The King's Shadow (Gates of Myth and Power, #2)

by K.M. Shea

“I’ll believe that when I see it.” Aristide cackled, then elbowed me. “Get it? So I’ll never believe him. Haha!”

This cat has all the patience in the world, I realized as I stared at her. Like…ALL of it. “Aphrodite, this is the very royal and kinder-than-Noctus-deserves Ama,” the Paragon continued, treating the conversation with the severity of a loon.

Now I’m holding grudges against furniture. Fantastic. I’ve been alive so long that I’m no longer maturing, I’m regressing into a juvenile state.

I automatically opened it and took a sip, which was when it hit me. He’s still treating me like I’m a cat. Our heart to heart that we’d had while he healed me must have restored me to his good graces, and he was falling back into old patterns. He’d fed me, watered me, and was tracking me like he had when I was Ama. Still, I was feeling better than when I’d first entered the city, though it did occur to me that the fact I felt better after the pet treatment was a worrying sign.

“How is it that despite being a lover of self-affirmations and leadership classes, you are utterly uncharismatic?” Aristide asked. Ker positioned herself so she was slightly in front of Aristide. “The self-affirmations are to boost my confidence, not yours.”

Noctus stared at me as if I’d just publicly lowered my IQ. “You didn’t even know you were a shadow. Somehow I doubt you have nefarious plans to carry this information off to your studio-apartment lair and start plotting our demise.”

What’s up with elves and stairs? Did no one tell them about elevators?

“The thrill,” Noctus began while I was still half distracted, “is having someone who can match me. Effortlessly.”

I lay in Noctus’s arms, deeply traumatized by the conversation. She thought Noctus was going to become an old cat lady? Noctus. The elf king?!

Charon frowned during the entire interaction. “Why would Chloe be upset?” “Because despite what you think, Charon, not everyone would want to date Noctus,” Aristide said.

If Aristide wasn’t attempting to break the moment with a complaint or sarcastic statement, things were really bad.

“Yeah, because I didn’t think she had a secret wish to become Batman!” “She’s a cat, she’d be Catwoman!”

Oh my gosh, my siblings are poster children for “How to Win Friends and Influence People” I realized. Ker would die laughing if she knew.