Unease rippled through Orpheus. Why the hell was he being tailed by two more Sirens? Something smelled rotten. Little by little it was becoming clear Zeus didn’t trust Skyla as far as he could throw her. Which begged the question…why had he assigned her to Orpheus in the first place if he knew she was going to fail?
“Good point,” Theron said. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking disorienting them is a better bet,” Demetrius answered.
“A spell?” Orpheus asked, surprised Demetrius was embracing his Medean heritage so easily. The last time he’d used his powers, it had been to help Orpheus banish Atalanta to the Fields of Asphodel. But that had been out of pure hatred rather than anything else. As far as Orpheus knew, Demetrius hadn’t used his gift since.
“Or two,” Demetrius said. “But I’ll need your help. I’m still a little rusty.”
Spells tumbled through Orpheus’s mind. The idea had potential, but it wasn’t a done deal. “We might be able to work something.” He looked to Nick, then Theron. “But we’ll need your help too.”
Both nodded in agreement, and Orpheus found himself shocked that the Argonauts were willing to help him out on this. They could just as easily hand deliver him to Zeus.
Trying not to look as bowled over as he felt, Orpheus laid out the plan, and when he was done caught the nods and agreement of the others.
Who would have thought it?
They moved for the door.
At his back, Isadora said to Casey, “Why don’t you and I go have a talk with that Siren upstairs.”
Orpheus’s unease reignited. Yeah, Isa, you have a nice little chat with the Siren. Butter her up. Because when he got back, he intended to put an end to their games and find out what was really going on.
***
“Think this will work?” Demetrius whispered.
Crouched beyond an outcropping of rock on a gentle slope in the darkness, Orpheus peered down the twenty or so yards toward the small clearing below where the two Sirens—his tail—were scanning the trees, their superior Siren senses obviously picking up the fact there was more to this forest than met the eye.
“So long as Theron and Nick do as they’re supposed to, yeah,” Orpheus answered in a low voice. “I think it can work. You sure those aren’t the two that visited Isa at the castle?”
“They’re not.”
Orpheus studied the two drop-dead-gorgeous Sirens below. “Yeah. Guess you’d know. Pretty hard to forget a body like that.”
“I couldn’t care less about their bodies.” Then, under his breath, “C’mon, Nick.”
Not for the first time, Orpheus found himself impressed Demetrius and Nick seemed to be getting along. They’d hated each other for years. Though they shared the same mother, the same link to the gods, Demetrius had grown up in Argolea and trained with the Argonauts, whereas Nick had been banished to the human realm because of his mixed-breed heritage. Orpheus now knew that was because the Council had seen him as a threat and had wanted to have him killed. All because he had something the rest of them didn’t. He was a true demigod. Half human and half god. More pure than any in Argolea.
It explained a lot about the man. But Orpheus still wasn’t sure what had been the catalyst for the brothers’ truce. He suspected it had something to do with Isadora. Something more than the fact that she was now queen. He thought about mentioning it, then decided not to. It didn’t much matter to him either way. He had more important things to worry about.
But as they waited for Nick and Theron to make their move, one question Orpheus had been wondering since Demetrius and Isadora had come back from that island popped out of his mouth before he thought better of it. “Aren’t you afraid the honeymoon phase is going to wear off?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“With Isa. Let’s get real, Argonaut. You are who you are. Just because we sent Atalanta to the Fields of Asphodel doesn’t change the fact she’s your mother. Doesn’t change the fact what’s evil in her is evil in you.”
Demetrius’s jaw clenched. “Isadora knows what I am.”
“Yeah, but aren’t you afraid at some point she’s going to realize it—you—were a mistake? I mean, good sex only lasts so long. And gods know Isadora wasn’t getting any before you, so it’s not like she had a lot to compare to. But that infatuation will wear off soon enough. I mean, she’s the queen of Argolea, and you’re—”
“Why do you care so much?”
Why? Orpheus wasn’t sure. Maybe because he still couldn’t believe someone could love evil. And maybe it was because a small part of him was jealous. Not jealous that Isadora was taken, but jealous of how easily she’d brushed aside everything she’d known for years to be true about Demetrius and had found the one thing in him no one else could see.
He frowned because he knew the last wasn’t it. “I don’t. I’m just wondering when I can sit back and say ‘I told you so.’ The train wreck’s coming. You know it is.”