“What’s your interest with me, then?”
Daris watched as the blond man lifted his hand, laying a finger across his lips as he studied Daris.
“I’m curious,” he said after a long pause. “She choseyou. A Spartan. The nation devoted to our brother, whom she cannot stand.” The blond man shrugged. “I wanted to see what she saw.”
Daris felt something like dread slide down his chest to pool deep in his belly as he regarded the man. He remained silent.
“And then, of course,” the man went on, pacing away from Daris. He turned back and looked at him as if he were a puzzle. “There’s Terena.”
Daris’s response was immediate and visceral. He took a step forward, his lips twisting as he growled, “Who the fuck are you?”
The mood in the room turned darker. Daris saw the men previously sitting with this blond man come closer, their steps slow as the Liodari all shifted around Daris.
The blond man’s smile turned calculating. Daris cursed himself for giving any advantage to this man. It was a mistake he didn’t intend to repeat.
“There it is,” the man said so low, Daris almost missed it. The man grinned and his face changed, affable as he wagged his finger at Daris. “You know, it baffled me she thought herself in love with a fop like Lerek. I’ll admit, that alone made me question her judgement, but I shrugged it off as the… I don’t know.” He strutted around as though he weren’t surrounded by killers and dead men. “Stupidity of youth? You see, it didn’t really matter. I knew she’d meet you and fall in love with you.”
Daris tensed as the blond man inched closer until their chests were breaths apart.
“Not even us gods are immune to the Fates,” the man whispered, his face hard.
Daris’s blood ran cold.
“I wanted to make sure you weren’t another useless piece of human shit, too.”
“It’ll be my pleasure to gut this man for his insolence, Commander,” Jason called out as his men shifted closer. Daris heard weapons unsheathe, but he did not move, his gaze held by the blond man standing before him.
As he stared back at the man, Daris pursed his lips and did the only thing to be done in that moment.
He sank slowly to one knee and bowed his head.
The moodin the tavern shifted dramatically after Daris’s obeisance to the blond man. The tension lessened, and the ruffians melted back to their tables while Daris’s men stood in shock nearby. He knew he should have said something before he made his move.
They would understand in a moment.
The silence thickened as the seconds ticked past and still Daris remained on his knee, head bowed. He closed his eye against the throbbing headache threatening to split his skull as the blood roared in his ears. When he opened it back up, the man had moved away.
“Come with me,” the blond man said and Daris rose at last. He did not look to his men as he followed behind the black clad stranger, stopping when the man gestured to a seat at the table he’d vacated.
Daris glanced at the two men who had been at the man’s side and watched as they stalked away, leaving Daris alone with the blond stranger. He waited, watching warily as the man sat with a loud groan, an ash eyebrow lifting when he saw Daris still standing.
“Please, Eudaemon,” the man drawled, “sit. We’ve much to discuss.”
Daris grabbed the chair back and slid it out as he watched the man before him.
Rather, thegodbefore him.
The god’s face settled into a blank mask as he waited for Daris to sit.
“You know who I am?”
Daris pursed his lips. “I do not.”
“And yet you bowed.”
“Aye,” Daris ground out. “I know enough to know you are no man.”
“No, Eudaemon,” the god sighed, crossing his arms across his broad chest. “I am not.”
