Those words rang and echoed in his ears loud enough to cause him to flinch. More than that, their attackers instantly stood down. They literally stepped away and withdrew.
Why?
Ruyn scowled at him. “Now while I like to think I’m an awe-inspiring beast whose battle skills are such that it causes my enemies to tremble and flee at the very mention of my name, that’s just a story I tell women to get myself laid.” He gestured at the now-behaving group with his bloody axes. “That shit is surreal and just doesn’t happen except in braggart tales and old men’s fantasies. What’d you do, Urian?”
He sputtered. “I don’t know.”
The one who’d first called for Urian’s head spat blood on the floor. “There’s no need to kill him. He’s dead now.”
Ruyn made an impressively foul face. “While his stench might suggest a dead body, he’s always smelled that way. Bastard looks live enough to me.”
The man rolled his eyes. “He’s a Daimon. We’re out to end the line of Apollo. Once the last of his Apollite brood is dead, our curse is lifted.”
Now it was Urian’s turn to frown. What the hades did he mean bythat?
“That true?” Ruyn asked him.
“Not that I know of.” Urian glared at the leader. “Where’d you hear that stupidity?”
“From the oracle of Helios. She swore to us that it was the truth. When the last of his Apollite children are dead, then there won’t be a curse left on us.”
Urian curled his lip at that. Since when had the oracle ever once in the history of oracles spoken that plainly?When the sun rises in the east, the sun will have risen in the morningorafter the battle a mighty kingdom will fall, nay—shit was all anyone could ever get from an oracle. They spoke in useless riddles that would be true no matter what so that they hedged their bets, and you interpreted them into whichever you wanted it to be the truth.
He’d never understood why anyone would listen to an oracle.
The Apollite on his right jerked his chin at Urian. “Hey? Can’thetake us to the rest of his family so that we can finish them?”
Urian groaned at another stupid epiphany. Especially as all the others realized he was right.
“Shite,” he and Ruyn mumbled under their breaths at the same time.
“I got the asshole on the left,” Ruyn said.
“Better yet, I got a portal.” Urian opened it fast and grabbed him.
Only instead of landing in Kalosis, Urian hit the ground on the precipice of a mountain unlike anything he’d ever seen before. And no sooner did he land on it than the bottom collapsed out from beneath his feet.
Urian felt himself falling fast and furious. What the hades was this?
Convinced he was dead, he didn’t even have time to pray. There was nothing to grab onto.
Until he slammed into the cold, jagged ground so hard it jarred his teeth. Rattled and momentarily dazed, he dangled over what had to be a thousand-foot drop. His heart hammered so hard, he was amazed it didn’t rip out of his chest. He latched onto the only thing that kept him from falling.
One massive trunk of an arm.
“Thank you,” he breathed as he looked up into Ruyn’s eyes.
“Don’t thank me yet. I still might come to my senses and let go. ’Cause the gods know you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”
“You know you’d miss me if I were gone.”
Ruyn scoffed as he struggled to pull him up and over the jagged ledge without losing his grip, or harming either of them. Grunting and panting, he cursed Urian the whole time. “Lose weight, man! Never seen anyone on a liquid diet weigh so damn much! Shite, already! Usually whenever someone gives me this much trouble, I at least get a blow job for my efforts.”
With one last massive grimace, he succeeded in hauling Urian over and rolling with him until they were tucked underneath a small ledge.
Urian let out a bitter laugh. “You can cuddle me all you want, you brute. But you have to buy me dinner and a ring before you think about kissing me, and any other oral activities are strictly off the table until marriage. I’m not a cheap whore you picked up, you know?”
Laughing, Ruyn shoved at him. “You’re all kinds of wrong, Greek. No idea what my sister saw in you.” He shook his head, then frowned and gripped Urian’s chin so that he could examine his face. “Are you all right?”
