“No.” Damon grasped her hand, holding her in place. “Tell me now.”
She held his gaze and sighed. “Okay, but the short version. Zeus sent a Siren to kill your father, Aristokles. He was living in the human realm. I don’t know the whole story, just that Aristokles lost his soul mate years ago, and the grief drove him out of Argolea and away from the Argonauts. He’d been hiding in the human realm for fifty years, but he was still protecting the humans and half-breeds in the area, fighting Hades’s daemons who prey on the innocent and messing with Zeus’s Sirenum Scorpoli. Zeus grew tired of Ari’s meddling and sent Daphne, a recruit in the last stages of Siren training, to kill him. But she didn’t. They fell in love. And she brought him back to the Argonauts. But Zeus found out and sent his Sirens to kill them both. The Argonauts arrived just after the attack happened. You were there. You helped the Argonauts defeat Zeus’s Sirens, and in the process you reunited with your father. Zeus became enraged. And just before it was all over, one of his Sirens hit you in the chest with an arrow and killed you.”
Damon glanced down at his bare chest. There was just enough moonlight filtering through the trees to highlight his skin. He saw no marks. Had no scars. “How is that possible? I’m clearly not dead.”
“The arrow was dipped in Medusa’s poison. It turned you to stone. Zeus then took your body. I don’t know how he did it, but somehow he brought you back. You said you have no memory before waking up on Olympus twenty-five years ago. What if Zeus wiped your memories? They do it to the Siren recruits. What if he used magic or witchcraft or something to bring you back? It makes sense. He imprisoned you on Olympus. He’s been using you all this time, and because you couldn’t remember your old life, you had no idea what he was doing.”
Using you… His mind skipped back over the years. To his first memories, blinking up at a gorgeous female with emerald-green eyes and fire-red hair. To hearing her chanting words he didn’t understand and feeling something warm swirl in his veins. To his time with Aphrodite, to all the things the goddess of lust made him do in her sickening pleasure palace, the females she’d ordered him to fuck for her entertainment, the orgies she’d made him participate in, the hours she’d kept him isolated in her bed. The times she’d loaned him out like property to the Sirens to use for warfare training and seduction. To the hundreds of females he’d pleasured because he had no other choice, and finally the nights he’d lain awake staring at the ceiling thinking there had to be more to life.
His vision turned red, and a roar grew in his ears. “Zeus did this to me? He stole my life. Why?”
“Because he hates the Argonauts. Because they’ve bested him too many times and interfered with his plans. Because he doesn’t care how they suffer, just that they do. Taking you like that… It cut them all deeply. They’re your brothers.”
Damon wasn’t sure of that. He felt no brotherly connection to anyone. All he knew was a boiling rage and the need for retribution.
Every muscle in his body contracted. “Open the portal again. I’m going back to Olympus.”
“No.” Elysia grasped his hands tightly. “Look at me. You can’t go back. Not now. Not when you know what you are. He’ll kill you for good this time.”
“Not before I do some serious damage. I’ll slaughter all his Sirens if I have to. Open the damn portal.”
“I can’t. I don’t know how I did it before.”
She was lying. He saw it in her fear-filled eyes. His jaw clenched. “Fine.” He pulled his hands from hers and stepped past her. “I’ll find someone who can.”
She rushed into his path and pressed her hands against his chest. “You can’t.”
“Watch me.”
“No.” Her voice shook as she pushed harder, stopping him. “You can’t leave me here. I need you. I need you more now than I ever did. Can’t you see what’s right in front of you? Can’t you tell that I love you?”
Something in his chest cinched down hard, a sharp bite of pain that squeezed so tight it stole his breath. “You…what?”
“I love you.” Her eyes grew damp. “I think I fell in love with you on Pandora, only I was so confused and hurt when you disappeared for that month that I didn’t know what to do. But this feeling I have for you has only grown since. Every moment we’re together, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, and I don’t want to lose that. I won’t lose you. Not to Zeus or anyone. Not when we’ve finally found each other. You can’t leave me now. I love you too much to let you go.”
His heart raced again as he stared down at her, but this time it wasn’t fury fueling his blood, it was fear. So much fear, he was afraid to move. “How?”
“How what?”
“How can you love me knowing the things I’ve done with Aphrodite, with those other recruits, with—”
“How can I not love you when you’ve protected me, when you’ve supported me?” She stepped closer, brushing her body against his in the cool night air until heat was all he felt. “I couldn’t have gotten through any of what I did with the Sirens if you hadn’t been there. And I don’t care about what you did in the past because we both know it wasn’t your choice. This, though—you and me—this is a choice. And the way you just swept me out of Olympus told me loud and clear that I’m your choice.”
All the rage slid right out of him, and as his heart swelled, a love he’d always been too afraid to hope for filled the space left behind.
“Emmoní…” He lifted his hand and gently cupped her cheek as he looked over her beautiful face. She was his obsession. Had been from the beginning. And now he knew why. “All these years, I thought I was alone. I thought no one cared. I thought…” His throat grew thick, and the hot sting of tears burned his eyes. He lifted his other hand to her face. “You awakened me. You brought me back to life. You are the reason my heart beats. I won’t leave you. I can’t. I’m yours. Always yours.”
“Oh…” Tears spilled over her lashes and slid down her cheeks as he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into the heat and life of her body. That fire only she could ignite flared hot inside again, sparking through every nerve ending, every cell, even into the depths of his soul, telling him he was finally home.
Releasing her mouth, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, lowering his face to her neck and drawing in her sweet honeysuckle scent. She clung to him just as tightly, showing no signs of letting go, and he was glad for that. Glad because the reality of everything she’d shared hit him hard in the silence. Made him realize nothing would ever be the same. Changed every one of his thoughts and plans and ideas for the future.
“Damon,” she whispered against him. “Damianos. Who gave you that name?”
“I don’t know,” he said into her hair. “It’s always been my name.”
She drew back. “It’s an old name. Ancient Greek. Translated, it means to tame, to subdue.” Her eyes held his. “Indirectly, it means to kill.”
Zeus had done all those things. The king of the gods had tamed him, subdued him, and in the process, he’d killed the person Damon used to be. “I can’t use that name anymore.”
“You’re not that person anymore. Your name is Cerek.”
“Cerek.” The name still held no familiarity. Sounded foreign on his tongue.
“My Cerek,” she whispered. Rising to her toes, she brushed her lips against his and, added, “All mine.”
He opened to her kiss, dazed, confused, but steady because she was with him. She was right, he couldn’t leave her. He never wanted to leave her. They were free now. And all he wanted to do was lose himself in her love and never look back.
She shivered against him, and as he broke the kiss, he finally cued in to the fact it was night and they were standing in a damp forest, him wearing only pants and boots, her dressed in nothing but his thin T-shirt.
He ran his hands up and down her arms, hoping to warm her. “We need to find some kind of shelter.”
“Th
e half-breed colony isn’t far. It’s in ruins now and abandoned, but we can safely stay there as long as we’d like. I brought us here because there are therillium stores in the tunnels beneath the colony.”
“The invisibility ore?”
She nodded. “Once we light the ore, no one will be able to find us. Not even Zeus.”
Being totally alone with her with no outside distractions sounded absolutely heavenly. “Lead the way.”
She stepped back, gripped his hand, and smiled. A shiver racked her body once more as she drew him into the trees. “That’s weird. It feels like it’s getting colder.”
It was getting colder. He felt the temperature drop, and a tingle rushed down his spine.
Daemons… Hades’s daemons were somewhere close.
The realization hit like a wave, consuming every thought. He didn’t know how he knew, he just did. He pulled Elysia to a stop. “We have to leave.”
“But we haven’t even—”
A roar sounded through the trees. His head jerked in that direction and spotted the vile, seven-foot beast with the body of a man, the head of a lion, and the horns of a goat rushing straight toward them.
Protect her. Take her home. Keep her safe…
Instinct brought his hands together.
“Damon—Cerek”—panic filled her voice—“what are you doing?”
His pinky fingers connected, and a portal opened with a pop and sizzle of light that illuminated the forest. He jerked back in surprise, his eyes growing wide, but he didn’t care where it took them. With one look, he realized two more daemons had joined the first.
He grasped Elysia’s hand.
“No.” She jerked back against him. “No, we can’t go through!”
He darted into the portal. She yelled again and jerked against his hand, but he only held on tighter.
Somehow he knew they weren’t heading back to Olympus like she thought. It was instinct—again. An instinct he didn’t understand, but wasn’t about to fight.
Panic stole Elysia’s breath. No, they couldn’t go back. They couldn’t go—
Her feet connected with stone, and she stumbled forward. The portal popped and sizzled at her back as it closed. Beside her, Cerek gripped her hand tightly so she didn’t fall.
“What the…?” a voice muttered somewhere close.
Elysia’s gaze swept over the room. Tall stone columns. Guards dressed in armor, holding spears. She whipped around and stared at the arched portal, silent now after they’d come through, the familiar words she’d read hundreds of times as a child etched into the stones:
Herein lies the boundary of worlds. Protected on this side, bound only by sacred land on the other. Those who cross do so at their own risk. But be forewarned: passage herein invites the bringer of nightmares, the watcher of madness, the light and dark in constant flux. And always, waiting…the thief at the gate taking stock for the deathless gods.
Panic turned to an icy fear that gripped her chest and squeezed so tight, she could barely breathe. Footsteps sounded close as she shoved her hands against Cerek and pushed hard. “Go back. Go back through. Quick. Before—”
“Holy Hades.”
Elysia froze because she knew that voice. Had listened to it sing to her at night when she’d been young. Had heard it scold her when she’d gotten into trouble and read her stories late into the night when her mother thought she was sleeping.
What in the name of all things holy is he doing in the Gatehouse right now?
Cerek looked past her. The male at Elysia’s back gasped. “Call the others,” he said in a dazed voice to the Executive Guard. “Call them at once and tell them to get over here.”
Elysia dropped her head against Cerek’s chest and bit back a groan. There was no way they could escape now. Not when her father had just spotted Cerek.
Footsteps sounded again as Demetrius moved up the stone steps. Against her, Cerek tensed and whispered, “Emmoní.”
Elysia drew in a breath for courage, lifted her head and finally turned. “Patéras.”
Demetrius’s feet drew to a sharp stop halfway up the steps, and his eyes grew so wide, the whites could be seen all around his black irises. “Elysia? Oh my gods…”
She nodded, and even though she wasn’t ready to come home, even though she just wanted more time alone with Cerek, tears filled her eyes. “It’s me.” She ran to him. “I’m home.”
Her father’s arms closed around her, and he swept her off her feet and hugged her close. Tears spilled over her lashes, and as his familiar scents of pine and leather and citrus filled her senses, love and home and safety surrounded her.
“My ageklos,” he whispered, turning her in a slow circle. “Oh, how I’ve missed you.”
She held on tighter. “I missed you too, pampas. So much.”
He lowered her to her feet, drew back, and looked down at her, his own eyes wet with tears. “Are you hurt? Are you okay? Are you—”
“I’m fine. I’m not hurt. I promise, pampas. I’m good.”
His gaze swept over her again, as if to make sure, and then he pulled her tight against him again so her cheek pressed against his beating heart. “My angeklos,” he whispered again.
She smiled and sank into him, knowing Cerek was behind her, watching the whole scene. Maybe she’d been foolish not to want to come home. Her father loved her. Cerek was a part of his brotherhood. Once she told him she and Cerek were—
“Ageklos,” her father said in a low voice, “why are you wearing a male’s shirt? And why is he missing his?”
He. Cerek. There was no warmth of brotherhood in her father’s voice.
Skata. This could go downhill fast if she wasn’t careful. She drew back and gripped her father’s arms. “Pampas, it’s not what it looks like.”
“Not what it looks like?” Elysia’s father pushed her to the side. “I think it’s exactly what it looks like.”
He stalked up the rest of the stone steps to the portal’s platform, muscles clenched, eyes black as night and focused right on Cerek as if Cerek were a bug he wanted to squash beneath his shoe.
Cerek tensed and stepped back, wondering how the heck he’d opened the portal to this realm in the first place and whether or not he could open it to somewhere else right this second.
“Pampas, stop!” Elysia rushed up the stairs and stepped in front of Cerek, pushing her hands against her father’s chest to force him back. “We ran into a pack of daemons when we reached the human realm. My clothes were ripped in the fight. Cerek gave me his shirt so I wouldn’t have to walk around naked.”
The Argonaut’s feet stilled, but his calculating black as night eyes never once wavered from Cerek’s face. “Is that true?”
Think quickly, dumbass. “Yes.”
“He saved my life, patéras. You should be thanking him, not trying to hurt him.”
The Argonaut ignored his daughter’s pleas and narrowed his gaze on Cerek. Darkness pumped off him in waves, and Cerek’s stomach tightened when he realized—again by some weird instinct he’d never felt before—that the male was part witch.
“Pampas,” Elysia said again. “Cerek didn’t hurt me. He helped me. He’s not a threat.”
“I’ll find out what he did or didn’t do to you later. But you’re wrong about him not being a threat. Dark magic surrounds him. I can feel it. He’s not what you think, Elysia.”
Cerek’s pulse sped up, and a strange energy urged him to move forward, to leave, to run.
Though to run where, he didn’t know.
Elysia turned confused eyes his way, and the pull lessened. But when he saw the questions swirling in their chocolate depths, he keyed back in to what her father had just said. Sweat broke out along his spine.
Dark magic… What did that mean? Was that the energy he was feeling in his limbs? And if so, why was he feeling it now when he’d never felt it before?
His stomach tightened. Before he could find a way to voice the questions, footsteps sounded near the arched do
orway. He looked in that direction just as two large males, both sporting the same ancient Greek text on their arms, stepped into the room with wide eyes.
“Holy Hera,” the one with shoulder-length dark hair said. “I can’t believe it.”
The other male moved up the steps without stopping, bypassing Elysia and her father and slowing only when he was directly in front of Cerek.
Short, dark hair fell across the male’s brow as his mismatched eyes—one green, one blue—searched Cerek’s face. He was roughly the same height and build as Cerek, but otherwise they shared no other similarities besides the markings on their arms. But Cerek’s pulse turned to a roar in his ears as he stared back, because he’d seen those eyes before. In the memory Elysia had showed him just after they’d arrived in the human realm.
“Yios?” the male whispered. “Is that you?”
Unease tingled down Cerek’s spine, and he moved a half step back. “No, I—”
“Holy gods.” The male closed the distance between them and threw his arms around Cerek’s shoulders. “It is you.”
The air whooshed out of Cerek’s lungs, and his body went stiff as a board. He recognized the word yios, knew it meant “my son,” and figured from everything Elysia had explained that the male must be his biological father. But there was no familiarity. No warmth or vibration that told Cerek he was family. He felt nothing except that growing energy, urging him to leave, to rush, to search…
“I can’t”—his breaths grew shallow and fast. He lifted his arms, braced them against the other male’s and pushed—“breathe.”
The male dropped his arms and stumbled back, but his brow wrinkled and confusion filled his mismatched eyes when he said, “Cerek?”
Perspiration broke out all over Cerek’s body. Even the name was unfamiliar. His stomach tossed as he tried to find words. He believed everything Elysia had told him, but nothing about this male or this place was familiar, and that strange energy—
Pressure formed along his forearm, distracting him from his thoughts.