She waited for Cass to look at her.
“I’m Dr. Lakis.” She extended her hand to Cassandra. “If you don’t mind, I would like to examine you and see how the baby is doing.”
The two of them headed off.
Phoebe took a moment to check in with Kat and Chris. “You two need anything?”
Katra cocked her head at her. “Stryker’s not going to hurt Urian. Why are you so worried?”
Phoebe let out a bitter laugh. “You don’t know him at all, do you?”
“I’ve known them both a lot longer than you have.”
“Then you should know how violent Stryker gets and how often he lashes out.”
Kat passed a smug look to Chris. “But not against Urian.”
“Really? On the night Urian left his brother, who was a trained soldier, to save the life of a blind Apollite woman and her children, his father almost beat him to death. But for Apollymi’s intervention, he probably would have.”
Kat gaped. “He told you this?”
“No, a friend of his did as a warning to me to never make the mistake of putting him in the crosshairs of his father’s wrath. He wanted to stress to me that while Urian constantly assures me that he’s okay and that everything will be all right, Urian is not okay and he’s playing an extremely stupid game with his life. For me.”
*
“Damn it! How did they get to that boat?”
With his arms crossed over his chest, Urian stood in the council room stoically and listened to his father’s tirade. Which had to be a record for the longest rant ever. He would yawn, but in the mood his father was in, he’d probably cut his throat.
“Urian!”
He snapped his head up. “Sir?”
“How did they get past you?”
“No idea. I was in the boathouse. Checked on Jason and Bryan. They were fine at the time. Went outside because they said they heard something. Then Trates was calling for assistance around front, so I headed that way. Next thing I knew, you were screaming that they were in a boat.”
“You didn’t sense anything?”
“I couldn’t pick up any smells because of the gunpowder residue. My hearing was shot from the explosions. Same for my vision. My ears are still ringing.”
His father curled his lip. “I’m disgusted by all of you! Get out of my sight!”
Relieved to have an end to that and still be in one piece, Urian exchanged a sideways glance with Davyn. But neither of them dared to speak until they were clear of his father’s hearing.
Davyn let out a long, slow breath. “Damn, Uri.”
“I know.”
“Hold me?”
Urian laughed before he pulled Davyn into his arms and gave him a hug. “Better?”
“No! You scared the shit out of me! Between that and your father … I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.”
“Yeah, well, I appreciate you, brother.”
“Glad someone does.”
Urian kissed his cheek before he released him. “Did everything go okay?”
“Not really. But I made do. How about on your end?”
“Not really. But I made do.” His gaze fell to the necklace around Davyn’s neck. Paris’s.
Davyn looked down at it and touched it. “I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
“I know. Seems like yesterday. Not seventy years.”
He nodded. “He’d kick your ass if he knew you helped a Dark-Hunter.”
“Yeah, he would. Stab me himself.”
Davyn snorted. “I should do it for him.”
“I should probably help you. If I had any sense I would.”
“Urian!” his father shouted.
Now there was a tone to make even Ares drop a load.
Davyn turned a shade paler. “Glad I’m not you,” he whispered before he headed off down the hall.
Resigned to whatever ass-crawling was about to manifest, Urian headed back toward his father’s office and opened the door. “You rang, my lord and tormentor?”
“Don’t get cheeky with me, pido, I’m not in the mood. Come in and shut the door behind you.”
Urian obeyed.
“I think we have a traitor in our midst.”
Those words sent a slice of fear down his spine. “Why?”
“I keep running over everything that’s happened. It’s the only explanation for how the heiress keeps eluding us. Someone has to be helping her.”
Urian kept himself completely still as the hair on the back of his neck began to crawl with guilt. “What do you want me to do, Solren?”
“You know what I want! The head of the traitor. I want you find whoever it is and gut them!”
Urian sighed. “Solren, have you ever considered that the words of the oracle could have been a game sent by the gods to make you destroy yourself? Like Oedipus? It was by trying to avert his fate that King Laius caused his own death. And the same for Oedipus. Had either king not tried to stop their fate, they wouldn’t have taken the very actions that caused it.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Sure I am. Solren, think about it. We are our own worst enemies. It’s by our own actions we’re destroyed.”
“And by the sword the knot was undone.”
“Pardon?”
“The Gordian knot? Even the most complex and unsolvable problem can have a simple solution if you apply enough brute force to it.”
“Um, I don’t think that’s what that means, Solren.”
“Of course it is. Don’t you dare argue with me!”
Urian held his hands up in surrender. He wasn’t about to argue philosophy when his father was in a mood this foul and armed. “When was the last time you took a soul, Solren?”
“Why are you asking?”
“Thinking you’re a little peckish. You might want to feed soon. Take the edge off.”
“Fine! Bring me the heiress and I’ll be thrilled to feed on her and her unborn child.”
Urian snapped his fingers. “I will see about that pronto. Anything else I can do for you?”
He growled like a lion.
Urian left immediately. And almost collided with Sabine, Apollymi’s favored Charonte since Xedrix had gone missing a few weeks back.
“The goddess summons you.”
Weird that she’d send her demon. Normally she just screamed in his head.
Scowling, he followed the orange-fleshed demon back to Apollymi’s garden, where the goddess was not at the pool but out in the orchard where the rowan trees and black roses grew.
Seriously concerned now, Urian approached with a great deal of caution. “You summoned me, akra?”
She handed the rose she’d just cut to the demon beside her so that he could add it to the basket in his hands. “You should be honest with your father, Urian.”
“Beg pardon?”
“You heard me. Lies are unbecoming for one such as you. And I’ve allowed yours to go on for way too long now. I kept thinking that you’d come clean with him. It bothers me to see Strykerius so upset. He’s gutted three innocent men tonight in his rage.”
Urian glanced to the demon behind her, not quite sure what to say to that.
Apollymi turned toward him with a biting stare. “Just like when you visited with Sarraxyn, and she violated my sacred pact to keep her cove private from all.”
“Akra—”
“Not a word, Urian. The bitterest truth is better than the sweetest lie. Your father deserves to hear it from you and not another. Sooner or later, the truth will come out. It always does. No matter how hard you strive to keep it hidden. It will crawl its way to the surface and those who have been lied to will turn on you with a vengeance unimaginable. Because with it comes a righteous fury fueled by betrayal. They trusted you, and trust is a sacred thing not to be abused. Of all people, you know this. And those so abused will demand an accounting, and they will rise up and demand blood for appeasement. Then you won’t be able to lie your way out. It will be too late for words to save you. Do you understand?”
He understood, but it wasn’t that simple. His father would demand Phoebe’s life and that of Cassandra.
How could he choose between them?
“Have you ever had to choose between two things you loved most, akra?”
A deep, dark, and bitter sadness burned in her eyes. It was so heart-wrenching that in that moment, he knew that she was well aware of what she was asking from him. “I have.”
“Do you regret the decision you made?”
“Every day of my life.”