“Good girl! Which son?”
“His favorite.”
For once he seemed pleased. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises …” He smiled. “Does he love you?”
“Not yet, but he will.”
His gaze intensified. “Excellent. You’ve proven yourself worthy. So I will give you what you’ve asked. You want to walk in daylight again … help me to remove Apollo from my pantheon. Destroy his bloodline and I’ll see to it that you reign at my side as the new queen of the dawn.”
“And what of my blood-hunger? How am I to eat if there are no more Apollites?”
“You remove Stryker and his wretched brood from existence, child, and I’ll hand-feed you the ambrosia and nectar you need for immortality, myself.”
He moved to stand in front of her. “It’s a simple exchange. I want that repulsive upstart removed from my pantheon and you want your life back. Give me what I deserve and I’ll give you your dreams. All you have to do is remove Apollo’s bloodline from this domain where I cannot reach him without causing a war.”
Helios smiled coldly. “A simple exchange and we’ll both be happy.”
Xyn shivered asshe felt a presence she hadn’t felt in so long that at first she thought she must be imagining it. Surely, this was some forgotten nightmare.
“I’ll be damned, daughter.”
Her blood went cold … er.
Turning, she was stunned to see her father in the shadows of the falls, where Apollymi would splinter him into oblivion if she caught him invading her domain. “What are you doing here?”
Helios swept an appreciative gaze over her human form. “But for the red hair and green eyes, you are the very vision of your mother … before her curse.”
“And again, I ask why you’re here. You have one heartbeat before I alert my goddess and see you well met for your treachery.”
“I doubt that. If Apollymi comes, I’ll simply tell her you let me in. How else would I have been able to get through her portal without her knowledge?”
Xyn sucked her breath in sharply at his threat. She’d call him a liar, but it was the type of betrayal he and his kind specialized in. The Greeks were bastards that way, and none more so than the Titans. Hence why Zeus had castrated his own father after his father had murdered his own child.
There was nothing she’d put past them.
“How did you get in?”
“Like I’d tell you my secret?” Helios reached to touch her chin.
She recoiled from his touch as if he were a viper. And indeed, that was how she viewed him. “You’ve never been a father to me.”
“True, but then you’ve never been useful before.”
A chill went down her spine. “How do you mean?”
His gaze went past her to the grove where Apollymi’s sacred tree grew. “The ypnsi of the Haxyn tree. There’s something I want you to do with it.”
She wanted to tell him that she wouldn’t help him. But she knew that she didn’t have the power. He’d blackmail her into it. So long as it didn’t harm Urian, she’d go along with his plans.
And that made her hate herself all the more.
Just please don’t let Urian find out about this …
June 27, 9511 BC
Urian paused as he caught sight of Apollymi sniffing at the air around him. She even smelled his hair and cloak. “Is something wrong, akra?”
She sniffed twice more at his shoulders. “I swear I smell Greek!”
