“I’ve thought long and hard on this, and I want you to know now this is a heavy burden, one I would not place on your shoulders unless it were ultimately unavoidable. Isadora bears the marking of the One. I’m fairly certain my other daughter bears the other mark.”
Seconds passed as the king’s words sank it. If Theron had thought the king’s admission of the existence of the half-breeds was a shocker, he’d been wrong. Nothing compared to what had just been revealed.
“Yes,” the king said quietly. “There is another heir, though she will never rule, because she is a half-breed. Odds are good she doesn’t even know what she is or that her fate is about to change forever.”
“How…?” Theron had trouble grasping what he’d just been told. “How long have you known about her?”
“Since she was born. Her mother was human, a student I met when I ventured to Athens. Gaia was…” Something soft passed over his eyes as he looked off into space. “Kind. Isadora’s mother had passed not long before I met the woman, and Gaia provided the comfort I needed at the time. Our affair was brief, but she meant a great deal to me. I arranged for her and her daughter to be well cared for, and I was careful not to reveal who or what I was, but I think Gaia knew. She was a very bright girl. Passionate. Full of life, and very interested in her heritage and the myths of the gods. She disappeared with the baby shortly after the birth, and though I have often wondered what happened to them, I never saw them again.”
Unease rolled through Theron’s stomach. “Then how do you know this child bears the marking?”
“I don’t. But I suspect, primarily because Isadora and this young woman are of the same strong bloodline, and because Isadora went looking for her after she found the passage of the prophecy in the chronicles days ago.”
That explained what Isadora had been doing in the human world. She’d gone to find her other half. His mind ran back once more to what he’d seen on Casey’s skin last night. To the marking he feared was more than just a tattoo.
“The only way to ensure the race’s safety is to find this marked half-breed and bring her here to Argolea before the daemons find her and kill her first,” Leonidas said firmly.
“And then what?” Theron asked. “If the prophecy is fulfilled and Atalanta becomes mortal, she’ll be more violent in her quest for revenge.”
“True, but her powers will be limited. And then, Theron,” the king said quietly, “the war truly begins. The one that will eventually give us our freedom.”
Theron thought back to everything his father had believed in. Everything Theron despised. “And what of the humans? Will she not use them to get to us?”
The king stiffened. “We are running out of options. Every king has had to balance the directive of Zeus with what is best for our people. In the end, I must think about our world first. Yes, there may be more human casualties if the prophecy is fulfilled, but it’s a small price to pay for the safety of our realm. Ultimately, I have faith that you and your kin can mount a defense. And in doing so, Theron, you will save Zeus’s precious humans. You will also save your queen. You save our monarchy and our way of life. And you ensure the Council will not rule in my stead.
“Your destiny has called you, my son,” the king said more softly. “You are the one I trust to finish what was started centuries ago. It’s what you were born to do.”
Theron considered all that the king had told him. Though the hurt of betrayal ran through his veins at the secrets kept from him and his kinsmen, he understood that knowledge of the prophecy could have caused pandemonium in the race, especially among the Council.
No matter how Theron looked at it, every choice in front of him was riddled with the probability of failure. A great many would die before the end—humans, half-breeds and Argoleans—and if he lived through it, he’d have to look back and know his decisions were made at the expense of many lives.
“What happens to this half-breed woman if I find her and bring her to Isadora?”
For the first time, the king avoided Theron’s eyes. He dropped his arm and seemed to study his slippers with great interest. “One can’t be certain.”
“But you are,” Theron said, sensing the king’s lie. “You know exactly what will happen to her. Don’t hold your tongue now, not when so much is at stake.”
The king looked up. “She’ll die. Her Argolean essence, that part of her that Isadora is losing, will be recycled by Isadora.”
“And you know this for a fact?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know it won’t be the other way around?”