There was a stab of jealousy when Kai went to help Selene, but it was gone quickly, knowing the man would see Selene as the one more in need of his help, but she still didn't like it.
She soon found out it was Dirdos who had grabbed her, and she looked up at him, his face stern but his eyes were amused.
"Took longer than I thought," he said to the group who had joined him to ensure she had been stopped.
"Yeah, I think Kai won," Daemon growled.
"Won what?" she asked, squirming until Dirdos let her go and she turned on him, aiming a kick for his shin that he dodged easily. He was fast, and she hadn't been trying all that hard.
His grin was wolfish as he swiped for her, which she ducked.
"Running bet on how long it would take before you mutilated her," Uzo said, his hands in his pockets.
She froze, looking around at them and Dirdos nabbed her, ignoring her shriek and struggles as he threw her over his shoulder and wrapped his arm around her legs so she couldn't escape.
"You jerks had a bet?" she demanded, her hands on the dragon's back to be able to see them all. She could see a lot from that height.
They looked up at her and they all looked like little boys who had been caught stealing lollies.
"Put me down," she snapped, wriggling, but Dirdos refused to let go, much to the amusement of the others.
"Who thought I would cave first?" she asked after a brief pause to glare at them all.
"Daemon. He thought you would just try to outright kill her without finding out what she wanted. Then Uzo, who thought you would kill her after finding out what she wanted, then me. I thought you would just eat her out of spite, then Kai who said it would likely happen if she insulted you. Jagum just started laughing when we asked him, Versalis refused to bet and no one was going to tell Jaia where you went," Dirdos sounded way too cheerful about the whole thing.
"Your faith in me is astounding," she said grumpily as she looked down at Uzo and Daemon walking directly behind Dirdos.
His hand was creeping up her thigh, and she kicked him in the stomach as his fingers clenched her backside. He grunted and turned it into an apparent effort to shift her, but he was laughing silently as his hand went back down around her legs.
Shifting herself as he walked, she dug her elbows into his back to rest her chin on her hand, looking back down the hallway as they entered the royal wing of the castle. He didn't seem to care but as they stepped into her suite, he grabbed her ankle and yanked her off his shoulder, dangling her in the air.
She looked up at him, hands touching the ground and her hair dragging on the carpet as he walked.
"That's an effective way to contain her," Daemon said thoughtfully. She proved otherwise as he passed, and she kicked his chest with her free foot. He hit the ground, and she smiled at him, grabbing him by the shirt and dragging him closer while he yelped and Jagum stepped forward to try to help him up. When she refused to let go, the big cat wrapped his arms around her middle and as Dirdos let her foot go, he realised his error.
Wrapping her legs around his neck, she pulled herself up until she was curled around his arm, and she growled playfully, her hands gripping the back of his head to hold herself up and then she licked the tip of his big pink nose. The werecat jerked back and released her waist. Letting go of his head, she flicked herself back and planted her hands on the ground then twisted, landing back with her feet on either side of Daemon's waist. She immediately dropped, and he grunted in pain as her full weight dropped on him.
She looked up at Dirdos, who was grinning at her and Jagum who was licking his nose and muzzle clean of her saliva.
"So, since I didn't kill her, what do I get?" she asked, looking down as Daemon grabbed her hips and shoved her off him so he could breathe properly.
"Free pass to kill Daemon?" Uzo asked, offering his hand to help her up.
Taking it, she stood and looked down at the demon who was glaring up at them from the floor.
"Very funny," he growled.
"It has been a while since I killed you…" she said and he growled as he sat up then stood, dusting himself off though there was nothing on him to dust off.
"Don't encourage her."
"Why not?" Uzo asked, and the two exchanged hostile glances.
Giving Uzo's hand a tug, she pulled him to the couch and sat down, his arm going tight around her shoulders. Looking down at her with a frown, he felt her shoulder, and she felt his eyes going over her exposed skin, but she ignored him and his worrying.
"So, what's the plan for today?" she asked, swatting at Uzo as he wrapped his fingers around her wrist to try to gauge how thin she was getting.
"Alaric wants us to set up a new war council room with the twins. He seems to think we would be helpful in planning," Uzo said gently, ignoring her attempts to pull her arm back and holding it out in front of him, examining her.
"Haven't there been enough wars?" she asked, finally looking to see what he was doing. "What is your problem?" she demanded.
"You aren't eating enough," he growled.
Sighing, she rolled her eyes. "What are you, my father?"
"Almost."
She looked up at him for a moment and almost smiled, delighted by the idea.
"Well, stop it," she snapped, his eyes narrowing on her.
"Never thought I'd hear the day a warrior Goddess asked if we needed another war," Daemon said, bringing her a mug of the elixir Epharis had made for her.
"Oh, shut up," she said, accepting the cup and his grin.
"I'm sure he'd be happy if we all decided to pitch in," the demon said.
"Uzo especially," she said into the cup, sipping it slowly and feeling the rush of energy into her but it did little to fill her out.
"I'll help," Uzo agreed.
Smiling into the mug, she gulped it down and shivered at the taste of the arcane magic trickling into her system, though it was doing little to give her much actual energy, she would have to find out if there was a usage date on the elixir. She was distracted when Uzo interlocked his fingers with hers, squeezing gently as she drained it and licked her lips.
"Let's go see what needs doing," he said.
They all stood, heading out of the room. She felt good, having her uncle back and her friends around her. Even if she was still angry at the insults, she felt happy, and she was the only one who seemed to be in a good mood when they saw the mass of things that needed to be handled out of the room.
"Don't they have servants for this…?" Daemon complained, but she snorted, shoving him in.
"Come on, you're a big strong demon, aren't you? You're going to let furniture defeat you?"
Rising to the challenge, the men set to work, and she followed them in to help, heaving furniture out and choking on the dust before she threw open the windows. It was stuffy in there and she was soon struggling in the heat, excusing herself to go get changed into something lighter. When she had returned, they had almost entirely cleaned it out.
Several piles of boxes of books, maps, and supplies were set against the wall, and she headed over to them, curious to see what was in them.
It wasn't long after that a cry of disgust came up from the room as Kai arrived too late to help with the actual work. He looked around the room at the various sweaty, shirtless men and the sheer smell of testosterone as they worked to outpace each other.
When his eyes found her, she grinned wickedly.
He studied her for a second before looking at the men and then back before he snorted, realising what she had done to get the room cleared so fast, but his eyes found the boxes and he looked pleased.
Approaching quickly, he crouched down beside her, taking out one of the books and smiling at it as he flipped through the pages.
"These will be great, we should get them down to the basement," he said, looking at the straining men and the pile of boxes.
"I'll take them, you go ahead and clear out a space for them all, leave the menfolk to their fun."
He laughed and nodded, straightening up. "I'll check in on Alaric first, just to be sure he doesn't need anything else cleaned out before I go down. If I'm not there before you, I won't be far behind," he kissed the top of her head and picked up the first box, heading back out the door.
Picking up the second box, she turned to see Dirdos heading in her direction and her eyes fell on his chest, glistening with sweat and approaching her.
Flushing as she realised she was staring, she looked up to see him smirking at her in pleasure at her ogling him.
"Need a hand?" he asked, his hand lifting to wipe a smear of dirt off her forearm.
"No, I can do this much. But I will need you to keep an eye on them. Try to keep them from killing each other, would you?" she asked, nodding in the direction of Daemon and Uzo who were glaring at each other.
"It's more fun if you let them fight," he complained, and she laughed.
"They're more useful in one piece," she countered.
Grunting in agreement, he turned to look at the two in question.
"Just keep them at opposite sides of the room and it should be fine."
Heading for the door, she glanced back as Uzo called out for her.
"Where are you running off to? You've barely done anything, lazy woman!"
"Taking this down to Kai, I'll be back in ten," she called back.
"Get back to work, pleb!" Dirdos bellowed, and Uzo called him a very rude word that made the dragon laugh.
"I'll be heading off for a few days, Etani, but I'll be back soon," Uzo called out to her, and she stopped, looking back at him.
"Where are you going?" she demanded, annoyed at his loss.
"It's a secret," he teased, ducking as Dirdos threw something at him and he grinned, shooing her away.
Shaking her head, she headed down towards the basement with a smile on her face, glad she had so many people around her.