Maelea couldn’t sleep.
A dark energy had infiltrated the colony sometime during the night and she’d been awake since, checking abandoned corridors and balconies, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Drawn to it in a way that made her skin itch and her heart thump with excitement.
Footsteps echoed from the stairs. She slid into the shadows behind a large stone column in the great hall. Orpheus’s boots grew silent as he hesitated at the bottom of the steps, glanced right and left. His hair was mussed, his shirt wrinkled, the jeans he wore stained with…blood? But it was his face that kept drawing her attention. The locked jaw like a slice of steel beneath his skin, the burning eyes, the unnatural energy that radiated from every inch of his rigid body.
She drew a sharp breath. This was not the same man who’d slinked into her room a few nights ago and spoken of loneliness and being forgotten. This was the man who’d kidnapped her from her home, killed those hellhounds as if they were nothing, and put her life in jeopardy.
His eyes narrowed on her hiding place. She held her breath, sure he could see her. Seconds later he turned and headed for the door at the far end of the hall.
Alone, she pressed a hand against her stomach and breathed deeply.
The clock over the fireplace told her it was close to five a.m. She needed to get back to her room before the colony awoke. She took a step for the stairs, then stopped when she heard voices. Female voices. She darted back into the shadows and waited for them to pass.
“Have you checked on Max?” Isadora asked.
The tall auburn-haired female strolling down the corridor with the queen of Argolea rubbed her forehead. “He was studying. Didn’t want to talk to me. He’s always studying.”
“That’s not a bad thing, Callia. He missed out on school during his time with Atalanta.”
“I know, I know, it’s just…”
“What?”
Callia stopped. “I knew the transition wouldn’t be easy. I knew the honeymoon phase would wear off, but lately…I’m having a hard time getting through to him. It’s like he doesn’t want to talk to us anymore. Like he’s turning into himself and his schoolwork.”
“He has a lot of emotions to work though. He spent ten years with her.”
“I know,” Callia said, walking again. “I know he’s angry and confused and trying to adjust to life in Argolea. It’s just—” Her voice caught. “I love him so much. I don’t want to lose him now that he’s finally home.”
Isadora squeezed her hand. “You won’t. You and Zander will help him through this. He’s lucky to have you.”
Callia nodded, but she didn’t look convinced. She stopped in front of the massive fire in the living area, where embers from last night’s fireplace still glowed red.
“How about coffee?” Isadora asked. “That always helps.”
“I think five minutes off my feet might do me better. I need to get back to Gryphon soon.” Callia eased onto the couch. “And only one cup for you. Too much caffeine’s not good for you and that baby.”
The queen sat on the arm of a chair, said something Maelea couldn’t hear, but Maelea barely cared. If the two females didn’t leave soon, there’d be no way for her to reach the stairs without one or both of them seeing her. And while she wasn’t afraid of them, she had no desire to “chat” or get to know anyone better in this place.
The two conversed quietly by the fire for a few minutes, then footsteps echoed from the stairs again and both turned that direction.
Maelea’s gaze shifted to the stairs. Skyla’s boots clanked against the hardwood as she skipped stairs to reach the bottom. She wore the same outfit Maelea had seen her in since the first, but this time the perfectly coiffed Siren was nowhere to be found. Her hair was a wild tangle around her face, her shirt inside out, one boot not zipped all the way to the top. And the panic in her eyes was a dead giveaway something had happened.
Isadora rose from the couch. “Skyla? What’s wrong?”
“Maelea,” the Siren said in a breathy voice as if she’d been running. “I have to find Maelea.”
“I haven’t seen her,” Isadora said. “We’ve been with Gryphon. What’s happened?”
“He took the Orb.” Skyla pressed both hands against her eyes. “He remembered and he took the Orb and now he’s gone. And I have to find him before he does something…”
Callia pushed up from the couch, followed Isadora across the floor to the base of the stairs where Skyla stood. She placed both hands on Skyla’s shoulders, turned her into the light. “Calm down and tell us what happened. You’re talking about Orpheus, right? What did he remember?”
“Everything,” Skyla said in that same broken voice. “All of it. He…” She drew in a shaky breath, dropped her hands. “He’s Perseus’s son. Zeus’s grandson.”
“What do you mean, Perseus’s son?” the queen asked. “Orpheus is only three hundred years old. How—?”
“He was given a second chance at life.” When both looked at her as if she was nuts, Skyla waved her hands. “Two thousand plus years ago he stole the air element from Zeus. I was sent to get it back and then kill him. Only I didn’t. I…we…we had…a relationship. And then I found out he really had stolen the element. I couldn’t kill him at that point, but I didn’t stop it either. I didn’t think…” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened them again to focus on the queen. “When Zeus sent me after Orpheus because he was hunting the Orb, I knew something wasn’t right. But I didn’t find out until later that Orpheus was Cynurus reincarnated. They told me he wouldn’t remember his past life, but they were wrong. They were wrong about so many things. And I believed them. Just like always.”
Isadora and Callia stared at the Siren in disbelief, and Maelea found herself thinking back to what she knew of Perseus and his son Cynurus, about whom she’d heard whispers but had never met. He’d done something to anger Zeus. Something more treacherous than simply being born, like her.
“I have to find him before he does something he’ll regret later. He has the Orb and the earth element. And he thinks I betrayed him. He’s angry and hurting. If he tries to challenge Zeus with the Orb…”
Callia shot a look at Isadora. “Theron needs to hear this.”
“Go get him,” Isadora said.
As Callia rushed off, Isadora added, “Now tell me what this has to do with Maelea.”
“Maelea can sense energy shifts. She’ll know if he tries to use the power of the Orb. She can locate him before he—”
Maelea stepped out of the shadows. Skyla’s head came around and her mouth closed. Stopping in the middle of the room, Maelea rubbed her arms to ease the chill that had settled over her skin with this news. “He’s my nephew. In three thousand years I’ve not met a direct relative until now. I—I didn’t even suspect.”
“I need to know where he is.”
Maelea nodded. She knew all too well what would happen if Orpheus tormented Zeus with the Orb. And a part of her—the part that had believed in him the night he told her he wanted the Orb to rescue his brother from the Underworld—needed to know a soul could still overcome all that darkness. “He came down the stairs just before you. He left through there.” She pointed toward the far end of the hall.
“What about the Orb?” Skyla asked.
“I—I didn’t see it.”
“Orpheus can flash on earth,” Isadora interjected. “He won’t need to tap into the Orb’s energy to open a portal like the warlock did.”
“Damn it,” Skyla muttered, running a hand over her face. “I forgot about that.”
“He doesn’t need to,” Maelea said. When Skyla’s head came up, she added, “He’s using the Orb to give him strength. The strength he lost from his daemon.”