Chapter One (Part 2)

It was almost comical how quickly Idris’s amused smile was wiped away for a stern and serious stare, white eyebrows furrowing deeply as his sky-blue eyes urged me to drop the subject.

“Rook, we’ve talked about this – ”

“Yes, and I’ve already told you that I’ll be fine. I’m not helpless, I can fend off a few rabid worshippers. And besides, they all want something from me, don’t they? Why would they hurt me?”

Idris’s lips pursed. It wasn’t like he had no reason to worry. After the people had decided to name me as a god of love in addition to my titles as god of death and darkness, they’d erected temples for me across the realm. There was at least one in every major city now, and there were two in Esen. The bigger one, the one I wanted to visit, was the first one to have been built, and it was considered a sort of ‘headquarters’ that all the other temples looked to for inspiration.

And because the realm had never had a god of love before, the people were going a little screwy about it. Idris made sure to send me out with guards whenever I left the palace now, just to make sure none of them accosted me asking me to fix their love lives.

As if I could. Even if the universe had intentionally created me to be a god of love, it would only mean that my presence in the realm helped it flourish. It didn’t mean that I was personally responsible for specific people falling in love or not.

But the universe hadn’t created me as a god of love. The people decided that, for whatever stupid reason. And I didn’t understand that at all, because I still wasn’t really sure how love worked myself. I had only recently started opening myself up to it, had only recently started trying to heal the wounds love had caused me in the past, so how the fuck could I help anyone else with something I wasn’t an expert on myself?

I was still curious, though. After the pleas I’d heard at my wedding to Idris, it became clear to me that calling me a god of love wasn’t some sort of weird joke everyone had unanimously decided to join in on. They actually meant it. And that was terrifying.

Because now they were expecting something of me, something I didn’t know how to give. I couldn’t make someone’s crush fall for them anymore than I could control the death rate. Over time, the people of the realm had come to expect that the gods could fully control what their realm of rule was – and for some gods, who ruled over minor things, that might be somewhat true. And Ana. Ana’s sole realm of rule was rebirth, and she did personally decide a lot of which soul went where, but there were lines that the universe wouldn’t let her cross – as we had all just learned, the hard way.

But death, love – those weren’t things that anyone controlled. They just were. I was simply the embodiment of them, not the thing itself. Well, the embodiment of death and darkness at least. The jury was still out on love.

Even Idris, who was the god of light and creation, didn’t control creation. His ability to create new beings was unlimited, sure, but he couldn’t control anyone else’s ability to create. Other gods could still create demigods, half-immortals, mortals. The people could still procreate the messy way if they so choose. He couldn’t control that.

But with the way those people had begged me to help them with their love lives, I was getting the stomach-churning feeling that they thought I could control love.

Yeah, about that, guys…

So, going to the temple served two purposes. One, it would sate my curiosity. After all, people erected temples with certain imagery in mind for the god they were worshipping, and I was curious what sort of designs they’d chosen for me. Considering everyone in the realm had thought of me as nothing short of a demonic nightmare for the past millennium, it amused me to think of what sort of statues and paintings they’d come up with to honor me. Idris had visited the temples before, and he assured me it was all very tasteful, but I very much doubted that.

The second purpose was to scope out these worshippers and see if the problem was as bad as I thought. Idris had already told me he was worried about the worshippers mobbing me, but he’d never implied that he thought I would be in serious danger before. The way he kept blocking me from going, however, told me that he very much was worried about that, and that meant I needed to assess the problem and figure out a solution before this situation escalated. I didn’t exactly want to have to be escorted everywhere by a retinue of guards for the rest of my life.

And it was sweet of Idris to worry about me, but I’d faced danger aplenty before. A couple obsessive worshippers wasn’t exactly what I would consider truly ‘dangerous.’

“Stop making that face,” I told Idris after a long, tense silence. “You look like you need to shit. And if you do need to shit, bathroom’s that way.” I made a vague, careless gesture towards the nearest bathroom – as if he hadn’t lived here his whole life – and focused on the tv, pretending I couldn’t hear Idris’s sigh.

“Rook, please,” he tried again a moment later in that soft, persuasive tone that usually made me melt like ice in the desert, but not today. Not this time. He’d put this off so many times, with so many excuses.

The first time he’d told me no on this, I assumed there must be some sort of obscene imagery there – statues of me in the nude, paintings of Idris and I fucking – stuff that would have made him blush, but I would simply examine with a critical eye. After all, love and the erotic often went hand in hand, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the people had gone full pornography with their art. It wasn’t indecent if it was for worship (or some similar excuse).

But then he kept saying no, and I knew it wasn’t anything that simple, so I pushed until he told me what he was actually being a pansy about, which then led to this very same argument we were having now, over and over again.

“What if I went in disguise?” I offered, which made Idris pause. “I can get Ren to do that blonde disguise on me again. They’ll just think I’m another worshipper.”

I could tell Idris wanted to tell me no again, but he was searching for an argument to my very logical work-around. So, I let him sit there and think harder than I’d ever seen him think, wanting to make a comment about smelling something burning, but I knew that would only hurt my chances, so I kept the comment safely behind my teeth.

Although, why I needed his permission in the first place was beyond me. I’d tried several times to leave and see the temple myself, but he must have some sort of alarm system in place because every time I tried, he was right there to stop me. It was starting to piss me off.

What, just because we’re married now, he gets a say in where I go and what I do? No fucking way. His worries were logical, and I understood very well how visiting the temple could go very wrong, but that didn’t mean he had the right to chain me to the palace to keep me from going there.

Exasperated, but still having come up with no logical arguments, Idris scrubbed a hand over his chin and then slapped it down on his knee in frustration. “Rook – ”

“Oh, just come with me then,” I interrupted. “Ren can work his magic on you too, and then we’ll both go and pretend we’re a new couple praying for blessings for our relationship. How does that sound?”

Idris sighed. “You’re not going to give up until you see it, are you?”

I tilted my nose up in the air snottily, pointedly looking away from him. “Nope.”

Another sigh. His eyes rolled up to the heavens – as if I was the unreasonable one here – and then landed back on me contemplatively. “Fine. We’ll go. But if anyone clocks who you really are, we’re out of there, got it?”

I mock saluted him and then shot to my feet, eager to get going. “Understood, captain. Now shoo, bring my favorite stepson so we can go.”

Idris stood as well, snorting. “I thought Gabriel was your favorite stepson.”

“He ate my chocolate covered cherries, so I demoted him. Ren gave me a cupcake the other day, though, so he shot up in the ranking.”

“You’re very food motivated.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, scowling as he walked up with a teasing smile and placed his hands on my waist. “Watch yourself, asshole. You happen to be at the bottom of my list of favorite people after you tried to get me to eat that nasty ass salad.”

“You need to eat vegetables every now and then, Rook. We may be immortal but eating poorly still affects our health and well-being.”

I was well aware of that. Given what sorts of things I’d spent the past millennium eating, there was no one more familiar with the concept than I. But a year or so of getting to eat whatever I wanted had spoiled me, and admittedly, I’d been eating mostly junk.

But that didn’t mean I wanted to eat soggy lettuce with tomatoes, raw onions, and the dryest, most flavorless chicken ever cooked. I had taken one look at it and almost declared spousal abuse.

“Well, maybe if you offered me something that didn’t look and taste like hot garbage, I would.”

Idris rolled his eyes. “Yes, your highness. My mistake.”

I scoffed and pushed away from him, hip bumping him out of my way so I could storm off, but he hooked a finger in one of my belt loops and reeled me back in so he could kiss my cheek before stepping away to call Ren.

I watched him from under my lashes, only allowing heat to rise to my cheeks when he wasn’t looking. I ignored the childish urge to come up behind him and bite his ear because that would just escalate things, and then we’d never get to the temple.

But when we got back…

I hurried up to our room to prepare, quickly turning my thoughts to the matter at hand.

Time to see what all this ‘love god’ nonsense was really about.