She scowled at a book on the shelf in Ari’s library. Told herself no one stood a chance alone against a horde of daemons—especially unarmed and wearing those stupid shoes Athena had given her. But even as she tried to justify it to herself, a little voice in the back of her head whispered, You’re not Siren material, and you know it.
Shaking off the voice, she wandered through the library, looking at books and trinkets on the shelves. Silas had started a fire before he’d left, and even though the room was warm and cozy, she couldn’t seem to relax. Reading didn’t sound the least appealing, she didn’t feel like tackling a puzzle, and she was too keyed up to sleep. Nerves humming, she wandered from room to room, wondering when Ari was going to return. Wondering how he’d react when she proposed her little “you teach me to fight and I’ll agree to leave you alone” plan.
She stopped outside the wing that led to his suite of rooms. Drew a deep breath. Knew she shouldn’t invade his privacy but wanted to know what he kept locked behind this door. To her surprise, the handle turned with ease.
A hallway led to a wide-open bedroom suite complete with a simple bed, another fireplace already burning thanks to Silas, a sitting area, closet, and a door partway open to a bathroom. The room was sparse, nothing hanging on the walls, only two pillows and a plain white blanket on the bed. No pictures or trinkets or anything that personalized it as his. She moved to the closet, flipped on the light, and eyed the scattering of clothes hanging on the rack. All rugged. All made for being in the elements. All boring colors and way too functional fabrics.
Turning out of the closet, she looked over the room again and couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness for how boring his life must be. Silas had said he kept himself closed off from people. This room was a reflection of him—simple, empty, lonely.
An image of her room back on Olympus filled her mind. White walls, white furnishings, white bedspread and pillows. No pictures on her walls either. The only thing of personal value in her room was the stack of books she’d collected.
Telling herself she wasn’t anything like the crazy Argonaut, she headed back for the hallway that led to the door. The last thing she needed was for him to find her snooping in his space. But just before she got to the hall, she noticed another door she hadn’t spotted in the shadows when she’d first entered.
She pushed that door open and stepped inside. Darkness surrounded her. Feeling along the wall, she found the switch and flipped it on. Light flooded the room from above. She let her eyes adjust, then scanned the space. A scuffed wooden desk took up the middle space. A couch sat across the room. Shelves stuffed with books lined three whole walls. But her attention landed and held on the fourth wall, on the giant world map stretching from one corner to the other.
Her brow lowered as she stepped closer and looked at the tiny red flags stuck in various locations across the earth. They were scattered all over Europe, Asia, North and South America, even the Arctic. But it was the symbol on each flag that made her eyes widen and her stomach draw up tight. A bow and arrow cut by the Greek symbol for sigma.
“What in Hades are you doing in here?”
Ari’s voice boomed at her back, but Daphne didn’t turn to look, didn’t move, couldn’t take her eyes off the map.
“You’re supposed to be gone.” He moved back to the door, mumbled, “Skata,” then yelled, “Silas!”
Daphne’s gaze swept over the map, both disbelief and dread swirling in her belly to form a hard, tight knot. “You’re tracking Sirens.”
“Where the fuck is Silas?” he demanded.
She couldn’t believe it. Silas had made her think Aristokles didn’t hunt Sirens on purpose, but this map proved otherwise.
She whirled on him, no longer caring if he was upset she’d invaded his space. He was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, his face flushed from the cold outside, his dark hair mussed, his bare feet insanely sexy against the hardwood floor, but she ignored the way he looked and focused on the facts. “Why are you tracking Sirens?”
His gaze narrowed. “How do you know what I’m tracking?”
She pointed toward the map. “Because I’m not stupid. I know the Siren symbol. You are hunting them.”
A steely look crossed his features as he stepped slowly back into the room. “What do you know about anything I do?”
“I know—” Her mouth snapped closed when she realized she was about to give everything away. “I’ve heard stories. About an Argonaut who hunts Sirens. It’s you, isn’t it?”
He glanced toward the map with all its little red flags, then back at her. But he didn’t say a word.
“Answer the question,” she demanded.
He still didn’t speak. Just stared at her with hard, narrowed eyes. And she knew instinctively that he wasn’t going to answer, but she needed the truth once and for all.