“I’ve been thinking about that.” Callia shifted in her seat to look up at her mate. “Hades was pissed that he lost her. Is it possible he could have done something to her soul? Put some kind of, I don’t know, spell on it?”
“No.” When Callia turned to look at Demetrius, he crossed his arms over his chest, confident this had nothing to do with any kind of spell. “The gods can’t dictate life or death. Only the Fates do that. And in the case of a prophecy, like the one that brought Casey to Argolea, it’s preordained at birth. We’d know if that were the case now.”
Callia bit her lip and looked down at her notepad again. Quietly, she said, “Nick disappeared.”
Zander glanced down at his mate. “How would that have any kind of impact on Isadora, thea?”
Callia turned to look up at him again. “It’s a long shot, but bear with me. We already know that Isadora is both Demetrius’s and Nick’s soul mate, right? Thanks to the whole twin thing and Hera’s curse. What if the soul mate curse is somehow affecting her?”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Demetrius said. “The female in the equation is immune to the curse. It’s only the Argonaut who feels the pull, and even then, it’s more of an—”
“Emotional pull,” Zander supplied, looking over Callia’s head toward Demetrius. When Demetrius nodded, he glanced back down at his mate. “It’s a physical pain for the Argonaut, yeah, but the draw is toward another person’s soul. Not the body. And I’ve never heard of it weakening or threatening a guardian’s life.”
Callia placed her hand on the back of her chair. “I realize that, but Nick isn’t a normal Argonaut, now is he? We already know he’s Krónos’s son. And if Atalanta was his mother, she was a goddess herself. Even if, somehow, Krónos made her mortal when he impregnated her, then that makes Nick a true demigod. And we’ve never had a true demigod Argonaut in the ranks, have we?”
Demetrius looked over her toward Zander and lifted his brows in question. Zander shook his head.
“No, I guess not,” Zander said. “Not recently, at least. The original seven were true demigods, but that was generations ago. I still don’t see how that would change anything, though.”
“I’m not sure yet, myself,” she answered, looking back at her book. “I’m just—”
“I think I found something.” Maelea’s voice sounded from somewhere in the stacks.
Callia and Zander turned her direction. Demetrius looked past them where Gryphon’s mate was walking from between shelves, her jet-black hair falling past her shoulders, a faded leather book open in her hands.
She laid the open book on the table in front of Callia and pointed to a passage. “There. I knew I remembered something similar.”
Callia scanned the page, and since he couldn’t see the words, Demetrius watched her features. Her eyes furiously read the words, then her face paled. And that knot in his stomach clenched even tighter.
He pushed away from the table, worry and dread skittering along his already frayed nerve endings. “What does it say?”
Callia laid her hand on the worn book and looked up at Maelea. “You remember this happening?”
As Zeus and Persephone’s daughter, Maelea was over three thousand years old and had seen or been privy to almost every important moment in ancient Greek history. “I remember hearing about each one, yes.”
“Callia,” Demetrius demanded, stepping closer. “What does it say?”
Callia sighed and looked back at him. “Aiakos, Minos, and Rhadamanthys were three mortals who were given the choice between death or becoming Judges of the Dead in the Underworld.”
“Okay.” Demetrius stared at her. “What do three dead mortals have to do with Isadora?”
“All three were of Zeus’s line,” Maelea said. “And all three were bound in life to a mate. When they became gods of the Underworld, the mate they each left behind slowly withered away until eventually death claimed them.”
Demetrius looked from face to face. “I’m still not following. I’m not dead.”
“No,” Callia said, shaking her head. “You’re not following. Death isn’t the connection. Power is. As their powers grew, their mates’ strengths dwindled until there was nothing left.”
Demetrius stared at the female. And her words didn’t immediately click. He was perfectly healthy. Nothing about him had changed. And since Isadora was his soul mate, that meant nothing should be impacting her. Because…
Oh skata… The blood rushed from his cheeks, and the entire room felt like it tilted right out from under his feet.
Callia turned in her seat to look up at Zander once more. “We have to find Nick. Hades said he needed Zagreus to harness the powers Krónos gave Nick. If that’s about to happen and Nick’s powers are growing, that could explain why Isadora is sick.”
Zander was already stepping toward the door. “What will you do if we find him?”
Callia pushed out of her chair. “I don’t know. But maybe having him here will give me a chance to figure something out.”