“No,” Eros said. “But they tried to kill him anyway, to prevent their nefarious intentions from coming to light and so they could continue their hunt without anyone else interfering. So, whoever it is that the prophecy is referring to, they’re still out there and in danger. And since we know that monsters and creatures settled here in Vale Crossing, we established our headquarters here so we can find demigods here in Vale Crossing and warn them.”
“So, you’re kind of a private investigative team?”
“Exactly. And we recruit people who can help us. Like Zara back there.”
“Who?”
He gestured behind them. “The young girl in the office that you blasted through. She’s an empath of sorts.”
Ah yes, the petite young woman standing off to the side. He couldn’t recall anything else about her.
Except her words.
Angry.
Disappointed.
Lonely.
She didn’t know him, yet exposed him and his innermost feelings. And he’d been too furious to put up the mental shields all Drakkons learned from childhood.
He had to remember to be careful around that female, and never let his guard down.
Perhaps staying here was a bad idea.
He should just go back to Drakkoria and accept his fate. He would be alone forever, watching his peers meet their mates and grow their families and share their hoards.
A pit formed in his stomach at the thought of Eleanora. At the thought of seeing her with her burgeoning belly. To run into her at the town square or market, with a youngling clinging to her side.
She should have been mine. That should have been our child.
The fire burned in Hektor once again. He was about to refocus his rage back to Eros when the god said something that disarmed him.
“I truly am sorry for the hurt I have caused you. I didn’t just apologize to calm you down.”
It wasn’t just the words, but also the pensive tone that made Hektor draw back.
Narrowing his eyes, he carefully assessed the god.
Back when they had first encountered each other, Eros was brash, haughty and had an arrogant air about him. He still did have that same air, but there was something different about him now.
There was no trace of malice or spite in his countenance. No, in fact there was only an aura of peaceful confidence in the way he held himself. Even his silvery blue eyes had changed, and there was no contempt or scorn in them, only a contented stillness.
“But I am telling you the truth about my arrows. Love is a complicated emotion, even more powerful than any god or Titan and it cannot be manipulated by magic,” Eros continued. “I’m sorry if she was being untruthful to you.”
“She said…she said she cared about me and that she would be happy living under my protection, in my den…” His heart sank as he began to accept the truth. “I believed her.”
“Perhaps she cared about you, in her own way. But the heart cannot lie. She was being untruthful, not just to you, but to herself. Do you understand?”
“I…I think so.”
His love for Eleanora had been intense. He had been ready to give her the world, to hold her above everything else, even his hoard. He’d been courting her for over a year at that point. In fact, he’d been ready to finalize the mating ritual with her, to prove that he was worthy of being her mate.
But maybe, even if she had said yes, her heart would not have been in it.
“She wasn’t in the same place I was.”
And perhaps she never would have.
