Maelea’s temper skyrocketed. She wasn’t a helpless female. She’d lived for thousands of years by keeping to herself and never relying on another. She wasn’t about to change that philosophy now.
Stay calm, she told herself as they reached the bottom of the hillside and headed for the river. When they got to the town, when he was distracted looking for wheels, then she’d make her break.
At the first opportunity, she was gone.
***
Titus had reached his limit with the coddling shit. Much to Callia’s disapproval, he’d showered, dressed, and was now riding an elevator up to the main floor to find out what the hell was happening with Gryphon.
At his side, Callia crossed her arms and frowned. “I still think you need more rest.”
“I’m sick of that freakin’ bed. If you like it so much, you go lie in it.”
“You’re the worst patient ever,” she mumbled.
“No, that’d be your mate.”
At the mention of Zander, Callia’s face softened, and a wistful smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. “He is a horrid patient, you’re right.” She shot him a look. “But you’re not far behind.”
Titus didn’t answer. Sweat broke out on his forehead, but he didn’t dare look Callia’s way and give her any reason to order him back to bed. He was weaker than he should be and knew he could use at least a few more hours of rest, but he’d had it with the clinic and the strange looks he’d been getting ever since Callia put up that damn Do Not Touch sign. And though he liked Callia, he couldn’t stomach being around her much longer. She thought about Zander constantly, and every time she did, she’d get that sappy newlybound look on her face. The one that screamed happiness and reminded Titus of everything he was never going to have.
He put that thought out of his head, refocused on Gryphon. Shit, he seriously hoped Nick’s men hadn’t found the dumbass yet.
The elevator door pinged open and he stepped off onto the main floor. Night had settled over the lake, and the tall arching windows stared out at nothing but darkness. Seated on a couch in the middle of the room, Max glanced their way. At Titus’s side, relief whipped through Callia, and she stepped around him, heading for her son. “What are you doing out here?” she asked.
Max shrugged. Picked at a thread on the arm of the sofa. “Zander told me to wait out here.”
Zander. Not Dad. Titus didn’t need to read minds to pick up the animosity.
“Where is he?” Callia asked in a stiff voice as she sat next to her son, obviously picking up on it too.
Max nodded toward a cracked door across the room. “In there. With Theron and Nick.”
Happy for any reason to get away from Callia and her son, Titus turned in that direction, pushed the door open, and stepped into the space. Nick sat behind an intricately carved Russian desk, dwarfing the piece of furniture as he flipped papers. Theron and Zander stood in front of him, hands on hips, shoulders tense. No one looked up when Titus stepped into the room. No one even noticed him.
“You’re not going,” Nick said. “End of story.”
“I have an Argonaut down there,” Theron said.
“I don’t care if the queen of fucking England’s down there,” Nick snapped, “The hole’s being sealed as we speak.”
“You can’t do that—” Zander started.
“I can do whatever the hell I want,” Nick tossed back.
Theron braced his hands on the desk and leaned forward. “You son of a bitch.”
Nick glanced up at Theron, and his amber eyes were as steely as Titus had ever seen them when he said, “Let me make something clear to you, Theron. You don’t have any authority here. I allow you and your Argonauts to use the colony as a stopping ground when you’re in the human realm out of simple courtesy, but I don’t have to. You have no say in how the colony is handled or maintained. The tunnel’s being filled in for security reasons, and that’s that. You don’t like it, you can poof back to the mother ship for all I care.”
Nick cast a glare Zander’s way, then pushed back from his chair and rose to his full height. At six and a half feet and close to two hundred and eighty pounds, he was a force to be reckoned with, but then so was Theron. And as a descendent of Heracles, there wasn’t much that made Theron back down.
“My guardians and I are going into that cavern to look for Gryphon,” Theron said. “That, my friend, is the end of the story. Come on, Z.” He signaled Zander, turned for the door, caught Titus’s gaze, and clenched his jaw. Behind him, Zander’s thoughts were easy to pick up. This is so fucked.
Titus had rarely seen the leader of the Argonauts so worked up. Something big was going down here. His gaze jumped from face to face, trying to read each of their thoughts, but emotions were too close to the surface to get an accurate picture of what was happening.
“If you do that,” Nick answered before Theron and Zander reached the door, “you’re signing your death certificates. We’ll close up the cavern whether you’re in there or not.”