“I need to speak with my father,” Callia announced, her gaze zooming in on her father, seated to Lucian’s right.
“Callia,” her father admonished, rising himself. “This is uncalled for.”
“You lied to me,” she said.
Her father’s shoulders tightened. Zander watched Lucian shoot Simon a questioning look. From the corner of his eye he spotted Loukas—Lucian’s son and the ándras Callia’s father had betrothed her to as a child—push to his feet from his seat near the wall on the far side of the room.
Oh, yeah, this was an ideal clusterfuck. All the major players were here, and from the tension suddenly thick in the room, Zander had a feeling things were going to go from bad to worse in no time flat. Three guards he could take and still protect Callia. But not seven. And definitely not on top of the twelve sets of glaring eyes zeroed in on him.
“Callia,” he said quietly as he took a step toward her and reached for her arm.
She shrugged out of his grip and moved inside the circle, coming to stop in the center, just above the great Alpha seal. “You said Zander left me, but he didn’t.”
“Callia.” Her father’s eyes darted from her to Zander and back again. “This is highly inappropriate.”
She ignored him, advanced until she was but a few feet away. And even though Zander was ticked at the way she didn’t listen to him and had bolted without thinking, a small part of him couldn’t help being impressed by her strength and courage. She was surrounded by twenty ándres, the twelve strongest politicians in their society and their guards. The ones who had forever scarred her with their twisted cleansing ritual and had the power to destroy her career and everything she’d built for herself over the years. And yet she wasn’t backing down.
“You told him I never wanted to see him again,” she said to her father, “but you lied about that too. You know I would have left here forever with him if I could have.”
Zander’s chest ached at that revelation, but the way Lou-kas stiffened on the other side of the room drew his attention. No one else seemed to notice. All eyes were glued to Callia.
“What else did you lie about?” she asked. “What else have you been hiding from me all these years?”
“Callia,” her father said gently, reaching for her. Zander tensed, ready to lurch to her rescue, but she moved out of her father’s grasp. Simon dropped his hand, flustered. “You’re obviously not thinking clearly to come here and say these things to me. I think you need to go back to your clinic and—”
“Let her speak,” Theron announced from the doorway.
The Council turned in unison toward the arched doorway where Theron stood, flanked by the remaining Argonauts save Demetrius.
Zander breathed out a sigh of relief, turned back to the circle and moved inside to stand behind Callia.
Simon glanced from her to him and back again, then turned to Lucian, the stress of the moment clearly visible in his eyes. “Lord Lucian, I apologize for my daughter’s interruption. May I request that the Council be adjourned until I can deal with this…disruption?”
Lucian’s jaw clenched, irritation evident in his jade green eyes. “So be it. The Council is adjourned until tomorrow.”
Whispers floated on the air as the other ten Council members rose and took their leave, shooting Callia, Zander and the Argonauts questioning looks. But Lucian didn’t move. And neither did Casey nor Isadora, who had joined her sister to stand behind the circle. Out of his peripheral vision, Zander saw Loukas inch toward his father’s side.
Dumbass. The prick needed to get fucking lost, once and for all.
“Callia,” her father admonished when the others were gone. “This is completely uncalled for. I’m not going to—”
“I want to know what happened on that mountain in Greece,” she said, rolling over him. “I want to know what else you lied to me about. I want to know what you did with my baby.”
Isadora gasped and covered her hand with her mouth, but the princess’s shock was the least of Zander’s worries. Simon’s suddenly wide eyes and pale face triggered a conversation in Zander’s mind.
Things aren’t always what they seem, Guardian. The web of deception spins strongest near those we trust the most.
“What happened to him?” Callia demanded. “What happened to my son?”
Simon’s terror-filled eyes darted from Callia to the Argonauts near the door, then finally to Zander, and held. He ignored Lucian’s muttered questions at his side. Sweat broke out on his forehead. The ándras started to shake.
“Make her leave,” Simon said to Zander.
“What?” Callia turned to look at Zander, then back to her father. “I’m not going anywhere. If you think after all this time I’m—”
“I’ll tell you,” Simon said to Zander again, ignoring Callia. “But not her. I can’t tell her.”
“Simon,” Lucian hissed. “You are forbidden from speaking!”
A familiar hum lit off in Zander’s blood, a warning that what he was about to hear was anything but good. But he tamped it down and put himself between Callia and her father before she could tear into him again.
“Zander, get out of my—”
He gripped her arms. “Wait outside.”
“No way.”
“I won’t cut you out,” he whispered. “I promise. But for whatever reason, he won’t tell us with you here. You have to go outside.”
She stilled. Stared at him. In the instance of silence that followed, the connection they’d always shared flared deep in his soul. There was a world of hurt and lies between them, but on this they had to be united. On this she had to trust him.
Her jaw clenched, but the muscles in her arms relaxed against his hands. “If you lie to me too—”
“I won’t,” he said softly, hoping she heard the truth in his words.
When she nodded, he glanced over his shoulder at Casey. Without being asked, the king’s half-breed daughter stepped quickly from the raised platform and hustled to Callia’s side. “We’ll wait outside.” She took a step toward the door. “Callia?”
Callia stayed where she was, staring up at Zander. And in her violet eyes he saw clearly for the first time in years. He saw everything she was to him, everything she’d been. Everything he’d done before and during and after their time together, and so much he wanted to do over. He saw…his soul, as clearly as if he were looking inside himself. And he saw his life. Not ending like he’d thought when he’d spoken to Lachesis on that mountain cliff, but continuing on, through her, because of her, with her.
“I promise,” he said again.
She took a deep breath. Then turned and walked out of the circle toward the door.
Pain lanced through Zander’s chest as he watched. Pain and a renewed sense of fury that even now the truth had to be hidden. But it wouldn’t be for long.
When he heard the outer door click closed, he turned and glared at Callia’s father. Even though he didn’t want to, he capped his rage. Knew losing it now would do no good. At his back he heard Theron and the other Argonauts step in behind him. “No more lies,” he told Simon. “This time you tell the truth. What did you do with my son?”
Simon glanced once guiltily at Lucian, and then he started talking. But what came out of his mouth wasn’t anything Zander had ever expected to hear. And the cap on his rage blew free to boil up and over before Simon paused to take his first breath.
Chapter Seventeen