“Since when is life fair or just?” Urian laughed bitterly at his brother’s stupidity.
His father sighed. “Sadly, Urian’s right. This isn’t about fairness. It’s about survival. Fuck my father! I am not burying my sons or daughter because he’s an asshole who had to screw a cheap Greek whore. Let the world above burn to the ground and let them tear themselves apart. We’re safe here, and here we will stay.”
Paris cleared his throat again. Louder this time. “Um … Solren? There’s only one small problem.”
“And that is?”
“You’re already a Daimon and the rest of us aren’t far behind. So how are we to survive locked down here without the human souls we need to keep from becoming dust?”
Urian flinched at a very raw truth that could kill them all. A truth that filled him with absolute terror.
*
Urian?
He savored the sound of Xyn’s voice in his head. It was like a mental caress that never failed to warm him all the way through.
Desperate to see her, he found her next to her falls, near the orchard. “Greetings, my fairest lady.” He wrapped his arms around her long, warm neck and breathed in that sweet scent that was uniquely his dragon.
She lifted him up in her clawed hand to cradle him. What’s wrong?
Laughing, he eyed the razor talon that was only a few inches from his face. “Most would see this.” He carefully tugged at it. “What kind of fool am I to lie here with that, this close, and not have any fear?”
You know I’d never harm you.
“True.” Sighing, he tucked his hands behind his head and crossed his ankles while she carried him toward her cave. “I felt a god here earlier. Did you?”
She arched a spiny brow at that. Apollymi.
Irritated, he grimaced up at her. “I swear, if one more person says that to me, I will react violently. Not Apollymi. Someone else. Completely different power.”
Sarraxyn pressed her lips together as fear spread through her. Somehow, Urian must have sensed her father’s earlier visit when he’d dropped in again to press her to act against Apollymi and Urian. She’d told Helios not to come.
He didn’t listen. Part of being a god—they thought they knew best and were always up to speed. But if that were true, then Helios wouldn’t have been pushed aside so easily by the Olympians.
However, the last time she’d made the mistake of pointing that out to her father, he’d blasted her so hard that her brother Veles had been forced to intervene. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have survived the vicious assault.
Closing her eyes, she tried to think of some way to distract Urian from this mess.
How are you adjusting to your wife? Though she hated to ask, and resented Xanthia with a passion, it seemed the safest topic.
At least that was her thought until she felt him go rigid in her palm. Perhaps marriage didn’t agree with her little Apollite, after all.
One could hope.
Urian?
He sighed and sat up to make a face. “I should be grateful.”
I sense a “but” in that statement.
“But”—he smirked at her—“there’s a coldness to her sometimes. Is that normal?”
Xyn bit back a scoff at the question. You’re asking me when I’ve never been around anyone to know?
He winced visibly. “Sorry. That was cruel of me. I didn’t think.”
She fell silent as she listened to the rhythm of his heart change. He was so sad that it made her own heart ache for him in sympathetic pain. More than that, it made her bold enough to speak a secret that she kept buried deep inside. What if you had someone who loved you, Uri? But couldn’t feed you?
“What do you mean?”
Like your father. What if you fell in love with a human or someone else? Someone not an Apollite or Daimon. What would you do?
He snorted disdainfully. “That would never happen. I wouldn’t let myself.”
Xyn felt her heart shrivel with his bitter words. It’s rather small-minded of you, isn’t it?
“Hardly. I’m only being practical. How could I eat if I chose to love another?”
How easy he made it sound—like love was a choice. If it were, she wouldn’t be in this kind of pain. And his attitude seriously pissed her off. Her vision darkened as she had a sudden urge to fling him to the ground and crush him. “Being an idiot, you mean!”
His eyes widened as she spoke her words out loud. “Xyn?”
Furious, she set him down on the ground before she gave in to her impulse to harm him. “Go home, Urian. You’re not safe here.”
“What do you mean?”
When he refused to go, she shot a blast of fire at him.
Urian barely dodged Xyn’s incendiary breath. The flames were a lot hotter than a normal fire. As it was, it singed him and burned his skin even though it didn’t come near his position.
Holy Katateros! He’d had no idea of her power until then. No idea just how dangerous his dragon actually was.
Blowing cool air over his skin to alleviate the burn, he rushed away from her garden. He was halfway home before he realized what must have angered her.
The question she’d asked before she lost her mind.
But no … Xyn couldn’t care for him. Not like that. She was a dragon.
He was an Apollite.
That wasn’t even physically possible.
Then again, dragons abducted maidens all the time. Of course, in his mind, he’d always assumed they’d eaten them.
Now he wondered about the outcome …
Zeus and even his grandfather had supposedly impregnated humans while in the forms of other beasts. Bulls, swans, water …
Surely Xyn didn’t want him to do that with her.
Did she?
The thought terrified him. It horrified him. He was married, and even if he weren’t, they were friends.
Best friends, and had been for years. Like …
Paris and Davyn.
Shite.
Urian slowed down as he realized that they were closer than regular friends. The two of them had shared much in their seclusion. More than that, Xyn had taken care of him. She’d been his refuge when the others were more than he could bear.
It can’t work, Uri. She’s an animal. A dragon.
And he had a wife to care for. There could never be anything between him and Xyn.
Never.
Yet still there was something inside him … something that scared him even more than his thoughts. A feeling he had that he honestly couldn’t deny.
He did love her.
And that would damn them both.
September 7, 9510 BC
Urian drew up short as he entered Apollymi’s palace and found the one thing he’d never found before.
A stranger.
“Who are you?”
The tall, exceptionally thin woman turned around. She was breathtaking. And dressed in a most peculiar fashion—a short green chiton similar to what a man might wear, cut just above her shapely knees. A long, brown, finely woven chalmys was carefully draped around her thin shoulders and pinned with an ornate pearl-and-gold fibula that formed a double bow. Her golden-blond hair was intricately braided and coiled around her head in a style befitting a goddess.
By her grace, height, and beauty, Urian might have mistaken her for an Apollite. Except she didn’t have fangs. Nor were her eyes brown. Rather, they were a vivid, exceptional green that were more akin to those of his aunt Artemis.
Or at least that was what he’d been told about her.
And now that he thought about it, this woman reeked of Greek divinity. To such an extent that he was surprised Apollymi wasn’t out here trying to locate her position with one of the three-headed dogs she used in her palace as guards.
Or a few sniffing Charonte. Normally such a powerful presence in their midst would warrant at least Xedrix out here to investigate it.
So why was this Greek maiden in Apollymi’s Stygian palace? Holding a war bow? And wearing running sandals in the garb of a boy?
Nothing about this made a bit of sense to him.
“You haven’t answered my question.” He used a sharper tone this time to let her know how dire her situation was.
Her brow arched, she raked him with a hostile glare. “Who are you, and why are you here?”
That audacious growl set off his own temper. “I’m not the one trespassing.”
“Neither am I.”