“You’ve heard of me?”
Before he could blink, Acheron was in front of him. No longer human in appearance, he was in a full Charonte form. Horns, wings, and mottled blue skin.
Stunned, Urian couldn’t breathe. He’d always been told that no Charonte existed outside those that served Apollymi. What the hell was this bastard?
“You insult me with that shield and by killing my soldiers,” Acheron growled.
“Your Dark-Hunters insult me by murdering my family.”
“Boy, you don’t want to make an enemy of me.”
He laughed at Acheron’s threat. “We were born enemies the minute you set your soldiers after my people.”
Growling, Acheron blasted him.
Urian caught it with his glowing arm and returned the blast. The shock on Acheron’s face was priceless. With a battle cry, Urian charged his sword with his powers and went in to attack. Just as he would have struck, a portal opened and grabbed him, sucking him back to Kalosis.
He was slammed unceremoniously to the ground at his father’s feet so hard that for a full minute he thought he’d shattered every bone in his body.
Gaping, his father stood, then rushed to his side. He pulled Urian’s helmet from his head and quickly checked him for injuries as Apollymi appeared in one of her finer rages.
Typhoon winds whipped through the hall, tearing at the Apollites and Daimons gathered there and sending anything not tied down flying. Her white hair spiraled around her body as she glared at the two of them.
“You. Don’t. Ever. Attack. The. Elekti!” Those short, clipped words reverberated through the hall.
Since his father hadn’t been there, he had no idea what she was talking about. “What?”
She pointed out Urian. “He attacked that which is never to be touched. If you ever dare strike the Elekti again, I will have you flayed until there is nothing left of you but the marrow of your bones. Understood?”
Given the amount of pain he was in? “Understood, akra.” Urian panted, trying to get his lungs to work again.
Still in a huff, she vanished.
His father cupped his cheek. “What happened?”
Urian cradled his arm to his chest. It was definitely broken. “I don’t know. He’s the leader of the Dark-Hunters. Acheron. I think he’s part Charonte, or part god. He had powers unlike any I’ve ever seen or felt.”
Hugging him, his father kissed his forehead. “All right. Let’s see you tended. And make sure you cut him a wide berth. In the future, I want you and the others to stay low and out of Acheron’s sight. Nothing is worth losing one of you.”
Urian agreed out loud, but inside, he was seething. There was something wrong about this. All the way around.
And he wanted to know what.
February 18, 1650 BC
Urian scowled as he heard a woman crying. That was not something he was expecting. Grimacing, he got up slowly from his bed and forced himself to stand in spite of his wounds and headed for where she seemed to be.
From the opening of Xyn’s old cave in Kalosis, he saw Katra sitting alone near the falls, weeping.
At first, he started to return to bed and leave her there. It wasn’t his business. She definitely didn’t concern him.
But those sobs were gut-wrenching. Sighing, he headed for her even while he called himself all kinds of stupid for it.
“Here.”
Kat looked up with a sharp gasp.
Urian wiggled the handkerchief in front of her face.
She took it and wiped her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Any time. Are you all right?”
She blew her nose loudly, then skimmed his half-naked body, which was bruised and covered with healing injuries. “Better than you, obviously.”
He wouldn’t argue that. He’d almost been gutted by a Dark-Hunter who’d been working with demons for helpers. Bastards. The worst was a massive cut across his chest. Half an inch closer and they would have had his mark and killed him.
By the expression on Kat’s face, she realized it, too. She wiped her nose.
“What happened to you?” he asked.
With a ragged sigh, she shook her head. “Ever done something you’re really ashamed of?”
A number of times, but one stood out above the others. “Broke my mother’s favorite dish when I was a boy and blamed my twin brother. Then let him take the beating for it.”
“You’re such an asshole.”
Urian shrugged. “That’s what my brothers tell me.” He’d have felt worse had Paris not done his own share of blaming him for things Paris had done. “Anyway, you were saying?”
Katra pressed her hand to her forehead. “I did something … a favor for my mother. Now … it was wrong and I feel terrible and I think I really screwed up and I-I have no one to talk to about it.”
Carefully, he sat down by her side. “Yeah, we’ve all been there. Well, maybe not there”—he gestured to where she was sitting—“but you get the idea.”
She snorted. “I just don’t know how to fix this.”
“What exactly did you do?”
“I stole the powers of a god.”
His eyebrows shot north as he fought the urge to step away from her. “You can do that?”
She nodded.
“Well, I’m not going to lie. That was pretty harsh.”
“I know!” She started sobbing again.
Urian felt terrible. “There, there.” He patted her awkwardly.
She threw herself against his chest, which only made it all the more awkward since the only bit of clothing he had on was a shendyt.
After a few minutes, she finally got hold of herself and pulled away. “Thank you, Urian.”
“Not sure I did anything.”
“You listened.” She wiped at her eyes with the heels of her hands. “It’s more than most people do. And where I come from, there wasn’t anyone who would do that much. So thank you.”
“No problem.” He pushed himself up and groaned as pain cut through him.
Kat frowned. “Why are you here by yourself?”
Shrugging, Urian didn’t want to tell her the truth. He didn’t feel comfortable with his own family. He never really had. Paris had Davyn. His father was shacked up with three women he could barely tolerate. Archie had gone psychotic after the deaths of his family and stayed in an orgy most of the time. The rest just pitied him for being alone.
And the one woman he wanted lived in the human realm and was banned from here. So he tended to stay as close to Xyn as he could. Which meant sleeping in her bed if he couldn’t sleep with her.
At least here, he didn’t have to worry about waking up with one of his father’s leftover meals groping on him.
Kat scowled as she studied his unbound hair. “Gah, it freaks me out to look at you.”
“Gee, thanks,” he said sarcastically. “Way to bolster my ego.”
“Sorry. You just remind me a lot of someone else.”
Whatever. Urian started back for his cave. But he didn’t get far before Katra called out to him.
“Hey, Uri?”
He paused to look back at her.
“The Dark-Hunters have one more weakness you don’t know about.”
“And that is?”
“If you put two of them together to fight, they weaken each other.”
Stunned, he stared at her. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because they were created as pawns to manipulate and control someone very dear to me. And I don’t think it’s fair that he has to suffer because of them. While I don’t want to see the Dark-Hunters killed, I hate the fact that he’s been hurt over them even more. As much as I want to stop it, I can’t. But if you do…”
Urian frowned at her words. There was more to it than that. He knew it with every instinct he had. Why would she tell him that now.
Unless …
Unless it had something to do with her guilt. “You’re the reason, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
Urian was incredulous as he put the pieces together in his mind. “Those powers that allowed you to drain a god … somehow they’re the same ones that created the Dark-Hunters, aren’t they?”
She didn’t have to answer. The horrified expression on her face confirmed it. The guilt in her eyes.
“You didn’t mean to do that either.”