Gideon scowled at Koios. “I thought you were observing.”
“I was.”
“Liar.” Phoebe stretched her wings, expanding them to their full width.
“Show off.”
“You know it.”
Gideon went into the locker room and came back a few seconds later with a twenty-dollar bill. He smacked it onto Phoebe’s outstretched hand then turned to Koios. “You wait until it’s your turn to train. I have a long memory.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
Phoebe laughed and reached for his hand. She pulled Koios to his feet easily then shook herself a little. “Gotta stay loose. This is fun. I haven’t had any sparring buddies since my dad left. Did you see how fast Gideon moves? I’m pretty sure he was holding back, but damn, that was incredible.”
“You were pretty amazing yourself.”
She shrugged. “Gideon’s better, but I’ll learn. So, let’s talk about curses and why you don’t have one.”
Koios let her drag him into the center of the room. “Ozias is the one who called it a curse.”
“Are you seriously connected to the Prince of Hell?”
“I told you we were. Remember the five-hour conversation?”
“I might have dozed off for part of it. I recorded it, though. I’m using an AI bot to transcribe the notes now.”
Koios shook his head. “Short version is Ben’s pack is closely connected to the hellhounds, which means we are too.”
“I know someone else Ben is closely connected to.”
“You don’t have annoying sister privileges yet.”
“Iris says I do. She’s the oldest, so she’s the boss.”
Koios huffed. “Nuh uh. Tell me about the curse.”
“The non-curse. So basically, my dad has two types of power. The more common one is to take the memories of fallen soldiers and avenge them. It’s pretty gruesome, but after a few thousand years, he’s taken a lot of memories.”
“And a lot of knowledge.”
Phoebe nodded. “And that is the valravyn’s curse. If they don’t take memories and knowledge, they can give it. For a price.”
“So he gave me knowledge. I don’t have a few thousand years of memories.”
“Nope, but you have the muscle memory to have them. It’s more like a thirst for knowledge and an ability to learn. Some of it depends on natural ability, as well. Plus, you remember a lot more than most people do. It comes in handy.”
Not always.
Koios rolled his shoulders and wished Ben hadn’t gone to the clinic. He’d love to lean against him while he thought.
“Okay, so your dad bargains for you, then leaves me with his gift. Bad god thinks because I have air and metal ancestry that I’ll have visions and be able to find his metal god brother who’s in hiding in the human realm. However, my air and metal magic are bound up beneath the gift, and now I’m broken.”
Phoebe nodded. “Except, you’re already breaking free of it. I think your, um, friendship with Ben has shaken things up a bit.”
“It has.”
Koios paced back and forth across the training mat. “It has because the air and metal parts of me are what is mated to Ben. The curse, sorry, gift, held that back but the mating bond is stronger. Once Ben and I connected, my magic needed to be free so we could mate.”
