The king grabbed the bottle like a parched traveler in a dusty desert. “Pansy.”
The human slang brought a smile to Theron’s lips as he eased into a chair across from Leonidas.
The king broke the seal and took a long swallow of Jameson, then let out a contented sigh. “The damn Irish got one thing right. If you were half as smart as Zeus contends, you would have bought a bottle of this magic for yourself when you were there.” His violet eyes narrowed with unseen knowledge. “But you didn’t. Did you?”
“No.”
The king took another long swallow and eased back into his seat. Though Leonidas’s body had decided after six hundred and eighty-four years it was time to wind down, his mind was still sharp as a tack. And the cunning light shining in his eyes confirmed exactly what Theron suspected was on the old ándras’s mind. “Tell me, Theron. How do you find the human world?”
There it was. The same question he always asked whenever Theron came back.
How did he find it? Last night it had been steamy and sultry and nothing like what he’d experienced before. And he had a feeling the memory of that heat might haunt him long into his marriage.
Since that wasn’t something he suspected his future father-in-law wanted to hear, he simply said, “Hot.”
Leonidas chuckled. “It is that at times. But vibrant.” He waved his gnarled hand around the room. “Oh, most would say nothing could compare to Argolea, and I would agree for the most part, but there’s always been something intriguing about the human world…something we lack here. Olympus lacks it as well, which is one of the reasons the gods have always been so intrigued with humans, themselves.”
“That and that they like to meddle,” Theron muttered.
Leonidas grinned. “True. But Argoleans are fascinated as well. Look around you. Sometimes I have a hard time believing this is the same kingdom I was born into. Styles, speech, even our technology—though more advanced—are similar these days to what you find in the human realm.”
Theron frowned. Yeah, he’d noticed that over the last two hundred years as well. Argoleans were applying for passage into the human realm more and more, even when it wasn’t safe as the daemons grew ever bolder, bringing back popular culture as if it were treasure to be coveted, and the Council was letting them—though only the males. Didn’t matter that most thought they were intellectually and physically superior to humans, they were still enthralled with what they didn’t have. Theron couldn’t see the fascination. And frankly, it disgusted him. Or at least it had. Before last night.
Leonidas took another swallow from the bottle. “Tell me, Theron. You’ve been all over the human realm. What’s your favorite place there?”
“When I’m in the human world, I’m not paying much attention to the landscape.”
“No, of course, you wouldn’t be, now would you? You’d be hunting daemons, doing what you were bred to do.”
Leonidas eyed Theron a long moment, as if debating what to say next, which was something new for the king, as he’d always seemed to know what to say and do. Theron’s intrigue was piqued.
“You know, don’t you,” Leonidas finally said, “that you are probably the greatest Argonaut since Heracles. Your father was a great guardian, and a good friend of mine, but Solon was never as strong as you. He would be proud of what you’ve become.”
Would his father be proud? Theron doubted it. Solon hadn’t ever wanted to see the humans caught in the middle of their war. Theron thought differently. The only thing he enjoyed was the fighting. And since legally he couldn’t unleash his anger on humans, he took that rage out on the daemons he encountered.
“You, of course,” Leonidas went on, oblivious to his thoughts, “are smarter than Solon was. I like to think I had something to do with that, though I know it’s probably more a testament to your genetics than it is to our friendship over the years.”
The king was obviously feeling his age. Theron pushed aside the sting of the memory of his father’s death and the revulsion it caused, and relaxed his shoulders. “You’ve taught me many things, Your Highness.”
Leonidas waved his hand. “Bah. I took advantage, Theron. We both know that. If it were my choice, the kingdom would fall into your hands upon my passing. The Council—” He heaved out a breath. “The Council has different ideas.”
“Tradition is to be upheld. It’s fed our race for centuries.”