And the waterworks chose that moment to flood. Killing three monsters hell-bent on mutilating her wasn’t heroic enough for him. Oh, no, Theron, leader of the Argonauts and descendent of Heracles, the greatest hero ever, had to rescue that stupid doll and bring it back for a little girl who was miserable without it.
Casey was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the wall of the cave, wiping her eyes like an idiot when he came back from returning Marissa’s toy. She saw the alarm on his face and scowled, wishing she’d left that damn flashlight on earlier so the batteries would now be dead. She did not need to see concern from him. She already had a feeling she was dangerously close to falling for this guy without it.
A hero. Fabulous. Of all the stupid things she’d ever done, this would be the topper. Forget the fact they came from two completely different worlds. Forget the fact she was sick and didn’t seem to be getting any better. Even if they were on even ground, she’d still never be enough for him. She’d seen the disgust on his face whenever he remembered she was human. And now that she’d glimpsed what had happened to his father, she understood why.
“Don’t cry, meli.” He sank down next to her and pulled her onto his lap. She thought about refusing, then figured, What’s the point? I’m too weak to fight him and odds are good I’ll end up here anyway. “I can’t handle seeing you so upset.”
“I’m not crying over you, you stupid jerk.” She swiped at her eyes again and punched him in the shoulder with what little strength she had left. “I’m just…tired.”
He clicked the light off and set the flashlight on the ground by his hip. In the silence she heard the strong beat of his heart. “You did good out there,” he said. “Saved me again. Better not let my kinsmen see or they’ll be firing my ass and inducting you into the Argonauts.”
She let out a sigh, relaxed against him. God, his body felt good. Warm. Right. Even soaked with sweat and other things she didn’t want to imagine. “I hate those things.”
His hand ran over her hair, pressed gently against her head until she laid it on his shoulder. “We all do.”
In the silence she asked a question that had been pinging around in her brain since the run-in at her store. “Why don’t you use guns?”
“In battle?”
“Yeah.”
“We’ve tried all kinds. So far the daemons have been able to throw off bullets with little effort. A blade to slice open their flesh works better, creates more damage. Titus, one of my Argonauts, is constantly experimenting with new weaponry in our fight, though.”
Interesting. “Who’s Atalanta?”
His hand stilled in her hair. “How do you know of her?”
“The daemon who cornered us mentioned her. He said, ‘Atalanta is waiting for you.’ ”
His silence unnerved her, and just as she was about to lift her head and ask what he was hiding, he said, “She’s the one who traded her soul to Hades for immortality and dominion over the daemons. She felt she was shunned from the Argonauts because she was female.”
“She was one of the original fifty-five on the Argo?”
“By some accounts, yes.”
“And was she? Shunned?”
“Probably. Three thousand years ago, females were looked at differently. And a female Argonaut is still not as strong as a male, which is why the guardians chosen from each line are generally males.”
“A woman can be president and can serve in the military, but she still can’t fight. I guess sexism crosses all cultural barriers, huh?”
He chuckled, and the vibrations zinged along her nerve endings. “Acacia, I think you’re getting the wrong idea. Gynaíkes are the mothers, the wives, the daughters who keep our race flourishing. No ándras in his right mind would let his mate serve in the ranks of the Argonauts. And no Argonaut would ever consider letting his soul mate near battle.”
“Did Atalanta have a soul mate?”
He shifted his big body beneath her, nestling her tighter against his groin. Though she couldn’t be certain, she thought she felt the stirrings of his arousal pushing against her hip. But that couldn’t be, could it? He had to be spent and exhausted from fighting, and they weren’t even talking about anything even remotely suggestive.
“Some say she did. Her father wanted her to marry and she refused, so he set up a footrace to spite her. Any suitor who could beat her in speed would win her hand. Hippomenes was the only one to best her, and they eventually married. But many believe he wasn’t her soul mate.”
“Why not?”
“Because an Argonaut only gets one. A punishment, like I told you, cooked up by Hera and Lachesis, one of the Fates. It’s no great secret Heracles had a ferocious sexual appetite. He seduced both men and women, god and mortal, never caring about the consequences. When Zeus granted Argolea to Heracles’s and the other Argonauts’ offspring, Hera made sure she had a hand in their destinies.”
“By giving them a soul mate? That sounds like a blessing.”
“By giving them one soul mate, meli. And by making sure each one is the exact opposite of what that Argonaut wants and needs. To make matters worse, Hera made sure the only way an Argonaut could even acknowledge his soul mate was to tap into his humanity, something we’re trained not to do.”
“Why? I don’t understand.”
He let out a long sigh. “Because doing so stirs emotions that tend to get in the way of our duties. Our god side is…let’s just say, not overly concerned with right and wrong, having a conscience, being unselfish. The twelve gods of Olympus aren’t entities we worship. They’re nothing more than fallen angels who turned away from the Creator for their own selfish gain. True emotions—love, hate, sacrifice—those are things the gods don’t understand, because they don’t feel them. Not in their truest form, at least. Suppress those, and you suppress that side of our heritage that leaves us vulnerable and weak. Very few Argonauts are able to open themselves up to their humanity and continue to serve as guardians. Therefore, most never find their soul mate.”
Casey’s eyebrows drew together as she thought about what he’d told her. She was human, and very definitely something he despised. Would fate have saddled him with a human soul mate just to spite him?
The question sent her brain buzzing. She wasn’t actually buying into this, was she? She gave her head a small shake and refocused on their conversation. “But Atalanta had one? And it wasn’t Hippomenes?”
“No. Most believe her soul mate was Meleager, a Greek prince and fierce warrior who killed numerous times to win her attention. For reasons no one quite understands, she denied his love until it was too late and he was killed. After that she walked around in a fog for years, a great warrior herself, but without heart. Eventually her father tricked her into marrying Hippomenes, but she didn’t love him, and he was later killed as well. Some say her despair over losing both men compounded her anger at being passed over for the Argonauts. And that spurred her on to make her pact with Hades.”
“What if an Argonaut never finds his soul mate?”
“He exists as he always has. A living, breathing killing machine born of honor and duty.”
His definition of himself was so mater-of-fact, it sent a chill down her spine. Yet it explained so much about who he was and how he operated. She thought about the scene with his father. “What about children?”
He shrugged. “It is possible, even encouraged, for an Argonaut to have young outside marriage. After all, ‘go forth and multiply’ was, and still is, the slogan of the gods, and screw anything that gets in their way. That mentality has been passed down to us tenfold. But that’s all it is. Sex for fun and procreation…if the time is right for the gynaíka. An unbound Argonaut will never be emotionally involved with his younglings. He has no real ties to them.”