“He’s a grown ándras. I’m sure he’ll turn up.”
“No, Simon. You don’t understand. Loukas disappeared after the confrontation in the Council chambers. A sentry with the Executive Guard told me he crossed through the portal shortly after the Argonauts. And he used the same coordinates.”
Slowly, Simon’s eyes came open and he stared up at the leader of the Council. “Why would he go to the human realm now?”
Lucian locked his jaw.
An odd sense of unease washed through Simon. He pushed up from his chair to stand before Lucian. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Lucian was roughly the same height and age as Simon, but he’d always been more confident. A true leader who knew what their people needed. Tonight he seemed rattled. His thin lips pressed into a tight line. Finally, he said, “Ten years ago he passed through the portal much the same way. Only that time he followed you and not the Argonauts.”
Little links clicked into place in Simon’s mind. Questions he’d always wondered about but hadn’t wanted to find answers to. “He followed me to find Callia.”
Lucian nodded. “She was betrothed to him. He didn’t believe your story about her being sick in the human realm.”
Suddenly, everything made sense. “When he found out she was pregnant, he went to Atalanta. He brought her to that village in Greece.”
“Yes. You have to understand that Callia’s affair and pregnancy, with an Argonaut no less, when she was betrothed to my son and the future leader of the Council would have been an embarrassment none of us would have recovered from easily.”
Fury filled Simon’s veins. “You knew.”
Lucian’s spine stiffened. “Oh, get real, Simon. You’re not blameless in this. You made the deal with Atalanta. You traded your daughter’s life for that child’s. No one forced you to do that. Don’t pretend to be all high-and-mighty now.”
“There never would have been a deal to make had Lou-kas not gone to Atalanta in the first place.”
“That doesn’t change the past. Nothing does. We can only worry about the present. I’m here because I think Lou-kas might have gone into the human realm again to find Atalanta.”
Simon’s eyes grew wide. “Why?”
“Because he didn’t realize the child could possibly still be alive. So long as it lives, Callia will not bind herself to him. And that, I’m afraid, is the only thing my son wants.” Lucian’s shoulders seem to drop. “He believes it’s what he deserves. He believes she’s his by right.”
Four hundred years. For most of his life Simon had gone along with the status quo. He hadn’t questioned the customs and laws the Council said were beneficial to their world, because they hadn’t pertained to him. And when he’d joined the Council, he’d turned a blind eye to right and wrong in favor of politics. His wife had challenged him on the laws more than once. Had told him progress and life would bloom from the gynaíkes in their land and not its leaders. But he hadn’t listened. He’d scoffed at her ideas—at ideas he’d known she’d picked up from her time serving the king. They’d argued about it. And eventually the distance between them had driven her into the arms of another.
He’d been hurt and betrayed but—after her cleansing ceremony—had taken her back. Though their relationship had never been the same, the child she’d borne had become his whole life. The child he’d raised and molded and sheltered and repressed. The child he’d deserved. The child who had been his, by right.
Sweat beaded on his neck and slid down his spine. “You think he’ll go to Atalanta and make her another deal? To kill the child? What could he possibly offer her in return?”
Unease crept over Lucian’s face. “The Argonauts. And the half-breeds. If the Argonauts went to the colony, if Loukas followed them…”
“Dear gods…”
“Exactly.”
Simon’s eyes shot to Lucian’s. “Why do you care? You worry not for the half-breeds, for the Argonauts.”
“No, I don’t care for either. But death is not the answer. My nephew, you remember, is an Argonaut. While I don’t agree with what the Eternal Guardians do, I’ll not have Gryphon’s blood or the blood of the others on my hands.”
Urgency pulsed through Simon’s veins. Urgency and, he hoped in some small way, redemption. “We need to find Loukas and stop him.”
“Orpheus is waiting for us at the portal. He knows where the half-breed colony is located. If we go now, we might get there before it’s too late.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Callia’s heart raced as she cleared the hidden tunnel that led into the caverns of the colony. Frigid air whisked across her cheeks as she pulled on her gloves. The nearly full moon illuminated the clearing and forest beyond with enough light to make her trek toward Silver Hills, where she hoped to find a means of transportation, easy to see.
She’d left Isadora and Casey sleeping. They’d both been exhausted and disappointed after nothing came of their “attempt” with the orb. Callia had been a wired mess until they both dropped off.
She pressed her gloved hand against the sat phone in her pocket. When she got close to town, she’d contact Zander. Have him trace her signal. He’d be pissed, but she was confident he’d be able to track her. And she was 100 percent certain Atalanta wouldn’t kill her. Not if Zander found their son before the demigod decided she didn’t need both her and Maximus.
Maximus. Max. Warmth rushed through her chest. Her son had a name. And now she had a face to go with that name. Renewed determination surged in her veins. She checked her compass once, then moved toward the trees.
She made it ten feet before an arm shot out of nowhere and snagged her by the neck. Callia gasped, tried to scream, but the hand clamped over her mouth prevented any sound from escaping her throat. One strong arm closed tightly across her middle and jerked her back against a warm, solid body.
Fear lurched up her throat. She struggled, but was held firm.
“You kept me waiting, syzygos,” a voice breathed in her ear. A voice she knew all too well. “I warned you not to do that.”
Syzygos. Wife.
Her heart rate shot up. Loukas. Here? Now? What the hell did he think he was doing?
“Did you think you could escape me?” he growled. “You tried once before, but I brought you back. And I’m getting really fucking tired of doing this.”
Callia went still as stone, and for a second her brain flashed blank.
A roar sounded in the trees around them, bringing her mind back online like a power grid juicing up. Callia’s eyes grew wide as a sea of daemons spilled out of the trees and charged the tunnels that ran into the colony.
No…
“They’re going to die,” Loukas breathed in her ear. “Every one of those vile half-breeds you seem to love so much. All because of your indiscretions.”
No, no, no…
Callia struggled but couldn’t break free of Loukas’s grasp. On the far side of the clearing, Atalanta emerged dressed in the same bloodred robes Callia had seen earlier. At her side, she pulled Max along by a rope. When she reached the edge of the trees, the demigod stopped, looked their way and smiled.
Callia’s heart lurched into her throat and she screamed beneath Loukas’s hand.
“Did you really think she’d play by any sane rules?” he whispered in her ear. “She lured you out for me. The princess, the Argonauts, your lover and that stain you call a son will all be annihilated in one fell swoop. But not you. No, you’re going to live. With me. Where you belong. And trust me, syzygos, this time, you will remember.”