“Yeah,” Theron muttered. “Skata.” He pinned Isadora with a hard look. “You don’t seem surprised by the announcement good ol’ O is a hybrid.”
Isadora caught Demetrius’s gaze at Theron’s side and drew from his strength. He knew the truth about Orpheus too. He’d been in Atalanta’s lair. He’d seen Orpheus’s glowing eyes. Though Orpheus hadn’t shifted then—at least when she’d been there—it had been more than clear what he really was.
She looked back at Theron. “I’m not.”
“Holy Hades,” Zander said. “Orpheus is a hybrid? All this time? How the hell is that even possible?”
Isadora raked a hand through her short hair as shock rippled across the room. Even she had no explanation for that one. Orpheus was Argolean, Medean, and daemon. It made no sense, and yet there he was.
“He’s an Argonaut now, too,” Theron pointed out with a dark look that said this was not at all what he’d expected or wanted. “Don’t forget that. As the last remaining descendant of Perseus’s line, he’s got Gryphon’s guardian markings. Man, this is a clusterfuck. An Argonaut-daemon hybrid. Wait until the Council catches wind of this.”
“Don’t forget Orpheus is also Lucian’s nephew,” Isadora said. “And even before we lost Gryphon, he was next in line to take Lucian’s place when the Council leader retires.”
Titus snorted near the door. “Now that’s something I’d like to see.”
“No way a daemon hybrid will ever serve on the Council of Elders,” Theron said. “Skata. When did you find out?”
Isadora dropped her arm and stepped into the middle of the room. “When I discovered his lineage is irrelevant. What remains is that this is Orpheus we’re talking about. Before we even found Casey, I had a vision that Orpheus would somehow be important to our cause, and he’s proven that time and again.”
She knew her foresight wouldn’t be enough to convince them, so she turned to Zander and Callia, both of whom looked as shell-shocked as Theron. “And let’s not forget, without Orpheus’s help you wouldn’t have your son Max now either.”
Zander put his arm on Callia’s shoulder, pulled her back against his chest protectively.
Isadora turned from face to face, pleading a case she’d known from the first day she’d assumed the crown she’d one day have to make. “Orpheus is of no more threat to us than Nick is.”
She knew the reference to Nick Blades, the leader of the half-breed colony in the human realm—a colony made up of Argolean-humans—would resonate with the group. Aside from being their biggest ally in the human realm, Nick was also Demetrius’s half brother, and he wanted to see Atalanta and her daemons destroyed as much as they did.
“We would be remiss if we aided Athena and her Sirens in their quest to persecute him,” she added.
“Orpheus has always had a hard-on for power,” Titus pointed out. “He kept that damn Orb after Max brought it to us. Shit, he practically gave it to that warlock and started this whole damn mess.”
Before she said the words, she knew Titus read them in her mind, but she said them anyway, for the benefit of the others. “We know he did that in an attempt to save Gryphon’s life. He had no idea that warlock’s energy had destroyed Gryphon’s soul or that the warlock would harness the Orb’s power to take possession of Gryphon’s body.”
Titus crossed his arms over his massive chest. “Doesn’t change the fact Gryph’s in Tartarus right now because O fucked things up.”
No, it didn’t. Just as it didn’t change the fact the Argonauts stuck together. They were all still mourning the loss of their brother in battle. And even though Orpheus now had Gryphon’s guardian markings, he would forever be an outcast as far as they were concerned. The one responsible for Gryphon’s death.
Theron pinched the bridge of his nose as if he had the mother of all headaches. “We’re not saying Orpheus is the enemy, Your Highness. We’re just pointing out his track record isn’t so great. And now that we know he’s a hybrid on top of it all…”
Theron let the words linger, and Isadora’s protective wall where Orpheus was concerned sprang up. She owed him her life. More than her life. She owed him for saving Demetrius in Atalanta’s lair and for helping her stop the Council from executing him. She also owed him for protecting the life of her unborn child, a child who she was every day more and more convinced would play an important role in this world. She wasn’t about to let Zeus or Athena or any Siren “take him down.”
“His intentions are not at all what you think.”
“How does anyone know what he thinks?” Theron asked. “He’s a hybrid, for shit’s sake.”
Footsteps echoed in the hall again, followed by the crack of the door opening. Before Isadora could answer, Cerek peeked in the room, his short brown hair mussed as if he’d just run through a wind tunnel. “Um, guys. Sorry to interrupt, but we just got a message from Nick at the colony. There’s trouble.”