Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8) (30 page)

He grasped Elysia’s hand.
 

“No.” She jerked back against him. “No, we can’t go through!”

He darted into the portal. She yelled again and jerked against his hand, but he only held on tighter.

Somehow he knew they weren’t heading back to Olympus like she thought. It was instinct—again. An instinct he didn’t understand, but wasn’t about to fight.

P
anic stole Elysia’s breath. No, they couldn’t go back. They couldn’t go—

Her feet connected with stone, and she stumbled forward. The portal popped and sizzled at her back as it closed. Beside her, Cerek gripped her hand tightly so she didn’t fall.

“What the…?” a voice muttered somewhere close.

Elysia’s gaze swept over the room. Tall stone columns. Guards dressed in armor, holding spears. She whipped around and stared at the arched portal, silent now after they’d come through, the familiar words she’d read hundreds of times as a child etched into the stones:

Herein lies the boundary of worlds. Protected on this side, bound only by sacred land on the other. Those who cross do so at their own risk. But be forewarned: passage herein invites the bringer of nightmares, the watcher of madness, the light and dark in constant flux. And always, waiting…the thief at the gate taking stock for the deathless gods.

Panic turned to an icy fear that gripped her chest and squeezed so tight, she could barely breathe. Footsteps sounded close as she shoved her hands against Cerek and pushed hard. “Go back. Go back through. Quick. Before—”

“Holy Hades.”

Elysia froze because she knew that voice. Had listened to it sing to her at night when she’d been young. Had heard it scold her when she’d gotten into trouble and read her stories late into the night when her mother thought she was sleeping.

What in the name of all things holy is he doing in the Gatehouse right now?

Cerek looked past her. The male at Elysia’s back gasped. “Call the others,” he said in a dazed voice to the Executive Guard. “Call them at once and tell them to get over here.”

Elysia dropped her head against Cerek’s chest and bit back a groan. There was no way they could escape now. Not when her father had just spotted Cerek.

Footsteps sounded again as Demetrius moved up the stone steps. Against her, Cerek tensed and whispered, “
Emmoní.
”

Elysia drew in a breath for courage, lifted her head and finally turned. “
Patéras
.”

Demetrius’s feet drew to a sharp stop halfway up the steps, and his eyes grew so wide, the whites could be seen all around his black irises. “Elysia? Oh my gods…”

She nodded, and even though she wasn’t ready to come home, even though she just wanted more time alone with Cerek, tears filled her eyes. “It’s me.” She ran to him. “I’m home.”

Her father’s arms closed around her, and he swept her off her feet and hugged her close. Tears spilled over her lashes, and as his familiar scents of pine and leather and citrus filled her senses, love and home and safety surrounded her.

“My
ageklos
,” he whispered, turning her in a slow circle. “Oh, how I’ve missed you.”

She held on tighter. “I missed you too,
pampas
. So much.”

He lowered her to her feet, drew back, and looked down at her, his own eyes wet with tears. “Are you hurt? Are you okay? Are you—”

“I’m fine. I’m not hurt. I promise,
pampas.
I’m good.”

His gaze swept over her again, as if to make sure, and then he pulled her tight against him again so her cheek pressed against his beating heart. “My
angeklos
,” he whispered again.

She smiled and sank into him, knowing Cerek was behind her, watching the whole scene. Maybe she’d been foolish not to want to come home. Her father loved her. Cerek was a part of his brotherhood. Once she told him she and Cerek were—

“
Ageklos
,” her father said in a low voice, “why are you wearing a male’s shirt? And why is
he
missing his?”

He. Cerek. There was no warmth of brotherhood in her father’s voice.

Skata
. This could go downhill fast if she wasn’t careful. She drew back and gripped her father’s arms. “
Pampas
, it’s not what it looks like.”

“N
ot what it looks like?” Elysia’s father pushed her to the side. “I think it’s exactly what it looks like.”

He stalked up the rest of the stone steps to the portal’s platform, muscles clenched, eyes black as night and focused right on Cerek as if Cerek were a bug he wanted to squash beneath his shoe.

Cerek tensed and stepped back, wondering how the heck he’d opened the portal to this realm in the first place and whether or not he could open it to somewhere else right this second.

“
Pampas
, stop!” Elysia rushed up the stairs and stepped in front of Cerek, pushing her hands against her father’s chest to force him back. “We ran into a pack of daemons when we reached the human realm. My clothes were ripped in the fight. Cerek gave me his shirt so I wouldn’t have to walk around naked.”

The Argonaut’s feet stilled, but his calculating black as night eyes never once wavered from Cerek’s face. “Is that true?”

Think quickly, dumbass
. “Yes.”

“He saved my life,
patéras
. You should be thanking him, not trying to hurt him.”

The Argonaut ignored his daughter’s pleas and narrowed his gaze on Cerek. Darkness pumped off him in waves, and Cerek’s stomach tightened when he realized—again by some weird instinct he’d never felt before—that the male was part witch.

“
Pampas
,” Elysia said again. “Cerek didn’t hurt me. He helped me. He’s not a threat.”

“I’ll find out what he did or didn’t do to you later. But you’re wrong about him not being a threat. Dark magic surrounds him. I can feel it. He’s not what you think, Elysia.”

Cerek’s pulse sped up, and a strange energy urged him to move forward, to leave, to run.

Though to run where, he didn’t know.

Elysia turned confused eyes his way, and the pull lessened. But when he saw the questions swirling in their chocolate depths, he keyed back in to what her father had just said. Sweat broke out along his spine.

Dark magic… What did that mean? Was that the energy he was feeling in his limbs? And if so, why was he feeling it now when he’d never felt it before?

His stomach tightened. Before he could find a way to voice the questions, footsteps sounded near the arched doorway. He looked in that direction just as two large males, both sporting the same ancient Greek text on their arms, stepped into the room with wide eyes.

“Holy Hera,” the one with shoulder-length dark hair said. “I can’t believe it.”

The other male moved up the steps without stopping, bypassing Elysia and her father and slowing only when he was directly in front of Cerek.

Short, dark hair fell across the male’s brow as his mismatched eyes—one green, one blue—searched Cerek’s face. He was roughly the same height and build as Cerek, but otherwise they shared no other similarities besides the markings on their arms. But Cerek’s pulse turned to a roar in his ears as he stared back, because he’d seen those eyes before. In the memory Elysia had showed him just after they’d arrived in the human realm.

“
Yios
?” the male whispered. “Is that you?”

Unease tingled down Cerek’s spine, and he moved a half step back. “No, I—”

“Holy gods.” The male closed the distance between them and threw his arms around Cerek’s shoulders. “It is you.”

The air whooshed out of Cerek’s lungs, and his body went stiff as a board. He recognized the word
yios
, knew it meant “my son,” and figured from everything Elysia had explained that the male must be his biological father. But there was no familiarity. No warmth or vibration that told Cerek he was family. He felt nothing except that growing energy, urging him to leave, to rush, to search…

“I can’t”—his breaths grew shallow and fast. He lifted his arms, braced them against the other male’s and pushed—“breathe.”

The male dropped his arms and stumbled back, but his brow wrinkled and confusion filled his mismatched eyes when he said, “Cerek?”

Perspiration broke out all over Cerek’s body. Even the name was unfamiliar. His stomach tossed as he tried to find words. He believed everything Elysia had told him, but nothing about this male or this place was familiar, and that strange energy—

Pressure formed along his forearm, distracting him from his thoughts.

“He doesn’t remember you, Ari.”

Elysia’s voice drifted up to his ears, and Cerek looked down to see her standing beside him, her soft fingers hovering over the strange markings on his arm. He drew in her honeysuckle scent, let it filter into his soul, and relaxed little by little, knowing she was close.

“What do you mean he doesn’t remember me?”

Footsteps sounded on the platform, and Cerek sensed the third Argonaut, the one with the long dark hair, move up beside Elysia’s father, but all he could focus on was her. On her calming presence, on the fact she hadn’t left him, on her silky fingers against his skin and the way he wanted her entire body pressed against his as it had been only hours ago in the sand.

“Zeus wiped his memories. He doesn’t remember anything before his time on Olympus. The markings didn’t appear on his arms until we arrived in the human realm. He didn’t even know he was an Argonaut until very recently.”

“I don’t understand.” Questions swirled in Ari’s mismatched eyes as he looked from Elysia to Cerek and back again. “Then how did the two of you—”

“I recognized him,” Elysia said quickly. “He was one of the Siren trainers”—she glanced over at her father—“in the field. Archery and combat. That kind of thing. As soon as I saw him, I knew who he was.”

Her fingers dug into Cerek’s arm, and his own confusion grew as he looked down at her. She was lying. She hadn’t recognized him. She’d only just figured out who he was when she’d seen the markings appear on his arms. And he’d trained her in a helluva lot more than just archery and combat.

“We both knew we weren’t supposed to be there,” she went on, “so we helped each other escape.” Her gaze remained fixed on her father. “So there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Ari glanced over his shoulder toward the long-haired Argonaut, the one Cerek instinctively guessed was some kind of leader, and the two exchanged puzzled looks. But Elysia’s father’s gaze was still hard and appraising as it hovered on Cerek, and Cerek sensed the male had already guessed what other skills Cerek had trained Elysia in. Or, if he was being accurate, what skills she’d trained him in.

The long-haired Argonaut turned his gaze toward Elysia’s father. “Demetrius?”

Demetrius’s jaw clenched. “Elysia, come with me.”

“
Patéras
.” Panic filled her voice. “You have to believe me.”

Demetrius held out his hand. “Come.” But still he didn’t look toward his daughter. He only continued to watch Cerek the way a predator watches its prey just before it strikes. “Your mother will want to see you.”

“Go with him,” Ari said quietly. “We’ll take care of Cerek.”

Elysia cast a worried look Cerek’s way. Indecision brimmed in her dark eyes. “I’ll find you,” she whispered.

Her fingertips released his arm, and she stepped away. Cerek’s stomach twisted hard, because she was the only thing familiar in this place, the only thing that made sense, and he couldn’t let her go. “
Emmoní…
”