But just as she was about to, she peeked into the room. And caught sight of Nick sitting on an exam table, chest bare to reveal chiseled abs, a healer at his side stitching up his arm. His pants were bloody and ripped, and red lines streaked his skin, but he didn’t seem to care. His attention was focused solely on Orpheus across the room, and the don’t fuck with me expression on his scarred face piqued Maelea’s curiosity all over again.
Relief rushed over Orpheus’s features when Skyla stepped into the room, but he didn’t move to kiss her cheek as he normally did when he saw her in the castle, and Maelea had the distinct impression it was because Nick was watching them.
“Where is he?” Skyla asked.
“He’s fine,” Orpheus said. “He’s in his room.”
“Who’s with him?”
“Three of my men,” Nick cut in. “He’s not getting out, at least not until we kick him out.”
Orpheus turned toward the half-breed leader. “Nick—”
“What about Titus?” Skyla asked. “How bad is it?”
“Bad enough,” Nick answered as the healer placed a bandage on his arm and handed him his shirt. As he pushed off the table and mumbled a thanks to the female who’d stitched him up, he added, “He was barely breathing by the time we subdued Gryphon. Punctured lung, broken ribs, and a wound the length of my arm in his gut. Anyone else would be dead right now.”
Maelea swallowed back the bile as she listened. If it had been her or any of the other colonists…
“He didn’t mean it, Nick,” Orpheus said. “You both got in his way. He thought you were daemons.”
Nick swung his attention Orpheus’s way, and there was fire in his amber eyes as he tugged on his shirt, not even grimacing at the pain he must have been feeling in his injured shoulder. “He’s fucking out of control. If he can’t tell the difference between us and daemons, he’s got no business being out there. And he’s got no business being here either.”
Orpheus’s face paled. But before he could answer, Skyla asked, “What are you saying, Nick?”
Nick drew a breath, seemed to calm himself for her sake. “I’m saying he can’t stay. If I can’t trust him around me, I sure as hell won’t trust him around my people. Look, I know he’s been through shit no one should have to endure, but the colony comes first. He’s not getting any better. It’s been two months. He still twitches, he still acts like he’s hearing things, and he scares most of the colonists on a good day. I won’t risk them. Not even for the Argonauts. He has to leave.”
Orpheus’s back straightened, and from the doorway, Maelea could actually see his defenses come up. She knew Gryphon meant more to Orpheus than a mere brother would. They weren’t just linked by blood, they were linked by the horror they’d both experienced and lived through. Except in Orpheus’s case, he’d come through unscathed. Gryphon was a changed man because of his time in the Underworld.
“Fine,” Orpheus said through his clenched jaw, “then I’ll leave with him.”
Skyla reached out to him. “Orpheus—”
“Theron won’t let you take him back to Argolea,” Nick said. “I already talked to him. He’s in the other room with Titus as we speak. And he’s more pissed than I am. Even he knows Gryphon’s become a liability.”
“He’s not a liability,” Orpheus snapped. “He’s just…struggling right now. I’ll get him through it.”
Nick frowned as if he didn’t think there was any hope, but his anger waned as he stepped toward the door. “I don’t know what the hell you’re gonna do for him that you haven’t already done. Some things can’t be saved, O, no matter how much you want them to be.”
Maelea dropped back into the shadows of the hall as Nick rounded the corner. When he caught sight of her, her adrenaline surged, but he didn’t acknowledge her presence, just as he never acknowledged her when he passed her in the halls. Instead he turned and headed out the front of the clinic, his boots echoing down the corridor in his wake.
The door on the far side of the exam room opened, drawing Maelea’s attention back inside. Both Skyla and Orpheus looked toward the massive blond male Maelea recognized as one of the Argonauts. “O? Theron wants you to come in now. Hey, Skyla.”
Skyla offered a weak smile. “Hey, Zander.”
The male disappeared again, and as Skyla reached Orpheus’s side, Orpheus grasped her hand and kissed it, whispering something Maelea couldn’t hear. Skyla brushed her fingers down his cheek. Then the two walked through the door and vanished from sight.
Skyla had obviously forgotten all about Maelea, evidenced by the way she didn’t even glance back, but that was okay with Maelea. As the door clicked closed behind them and silence settled over the room, Maelea told herself that being forgotten was something she’d just have to get used to all over again.
Some things can’t be saved, no matter how much you want them to be.
As she turned for the front of the clinic, she couldn’t help but think that a truer statement had never been uttered.
***