cenote, like a rabbit to his hole, but never entered the water.

“I’m afraid not—”

A loud splash startled them.

“Bloody hell. What took so long?” Guy said. He looked at the frail, na**d legs kicking under the water. No, it’s not one of the Uchben.

In less than a second, Guy felt the familiar pull of the water spitting him out. He lay like a limp fish, face down in the mud, the water jutting from his lungs.

“Could someone please pull me out?” a voice echoed from below in the water.

Guy crawled to the edge of the cenote, panting. The sun was peeking over the horizon, giving the sky a grayish glow and just enough light for him to see the pale little man treading na**d in the water. “Xavier? Is that you?” Guy called out.

“In the bare flesh, my friend.”

Guy grabbed a long branch lying to his side in the moist dirt and used it to fish the pale man from the dark water. “What the hell are you doing here? And why are you naked?”

“I was in the neighborhood shopping for jars, saw one floating in the water, and decided to go skinny dipping for it,” Xavier said in a deadpan voice, but no one was ever sure when he was joking or serious.

Xavier sighed. “I’m here rescuing you, obviously. And I didn’t want to get my clothes wet when I went to remove the jar from the water. With the humidity, it could take days to dry, and there’s a particular species of fungi—”

“Yes, thank you, Xavier. Very interesting, but why are you here?”

Xavier explained that after Emma had left with Gabrán, the satellite images had come in. With communications compromised, he quietly went to one of the chiefs and talked him into authorizing a plane. “I had to come in person and see for myself. We found the mine, and there’s something else. It’s a very large structure. A pyramid.”

“Who’s your friend?” Cimil asked with a saucy voice, standing in her fire-engine-red lingerie, ringing out her black cocktail dress.

Guy took an impatient breath. “Xavier, this is the infamous Cimil who apparently doesn’t know how to dress for the jungle or combat. Cimil, this is Xavier, one of our most prestigious scholars—who…simply isn’t dressed.”

Xavier, too star-struck to catch the comment or notice he was still nude, reached out his hand. “Cimil, I’ve always wanted to meet you. I’m a huge, huge fan. I know everything about you.”

“Really now?” She stepped forward and ran one finger down the front of Xavier’s chest.

“Y-yes,” he stuttered nervously. “You’re an avid fan of Tango, you love to play tennis with the God of Eclipses—even though, he always wins—and you love a bargain.”

“I have to admit a good garage sale does get my juices flowing.” She turned to Guy. “I like your little friend here, he’s amusing. Can I keep him?”

Guy cringed. “Did you bring clothes, Xavier?”

Xavier snapped out of his rock-star-trance and scrambled over to a tree where his clothes hung.

“We need men,” Guy said to Cimil. “But even if we manage to round them up, we’ll still be unable to tell the ‘Tommaso’s’ from the loyal Uchben.

“I brought twenty men. They’re waiting near the fort. But culling is quite easy,” Xavier called out from the trees, slipping on his tan running suit. “Check their chests. All Maaskab bare the mark. They must perform the ritual of bloodletting to become one of them.”

That little old man was eccentric, but extremely bright. Guy might have to make him immortal before Cimil ruined him.