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his next life. Maybe the gods locked her into her world, prevented her death, because they didn’t want him released from this prison.
    He massaged his forehead and cursed. How could he have believed her dead? Too many nights he’d dreamed of Astrid in dangerous situations, felt her pain and heard her screams. Too often he’d awoken drenched in sweat, furious, and trapped here, where he could do nothing for her. Now he feared those visions hadn’t been fantasy. He existed to protect innocents from the cruel evils of the world, from the deadly and the deranged, from the tainted and obscene. For Astrid he would destroy even the slightest menace without care for consequence. Case in point: look what he’d released on those Hashishins and where it landed him.
    Everything within him stilled with a sudden aaha. The gods had heard his years of prayers. They’d given her back to him. A second chance. He hit the floor on bended knee and sent up a quick thank-you to Shai for interest in his destiny. He entreated Thoth to help him find wisdom and strength to navigate what was on its way to visit him tonight.
    The rustling of gown fabric warned him to shut his mind to thought. His torturer had arrived.
    He rose slowly, and crossed his arms as he turned. It wasn’t his torturer, but her slave.
    Aneksi stood regal and still. As usual, she kept her head covered such that all he could make out was her lips. He despised everything his half sister represented as the emissary of the bitch he’d married eons ago. Aneksi reminded him of this whole dirty business he’d agreed to. An hour ago he’d agreed to play whore in exchange for one hour of freedom a month. Freedom to do whatever he wanted in the Human Realm during those precious sixty minutes.
    None of this was Aneksi’s fault, though. Like him, she’d been deceived and incarcerated. Her prison was to serve as his ex-wife’s slave for eternity.
    “She has come,” Aneksi said softly. She removed her head cover, exposing the north-to-south scar from eye to chin on the left side of her face. Her delicate hand waved toward his bedroom. A fresh bruise highlighted her right eye. Protective instinct flared.
    He ground his front teeth back and forth and narrowed his gaze. “Which one did that?”
    “Did what?”
    “Your face.” He pointed.
    She lifted her fingers to the bruise. Pain drifted through her eyes for an instant before they glazed over into her usual bland expression, and dropped her hand from her face. “No need to concern yourself.”
    “Someday.”
    Her gaze dropped. “We are both lost to someday solutions.”
    “Something changed today. Change is good.”
    Her gaze popped up. Hope flared. She shook her head, all optimism fading away. She pointed toward the bedroom.
    “Is Min no longer satisfying Ibioni?” He envisioned the dark-skinned fertility god, Min, with his ridiculous red sash and hefty gold crown. “Or is this another conception quest?”
    Aneksi stared at the floor. At this point he probably couldn’t engage her again. That spark seconds ago was the first he’d ever witnessed to indicate Aneksi took an interest in his fate.
    He glanced toward the bedroom and back at Aneksi. His stomach soured. He forced a hefty swallow. Staring at Aneksi didn’t help. Now if he could just make himself move to face Ibioni.
    The image of Astrid in those skintight dark pants, and boots drifted through his mind. She was so clean. So honorable. And he never deserved her. This was his life now. He signed up for this.
    Astrid’s voice flashed through his mind. Soothing. Divine.
    He pushed all memory of Astrid into a dark corner where it had to remain hidden. Determined, he forced his feet to move toward the bedroom.
    Ibioni liked to get inside his brain as was her natural gift. She was a first generation god-lineage, half-human, like him. Not quite deity status, not quite human. She was the only mix allowed to live freely within the gods’ realm. Such liberty was allowed