I?” she whispered.
“No.”
Her words threatened to lodge in her throat, choked and rasping. Stay, she wanted to beg. How could he just leave after everything he’d done for her? “Farewell, then.”
“Farewell, Eden.”
His form vanished, the sudden flare of his golden eyes lingering in her vision. With a gulp, she drew her shoulders straight and eyed the tub with a smile. The first bath anyone had ever poured for her, and a god had poured it.
Hastily shedding her clothes, she climbed in, leaned back and let her eyelids droop. The image of Tyondric burned bright behind her eyelids and she sighed. Would she ever forget him?
2
“You are watching that girl again.”
Ty scowled at his brother, the god of lightning. Unlike his fiery form, Lysandros was fair and his god form flowed with blue energy. Tiny zaps of electricity jolted over his iridescent body with each movement.
He glanced back at the pool which allowed them to see the mortal realm, a flowing picture set to a backdrop of stars. Eden’s image shimmered as she lay curled up in her dark cottage and quietly sniffled and shivered.
“Yes, Lysandros, I am watching her again.”
“Why?” Lysandros peered into the pool. “She is pretty but I see no reason to watch her.”
“Pretty? No, she is beautiful.”
He could not help recalling the way her blue eyes watched with wonder as he cooked her meal. He had studied her soft profile. Delicate features had peeked out from under her mass of glossy dark hair, and he conceded perhaps there were more stunning women in the world. However, something about her simple beauty tugged at his senses.
Lysandros sniffed. “I still do not understand your fascination.”
“She is crying.”
“Ty, you have been to her, you did your duty. There is nothing more to be done. You know the rules.”
“I know the rules. I do not like them. We help those who do not need help, in the name of equality.”
His brother slapped a hand on Ty’s form and a spark leaped from one palm. He flinched at the touch. Lysandros tended to forget his brothers could feel the electric touch of his god form even if humans could not.
“Before long we may not have to worry about the rules at all.”
“It is unfair to make them pay for our mistakes.” Something inside twisted at the thought of leaving Eden.
“It was not our mistakes that made them greedy and unthinking. It is part of their human nature and they have fostered it.”
Ty clenched a fist and watched as fire swirled around his fingers. Since the visit with Eden, he almost missed his solid human form. “There is no greed in this woman. Why should she suffer because of others? We should have intervened sooner. We should have stopped the humans before they reached this point.”
Lysandros sighed. “I do not like it any more than you, brother, but there is little we can do now. We will move on and start afresh. Maybe this time we will get it right.”
“And if we do not?”
“Then possibly we should resign ourselves to the fact human nature cannot be governed, no matter what we do.”
Glancing back at Eden, he followed the trickle of a tear. Perhaps he could do nothing for her in the long term but he could do something now.
* * * *
Eden gasped as a set of warm, powerful arms wrapped around her. Instantly her body heated.
Tyondric.
He had returned.
“You’re back,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
He didn’t respond, simply hugged her closer. Unable to resist, she nestled into him. It was wrong. He shouldn’t even be with her. But she struggled to recall the last time someone had held her, looked after her.
“Why do you cry?”
She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath.
“Is it because you are cold?”
How could she explain to a god something he would never understand?
A slight smile twitched her lips. If only it were that simple. “Yes…and no. I don’t like being cold but it’s more than that.”
“Will you explain it to me?”
Turning to face him, she laid her palms upon his chest. His skin pulsed and surged underneath her fingertips. The heat running beneath his flesh gathered wherever she touched, and she sighed at the sight of his muscled torso.
Of course, he was a god. To him, there was nothing odd about strolling around half-naked or displaying an incredible physique to a woman. A woman on her own, at that.
Never mind how his body singed her soul even as it comforted.
She peeked through her lashes and he jolted, brow creasing. It hurt to look at him. His sculpted jaw and penetrating amber gaze were painfully beautiful. A strange surge of energy rushed through her, leaving her breathless. She gathered her breath as the sensation left. Perhaps that happened whenever a human touched a god.
“Why have you come? You’ve already visited me once. You shouldn’t have returned.”
His face relaxed as he caressed her back. “You were crying.”
Did he realize how taunting his touch was? “People cry.”
“I did not like it.”
“What?”
“I did not like to see it.” He swept a strand of hair from her face. “Tell me why you cry, Eden?”
She bit her lip, powerless to resist staring into those endless eyes as he smoothed her cheek with the pads of his fingers. Blowing out a breath, she glanced at her hands. No matter what she commanded them to do, they continued to stroke the planes of his torso.
“I am lonely.” She glanced at him as his brow furrowed in confusion. Of course he didn’t understand. He was a god, a blessed being. “I have no family,” she tried again. “They are dead, taken by the great sickness—the Erium.”
“It took a lot of people.” Though his tone held no sympathy, a glimmer of sadness shone in those golden eyes.
“It took every member of my family. Even my husband. But it left me.” The tears welled again, clouding her vision and she blinked them away.
“You loved your man?”
Eden frowned as she considered this. “No, but we were only married for six months. He was a good man. I could have loved him, I think.”
His gaze trailed over her face, searching for something. “But you loved your family?”
“Yes, very much.” She stilled both hands, incapable of removing them just yet. She rested one over his heart. Did he even have a heart? Ananthurian legends stated gods’ bodies didn’t function as humans’ did. The sensation of a faint pulse beat under her fingers. Drawing her gaze from his sleek chest, she stared at him. “You have a father and many brothers. Don’t you love them?”
“I do not know.”
“How would you feel if you lost them? If they died as my family did?”
His dark brows creased as he toyed absently with a lock of her hair. “But they will not. Gods are immortal.”
“I suppose… I suppose if you do not