“Who saved the boy? Was it you?”
“Uh…” she frowned at him. “Aye. I mean, it was a group effort.”
“Who killed the wolves?” he demanded, stopping close enough Terena craned her neck to look up at him.
“She did,” Rydon said at her side.
She glanced at him and then back at the stranger with her hand splayed. “Aye, but,” she motioned with her finger encircling all of them, “…group effort.”
The man looked at her so long Terena fidgeted.
What is happening? How did he know about the wolves?
“So… where is Nikos? Are you his father? Where did all the people go?”
The man’s stare never wavered. “You look like him,” he whispered in awe.
A chill slid down her spine. She blinked up at the man.
“Who?”
The man took a step back. “Your father. Ares.”
Rydon’s jawhurt from how far it had dropped. While the revelation she was a god was still fairly recent—and something they’d suspected anyway—he was stunned to hear her father was the god of war.
Ares.
From the way Terena’s body stiffened and her face leeched of color, Rydon thought she must feel the same. He eyed her, watching the emotions chasing across her face, a stab of sympathy for the woman pierced her chest. She had spent much of her life searching for her parents, and having the greatness of who she was thrust upon her like this was a heavy burden for anyone, much less for someone so young.
“Ares… is my father?”
The stranger tipped his head as he regarded her. “You did not know?”
Terena shook her head.
“Do you know who her mother is?” Rydon asked.
The man arched a blond eyebrow at him. “No.”
“How do you?—”
“If you were a boy, you’d look just like him,” the man said. Then added with a smirk. “Not as pretty as him, though.”
Poor Croak looked like he was close to passing out. Gabriol clapped a large hand on the boy’s shoulder to steady him. Croak glanced over at the others, his eyes wide.
Rydon made a noise, and the man turned his gaze to him.
“Eudaemon,” the man said with a nod at him. Not a question, Rydon supposed, but a confirmation.
“Aye,” Rydon said, shifting closer to Terena. “And you, Stranger? Who are you?”
This close, the man’s light grey eyes seemed unnatural. He turned away, dismissing Rydon as his gaze sharpened on Terena.
“I am Melanos,” he said, his voice booming through the empty cavern. “I must say, I never expected to see you.”
Another shock.
This man is a myth!
