“I’m not human, Skyla. We both know that. If I’ve changed, it’s only because I’m working hard to fit in. That is what you and Orpheus asked me to do, isn’t it? Fit in? And stop being such a…what was it Orpheus called me? A ghoul?”
A slow smile crept across Skyla’s face. “He’s such a smartass.”
Yeah, well, he was also right. Hades had cursed her to walk this world alone for all eternity, and that’s exactly what she’d done, not only for her safety, but for the safety of those around her. And the fact that she was willingly going back to that now, after experiencing life at the colony, depressed her more than she liked.
“Look,” she said, desperate to get away from Skyla before she gave anything away, “I promised some of the children I’d read them a few stories in the library before bed. Are we done here?”
Skyla’s face softened, but those knowing eyes of hers didn’t lessen in intensity. “There you go, being all involved again.”
Involved. There was a word Maelea had never expected anyone to use to describe her. The colony was the first place she’d felt safe enough to risk getting involved. Only now she knew her safety was in jeopardy. The continual hellhound sightings in the Pacific Northwest told her that Hades had not given up searching for her. That he’d never stop hunting her.
As that depressing thought sank in, Maelea turned for the hallway. But before she reached the threshold, her chest constricted as if a heavy weight had been dropped on top of her.
“What’s wrong?” Skyla asked, her hand brushing Maelea’s long-sleeved shirt.
“I…I felt something weird come into the castle. Something dark. Something…evil.”
Concern morphed to alarm in Skyla’s eyes. Skyla knew Maelea could sense energy shifts on the planet—a gift of being caught between two worlds. Just as Skyla opened her mouth to answer, the cell in her pocket hummed.
She pulled the phone from her jeans, lifted it to her ear. “Orpheus, thank gods…Where are—? No, Maelea and I are—” Her face paled. “Oh shit. I’ll be right there.”
“What happened?” Maelea asked as Skyla stuffed the phone back in her pocket.
“Something bad,” Skyla answered, crossing the gleaming hallway floor toward the elevator. “It’s Gryphon.”
Maelea stopped with Skyla at the elevator, watched as the Siren frantically pushed the call button. “Is he hurt?”
“No. Worse.” Skyla looked up at the wood-paneled doors. “Where the hell is that damn car? In Zimbabwe?”
“What could be worse than being hurt? He’s not dead, is he?” Why the thought of his death disturbed her, she didn’t know. She didn’t even know the guardian. Hadn’t once talked to him in the months they’d both been here.
“No,” Skyla answered, a frown cutting across her mouth. “But he might be soon, if Nick gets a hold of him.” Her voice lowered so no one else could hear them. “Orpheus said he mutilated an entire horde of daemons. And then he wouldn’t stop. Titus and Nick are both getting stitched up in the medical clinic as we speak.”
Maelea’s eyes grew wide. “What happened?”
“According to Orpheus, Gryphon attacked them.”
Chapter Two
“I don’t care what you think he’s gonna do, I care about what the hell he did do.”
Nick’s booming voice echoed off the walls as Maelea followed Skyla down the hall in the medical clinic on the second floor of the castle.
“Nick, shit.” Orpheus’s voice now. Frustrated. “You know he didn’t intend to hurt you or Titus.”
“Tell that to Titus,” Nick said. “Or no, wait, you can’t, because he’s in frickin’ surgery.”
Skyla rounded the corner, but Maelea pulled up short. Shit. What was she doing here? This didn’t concern her. In a matter of hours, she’d have nothing more to do with these people. The best thing for her would be to turn right around and head back upstairs.
But just as she was about to, she peeked into the room. And caught sight of Nick sitting on an exam table, chest bare to reveal chiseled abs, a healer at his side stitching up his arm. His pants were bloody and ripped, and red lines streaked his skin, but he didn’t seem to care. His attention was focused solely on Orpheus across the room, and the don’t fuck with me expression on his scarred face piqued Maelea’s curiosity all over again.
Relief rushed over Orpheus’s features when Skyla stepped into the room, but he didn’t move to kiss her cheek as he normally did when he saw her in the castle, and Maelea had the distinct impression it was because Nick was watching them.
“Where is he?” Skyla asked.
“He’s fine,” Orpheus said. “He’s in his room.”
“Who’s with him?”
“Three of my men,” Nick cut in. “He’s not getting out, at least not until we kick him out.”
Orpheus turned toward the half-breed leader. “Nick—”
“What about Titus?” Skyla asked. “How bad is it?”
“Bad enough,” Nick answered as the healer placed a bandage on his arm and handed him his shirt. As he pushed off the table and mumbled a thanks to the female who’d stitched him up, he added, “He was barely breathing by the time we subdued Gryphon. Punctured lung, broken ribs, and a wound the length of my arm in his gut. Anyone else would be dead right now.”
Maelea swallowed back the bile as she listened. If it had been her or any of the other colonists…
“He didn’t mean it, Nick,” Orpheus said. “You both got in his way. He thought you were daemons.”
Nick swung his attention Orpheus’s way, and there was fire in his amber eyes as he tugged on his shirt, not even grimacing at the pain he must have been feeling in his injured shoulder. “He’s fucking out of control. If he can’t tell the difference between us and daemons, he’s got no business being out there. And he’s got no business being here either.”
Orpheus’s face paled. But before he could answer, Skyla asked, “What are you saying, Nick?”
Nick drew a breath, seemed to calm himself for her sake. “I’m saying he can’t stay. If I can’t trust him around me, I sure as hell won’t trust him around my people. Look, I know he’s been through shit no one should have to endure, but the colony comes first. He’s not getting any better. It’s been two months. He still twitches, he still acts like he’s hearing things, and he scares most of the colonists on a good day. I won’t risk them. Not even for the Argonauts. He has to leave.”
Orpheus’s back straightened, and from the doorway, Maelea could actually see his defenses come up. She knew Gryphon meant more to Orpheus than a mere brother would. They weren’t just linked by blood, they were linked by the horror they’d both experienced and lived through. Except in Orpheus’s case, he’d come through unscathed. Gryphon was a changed man because of his time in the Underworld.
“Fine,” Orpheus said through his clenched jaw, “then I’ll leave with him.”
Skyla reached out to him. “Orpheus—”
“Theron won’t let you take him back to Argolea,” Nick said. “I already talked to him. He’s in the other room with Titus as we speak. And he’s more pissed than I am. Even he knows Gryphon’s become a liability.”
“He’s not a liability,” Orpheus snapped. “He’s just…struggling right now. I’ll get him through it.”
Nick frowned as if he didn’t think there was any hope, but his anger waned as he stepped toward the door. “I don’t know what the hell you’re gonna do for him that you haven’t already done. Some things can’t be saved, O, no matter how much you want them to be.”