Even his wife had dropped in at his feet a decade ago.
But this …thiswas a first.
An ancient Greek hero and an Egyptian goddess who landed on their feet with a searing glare that would have sent a lesser man scurrying for cover.
As it was, Stryker remained seated and only lifted one insolent brow at the temerity of confronting him in his own living room, as it were. He tilted his head toward his wife, who came forward to lean against his throne that was made out of the bones of gods Misos had defeated long ago.
“Hmm, Phyra. I’m trying to decide if I should be flattered by their visit or pissed.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she shrugged. “If they’re bringing tribute, flattered. Any other reason … I say we skewer them where they stand.”
Bethany scoffed. “Try it and I’ll use your guts for shoelaces.”
Styxx cleared his throat as he placed a gentle hand on his bloodthirsty wife’s shoulder. “What my nondiplomatic better half is trying to say is that we’re here on a mission of peace. And it’s one that concerns you, too, Stryker.”
“How so? Since the last time I looked, we were enemies?”
“Enemies or not, we have a common interest … Urian.”
At the mention of his son, Stryker felt a rush of pain and anger. One that made him want to lash out as he remembered that Urian wasn’t reallyhisson.
He wastheirs.
“What of him?”
“He’s here. Seeking Phoebe.”
Those words went through Stryker like ice. He came off his throne before he’d even realized he’d moved. “What do you mean, he’s here?”
“As I said. And I’m not a fool, Stryker. You don’t stop loving a child. He came here to find her and help her.”
Damn him for the truth of that statement. Like it or not, he did still love the boy, even if he did want to beat him senseless. Stryker glanced to Zephyra. She was his strength.
When she met his gaze, she gave a subtle nod. “We have to find our son before he’s harmed. Where would he be?”
And that was why he loved her.
“I don’t know. But we’ll find him.” Stryker ground his teeth in frustration as he glared at Zolan. “Fetch Davyn and Medea. One of them might know something.”
Bethany stopped Stryker as he started past her. “Was he really so hard to raise?”
He let out a frustrated sigh. “He was a nightmare unimagined … and my greatest joy and pride.”
Tears gathered in her eyes. She lifted her hand toward his cheek. “May I?”
Stryker knew she was asking if she could share his memories of Urian’s childhood. A part of him was selfish enough that he wanted to keep them for himself and deny her request. But then, he wasn’t quite that big a bastard. The rational part of him knew that he wouldn’t have had so great a gift if not for his two enemies.
So the real crime wasn’t in the anger that lay between him and Urian now so much as in the fact that they had never known their son at all.
He couldn’t imagine a worse horror than what they’d experienced. To have the son they’d wanted so desperately ripped from their lives and given to another. His gaze went to the scars on Styxx’s arm where he’d carved the name they’d intended to give Urian on his birth … Galen.
No, he wouldn’t be that cruel to anyone. Enemies or not. So he nodded and braced himself for her intrusion.
Closing her eyes, she laid her warm hand to his cheek, then reached to touch Styxx with her other hand. It wasn’t until Styxx gasped that Stryker realized she was sharing the memories with him as well.
His head spun as he felt Bethany picking through his mind with a master skill.
Strangely enough, she revived things inside him that he’d forgotten. Precious moments spent with Urian as a child when he’d once thought the world of Stryker. The night when Urian had picked up his battle helm for the first time, and tried it on.
