Cast in Hellfire: An Urban Fantasy Romance (The Mage Craft Series Book 2) by S.M. Reine Read Free Book Online Page A

themselves,” Marion said. “Think a little more about branding. Zeus and Hera, or something like that.”
    “They don’t care about branding. They don’t want anyone to know who they are, where they are, or what they’re thinking.” A hint of bitterness had entered Seth’s tone. “That’s why they only speak to you. Ever.” He studied Marion’s face closely. “Are you following me?”
    “I think so,” she said.
    “Are you okay? Your sister and brother-in-law are gods. That’s big news.”
    Marion chuckled into her glass. “Of all the news I’ve endured since waking up in your hospital, learning that my half-sister is God is one of the easier things to wrap my mind around.” She could feel his eyes on her as she drank, perhaps a little too fast. “I have a formal sitting room. Let’s relocate.”
    She took him to her sitting room the long way around, and this time, he examined things with more interest. Not unlike the way that Marion had examined his humble apartment.
    Marion wondered what he saw in her decorative choices.
    To be honest, she wasn’t even certain she’d decorated everything herself. She had a cleaning staff. She’d probably hired an interior decorator, too.
    Perhaps her surroundings said nothing about her at all.
    The sitting room had large windows overlooking her front yard. The sight wasn’t as impressive as the gardens of Myrkheimr, but it was well enough for a teenage girl living alone on some wet island. Nice trees, nice lawn. Her curtains were operated by remote control so she didn’t even have to get up to open them.
    Marion took a seat first, picking a fainting chair on one side of the coffee table. Seth chose a stool on the opposite side—as far from Marion as he could be without being rude. His elbows rested on his thighs, wine glass cradled in one hand as he studied the room, and Marion studied his face.
    Nothing had changed about him. He still had that scar on his bottom lip and the graceful hands of a surgeon. Even at that distance, he smelled faintly of leather.
    He didn’t belong in Marion’s pristine palace.
    She wasn’t sure she did, either.
    Marion realized she was still carrying the apple from her back garden. She set it on the coffee table between them, where it glistened, ruby-black, in the cloud-filtered sunlight.
    She refilled her glass. “What does my sister matter? To you, I mean?”
    “We worked together for a little while. Partnered up on a couple of cases involving the werewolves. Once I got tangled up with Elise and James, I ended up dead—that was a year before Genesis.”
    That was news to Marion. “I thought that the only people who came back after Genesis were the ones directly killed by the void.”
    “And me,” Seth said. “ They chose to bring me back.”
    “Why? Did they feel guilty?”
    “I doubt that’s the reason. Lots of people died because of Elise and James, but they did special backflips to bring me back, while everyone else stayed dead. The only other person I know that they did that for is Rylie.”
    The mention of the werewolf Alpha stung Marion. She didn’t like the way his expression changed when he mentioned her. “So Rylie is friends with them too.”
    “From what I heard, Elise and Rylie were tight in the end,” Seth said. “They fought together, side by side. Not always friends, but a team. You don’t come out of something like that without being changed.”
    But Elise and James were the only ones who had changed into gods.
    Marion sat back, drinking her wine and trying to think of what the world must have been like before Genesis. Seth and Rylie fighting against an ancient God, with the help of a half-sister whom Marion’s father had created.
    Even if Marion’s memories had been intact, she doubted she would have remembered the days when Seth had fought alongside this Elise person. During the time of Genesis, Marion had been barely more than a toddler. It was unlikely she’d been directly involved in the