Their mother had rolled her eyes. “Would you both stop complaining! Your sister needs something pretty. Erol is too nasty to her. It’s time she had something to make her smile again. I don’t like seeing my children so unhappy.”
That had only made Urian screw his face up more. “Then why are we here again?”
Before she could speak, he’d heard the outraged bellow. “Human!”
Three seconds later, the Daimon had attacked, aiming to rip out their mother’s throat.
Paris had grabbed their mother while Urian cut the Daimon off and prevented him from reaching her. He’d been prepared to kill the Daimon without hesitation. Luckily, it hadn’t come to that.
No sooner had Urian reached for his sword than his father appeared to stab the Daimon through the black mark over his heart. As soon as the blade penetrated the stain left by the human soul he’d consumed, the Daimon splintered into pieces.
Urian had stepped back in relief, but his mother had been shaken to the core. And this time, she hadn’t calmed down.
Rather, their mother had become more withdrawn and fearful than ever before.
The unspoken truth had grown like a monster they could no longer deny. If she remained, it was only a matter of time before her soul became too great a temptation for someone else. She couldn’t stay here in this realm anymore.
If Urian went with her to live, and one of the humans learned he was an Apollite, she would be killed for being his mother.
He knew those horror stories as well as his mother did. Humans burned alive any man, woman, or child they caught harboring an Apollite. To humanity, such a person was worse than a Daimon. They were traitors and heretics. And used as examples to scare off anyone else who might take mercy on any of his people.
I have to let her go.
For her sake as well as theirs.
Yet it was so unfair. She was his mother and he wanted to keep her with him as long as he could.
She felt that way too. Her reluctance to leave was evident in the way she held on to him and his siblings.
“Come to me anytime you need to,” she whispered in his ear. “I will always have a safe place for you, my precious baby.”
Urian nodded. “I love you, Mata.”
She tightened her arms around his shoulders. “And I love you more, my Urimou.” Kissing his cheek, she let go and stepped over to Paris.
Paris drew a ragged breath as she straightened his chalmys and repinned it with his fibula. “My child … you’ve never learned to properly drape a cloak.”
His brother smiled down at her. “If I did so, you wouldn’t feel useful.”
With a wistful smile, she smoothed it down with her hand. “You will watch over Urian for me? Make sure the others don’t hurt him?”
“You know I will. He gets on my nerves, but he is my twin. Besides, Davyn likes him better than me most days, anyway.”
She laughed at that. “Where is Davyn?”
“Outside with the wives.”
“Good. I didn’t want to leave without seeing him.”
Sick to his stomach, Urian stood back while she finished saying her good-byes and waited for the next wave of hell he knew would be unleashed.
It came a few minutes later, as expected. The instant his father announced who’d be escorting their mother to her new home in the human realm.
“All right, Urian. You have six hours to see her settled. I expect you back long before dawn.”
Archie cursed and sputtered in outrage. “Why does Urian get to go and not one of us?”
“The goddess willed it so.”
