Gods Save the Princess (Grace of Gods Book 2) (13 page)

He blinked and stared at me for a long time before he nodded, “I knew, I knew about Lincoln. He asked me about Savannah, fishing for details. I think it was from me that he got the idea to use Savannah against Aidan. I didn’t mean to, it sounds lame, but I thought he was trying to be my friend.”

“I get it.” I squeezed his hand again and nodded, “it’s not your fault.”

“When I saw that he was gone, that she was gone and then you left with Aidan, I knew... I was worried he might do something to you too.”

“I’m fine.”

“I know, but if he had...” He stared at me, one hand half lifted upwards like he was intended to stretch it out to my face before thinking better of it. He stepped back, pulling both hands away from me, letting them flop back to his side. “I’m sorry. Can I make it up to you?”

I felt uneasy with the sudden change but smiled nonetheless and nodded, “of course. I’d like that.” Griffin nodded, mostly to himself, and seemed lost for a moment in his own thoughts.

“Okay... okay.” He repeated wistfully, not even looking at me anymore. “I’ll find you then, later, and make it up to you. To everyone.”

I nodded my head and smiled, “sounds wonderful.” I tried to keep my tone upbeat while I worried about him. There was something awfully strange about that sad and curious boy. I wanted to help him, but how much of that baggage could I really help carry before it burdened me too?

“Later then.” He said absently, turning in thought and walking away.

My eyebrows lifted into my hairline for a moment before I nodded vaguely, “later then...” I mumbled only to myself before turning and wandering back to my apartment in confusion.

Chapter Ten

Sleep came easily to me that night, with my new dog curled up on the bottom of my bed. I still had to come up with a name for him, or several names perhaps, but before I could do that, the next morning, someone knocked on my door. Not bothering to abandon my toothbrush mid-wash I walked to the door, pulling it open and blinked in surprise to find Griffin standing there expectantly.

“Morning.” I tried to say, but mostly it just sounded like gibberish making Griffin grin as he entered the apartment.

“I figured out what we could do together.” Oh right, “making it up to me” for whatever he felt he needed to repent for.

“Shoot.” Again, it was nothing but gibberish. I held up one finger asking for a moment before hurrying back to my bathroom and spitting out the toothpaste. In the time that it took me to go back and clear my mouth out, the three-headed dog had ventured out of the bedroom and wandered into the main room to see who was there. From experience I knew he wasn’t good with other people but I was surprised to find Griffin standing there petting – or trying to – his heads.

“Cute... dog?” He said, looking up at me with a grin as I came up beside both of them.

“Fruits of my labor yesterday, I couldn’t stomach the idea of someone else using him as a monster when he is pretty much just a gentle giant. Right buddy?” The dog woofed in response, nudging his head against my leg happily and I ran my fingers into his scruff gently before nodding to the bedroom. Obediently he left us and I turned back to Griffin. “I definitely had you pinned as a sleep until four in the afternoon kind of guy.”

“Turning a new page.” He said with a shrug before taking in my pink flannel pyjamas, “are you going to wear that on our date?”

“It’s a date?” I said, more embarrassed at that idea than him seeing me with pink kitties all over my clothes.

“Well, if date implies two friends go somewhere alone to do something together and ignore everyone else? Yup, it’s a date.”

“Okay...” I said, eyeing him with curiosity. He was still acting so strange, so different from all the different ‘Griffins’ I had met. “Let me go and get changed.”

“Stay comfy,” he suggested as I started away.

“Well, I don’t plan on going in my pyjamas.”

“No,” he laughed, “but something like workout clothes would be fine.”

I hadn’t worked out a day in my life. What did that mean? Track pants? Gosh no. I tried to imagine what Savannah would wear and failing to think of something, I quickly wasted two precious minutes searching on my computer for something suitable. Something called yoga pants seemed to be acceptable; girls wore them mostly when they weren’t working out. Worked for me.

Thinking about the outfit I had found online as hard as I could I opened the closet and grinned as I pulled out the exact items that were flashing on the screen to my left. Pulling them on quickly I tugged my hair into a braided ponytail on the back of my head as I left my bedroom and rejoined Griffin.

“Okay.”

“Okay.” He said with a nod, boldly taking my hand. My stomach coiled with heat and flutters as I let him, instantly forgetting how strange this behaviour was. He must like me: holding my hand, calling it a date and telling me he would’ve been hurt if I had been harmed last night... I bit down on my lip to keep from smiling too much as I glanced up at him and carried on.

“Do I get to know where we’re going?”

“We’re going to figure out your Goddess together.” I arched an eyebrow at him in disbelief. I didn’t mean to, but I had tried everything I could think of to figure her out myself and he thought he could do it in a solitary afternoon? The thought made me scoff.

“Okay.” I said, hoping my tone didn’t betray my thoughts as we walked. Griffin, if he noticed, simply grinned down at me and led me through a door that took me into a room set up with padding everywhere.

“Are you going to beat me up now?” I asked innocently, turning to look up at him.

“It’s just a gym. We’re going to work on your powers.”

“Powers.” I said incredulously. Sure, I had finally managed to wrap my mind around the fact that Gods, being a plural word, existed and it wasn’t just one singular Almighty Lord like I had been taught by my parents. But powers was a whole new realm of disbelief. Especially because I had never done anything to indicate I could use magic – unless you counted the mountain itself.

“Yeah, Atlas took the Olympians aside a few days ago and taught us how to use our powers. So I thought maybe I’d do the same with you.” All I could do was nod; I was still trying to figure out how this was going to help my Goddess manifest herself.

“Okay, stand there.” Griffin took his hand out of mine and set it instead on my shoulders and squaring me in the middle of the room. I watched with curiosity as he moved around the room, finding a chair from against the wall and brought it in front of me. “I want you to concentrate on the chair and think about moving it.”

I stared at him incredulously before looking down at the chair and then back up at him. “Why don’t you do it first?” I knew if I stood there squinting at a chair I was going to do nothing but look like an idiot, so maybe watching him would give me an idea of what I needed to do.

“Okay.” He turned himself slightly to the chair, rolled his shoulders back and I had to suppress a grin as his brow furrowed. For a long time we both stood there, Griffin hoping for the chair to move and me doubtful that it would. Then, it shuddered.

“Whoa!” I stepped back in surprise, eyes widening. It wasn’t much but we had both seen it convulse, and then, it flew across the room. “Oh my gosh!” I jumped back further and turned to Griffin with a shocked look on my face.

“Easy.” He said with a shrug, moving to the chair to grab it again.

“Says you: who knows who his God is. I won’t be able to do that.”

He shrugged again, “just try it.”

Reluctant to agree, but not wanting to disappoint, I stepped forward again and rolled my shoulders back like he had before starting to concentrate. It was a hard thing to do without letting my mind wander – which it did frequently – and the room seemed to get hotter the longer I just stood in place staring at this chair that did nothing. Beads of perspiration painted my brow the harder I concentrated but still nothing happened.

I didn’t know how long it had been before I sighed, overly dramatic, and turned to look at Griffin, holding my hands up as if to say ‘what did you expect?’.

“Well, it was worth a shot.” He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket, dumped one of the sticks out into his hand and stuffed the container away again.

“That’s it?” I said with bemusement, watching him light the cigarette before shrugging at me.

“It was an excuse.”

“An excuse for what?”

“To hang out with you.” I couldn’t stop the small grin that took over my face then before trying to straighten my features out again.

“You wanted to hang out with me?”

“Yeah, I spent all night thinking about what you’d said to me and you’re right. I need to try a little harder, so here I am.” He finished speaking by blowing a steady stream of smoke out, making me dodge it slightly as my nose turned up at the smell. I smiled though, because I couldn’t think of another person who had listened to my advice let alone gone for it. It made me feel special.

“Well, I appreciate it. But I don’t see why I’m the one you chose to receive all this new attention. Didn’t I say you had to extend the apology to Savannah and Aidan?” I asked with an arched brow.

Griffin took another slow drag, enjoying the nicotine for a moment before blowing it out with a nod. “Yeah, well, I owe you an apology too. And I’ve already extended my white flag to their royal majesties.”

“Oh?” I tried not to show my interest, it was after all none of my business, but Griffin saw right through my cool exterior.

“Yeah… I offered the club up for another party, lights on this time, as a celebration of the happy couple.” He finished off the cigarette and before my eyes it disappeared.

“Why do you smoke those?” I asked finally, looking back up from his fingertips to his face.

He shrugged, “habit I guess. Doesn’t really matter, does it? I’m immortal so it’s not like my lungs are going to rot out of my body.”

“I guess that’s true.” I said softly before changing the subject back, “well, the offer was kind of you. When’s the party?”

“Tonight, naturally. We’re immortal but why wait? They love a good excuse to get drunk and lose their inhibitions.” No doubt he was right about that. “Would you like to come with me?”

I looked up at him in surprise, unable to stop the grin from appearing on my face, “sure. I’d like that.”

He nodded and stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets again, “cool. That’s good, I mean. Thanks.”

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the next question I was going to ask. It was bold but I was feeling brave after last night’s adventure.

“Is that a real date or just another thing that we’re calling a date?” My teeth ran over the flesh of my bottom lip nervously as he looked back over at me thoughtfully.

For a moment we were caught in the moment, nervousness crackling around us when he finally spoke again, “a real date.” 

My stomach flipped with butterflies and I nodded, “cool.” I said, trying to sound cool when I was anything but.

“Would you like to try moving the chair again?” He nodded at the chair and I glanced at it before shrugging my shoulders.

“I doubt it’ll do anything. Atlas said my Goddess doesn’t want to be awakened so I doubt she would give me anything to make the process easy.”

“A Goddess who doesn’t want to come out and play...” He grabbed the back of the chair and returned it to the wall once more. “I wonder why, it’s so much fun.” His tone was sarcastic and I knew now he was probably thinking about how he wished Hades had kept to himself too.

“This isn’t easy either.” I said simply, “I feel sometimes like I don’t belong because I don’t
really
have a Goddess. Everyone else knows his or hers; and then there’s me. It’s almost embarrassing.” I looked up at him, feeling bad instantly that I was laying all my worries on him. I smiled, changing the course of the conversation. “So, if you figure out why she’s hiding could you let me know?” I teased as Griffin smiled back at me, coming over.

“Sure thing.” He seemed nervous again as he stood there in front of me, floundering for a conversation topic of some kind. “So, Val, Valentina...” I smiled slightly, “would you like, would it be okay if...” He chuckled with embarrassment and rubbed the back of his neck, “can I make dinner for you tonight?”

“Are you really going to cook or are you going to conjure it up from imagination?” I teased, trying to ease his anxiety.

He laughed, and it worked as he grew more comfortable again, “chef’s secret.” He winked and then waited for my response. But I was spinning, caught in a whirlwind of emotions.

He really did like me, or at least liked me enough to want to take me on a proper date. I’d never been on one of those; I was excited. Immediately I wanted to go see Savannah to ask for her help, but then I remembered how she had treated Griffin just last night when we had been talking. Perhaps it hadn’t been long enough since he’d waved the white flag to ask for her help.

Things changed quickly here but I doubted they changed
that
quickly. Whether or not Griffin had been in charge of his faculties when Hades had tried to force himself on her didn’t matter. She hated him, for now, and it made Griffin feel like he was virtually unforgivable. Nevertheless, he was still trying, for me.