Cerek held his hand out to Orpheus and pulled the Guardian up. “Next time I’ll break your arm.”
Orpheus flashed bloody teeth. “Next time I’ll get my girl to break yours.”
Skyla sighed. “My hopes for either of you to grow up just crashed and burned. Listen, children, we have a situation.”
“What kind of situation?” Cerek’s gaze snapped to Skyla, his focus zeroing in on the Siren and her real reason for being here.
“A very serious one.” A female wearing slim black pants, boots, and the baggiest T-shirt Cerek had ever seen stepped up next to Skyla, her auburn hair, streaked with gold and brown, hanging past her shoulders like a luxurious mane. Beside her, another female moved into the room, this one much shorter, with long, dark hair, dressed in nothing but a man’s oversized shirt.
“Whoa,” Orpheus muttered. “Siren.”
“Both of them?” Cerek’s brow lifted in surprise. Sirens didn’t often visit their realm. In fact, he could only remember one time in the last ten years that any Siren other than Skyla had shown up in Argolea.
“No, just the one on the right,” Orpheus muttered. “The other’s a nymph.”
Cerek’s gaze ran over the nymph, and his back tingled when her focus locked solidly on him. He’d never met her before but something about her made the hairs on his nape stand at attention and a whisper of worry rush down his spine.
“Don’t get any ideas, daemon.” Skyla shot her mate a pointed look. “The nymph’s already spoken for.” She turned toward the nymph. “Don’t worry. He’s harmless.”
Grinning, Orpheus stepped off the mat and slid an arm around Skyla’s waist, then leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Totally harmless.”
“Ew.” Skyla grimaced and leaned away from him. “You’re covered in blood and sweat.”
“Never bothered you before.”
Skyla rolled her eyes. The Siren beside her looked Orpheus over with speculation. “This is the male you left the Order for?”
Skyla frowned up at her mate. “Yes. The one and only. Sometimes I can barely believe it myself.”
Orpheus held out his hand toward the Siren. “Orpheus the great and powerful.”
Skyla crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. “In your dreams, daemon.”
Orpheus’s bloody grin only widened. The Siren returned his handshake cautiously. “Sappheire.”
“Whoa.” Orpheus’s stupid smile faded, and he looked back at Skyla. “The same Sappheire who—”
“Yes,” Skyla answered quickly, turning toward Orpheus and widening her eyes in a shut-the-hell-up signal only a moron could miss. “The same Sappheire I served with on Olympus. Amazing, isn’t it?”
From his spot on the mat where he watched the banter, Cerek couldn’t help but chuckle. Even Cerek had heard Skyla’s stories about the Siren who’d constantly challenged Skyla’s status as Athena’s right hand on Olympus. Leave it to Orpheus to stir the shit for his mate when the female in question was standing in the same room.
Orpheus looked back at Sappheire, his gaze sliding over her baggy shirt. “What are you doing here? That’s not a sanctioned Siren uniform.”
“No, it’s not,” the nymph said, finally speaking. “We’re here because we need Cerek’s help.”
“Me?” Cerek glanced at the nymph once more, confusion tugging at his brows. “Why me?”
“Because Aristokles is in trouble.” Her green eyes narrowed only on him. “Your father’s alive, Cerek, but he won’t be for long unless you help him.”
*
Please don’t let him die. Please, please, please...
As she traveled through the portal toward Stonehill Hold with the handful of Argonauts who’d joined them, all Daphne could think about were the multitude of ways they would find Ari’s lifeless body.
Don’t let him die. Please don’t let him die.
She wasn’t stupid. She knew why he’d said the things he had. Not because he meant them but because he was trying to get her to leave him so she’d be safe. But what he’d been too stupid to realize was that the only safe place for her was with him.
Her nerves vibrated as her feet connected with the frozen ground. As they couldn’t flash through solid walls, they’d chosen a location on the hillside outside the hold. She said another prayer that they’d gotten here before Zeus’s army, then opened her eyes and gasped.
The entire structure was on fire. Dark smoke rose to the gray sky above. Female bodies littered the ground, some missing their heads, others stabbed through the heart by random blades, even more burned as if consumed by flames.
“Oh my gods.” Fear wrapped an icy hand around her throat as she scanned the destruction.
“Way to go, Ari,” Silas said at her side.