“Or two,” Demetrius said. “But I’ll need your help. I’m still a little rusty.”
Spells tumbled through Orpheus’s mind. The idea had potential, but it wasn’t a done deal. “We might be able to work something.” He looked to Nick, then Theron. “But we’ll need your help too.”
Both nodded in agreement, and Orpheus found himself shocked that the Argonauts were willing to help him out on this. They could just as easily hand deliver him to Zeus.
Trying not to look as bowled over as he felt, Orpheus laid out the plan, and when he was done caught the nods and agreement of the others.
Who would have thought it?
They moved for the door.
At his back, Isadora said to Casey, “Why don’t you and I go have a talk with that Siren upstairs.”
Orpheus’s unease reignited. Yeah, Isa, you have a nice little chat with the Siren. Butter her up. Because when he got back, he intended to put an end to their games and find out what was really going on.
“Think this will work?” Demetrius whispered.
Crouched beyond an outcropping of rock on a gentle slope in the darkness, Orpheus peered down the twenty or so yards toward the small clearing below where the two Sirens—his tail—were scanning the trees, their superior Siren senses obviously picking up the fact there was more to this forest than met the eye.
“So long as Theron and Nick do as they’re supposed to, yeah,” Orpheus answered in a low voice. “I think it can work. You sure those aren’t the two that visited Isa at the castle?”
“They’re not.”
Orpheus studied the two drop-dead-gorgeous Sirens below. “Yeah. Guess you’d know. Pretty hard to forget a body like that.”
“I couldn’t care less about their bodies.” Then, under his breath, “C’mon, Nick.”
Not for the first time, Orpheus found himself impressed Demetrius and Nick seemed to be getting along. They’d hated each other for years. Though they shared the same mother, the same link to the gods, Demetrius had grown up in Argolea and trained with the Argonauts, whereas Nick had been banished to the human realm because of his mixed-breed heritage. Orpheus now knew that was because the Council had seen him as a threat and had wanted to have him killed. All because he had something the rest of them didn’t. He was a true demigod. Half human and half god. More pure than any in Argolea.
It explained a lot about the man. But Orpheus still wasn’t sure what had been the catalyst for the brothers’ truce. He suspected it had something to do with Isadora. Something more than the fact that she was now queen. He thought about mentioning it, then decided not to. It didn’t much matter to him either way. He had more important things to worry about.
But as they waited for Nick and Theron to make their move, one question Orpheus had been wondering since Demetrius and Isadora had come back from that island popped out of his mouth before he thought better of it. “Aren’t you afraid the honeymoon phase is going to wear off?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“With Isa. Let’s get real, Argonaut. You are who you are. Just because we sent Atalanta to the Fields of Asphodel doesn’t change the fact she’s your mother. Doesn’t change the fact what’s evil in her is evil in you.”
Demetrius’s jaw clenched. “Isadora knows what I am.”
“Yeah, but aren’t you afraid at some point she’s going to realize it—you—were a mistake? I mean, good sex only lasts so long. And gods know Isadora wasn’t getting any before you, so it’s not like she had a lot to compare to. But that infatuation will wear off soon enough. I mean, she’s the queen of Argolea, and you’re—”
“Why do you care so much?”
Why? Orpheus wasn’t sure. Maybe because he still couldn’t believe someone could love evil. And maybe it was because a small part of him was jealous. Not jealous that Isadora was taken, but jealous of how easily she’d brushed aside everything she’d known for years to be true about Demetrius and had found the one thing in him no one else could see.
He frowned because he knew the last wasn’t it. “I don’t. I’m just wondering when I can sit back and say ‘I told you so.’ The train wreck’s coming. You know it is.”
Demetrius’s jaw clenched harder and he turned his attention back to the Sirens below. “You’re the train wreck, Orpheus. Case in point, the mess you left back there in the mountains.”
Yeah, he might be a fuckup, but he was smart enough to know he wasn’t marriage material. Wasn’t even relationship material. What he had going with the Siren was nothing more than straight-up sexual attraction. Which, as he’d told Demetrius, would burn out soon enough. Tonight, if he had anything to say about it.
His mind drifted to Skyla, and before he could stop himself he wondered what she was doing right this minute. A burst of desire rippled through him when he pictured her kiss-me lips and that made-for-sin body. Which both lit him up and pissed him off at the same time.
The brush to the left of the Sirens rustled, and Orpheus’s adrenaline shot up when he saw Nick stumble into the clearing. The Sirens both pulled their bows, just as he’d seen Skyla do a dozen times. As they’d planned, Nick was covered in blood, crimson streaks all across his chest and thighs, and both Sirens caught the scent immediately, went on high alert as he dropped to the ground at their feet.
A shout echoed from the trees. One Siren shifted her bow in that direction. The other kept her arrow trained on Nick. Seconds later, Theron drew up short at the clearing’s edge, his parazonium—the ancient Greek dagger all Argonauts carried—in hand. He lifted both arms when he caught sight of Zeus’s assassins. “Don’t shoot. I’m an Argonaut.”
The first Siren stepped back near the second. Their wary gazes darted between Nick, facedown in the grass, and Theron. “What are you doing out here?”
“The same thing you are. Hunting. Two from your order came to Argolea in request of our help.”
“Who?” the one on the right asked.
“Khloe and…” He seemed to think for a minute. “Reanna, Remea—”
“Rhebekkah?” the second Siren asked.
“That was it,” Theron said. “Rhebekkah. Said you two were hunting Orpheus.” He nodded toward the ground, slid his parazonium back into its sheath at his back. “Here he is.”
The Sirens exchanged glances, then looked toward Nick. “How do you know it’s him?”
Theron chuckled. “O’s not hard to miss. Shitty attitude, fuck-off mentality. I could sense him a mile away. The fact he shifted into one of those shit-for-brains daemons was also a dead giveaway.”
So Isa had told Theron and the others that he was a hybrid. Wonderful. One more thing for them to hold against him.
“Where did you find him?” the multicolor-haired Siren asked.
“In the mountains. Hiding. The other two got away. Two females. But this is the one you want, right?”
The Sirens looked unsure. The second—the dark-haired one—stepped closer to Nick, nudged his shoulder with her kick-ass boot. The same boots Skyla wore. The first lowered her weapon, moved closer to Nick too.
The second looked up at the first. “I think he might be dead.”
They both refocused on Theron as they depressed the end of their bows, shrinking them down to nothing. “He was to be brought in alive, Argonaut,” the first said.
“Whoa. Wait. No one told me that. You wanted him alive?’ He scratched his head, perched one hand on his hip. “Well, damn. That creates a problem, doesn’t it?”
“A big problem,” the second said. She cut a look at her partner. “Athena will not be happy.”