He laid his palm over Cynna’s bleeding forearm. Her gaze followed, her eyes growing so wide the whites could be seen all around her dark irises. The skin beneath Ari’s palm began to glow, dimly at first, then growing in intensity until it was a beaming white light, making his skin look translucent and the edges of his hand shine red.
Cynna’s eyes slammed shut. Her back bowed off the ground, and an ear-piercing scream ripped from her mouth. Nick held her tighter. Long seconds passed while Ari knit the wound back together, then the glow finally dimmed. When he lifted his hand, the wound was closed, but the skin all around it was red, inflamed, and sizzling.
“Where’s the other one?” Ari asked.
“On her side.” Nick nodded toward the bloodstained shirt.
Ari peeled the fabric away, then laid his hand over the wound beneath her ribs and repeated the process. Seconds later, it was over. Cynna lay limp on the ground, gasping and moaning.
Ari leaned back on his heels. “You’ll need to cover those. The burns will heal quickly, but they can still get infected.”
Nick nodded, a wave of relief sliding through him. Relief that was as foreign as the protective urge he’d felt before. “Thanks.”
Abruptly, Ari pushed to his feet and drew in a deep breath, as if sniffing the humid air. A low growl built in his throat.
Nick’s head came up. He shot a look at Ari, then glanced around the dark airstrip. “What do you sense?”
Ari’s head darted from side to side, and that crazed, wild look filled his mismatched eyes all over again. “Sirens.”
He shot into the trees and was gone.
Blinking rapidly, Cynna looked toward Nick, still pale and glassy-eyed, but at least now no longer bleeding. “Wh-what was that?”
Nick pulled the extra bandages from his pocket, which he’d snagged from that house. “Serious psychosis, that’s what that is.”
He wrapped the first bandage around the blisters forming on her inner arm, then moved to her side, careful not to press on the wound. Even though it was closed, the burns had to hurt like a bitch.
“Who is he?” Her voice was weak, tired, and run-down. But at least now rest would fix that. Relief slid through him. Which, again, was a wacked reaction for him to have.
“An ex-Argonaut.”
“Ex? I don’t recognize the name.”
“Remember I told you he faked his death? He did it after his son came of age and joined the order. His given name is Aristokles.”
Cynna’s brow lowered. “That sounds oddly familiar. Which Argonaut is his son?”
Being Argolean, even if she hadn’t lived in Tiyrns, it made sense she’d know who the guardians were. Everyone in the damn land did. “Cerek.”
“Why did he leave the order?”
Nick shrugged. “Couldn’t take it anymore, I guess. You saw him. He’s a little different.”
She was silent for a moment while he pulled her shirt down and covered her with the blanket again. “What’s with the Siren thing? Are they really out there? Why would he go looking for Zeus’s warriors alone?”
Nick settled back and rested his hands on his knees, feeling a hell of a lot better than he had only minutes before. “Because he hunts them.”
“Hunts Sirens?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
He shrugged again and looked toward the trees. There was no telling how long Ari would be gone. The guy was like a cat, here one minute, gone the next. And while before her questions might have irritated him, at least now they kept him from thinking about what he was going to do with her once he got her back to the colony.
“Remember I told you a soul mate is a curse, not a blessing?” She nodded. “Ari’s the perfect example of that. Several years back, while he was out on a mission for the Argonauts, he came across an injured nymph. The way he tells it, she’d been hurt escaping from Zeus’s clutches. He took her to Argolea, where Zeus and the other Olympians can’t cross, and basically fell for her. Claimed she was his soul mate and that they were meant to be together. Some would say she was his prisoner, others, his lover. I’m not sure. I wasn’t there and don’t know. But according to Ari, they were madly in love. Only Zeus wanted her back. He was pissed that an Argonaut had stolen his prize. So he sent his Sirens to kidnap the nymph and bring her back. When Ari realized she was gone, he went a little ballistic and abandoned his duties to find her. Caused all kinds of trouble for the guardians. Eventually he caught up with the Sirens, and a fight resulted. The nymph was killed.”
“Oh geez.”
“After that, he lost it. Went on this killing spree. Any Siren he could find. It was bloody. The guardians tried to rein him in but couldn’t. When an Argonaut loses his soul mate it can get nasty. Anyway, to keep peace with Olympus, they banished him to the human realm. His son, Cerek, however, didn’t want to accept that ruling. He found him. Thought he could rehabilitate him and bring him back. Ari didn’t want to go back, though. All he wanted to do was go on killing Sirens, chipping away at Zeus wherever he could. But he also knew Cerek would never give up on him. So he faked his death to get his kid to back off.”
“In a fire,” Cynna mumbled.
Nick glanced her way. “How do you know that?”