I crossed the room in a single stride and caught her before she struck the stone. She stiffened instantly, turning entirely rigid in my grasp.
Silence stretched through the chamber. Slowly, Medea looked down at where my hands gripped her bare arms.
There was no rot. There was no damage spreading across my skin. Instead, the currents of death energy beneath my skin surged, rising to meet her deadly pull.
“Y-you do not wither,” Medea stammered.
“No. I do not. I will not. And I won’t leave you.”
“I touched you before,” she croaked out. “In the water. I thought it was a dream. But it was you. You pulled me out.”
I nodded, wishing I could have been there sooner. “I’ll always be there, if you need me.”
A violent shudder ripped through Medea’s small frame. She collapsed against me, pressing her face against the curve of my neck. She burst into tears and howled, a harrowing, tearing sound that came straight from the soul.
I didn’t know the right words to speak. For all my father's efforts to prepare me, his own preference had always been silence. But I knew how to be solid. I sat on the edge of the iron slab and gathered her into my lap. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her securely against my chest.
She clung to my forearms, her pale fingers pressing desperately against my skin. And as she cried against my shoulder, the energy shifting inside me settled into a fierce, blinding certainty. I was forged to be her sanctuary.
3
The Sphinx’s Command
Medea
A few days later
The robes I was wearing were unlike anything I’d seen in my life. I stood in the center of my guest quarters, staring down at my own arms, waiting for the familiar acceleration of decay. It didn’t come.
“You are a guest here, Medea,”Charon had told me when he’d left me.“We’ll provide for you.”
I hadn’t believed him, not really. On the Argo, Jason had draped me in heavy, restrictive leathers and lead-lined silks. My clothing was designed to be a cage, a suffocating reminder thatmy flesh was a hazard to be managed. Often, it was only Jason’s magic and tricks that kept me from destroying my own clothing.
But Charon had been telling the truth. This fabric slid over my skin like cool water. I ran my fingertips along the pale grey seams. My hands were free. Jason wasn’t here. But the robes remained pristine.
It felt almost too good to be true. I hardly dared to believe it could be my new reality. And yet, it was.
Aion. He’d been the one to make this possible. The bronze colossus had welcomed me into his home, had cared for me. Every time I looked at him, I felt more alive. And every second he wasn’t with me, I missed him.
The heavy door slid open, and as if responding to my thoughts, my colossus stepped into the room. The silver-blue light of the death crystals seemed to bend around his massive frame. He was eight feet of living bronze, his broad chest and powerful arms etched with pulsing, intricate patterns. He filled the space entirely, but I felt no urge to shrink away.
“You should still be resting,” he told me. “Don’t strain yourself.”
He always worried about me, even though Asphodelia’s power had already healed me. My heart hurt with affection. “I’ve rested plenty. Besides… I wanted to check.”
Aion didn’t ask what I’d been searching for, what had driven me from my bed in his absence. Perhaps he already understood, as he so often did.
Instead, he crossed the room, his heavy steps deliberate and slow. When he extended his hand, it felt like more than an invitation. It was the acceptance I’d never expected to find, not until now. “Walk with me?” he asked.
A phantom memory of Jason’s voice whispered in my ear.Weapon, blight, plague.My breath hitched. I stared at the lethal expanse of my own pale skin, then at the steady light rushing through Aion’s veins.
I can’t hurt him. This is where I’m meant to be.
I placed my hand in his. “Yes. Of course.”
The contact sent a shockwave of dizzying relief through my chest. It was always like this between us, no matter how many times we touched. I couldn’t get enough of feeling him, of the surreal texture of his skin. Smooth and humming, human, but not.
He kept my hand enveloped in his as he led me out of his quarters. Being in the city of the dead was still a little daunting, but with Aion by my side, I wasn’t truly afraid. Not of Asphodelia, at least.
