His stomach tight, Urian nodded as he got up and dressed. He returned for one last, lingering kiss before he teleported back to Kalosis.
The moment he landed in the great hall, he found his father on his throne, surrounded by Daimons. The dire look on his face would have chilled anyone, but something sinister had happened.
“Where have you been!”
“I went out for a psuché.” The psuché or psuché-sullambano was what they called the act of seeking a human soul. It was very different from the ichoraima, which was the act of feeding on Apollite blood. “Why? What’s happened?”
“Jason, Abiron, and Melissa were all killed last night.”
That news hit him like a crippling blow. Archie and Hagne must be reeling. That was three of their four children. “How?”
“A Dark-Hunter.”
Urian couldn’t breathe. The pain was so great and so overwhelming it was if his body and mind couldn’t react, so it shut down. He just stood there, stunned. Trying to process the fact that in one fell swoop, Archie had lost the majority of his children.
I have to go to him.
Urian teleported to his brother’s home. Without knocking, he opened the door to find the house strangely empty. He used his powers to sense where they might be. As he neared the bedroom, he found his brothers and sisters-in-law comforting Hagne, who was in bed, curled in a ball, unable to cope with her loss. She was completely catatonic.
Archie was nowhere to be seen.
Terrified of what that meant, Urian went to find him. For a few minutes, there was no sign of his brother anywhere.
Not until he had a peculiar thought. Acting on instinct, Urian went to the small garden where the kids used to play.
Sure enough, he found Archie sitting alone, underneath the tree where Abiron had carved his name. As he drew closer, he realized that his brother held one of Melissa’s dolls in his trembling hands.
“Archie?”
He didn’t speak.
Urian knelt by his side and placed his arm around his shoulders.
Then his huge brute of a brother looked up at him and burst into tears. Clinging to him, he sobbed in a way Urian had never heard him do before. Not when they’d lost their mother. Or their sister or brother. Never once had anything broken the mighty Archimedes.
Until today.
“I’m so sorry.”
Archie tightened his hold on Urian. “I should have been with them. Why wasn’t I there? How could I have let them go alone? I was their father, Uri. It was my job to protect them.”
“Shh, Archie, you didn’t know.”
“I left them alone …”
“You did nothing wrong.”
“Nay, but I did. I left them to fend for themselves when I shouldn’t have. I should have been there!”
Suddenly, Urian felt a powerful grip in his hair. Looking up, he saw his father. Without a word, he pulled Urian back and then cradled Archie in his arms to rock him. Then with his other arm, he pulled Urian against his chest to hold him like he’d done when they were boys.
His hold was brutal and crushing, and yet it was strangely comforting.
“We won’t be broken. Not by this. The gods can try, but we are stronger than they know. And we are mighty. Do you hear me, my sons?”
He wiped at the tears on Urian’s face and then Archie’s. “Look at me, both of you.” He waited until they complied. “We will rise up and strike back. We are not the only ones to lose in this and we will not allow them to take it all from us. Not without a fight. Blood for blood. Life for life. We all have a choice. You either cave to the blows of your enemies …”
“Or you mount their heads to the wall,” Urian finished for him.
