“I can’t believe she did that,” Kanesha raged.

“I can.” Thea settled back. “Look. People in abusive relationships do this. They run away, they go back, they run away. Nothing you can do about it. She’ll either come to her senses, or she won’t.”

I let out a breath. “I want her to come to her senses. I really do. But you’re probably right.” The temptation to kidnap her was growing, but I couldn’t.
That would make me as bad as Carlos. “But it’s going to end up with one of them dead, and I doubt it’ll be him.”

As much as Lugenia wanted to kill him when she didn’t want to sleep with him, she wasn’t competent to do it. At least, that was the analysis. Lust and hatred. I hoped I never ended up like that…and studiously kept my eyes away from Thea.

Lust alone was probably bad enough, but we all felt it, at least most of us did. Did anyone not? Maybe. I’d never know for sure, I supposed. You could only ever tell what people said about themselves.

Well, except maybe there were telepaths out there. It wouldn’t entirely surprise me. I knew who’s advice I wanted to ask on the matter, though.

Or did I. He’d not exactly done great by his wife, after all. Maybe she was the one I wanted to talk to, but for some reason the thought of talking to Sigyn terrified me. Irrationally so. I shuddered a bit.

“What’s wrong?”
“Just…thinking.” I didn’t want to admit what had gone through my mind to Thea. Scared of the goddess of fidelity? That seemed silly, but I was. More afraid than I had been at the thought of Hel, and she was beyond scary.

And I wasn’t even human. I had no reason to be scared of any of them, I told myself, quite firmly. I was possibly even one of them.

Valkyrie.

But no. That wasn’t feeling quite right. “About stuff. Relationships.”

“Intimacy’s scary,” Thea noted. “And desirable. And sometimes people think it’s supposed to be scary, so they get into intimacy with people they’re scared of.”

“Maybe.” Maybe that did explain Lugenia. “I think part of it is she was worried he was going to shoot me, tired of other people being involved.”

“A lot of these women won’t get out until the guy threatens their kids. I think people who get into these relationships are highly protective. They stick up for the partner and they stick up for anyone else they need to, and that’s part of how they get so screwed up.” Thea shook her head.

Kanesha stood up. “I’m not dissecting this. I’m going to make sure she knows we’re here for her and then go find some homework to do.”

“Don’t go to his place alone.”

“I won’t.”

I wasn’t sure I believed that promise.