Ari jerked forward, but Nick captured him by the shoulders and stepped in his way. “He’s right. Dammit, Ari.” Ari struggled against his hold. “You can’t win against the king of the gods.”
The other Argonauts moved between Zeus and Ari. Disgust filled Zeus’s features. “Circling the wagons. Such a mortal thing to do. You needn’t bother. I’m done here.” He turned his soulless gaze on Daphne. “You’d all be wise to remember who caused this tragedy, though. Had the nymph finished the job I sent her to do, I’d have what I want and your son, Argonaut”—he looked toward Ari—“would still be alive.”
Zeus disappeared in a poof of white smoke. Smoke billowed around the ground near Ari’s feet as well. Startled, he looked around, wondering where it was coming from. Then Daphne screamed his name.
He swiveled and looked down, and as the smoke cleared, he realized the ground where Cerek had just laid was empty..
“He’s gone.” Daphne’s wide-eyed gaze lifted to his. “He’s just...gone.”
“Fucking bastard,” someone said. “He took him. He took all of them.”
Ari glanced over the battlefield. The dead Sirens were all gone too, only blood-stained snow left in their wake.
Ari turned back to Daphne, his mind a mess of what, where, how... But the tears spilling over Daphne’s lashes brought reality to a hard, gasping breath.
His son was dead. Cerek was dead. And there was nothing he could do, no way he could bring him back. He’d healed so many across the years, but he couldn’t save the one person who mattered most.
The finality of the moment hit Ari so hard, the pain dropped him to his knees in the snow as if someone had stabbed him straight through the heart.
“I’m sorry.” Somehow, in the sea of misery, Daphne was there, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and holding him close. “I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have gone to him. I shouldn’t have gone to Argolea. I—”
“No,” he choked out even though just drawing breath hurt like the pain of a thousand daggers. “No, it’s not. This wasn’t you. This was...me. This was...oh gods...” That pain turned to a burn that consumed his entire chest. “If I hadn’t taunted Zeus all those years, if I hadn’t killed his Sirens—”
“No.” Daphne grasped his face so he could look into her eyes. “That was Hera. Don’t you dare blame yourself for this.”
Her voice penetrated the pain. She was his strength, his rock, his last lifeline. And he wanted to reach for her, to hold on and never let go, but the guilt wouldn’t let him.
“She’s right, Argonaut.”
Daphne turned toward the female voice and gasped. And when Ari found the strength to look, he glanced past Daphne and spotted the same thing she had—the elderly woman dressed in a diaphanous white gown who’d poofed out of nowhere and now sat perched on a snowy boulder.
The woman brushed her silver hair over one shoulder with wrinkled hands. “Hera cursed you to destroy her husband’s secret sect and the power he wields through them and with them. It had nothing to do with you, Guardian. You were but a vessel for Hera’s revenge.”
Voices whispered behind Ari. Someone muttered, “That’s her. It’s Lachesis.” But he didn’t turn to look. Couldn’t because the Fate who spun the thread of life was focused solely on him.
“I know you hurt for what you have lost.” Lachesis’s gaze skipped to the group behind Ari. “I know you all do. And I know you cannot see the purpose. But in time you will understand. All things happen for a reason. Cerek’s sacrifice will have rippling effects. Ones you will realize before the end.”
She looked back down at Ari. “I also know your heart, Guardian. I know you want revenge. But now is not the time. Now is for healing. And healing is power. Use that power and you will not fail.”
She pushed to standing, but her feet didn’t hit the snow. They hovered over the ground as if she walked on air. “I cannot remove Hera’s curse, but know this. Every curse can be a blessing if viewed in the right light. I have faith you can put this curse to use for the greater good. If, that is, you follow through with the promise you made to your son.” Her gaze drifted to Daphne, and a slow smile spread across her wrinkled lips. “This one, I have no doubt, will help you. Hold on to her, hero.”
The Fate disappeared as if she’d never been there. And though her words drifted in the cool air, easing a little of the pain, the only comfort Ari wanted—the only person he needed—was already hugging him again, pulling him in and never letting go.
“I’m here,” Daphne whispered. “I won’t let you fall. I’m not letting you disappear from the world again. Cerek wouldn’t want that.”
“No.” Ari sniffled. “He wouldn’t.”
“You can do this.”