“Fine!” Hermes shouted back, the lethal look on his face catching the messenger by surprise. Daris did not recognize the man, assuming him to be someone on Duke Ravos’s household staff. The man stumbled back, his mouth opening and closing like a trout out of water. “Tell her she can take the duchess’s rooms.”
“We don’t?—”
“Then whatever fucking room is best! Get out!”
Hermes closed his eyes, the fury melting away from his face as if by magic. Daris watched him as he regrouped.
“Great. Swear your oath to me to me now, and I’ll make you immortal.”
“And tell me how to break the bond.”
“No,” Hermes said in a low voice.
The strange silver liquid in his eyes swam across his irises, darkening the blue so they looked more like the deepest depths of the ocean.
“I thought?—”
“I’ll need a little more than your oath,” Hermes said in a conversational tone that did not fool Daris. He waited for the god to continue. When he didn’t, Daris sighed and asked what more he wanted.
“I, too, have had time to think since our last conversation. To be made immortal,” Hermes feigned a shiver and it was all Daris could do to stop himself from rolling his eye. “It is nosmall thing. In the old days, we’d all have to meet atop Mount Olympus and discuss it in a forum where other gods would have their say. Then we’d all vote?—”
“But you made Rydon immortal.”
“The Fates marked him as Eudaemon. I was just the messenger.”
“So this is not something you can do alone?” Daris scrubbed a hand over the lower part of his face. He swore inwardly. If this was not something Hermes could do, he’d have to find another way.
“That’s not what I said,” Hermes said, interrupting Daris’s thoughts. He looked over at the god with a frown, waiting.
“I can do it alone,” he said with a shrug. “But you won’t even know it’s done because you’re still Eudaemon. At least for another what… week. But this is one of those situations where I’ll need to give you the gift first, because you won’t be able to do what I need you to do without it.”
“A dangerous task, then,” Daris said with a curt nod. “I will do it.”
Hermes laughed, incredulous. “You don’t even know what it is yet.”
Daris thought about this for a moment. “Does it involve me killing anyone Terena cares about?”
Hermes scowled. “No.”
“Betraying her?”
“No.”
“Then it doesn’t matter.”
“You should rethink?—”
“Will you do it or not?”
The slow way Hermes smiled made Daris want to scratch his skin. He pushed aside the screaming inside his head warning him this was not a smart move.
As a Spartan, especially as the leader of the Liodari, Daris prided himself on always listening to that voice.
Prudence.
And yet, equally loud, was his heart shouting at him this was the only way to hold on to her.
“I will, Commander. Whenever you’re ready.”
