"Ah," I hadn't considered that.
"You all better get to your rooms for the night to rest. Councilman Calder will be back in the morning to come get you." I heard one of the guards say through the barricade of my guys.
All of their faces held the same disgruntlement, besides Theseus, who was continuing to look at me with a sad smile.
"The guard wants you to leave."
He frowned. "I can do what I please, and I want to stay with you."
My brow furrowed. ”And why is that?"
“What?" He blinked.
"Why is it that you can do as you please?” I asked.
"Uh...you know, he's right. I better go."
I grabbed his arm. "Theseus. We talked about this. No more secrets."
He wouldn't meet my eyes. “Tomorrow, okay? I promise you'll know tomorrow. For now, I want you to just keep seeing me as me."
"All I will ever see is the man in front of me."
"And that’s all I'll ever want." He kissed my forehead. “Goodnight, my Sleeping Beauty."
One by one, the guys kissed me goodnight and left the room, the door closing behind them.
Without the light streaming through the doorway, the room was much darker. The dim light coming from a small lantern in the corner was the only comfort I had in this darkness. Thinking about it, I wondered how they could tell when it was morning? So deep down, the light from the surface never had hope to reach this city.
I looked over at the deadly leaf hammock. Might as well try to sleep.
Running my hand over it like Theseus had, the leaf glowed and opened up for me. Awkwardly, I half climbed, half floated into its embrace. Once inside, the leaf closed around the lower half of my body like a blanket cocoon. He had been right, it was comfortable.
It was so dark.
And for the first time since I had woken up…
I was alone.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jason
Gods damn it.
Where was I?
Opening my eyes, I had expected to find myself in a hospital bed, or perhaps in my own room, but no. At least what I saw was familiar. I was cocooned in a Kalkapata leaf, and if I had to guess, I was being pulled along through the water. I was naked and fully shifted, something I must have done in my sleep.
Wiggling around, I popped my head out from the top of the leaf. "Hello?"
“Good, you’re awake. We’re almost there,” said one of the mer who was carrying me.
Two mer were carrying my ass through the water.
"What's going on? Where are my companions? Where's Atalanta?"
"The made and the rest of them are in Attica. They went ahead of you, and we had instructions to escort you as soon as you were stable.” Replied my other escort.
Why? Why was she in the city? What had they done to her?
I wanted to scream and fight my way through. Taking a deep breath, I knew that would be pointless. They would take me to the city and I could find out for myself. That, and I honestly doubted I could escape the group of guards that were carrying me in my condition. Fuck, who would have guessed that getting stabbed would hurt like a bitch?
So I just laid back and let them drag me along.
What was I going to do? If they learned everything, my life with my parents, with Margo and Davie, my entire life on land was over. At least, the life I had would be. They would drag human after human in front of me, telling me to turn them, and when I wasn't doing that, they would probably match me with a strong female of their choosing and I’d have to fuck her. Get her pregnant as many times as I could.
They were escorting me as a prisoner.
To top it off, my whole body ached from my stab wound and from withdrawal. I had been away from Atalanta for several hours, if I had to guess, and my body was raging against me for it. It was almost too much.
"Sir,"
I blinked. We had already arrived to the city. Craning my neck, I recognized the Imperium Tower. I brushed my hands along the outside of the Kalkapata leaf, making it release its hold on me. Tumbling out, I tried to right myself, only to almost slam my face into the ground.
"It's good to see you up and about.”
Looking up, I saw the guard who hadn't joined in on the fight, the one who had kneeled to Theseus at the docks.
"The name's Callum.” He held out his hand for me to shake. “And you must be Jason. Your girl was quite worried about you."
"Is she okay?"
"The last I saw her, she just looked real tired, but otherwise okay. Councilman Calder put her and the rest of your…uh…gang…up in some rooms."
He came over and slung my arm over his shoulder, supporting me, and helped me into the building. I had been here several times in the past with Uncle Calder, shaking hands, faking smiles, you know, greeting dignitaries. Being put on display as ‘the next in line to inherit the family name'. Like a dancing monkey.
"I was supposed to go tell your companions when you arrived, but since I have to wake them up in about an hour anyway, and I wasn't given explicit orders, why don’t I just take you up to the young lady’s room? That way you can have some alone time with your mate… before you have to meet with the council.”
I stared to Callum skeptically. What was his deal?
His face fell. "Atalanta is really nice, but she seemed…off."
"She's been through a lot. She's had a hard life, and it hasn't gotten any easier since she was turned."
He nodded knowingly, which only made me even more suspicious of him.
"You need to learn to be more trusting,” he reassured me. "Lets go, she's on one of the higher floors."
After Callum dragged me up to Atalanta’s floor, he lightly knocked on the door a few times. Inside, I could hear her jolt awake and struggle around in her hammock before finally freeing herself.
“Coming!” She said quickly, before mumbling, “after I figure out how to open this door."
A few moments later, the door swung open, giving way to the most beautiful yet concerning sight. Her hair, which had grown at least an inch or two since Theseus cut it a couple days ago, was sticking up at odd angles. Her beautiful dark skin looked a lot less pale than when I had last seen it. In the hospital, fighting off those men in her half shifted form, she had looked like a statue of our warrior goddess Leneatha, beautiful and powerful. Until I got a spear in the gut, quickly causing her to look so frail and afraid.
“Jason! Oh, thank God," She sprung, flinging her arms around me in a tight hug.
A sharp pain laced through my body from my wound, but it was drowned out by the pleasant buzz of our connection draining away all of the withdrawal aches I had been feeling.
"Are you okay?" We both asked at the same time.
"You two are just so cute," Callum said before he lightly shoved our bodies through the doorway Atalanta came through. “Now, get out of sight before I get in trouble for breaking the rules."
I looked over my shoulder, about to ask him to tell Percy I had arrived, but he beat me to it. "Don't worry, I'll tell the guardian his charges are safe and together."
He shut the door behind us, casting us into a near darkness.
Breaking apart from me, Atalanta began to run her hands all over my body. "They didn’t hurt you, right?”
She stopped her hands right over my stab wound, where the doctors, I assumed, had stitched me up.
"That's my question, Atalanta.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “What are you all doing here?"
"After you passed out, your uncle gave orders to have you transferred here. I had no choice.” She looked down at her feet, fiddling with the torn sleeve of her shirt.