“Not an oracle, but you’re free to attempt it.”
“How is it the sharoc can’t detect you?” Varian had a hard enough time eluding their detection whenever he ventured here on his missions. He’d never understood how Shadow managed it.
“You want secrets I’m unwilling to give.” He passed a gimlet stare to Kaziel, who was being unusually quiet. “The two of you aren’t the only ones with pasts you don’t want disclosed.” And with that, he vanished.
Kaziel crossed his arms over his chest. “You trust him?”
“I don’t trust anyone, other than my wife and children, but he’s never given me a specific reason not to. Why?”
“Just thinking of something Aeron always says. I’d sooner trust my enemy than a friend, as I can afford to lose an enemy. But killing a friend over betrayal burns twice as deep and thrice as long.”
“Your point?”
“No point, really. Just something about that demon makes my hackles rise.”
Varian couldn’t agree more. “Don’t worry. Like you, my bite is much worse than my bark.” And he’d taken enough lives to prove it. If Shadow betrayed them, Varian would have no compunctions about laying open his throat.
Still, there was an evil presence here and for once it wasn’t his mother.
No, this was something far more insidious. Like a blackness trying to devour the world. Like Níthöggur gnawing at the roots of Yggdrasill as he sought to free himself from his prison.
For now it was contained, but his gut said it wouldn’t stay that way.
Kaziel scowled at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Just a bad premonition.”
“Of?”
“What the world would be like if we fail to stop Apollo.”
Morgen watched asApollo left her bed to dress. Exceptionally tall and golden fair from the top of his blond head all the way to his toes, he was exactly what one would expect of a god.
In and out of bed.
She pouted at him. “Why are you leaving?”
“It’s taking too long to round up the dragon. I don’t like this delay. We have to take care of this before Helios overthrows me and takes all my powers.”
She scoffed at his concerns. “My men will handle it. They know better than to fail me.”
He rinsed his mouth out and spat before he turned toward her, patting his chin dry. “And I know my son. He was ever resourceful. Not to mention, that bitch he serves. Apollymi hates me with a passion. As do her two sons. It took me too long to escape her after that bastard Styxx gift-wrapped me and handed me over. I have a staggering debt to repay them all.”
“Twosons? I thought her one and only son was dead.”
“I wish.” He let out a bitter laugh. “Nay, my evil fey queen. Not dead. Acheron is hers by birth and conception. Brought back to life by my idiot of a twin sister who wanted to fuck him, and instead screwed the rest of us by her insatiable appetite for an ex-human whore. As for Styxx, he belongs to Apollymi by adoption. To that end, you can count my son as well. Indeed, she oft mothers Stryker more than she does her own.”
“Really … Any other brats I need know about?”
He dropped the towel and reached for his pants to pull them on. “You could almost count the Malachai. He is a direct descendent of her firstborn. Granted, a thousand times removed. And Urian. She pampers and protects him as well.”
Five sons for Apollymi …
Morgen rose up to lean against him. “Does she consider the current Malachai as one of hers?”
“Not as far as I know. Her loyalty to that end seems to have died with her original son, Monakribos.”
“And what of his father? Was Kissare not supposed to be reborn so that he could return to her?”
