Every mistake he’d made, every wrong choice over the last fifty years no longer mattered. With tears stinging his eyes, Ari wrapped his arms around his son and hugged him back.
“I’m sorry,” Ari managed, his throat thick with regret. “I shouldn’t have left. I was wrong. I—”
“I don’t care.” Cerek drew back and clasped Ari’s face in both of his big hands. Tears shimmered in Cerek’s eyes as he shook his head. “You’re back. That’s all that matters to me.” A beaming smile pulled at his lips. “You’re back.”
He hugged Ari again, so tight the air felt as if it were squeezed right out of Ari’s lungs. But Ari didn’t care. He didn’t deserve redemption, but his son was offering it, and he wasn’t about to let it pass him by.
Cerek finally let go and swiped his forearm over his eyes. “But you’re an idiot for not contacting us sooner. What the hell were you thinking taking on Zeus’s assassins alone? Good thing Daphne’s smarter than you.”
Daphne...
Ari’s chest warmed at just the thought of her, and he turned quickly, desperate to find her. He didn’t have to look far. She stood off to his right, her hair twisted into a knot on the top of her head, her body covered by slim black leggings, a fitted hip-length jacket, and boots that elongated her legs and reminded him what it felt like to be surrounded only by her. And her eyes, her beautiful, honest, innocent eyes, were focused right on him, shimmering with both love and forgiveness. Two things he didn’t deserve. Two things that were now part of his life, all thanks to her.
He reached for her, slid his arms around her waist, then lifted her off the ground and buried his face in her neck. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you, I love you, I love you. Forgive me.”
Her arms closed around his shoulders. “There’s nothing to forgive.” Her breath was warm against his skin, her words the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. “I knew you were just trying to protect me. I’m not stupid.”
He couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his mouth or the kiss he pressed against her cheek. “I know you’re not. You’re the smartest female I’ve ever met. Way smarter than me. Even my son knows that.”
Her gemlike eyes sparkled as she eased back and looked up at him. “Don’t forget it.”
“I won’t. No way I ever could.”
“I should have known you were too much of a rat bastard to die,” a male echoed from somewhere close.
The familiar voice ricocheted through Ari’s mind, and he released Daphne just enough so he could turn and glance behind him. Zander, the oldest of the Argonauts and the Guardian Ari had served with the longest, strode across the snow toward him, all blond-headed and Adonis-beautiful, just as he’d been for the last eight hundred years.
Ari let go of Daphne and pushed her a step away, bracing himself for Zander’s legendary rage, just in case. Behind Zander, he spotted other Argonauts, but he didn’t have time to look closely. Because Zander captured him in a tight hug before he could, then slapped a hand on Ari’s shoulder and drew back.
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” Zander grinned and shook his head, that rage nowhere to be seen. “I fucking missed you man. Holy hell. I can’t believe you’re really here.”
Friends Ari had thought he’d never see again stepped close, hugged him, then let go. Words of happiness echoed around him but he was too dazed to decipher what was said. He recognized his Argonaut brothers—Theron, Demetrius, Gryphon, Phineus, and Titus. Spotted a couple people he’d never met but who were now obviously part of the group—like the blonde holding a Siren’s bow and the guy at her side with dark hair and mischievous eyes. And he saw others still—like Silas and Nick and Daphne and Cerek—people who were familiar. Whose friendly eyes and warm smiles told him that no matter where he’d been or how long he’d been gone, he was home.
Emotions closed his throat, and tears—joyous tears—filled his eyes. Wrapping an arm around Daphne’s shoulder, he pulled her in to his side and smiled. Really smiled. In a way he hadn’t smiled in at least fifty years.
She laughed at something someone said and slid her arm around his waist. But instead of the warmth he expected to feel, a chill slid down his spine and everything inside him came to a screeching halt.
“Ari?” Daphne’s worried voice echoed close but he couldn’t look at her. Because his mind was suddenly focused on only one thing.
“Sirens...”
The world seemed to spin in slow motion. Ari turned and looked up. A Siren stood on the top of the ravine, her venomous gaze pinned on him. She pulled the string of her bow back. The arrow whirred through the air. Screams erupted. Ari lurched to his side. His arm caught Daphne by the waist, and he dragged her to the ground. A grunt echoed from her lips. Opening his eyes, he expecting to see the arrow, zinging toward him, but a body darted in the way.
The arrow struck flesh and bone with a thwack. Cerek dropped to the snowy rocks with a crunch only feet away.