I felt cornered.

  And Nevah knew it. I could see the look on his face. There was a part of me that half expected him to casually inform me that Aeraelly himself was waiting outside the city walls for me to decline his offer.

  This wasn’t the father/son reunion that I’d imagined. Though I wasn’t sure what I’d hoped for. Some acknowledgement of why he’d left me in an orphanage or a promise to teach me how to survive in this world might have helped.

  I took a deep breath. “She can come with us if she takes the seal—”

  “Great!” Nevah clapped his hands. “I’ll get started on that right now!”

  I sliced my hands in front of me. “I want Trent to do it.”

  The old God looked hurt. “But I can make it so that no one will be able to tell who you are.”

  “If you’re going to the Primus, then everyone who could get past Trent and Miel will already know who I am.” I shook my head. “And right now, I trust Trent a lot more than I trust you.”

  “True, the Primus knows about you, but they don’t know about her.” Nevah pointed at Ether. “And I’m assuming you don’t want them to know about what is going to happen to Nakten either?”

  “How do you know that Nakten is going to awaken like Ether did?” I glanced at my wife before looking back at Nevah.

  “You have dual bloodlines.” The ivory man grinned. “Not exactly rare; most Gods do, but bloodlines usually don’t unlock until you hit Tier Two and the second bloodline doesn’t usually activate until much later; sometimes it doesn’t show up until a God takes their city Mantle.” He laughed. “But you had both of yours activate at level one! You can count the number of people who’ve had that happen…” His voice trailed off. “Okay, there’s more than a few handfuls, but still, it’s like a once every few years kind of thing.”

  “That still doesn’t tell me how you know that she’s going to awaken.” I nodded at Nakten.

  “Because I’ve been around longer than anyone else!” Nevah chuckled. “I’ve seen things that will probably never happen again and I can tell you that if anyone on the Primus remembered what happened the last time someone with Divine Potential and Irresistible Charm had a harem, this deal wouldn’t be on the table.”

  I swallowed. “What happened?’

  “It was…” Nevah waved his hand. “It’s a long story, but the simplest explanation is that they created the Kingdom.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I knew the Wards were a cluster of large islands, each about two thousand miles wide, but the Kingdom was a much larger continent on the other side of the world. Considering the vast amount of ocean between the Wards and the Kingdom, there was very limited travel, but I did know that things were very different over there than they were here.

  “You think that’s what I’m going to do here.” I swallowed. “How do you even know about the Kingdom?”

  “Not all of us were born on this side of the world.” Nevah grinned. “But that’s a whole history that we don’t have time to get into right now.” He bobbed his head. “Short version is, you have no clue what you’re capable of, but yes…” He gestured at the Anubis. “She’s going to awaken just like the woman behind you did. Just like you’ll be able to do to every godsired you’re with, which is why you need to keep a lid on this.” He glanced around the RV. “And you need to awaken as many women as you can, because all I’m doing is buying you time and it’ll be to your advantage if the Primus believes you’re a lot weaker than you are when they come for you.”

  “What happens to you when the Primus figure out that you covered this up?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Cover what up?’ Nevah smirked. “All I’m doing is helping my great-grandson because his mother was desolated and unable to teach him.” He wiggled his eyebrows and spread his hands innocently. “I can’t be blamed for doing exactly what they asked me to do.”

  “What happened to the honor system?” Ether grumbled from behind me.

  “If they wanted to know your secrets, then they should have asked. If they, or you, think I am going to volunteer any information that can hurt one of my own, then which one of us is the one without honor?” Nevah looked at my wife. “What you have become is something that rarely happens outside of taking a Mantle of the Gods. Guard this secret, because there are many Nephilim and Gibborim that would want to replicate what happened.”

  I looked over at Ether and nodded at Nakten.

  The ivory woman sighed but nodded her head.

  “Nakten, you’re doing this because you want to?” I turned to the woman in the driver’s seat and held up my hand before she could respond. “Let me rephrase. Do you want to join my team because it’s the only option you’re being given?”

  She hesitated, then looked over at Nevah for help.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” I shook my head.

  “NO!” The Anubis stood up. “I mean, yes, this was my only option to get a Mantle and leave the palace.” She pointed at me. “But did they give you a choice?” Nakteng gestured at the other women in the RV. “Every one of you was brought to the Cathedral and told which team you’d be on! How is this any different?”

  “Because I’m only sleeping with one of them.” I shrugged. “I can see it on your face. You want to awaken like Ether did, but that’s not going to happen. You can take my seal and follow me around, but until I can trust you like I do the others, you’re not going to share my bed.”

  Her shoulders slumped as she dropped back into the driver’s seat.

  I turned back to Nevah. “Look, I know this sounds ungrateful, but I’d still like Trent to do her seal.”

  “Understandable.” Nevah slapped his knees as he stood up. “Well, I think my work here is done then…”

  The door to the RV opened and Trent walked in. He looked around at all of us and his gaze settled on Nakten for a moment before stopping on Nevah.

  “Nevah.” Trent’s voice was devoid of any emotion. “What are you doing here?”

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