His harpymph calmed, at least, settling in his arms.

  “I had the birth record mystically tested, and... I’m sorry, Ophelia,” Taliyah repeated, “but it’s valid.”

  “Well then.” She wrapped her arms around Halo, as if she wished to be absorbed by him. An action that begged, Don’t let go. “If it’s valid.”

  He repositioned, crossing his arms over her shoulders, and nuzzled his cheek into hers. If he could meet her needs, aid her in some way...as satisfying as bedding her.

  “I’m sorry for the pain I caused with my delivery,” the General said, stacking papers that didn’t need to be stacked.

  “Don’t, um, worry about it.” Ophelia cleared her throat and motored on. “I’ll never be your consort’s biggest fan, but I’m not out for his blood or anything. For the record, I would have made a horrifyingly fierce adversary.”

  “Yes. Well. Let’s set all personal matters aside for the moment.” Taliyah cleared her throat as well. “I believe we all have a task to dominate.”

  17

  Shock kept Ophelia in a daze. Perhaps the reason Halo remained at her side during the endless meeting with General Taliyah and Commander Roc.

  The conclusion of the hours-long briefing came only after the freeze. Halo flashed Ophelia to a private, candlelit feast in the royal dining room. To be invited here, where only the strongest of harpykind and their loved ones dined, was a true honor.

  An honor her sister—her mother had never extended to her.

  A lump lodged in her throat, clogging her airway. At any other time, Ophelia thought she might have gawked at the furnishings. Today she just didn’t care. She shuffled to her seat. Her head hung, and her shoulders drooped.

  Halo held out her chair for her and claimed the seat beside her, then filled her plate with delicacies. “To earn each bite,” he said, so gentle she almost couldn’t fathom it, “you have only to breathe. All right?”

  “I can do that, I guess,” she mumbled. But she couldn’t quiet her mind.

  Nissa was her mother. The irritating sibling who had yelled at her again and again for oh, so foolishly throwing away her future had given birth to her. Nissa had bedded the nymph, not the dead mother the General had ridiculed on multiple occasions.

  All Mother had to do was say no. N.O. It’s not that difficult. Look at me. No. No!

  Queasy, Ophelia used the fork to push her “earned” food around the plate. What sucked most? Despite the hypocrisy of it all, she hated that she’d upset Nissa. It was one thing to disappoint your sister and quite another to disappoint your mother.

  “What can I do to help you?” Halo asked.

  “I want Vivi.” Her eyes burned, and her vision wavered. “Is there any way you can unfreeze her?”

  “I do not think so.” He leaned over, grasped her by the waist and transported her to his lap. “What would Vivi do for you if she were here?”

  What could the harpire do? No one knew if Nissa had been too embarrassed of her nymph daughter to admit the truth, or if the General Mother Dearest had kept quiet simply to maintain her title. Either way...

  I was unwanted.

  Hot tears poured down Ophelia’s cheeks. Embarrassed, she batted at the ridiculous droplets. Breaking down in front of an Astra? And not just any Astra, but hers. No, not hers. Not yet, maybe not ever. Humiliating! But the tears didn’t care; they fell faster.

  “I think Vivi would mention how amazing I am,” she croaked. “Loyal. Honest. Dedicated. Rare, wonderful qualities. Ask anyone. And then she’d probably tell me that being rejected by my own mother proves nothing about my worth, only Nissa’s.”

  Halo kissed her temple. “Vivi would not be wrong. But harpy? Amazing doesn’t come close to describing you.”

  Ophelia sagged against him, resting her head on his shoulder. A position she appreciated more and more. “I don’t believe you. I mean, Vivi knows me, so her speeches work. You know nothing.”

  “You believe I’m saying these things, simply to be nice?”

  “I know! It’s shocking to me, too.” She drew an X over his heart, mourning the loss of what could have been, if only Nissa had been honest with her. The conversations they could have had. “For starters, you think I’m weak.” Oops. Another tear escaped.

  “Weak? Why would I ever think that? Did you not go toe-to-toe with an angry Astra after he shackled you to a bed?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “And did you not force nine warlords to bend to your will?”

  “I did do that, yes, and it wasn’t even that difficult,” she said, perking up. She was practically a superhero. After the task, she would be a genuine superhero.

  He traced his fingertips along the ridges of her spine. “Did you not give me the most powerful orgasms of my life?”

  She raised her head, meeting his gaze. “Really? The most powerful?”

  “It isn’t even a competition.” How earnest he appeared, those magnificent irises spinning. And his pupils...they pulsed. Like a heartbeat.

  Ophelia curled up against him, soaking in his warmth. He kept saying things that pointed to his lack of experience, yet he played her body expertly. “Be honest. Am I that good or are you that bad?”

  He snorted. “Both?” A little smile teased his lips as he smoothed a lock of hair from her face. “I enjoy being sexual with you.”

  “You didn’t enjoy it before me?”

  “I did not.”

  Wow. Just wow. “What about cuddling?”

  “This is my first time to do so. Before you, I got in and got out, preferring to be alone.”

  What? Never cuddled before Ophelia? And in and out? Wow again. “I hate to break it to you, darling, but your douchebag roots are showing. You didn’t see to the pleasure of your partner? The disrespect!” Never mind that she hadn’t seen to his pleasure in the beginning. They were discussing his faults, not hers.

  He combed his fingers through her hair. “I didn’t enjoy touching or being touched. But for a moment, I could be free of my tension.”

  Hesitant, she asked, “But you like touching and being touched now?” He seemed to need contact as much as she did. “With me?”

  “I do,” he rasped.

  Two words. Pure seduction. “Have you ever discussed your thoughts and feelings like this?”

  “Never.”

  I’m the chosen one. The lover he relished touching.

  The action movie soundtrack filled her head without the aid of her earbuds, and her shoulders rolled back. Well, of course she was the chosen one. She was more than amazing; she was indestructible. Strong enough to survive death thrice, with a cunning side that drove her to cross any line to succeed. Even keeping secrets from an Astra.

  Ignore the guilt. Her sister was her mother, a fact she couldn’t change. The shock and sting hadn’t lessened, but the despondency was gone, thanks to Halo.

  “I want to for real cuddle with you,” she announced. “Not a gateway cuddle to sex but a no-strings cuddle where I can do anything I wish to your body, and you just have to take it.”

  He gripped the hair at her nape, tilting her head up to his. Spinning irises blazed with desire. “If I agree to this no-strings cuddle in a location of my choosing, you’ll talk and tell me other things I wish to know?”

  “I will if you will. Within reason.” Always have a caveat at the ready.

  He rushed to nod, as if he’d hoped for such a response. “The deal is set.” After adjusting his hold, he flashed them to a couch in the entertainment room. A spacious chamber with multiple other couches set in rows. A huge projector screen hung on the far wall, next to a “Rack o’ Phallus” snack machine that was mystically enhanced to never run out of fresh corn dogs, pickles, bananas, or cucumbers. A “Property of Not You” sign hung from the top.

  Ophelia’s stomach rumbled, her appetite unconcerned by the emotional crisis. “Ugh! Why am I so hungry? We just ate.”

  “No. I ate. You pushed food around your plate.” He flashed to the machine, punched the glass to acquire a corn dog, and returned to her. “You can earn this by asking me a question,” he said, stretching out. He masterfully maneuvered her into the crook of his arm. Her new favorite place to be.

  She asked the first thing to pop into her head, then bit into her treasure. “Why did you kill your father?”

  “I killed him the day I met him,” he said, petting her hair. “I learned he had arranged my mother’s murder and sold me to the Order. A school for child assassins, where I was taught to detach from my emotions. By the time I left, I’d already amassed hundreds of names on my kill list. Including friends. My father had much to answer for.” He offered the information without hesitation and yes, detached from emotion.

  Sympathy welled as she imagined young Halo, forced to murder friends he’d loved. How the memories must torment him.

  How would he react when he learned he’d killed a potential gravita not once but twice?

  Guilt and fear surged. Maybe she shouldn’t tell him...ever. For his own good. “I’m sorry you suffered as a child. But I’m not sorry for the male you’ve become. He’s pretty wonderful upon occasion and shockingly tempting always.”

  He blinked at her with surprise and cleared his throat. “All right, yes. I understand why Vivi’s praise brings you such encouragement.” Pause. “You like when I comfort you?”

  Dude. That plaintive tone got her straight in the feels. “How could I not like it? It really highlights your obsession with me. Your best feature.”

  “Thank you for noticing,” he deadpanned. “I’ve worked hard on it.”

  Genuine laughter burst from her. A true shocker. Amusement? At a time like this?

  A smile curved the corners of his mouth. “You sound like pure joy when you laugh, Elia.”

  Sexy, intense warlord. She rolled onto him, draping her body over his, and crossed her arms on his chest. Resting her chin on top of the pile, she peered at him through her lashes. “You get a four-star review for your comforting. I’m deducting one star so you have something to strive for. Goals are important.” If only he understood hers; he would be the perfect male.

  “True.” Toying with locks of her hair, he asked, “And what are your goals? Other than becoming General.”

  Did she even want to become a General anymore? Where did she go from here? Ophelia had sought the title to prove her worth to Nissa.

  Speaking of proving her worth. “You know one of my other goals. I’ve made no secret of it.” Careful. Proceed with caution. “I plan to help you defeat Erebus, the way my General commanded.”

  He frowned. “Elia—”

  “No, don’t say anything else right now. Let’s do something wild and crazy. Let’s relax!” So much had happened today, leaving her in a tailspin and emotionally wrung out. First had come the earth-shattering pleasure with Halo. Then learning she’d faced banishment. Then hearing the crime of omission committed by Nissa.

  The revelation was still raw. Ophelia knew the truth of her origins, but she’d never felt less like herself. For years, she’d denied the needs of her nymph, ashamed of her “weaknesses,” desperate to impress someone unwilling to be impressed.

  “Very well. We will relax,” Halo said. “We will...rest.”

  Minutes passed in silence, but neither of them drifted off. Her mind was too chaotic. More than that, a harpy couldn’t sleep with anyone but trusted sisters or a consort. Halo hadn’t claimed her as his gravita, so he couldn’t be her consort yet.

  Unless he was hers, but she wasn’t his.

  * * *

  For the next six days, Ophelia stewed about her predicament. What else could she do? Every day, she was forced to occupy the same chair in the same conference room for hours, ignored as Halo, Roc, and Taliyah talked war.

  On the plus side, the meetings turned Irresistible Halo into the Machine. Cold, callous, unbending and seemingly unaffected by her swinging moods. Almost resistible.

  The Machine refused to relent to her request and give her a chance to prove herself. He expected Ophelia to stay out of the fight, and it was complicating everything. Her thoughts. Her emotions. Her every decision. Today especially. Their reprieve was over: she sensed it. Erebus would strike soon after the freeze.

  There would be another battle. Another death.

  Remove Halo’s refusal from the equation, and Ophelia was ready. Become another beast? Bring it. She was stronger than before. And this time, she expected the god’s command to kill the Astra. She knew to fight against it.

  Once she overcame the compulsion to obey, she could willingly lay down her life. Halo could strike without opposition, completing the labor. No muss or fuss for him. High honors for her.

  Her chance to do her part for harpykind. To ovary-up or shut up. The way heroes—or cowards—were forged. She refused to let Halo turn her into something she wasn’t.

  Maybe she played with fire, but so what? She’d rather go down in flames than live without heat.

  At the moment, Halo, Roc, and Taliyah were talking among themselves at the other end of the table. The trio ignored her existence. Though, okay, yes, snacks arrived for Ophelia to steal every hour on the dot. Despite Halo’s aloof demeanor, he maintained an acute awareness of her and timed her food intake to prevent hunger.

  How could he be so wonderful and terrible at the same time?

  His electric pull only ever amplified, drawing her scrutiny again and again. Her curiosity about his past only deepened—what had created the male he was today? Her desire for him only heated. Her admiration for him had skyrocketed—and continued to climb. It was starting to scare her.

  Growing attached. Was he doing the same? Maybe? Possibly? To have him for a consort...to have sex, satisfaction, companionship, a true partner... Longing bombarded her.

  Was it all too good to be true?

  Would he ever mark her?

  Ophelia watched him, unable to look away. He stood between the two leaders, pointing to passages in different books, his muscles flexing with each movement. Not a strand of inky hair was out of place. His expression revealed polite respect, nothing more, and yet she sensed great frustration and tension inside him.

  Though the Commander and General had moderated their tones the entire conversation, Halo did not show the same courtesy.

  “My task, my way. In this, my authority supersedes yours,” he stated. “Soon you won’t even remember we had this conversation.”

  How delicious. Any time Halo told his Commander or the General what to do, pervy Ophelia got wetter. She could only shift in her seat and cross her legs to mitigate the sudden ache.

  An insatiable fire blazed in her marrow, the flames reaching for Halo. No one else would do. This was a needing.

  Both Roc and Taliyah scowled at him. They didn’t want Ophelia overhearing the battle plan in case Erebus got his hands on her again. As if she would ever spill! The lack of trust in her abilities only added fuel to the fires of her determination.

  Strengthen. Help win the task. Bask in the accolades.

  Halo’s accolades, particularly. He would have to eat his doubt and admit she wasn’t just some bed bunny. Granted, she would very much like to get him into bed. The way his muscles rippled...

  His gaze darted to her, there and gone. A familiar action. He’d glanced her way more than a dozen times already. Had he, perhaps, scented her growing arousal?

  “Why do we have to reset?” Taliyah demanded. “Why are we taken out of commission twelve hours a day?”

  “Ten hours,” Halo corrected. “Sixty minutes are added to your tally and subtracted from Erebus’s each time we complete a labor. I believe the day will cease repeating sometime after my eleventh victory. Perhaps the twelfth. My biggest problem is Erebus’s ability to bypass palace security. He and his phantoms come in and out at will.” Without looking Ophelia’s way, he waved her over. “Show them where you’ve met with Erebus.”

  Called off the bench? She popped to her feet with record speed, surely, and raced over. Halo’s scent infiltrated her awareness, stoking the inferno in her bones to new heights.

  Do not melt against the coach, player one. Not again.

  At attention like a good soldier, she examined the map stretched over the table’s surface, overlaid with a transparent blueprint of the palace. Pointing, she said, “Here, here and here, sir.”

  As though it were the most natural thing in the world, he wound an arm around her and cupped her hip. Her heart fluttered. Was he, perchance, imagining Ophelia sinking to her knees, tearing open his leathers, and devouring his length? Because suddenly she could think of nothing else.

  “Have Silver perform a sweep of all three areas,” he commanded. “Perhaps he’ll notice something I missed.”

  “Consider it done,” Roc replied.

  “And now, this meeting is over. No,” Halo interjected when the couple issued protests. “I have other things to do.”

  So hot!

  The Commander and Taliyah flashed from the room.

  Halo exhaled a heavy breath, some of the strain easing from his features. From the Machine to Irresistible Halo.

  He met her gaze. “I apologize for the time delay. There was more to cover here than I’d realized. Every day I give Roux something else to research and every day the information leads in a new direction.” A slight twitch in his jaw. “Now we have only minutes until the freeze occurs. Let’s go somewhere.” He smoothed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Tell me your favorite place in Harpina.”

  She leaned into his touch, saying, “Climax Point.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” The corners of his mouth curved up.

  He flashed her to the infamous island cliff. The obsidian peak sat miles from the Harpinian shore, overlooking an endless stretch of purple water, where tribes of harpens and harmaids resided. The sirens and mermaids.