All she wanted was Urian. Somehow over the years of their weekly visits she’d fallen quite in love with her shy Apollite boy who hadn’t so much as kissed her.
And he was the one thing she could never have.
You are a fool, Sarraxyn.
Her brother, Veles, would be the first one to drown her if he ever learned she’d done something so suicidal as give her heart over to one of his ilk. And she didn’t want to even contemplate what the goddess Apollymi would do if she learned of it.
This relationship was all kinds of impossible.
In her heart, all she could see was Urian. She wanted no future without him.
Yet she could see no future with him. At all. It just wasn’t possible and she knew it.
“We’re doomed,” she whispered. And still she couldn’t stop herself from doing it.
March 5, 9514 BC
“Urian! I wasn’t expecting you! What are you doing here?”
He barely caught himself before he exposed his fangs over his own thrill that his mother’s adoring smile caused. “It’s your birthday, Mata. You had to know that I wouldn’t miss it.”
No matter the danger.
Rising up on her toes, she hugged him tight. Urian closed his eyes and savored the one thing he’d missed most about not having her in Kalosis anymore.
His mother’s loving embrace. He’d missed it so much that he’d barely been able to wait until nightfall to seek out her cottage and visit. His eagerness had caused Xyn to even tease him.
“I can’t believe you’re here! It’s so wonderful to see you!”
He shrugged as he handed her the small basket in his hands that contained a gift from him and one Xyn had made from her scales as well. His dragon was always thoughtful that way. She took care to save every scale that she shed and put them to use.
“I only wish I could have come earlier or that I could stay longer.”
With warm blue eyes, she brushed his hair back from his face. “My precious Urimou.” She jerked her chin toward her cottage. “Why don’t—”
“Nay, Mata,” he said, quickly, stopping her before she invited him into her home and broke the one cardinal rule he insisted on for her safety. “You mustn’t.”
“You’re being silly about that.”
“I don’t want to chance it.”
“Hellen? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Memnus. It’s my son come to visit.”
Confused by the note in her voice he hadn’t heard before, Urian stepped back as an older man came outside with a lantern.
“Your son?”
Urian cursed silently as the old bearded man, who was dressed in a brown chiton and woolen cap, headed straight for them.
He froze the moment his buttery light struck Urian’s new armor that Xyn had given him, and he realized how tall and muscular Urian was. His jaw dropped. “Why … I didn’t realize your boy was a soldier.”
An amused glint hovered in his mother’s eyes. By necessity, all Apollites were. Either they learned to fight or they died. “He is, indeed. As are all my sons—like their father.”
The old man’s eyes glowed with warmth. “I know you’re proud of them.” He held his hand out in friendship. “Why, you remind me of Prince Styxx, you do. Spitting image of him, you are.”
Shaking his arm, Urian scowled. There was only one person he’d ever heard who held that moniker. “Styxx of Didymos?”
