Page 4 of Kuaket

“Kua! That’s so reckless.”

“But that’s why it’s so fun.” I grinned.

My friend laughed. “So the reason you’re not worried about feelings is because you’re not supposed to go for him at all? Oh Kuaket, what are we going to do with you?”

“There’s nothing to do. It’s good sex, and we both know where we stand.”

“You’re just asking for trouble,” she warned me.

“Because of the cult? I wouldn’t worry about them. As far as I know, they’ve only ever managed to kidnap one god.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so that’s foolish enough. But what I mean is that you’re going to end up hurt if you let your guard down because you think you can’t fall for him.”

“I’m not going to get hurt,” I promised her.

“What does Kuk think about all of this?”

I groaned. “About how you’d expect. Brothers are brothers even if they’re thousands of years old.”

She let out an amused laugh. “Can you blame him? In this situation, he might be right.”

“Because he’s always made great decisions,” I muttered, thinking back on all the times he’d been the one making huge mistakes.

“He’s just worried about you, Kua. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“And do you always listen to your family when they’re telling you what you should and shouldn’t do?”

“Obviously not. But Kuk’s still involved in your life, maybe you should listen to him once in a while.”

I let out an accidentally dismissive noise and picked up my wine. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to listen to Kuk, it was more that he just kept lecturing me about choices that were none of his business. As far as I could tell, I wasn’t in any danger with Abrax, not from his position with the Sons of Seth or from feelings.

“He’s been asking me to meet his new girlfriend,” I said.

“Kuk’s found himself a girlfriend?” She sounded about as surprised as I was when he first told me.

I nodded. “Apparently. He met her on a dating app. He seems serious about her, so he keeps asking me to meet her.”

“You should do it,” Skadi encouraged. “Maybe he’ll cut you some slack on the reckless decisions if you do.”

“Hmm, maybe.” I picked up my wine and leaned back in my chair, considering what she was saying. “All right, you’ve got a point.”

“I know I do. And I have one when I tell you to be careful with this guy you’re seeing.”

“I will be,” I promised.

“Good. So, dinner. I’m starving. How about we finish this and then go grab something to eat?” She gestured to the bottle of wine.

“Sounds good.” I smiled at my best friend, enjoying her company even if we didn’t get to spend that much time together. At least I knew she could be relied on for advice, even if it wasn’t necessarily advice I wanted.

CHAPTER3

Abrax

I stifleda yawn as I headed into the Sons of Seth headquarters, almost regretting having said yes to Kua coming over last night. But not quite. How could I regret something that was actually the highlight of my admittedly pretty dire existence?

“Ah, Abrax, good, you’re here,” Willas said, calling my attention to him.

I forced a smile for my boss. “I didn’t realise you wanted to see me, sir.”