I gasped, spinning back around. Alex stood behind me, gaping openly like a deer caught in headlights. “Stop looking, Neanderthal!” I hissed, slapping him in the stomach with the back of my hand. He finally averted his eyes, and I risked a glance over my shoulder to see Pandora slip over a rock ledge and into a steaming pool. She let out a languorous sigh and a husky giggle. Her eyes sparkled at me through the steam. “He’ll see a lot more than that before the night’s through…” she whispered in a highly inappropriate tone.

I coughed, holding out a hand for Alex to stay back. “Hey, Pandora. Did you… drink decaf or something this morning? Accidentally get possessed? You seem… different.”

“Because I’m undressing a man with my eyes? Or because I’m speaking plain truth?”

I blinked, unsure which of those I was supposed to answer, or if they were both rhetorical questions. “Right. Um. Alex is a kid. Let’s start from there. Then we can progress to the part that Achilles probably won’t be a fan of you doing… that first thing.”

She laughed throatily, motioning for Alex to step closer. “Achilles and I walk different paths, now. Trust me. Our last… talk,” she said this in an amused tone, “was a make-up celebration. A farewell banquet. But this…” she purred, splashing the water playfully.

I felt Alex looming behind me and pushed him back. “Down, boy. Down!”

Pandora laughed again, and the tone sent a shiver right down to my toes. “Be easy, Nate. I mean him no harm. I’m just glad I was chosen for this… onus.”

I glanced at Alex, mouthing onus in a question. He shook his head and shrugged.

But he looked ready and willing to find out. To take one for the team.

I was giving serious thought to disbanding Team Temple. The founder got none of the perks.

I studied her silhouette. I could barely see her through the steam. Well, that wasn’t true. As I tried to make her out, she suddenly became very clear because she had lapped over to the edge closest to us. Then she placed her arms flat on the rim of the pool and rose up to lean on them.

I blindly flung up a hand behind me to cover Alex’s eyes, defending his virtue as I glared at Pandora. “Lower, if you will. I can see your suckle-knuckles.”

She blinked, then glanced down at her prominently displayed chest. With a sigh, she slipped down into the pool to lean back against the far edge again, facing us. I squinted, then made the hand motion for her to get lower. She snarled, but obeyed. I finally dropped the hand behind me that had protected Alex’s eyes. “You’re safe, Alex. You can look now.” I said, turning to him.

He was two feet to the right of me, having been in plain view of her show. “What?” he asked.

Pandora laughed as I shot Alex a disappointed look. “Dad says no,” I finally said, folding my arms as I turned back to Pandora. “He’s a kid.”

Pandora took on a lecturing tone. “He actually is not, Nate. Often, when the Queens take a boy in their Changeling market, the child stays the same age as he was when first taken. They are able to slow their own time for… maximum benefit. Alex was their prisoner for years in human time… Why else do you think he has aged so abruptly now that he is back… home?”

I was shaking my head, but Alex had gone deathly silent. I looked at him and found him frowning at his own memories. As if… finding truth to her words.

I glared at him. “Are you telling me that you don’t remember how long you were there?” I asked incredulously.

He didn’t respond, looking troubled. But… if what Pandora said was true, other things began to make a lot more sense. I wasn’t sure why he had aged the way he had. Pan hadn’t known either. We were sure it had something to do with Fae, but time normally worked the other way around. Spend a night there in Fae, and a week could have gone by on earth. But… I had also found that there was exactly no reliable way to judge the flow of time between the two places.

Unless… one used the Hourglass my parents had left me. As a child, I had spent over a decade there, almost two decades, and returned to find zero time had passed. Because of the Hourglass. But… this was fucking crazy.

Another point against me was that Alex had been taken years ago in human time – at least according to the Syndicate member I had spoken to. So, he was either catching up to the age he would have been as a human or… Pandora was right. Or both.

“Let’s say you’re not wrong. Why have you turned on the Aphrodite charm all of a sudden?”

“He must be strong for what is to come. A mortal… kind of. No magic… kind of. There are many things my touch could unlock within this young man.” Her voice cranked up to eleven on the pornstar vibe. “If he cares to take a quick dip, of course.”

“Stop! Both of you stop!” I said, sensing Alex taking a step towards the pool.

They did, turning to look at me. I ignored Alex, knowing there would be no reasoning with him. He wasn’t in the right headspace. Heh.

I rounded on Pandora. “Swear three things to me. That you will drop dead – forever dead – right this second if you have lied about anything in this twisted conversation. Promise that Alex is truly an adult, that anything you two do next will not harm him, and that this has nothing to do with your lust. I’m serious, Pandora. I’m all he has, and if I’m going to do at least one thing right as a stand-in father, it’s that I won’t let a monster eat him up, even if that monster promises joy.”

She stared at me, and slowly nodded.

Then she snapped her fingers, and the very air suddenly seemed to still all around us as she climbed out of the pool, the water dripping down her oh-so-scrumptious body. I glanced over at Alex to find him staring at the pool unblinking. I saw the throb of his pulse in his neck, but his eyes were locked onto the pool as if eating Pandora with his eyes. Except… Pandora wasn’t standing in the pool.

Not a single muscle moved on his body. Not even a breath. Just the pulse.

I turned to Pandora, alarmed. “He is fine. I didn’t think he needed to hear this next part. This is for you.”

I frowned, opening my mouth to argue and my heart stopped as her body shimmered. She was suddenly taller, her body shifting, stretching, and rounding out in places. Her hair shifted from the thick brown to a white bob of straight hair, longer at the jaw than in the back. The curtains of the familiar white hair hung like blades, and those lips…

I looked up, staring into those pale blue eyes with violet flecks. “Callie…” I breathed. Even knowing it was an illusion, I could hardly breathe.

One side of her lips curled up in a smile and she gripped my hands in hers. Her skin was flushed from the heat of the pool, warm against my calloused fingertips. And… still wet. She slowly, deliciously, knelt before me. “If all I wanted was a wild ride for personal pleasure, I know the way to your heart,” she said in Callie’s voice.

My heart thundered against my chest as I slowly nodded, careful to avoid openly staring at her naked body to make sure Pandora had made an accurate depiction. My peripheral vision betrayed me, soaking in all that wet, tight skin, and I realized I was panting heavily.

Then another thought hit me. Pandora could read my mind. This illusion was probably drawn directly from my own mental catalogue of Callie – obviously not naked – but my assessment over the last few months had apparently been very… thorough.

I blinked and it was suddenly Pandora again, but still in the same position. Utterly naked, kneeling at my feet and holding my hands. Alex grunted in surprise to suddenly see Pandora kneeling before me rather than the ultimate vision of a naked chick climbing out of a hot tub.

“I swear that Alex is an adult. That this is not personal for me. That this will only arm him for what is to come, and that it will not bring him any lasting harm. In fact, his decision today will only lead to potential beneficial consequences down the road. For both of you.” She waited for me to process her statement. “But I won’t promise that I won’t enjoy every single second of it.” She glanced to Alex with a wink. “I’m sure he’ll enjoy it, too.”

I grunted. “Lasting… what do you mean lasting harm?”

She sighed. “You know that knowledge sometimes causes brief, initial pain. I’m not speaking permanent. Working out with weights hurts, but makes you stronger. To earn callouses requires blisters, first. Nothing lasting,” she enunciated, holding her arms out to either side, giving us a healthy dose of more boobage.

I slowly nodded. She was right. Almost every time I had gotten stronger, learned something helpful, gained more power… I had tasted pain of some sort or another.

“But he has a choice,” I repeated. She nodded soberly. “And better things happen to him if he says yes.” Her eyes twinkled darkly and I glared. “Better things happen long term.” I sighed. Her grin stretched even wider at the word long. “You know what I’m saying! He will be stronger, safer, better able to protect himself if he says yes.”

She drew a cross over her… heart. “I swear it on my life. On anything you so choose, in fact.”

I scratched my chin, not feeling at all comfortable with this. I finally turned to Alex. “Well, I may not be the best father figure, but I’d say I’m right up there,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.

He surprisingly had lost the dazed look, as if taking everything she had said to heart. Which was better than I could have done at his age. Whatever age that really was.

“Then live long and prosper. Need a minute to consider your decisio—”

“If I say yes, I will be strong enough to help Nate when he needs it?” he asked in a serious voice, staring straight into Pandora’s eyes.

She nodded. “It is the only way you may help rather than hinder Nate in the future. I swear.”

He swallowed. “Yes. I’ll… do…” he shifted uncomfortably. “Yes.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll wait in the main room. See you in thirty seconds—”

“Goodbye, Nate. I’ll return him tomorrow. And don’t forget to pay the piper. The world depends on us paying our own debts.”

And I was suddenly standing outside the door to the Armory. I glared at the giant wooden door of carved wildlife. The fish darted back and forth in the pond. The reeds shifted and swayed in an unseen breeze. And the wolf… I squinted in disbelief.

He was dry-humping something in the bushes.

I scowled at him for good measure and stomped away down the hall back to my office. “The fucking luck!” I bellowed, my voice reverberating off the walls. “All the crazy shit I’ve had to go through for a power boost, all the hard choices I’ve had to make, the consequences… But he gets to bang my librarian!”

I pulled out my phone, glancing at the time, and let out a sigh. It was time for me to get ready to leave Chateau Falco. And I was actually eager to do so.

My house got more ass than I did these days.

The halls groaned, mocking my plight. “Can it, Falco. No one likes a braggart.”

I stormed further down the hall towards my office as a new thought hit me. I spun, cupping my hands around my mouth. “I’m telling Achilles!”

Of course, there was no response.