Chapter 41 Caelus
Caelus
Aros departed early the next morning. He and Evie would first travel to Olympus via the temple portal, then on to distant shores, with only a small party to bid them farewell and wish them luck.
The less who knew about their leaving, the better.
It wouldn’t do to have our Commander up and leave after a devastating loss.
We embraced like brothers — with fierce arms and tampered emotions.
“Be safe and hurry back,” I said, the back of my throat aching.
Nyssa’s eerie ivory eyes scored me from across the room.
She had a small, sad smile upon her lips, knowing exactly how close to breakdown I actually was.
But I wouldn’t let it show; wouldn’t let the tears fall or share my true concerns with the god who had been as close to a brother as I could have had growing up.
“We’re not the ones facing Titans, lightning boy,” he jeered, forever using humour as a shield. Like someone else I knew. “Keep our Queen safe and stay out of trouble ‘til I get back to join you in it.”
I huffed a laugh and released him only to grab his sister in an equally rough hold. “Bring him back whole, could you?”
Evie scowled. “Put me down, you ogre of a god.”
Nyssa’s raucous cackle echoed around the temple, bouncing off the pillars as I set Evie on her feet.
“I’ll do what I can, but I make no promises,” she said. “That one has a penchant for trouble.”
“That’s exactly why you’re going with him,” Nyssa remarked.
“I don’t set out to find it,” Aros griped, pausing to roll his eyes at our expressions. “Okay, fine, sometimes I do seek it out — but it's just as likely to find me first.”
I grinned — that lump in my throat slightly more manageable. So, humour worked.
Maybe they’ll be okay. Maybe they’ll find warriors the first place they reach and can come back to us quickly. Before it’s too late to make a difference.
Lykos shot me a look equivalent to raised brows.
I know, I know. The chances are slim… but there’s still a chance, right?
He grunted, startling Rufus who happened to be frolicking at his enormous white feet. The manticore jumped, fleeing to the relative safety of Aros’ legs.
Some terrifying beast you are, Lykos said in a scathing, yet somehow also teasing tone. The whims of Fate are not for us to decipher or comment on. Anything is possible — but some things scarcely broker hope.
After quick goodbyes to Athena, Aph, and Apollo, the twins readied themselves to leave, checking their weapons one last time.
After ensuring Flameless was clean, polished within an inch of its life, and sharp enough to slice a horde of nightmare beasts open before breakfast, Aros jerked his chin at the temple gate and barked a brusque, “Let’s go. ”
His five chosen warriors, led by none other than Archimedes — who’d stolen a quick goodbye kiss from a teary-eyed goddess of love — marched on through, disappearing from sight.
“Ready, Evie?” Aros asked his sister, who was locked in a whisper-filled embrace with the woman who still made my heart stutter every time I looked at her.
Lykos scoffed, Always with the romantics.
Hush, you.
Evie pulled something out from under the edge of her bronze cuirass and tucked it into Nyssa’s palm, closing her fingers around it. Then she stepped up to the gate and jerked her head at Aros as if he hadn’t been waiting for her this entire time.
He shot me an indignant look, muttering, “Women — always on their own schedules!”
I snickered as Evie flayed him with her flame-filled eyes, nodded once at me, then passed through the arch.
“Careful, brother. I have a feeling that one would be more than happy to assist you with a haircut while you slept.”
He gasped, reaching for his precious ginger locks tied up in a kroblyos. “She wouldn’t dare.”
I raised my brows pointedly.
“Okay, maybe she would. I’ll take your advice under consideration,” he grumbled, smoothing his hair — while he still could.
I clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. “Look after yourself. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
He scoffed. “Don’t you do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“That list is significantly shorter, Aros.”
He winked. “That’s the point, brother.” He strode over to Nyssa, embraced her roughly, whispered something in her ear that I was sure I’d hear about later, then vanished through the portal with a mock-salute in my direction.
I walked over and wrapped an arm around her, sensing her anxieties and fears mingling with my own. Instead of asking what he’d just said, I asked something equally pressing, “What did Evie give you?”
A gentle smile graced her lips as she unfurled a length of crimson silk. It cascaded to the floor in soft rivulets — a blood-red ribbon as wide as her palm. “Peace. She gave me peace.”
Failing to understand how a scrap of fabric could provide such a profound, apparently tangible, ideology, I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
Her smile grew as she grasped the ribbon with both hands and tied it around her head to cover both eyes. A shadow dagger materialised in each hand as she took a measured stance, her weight balanced perfectly between the balls of each foot.
Without warning, she lunged at me. It took every ounce of muscle memory and quick thinking to evade each of her precise blows while Athena laughed somewhere in the background.
“She gave me peace” — I dodged a blow meant for my right thigh — “because she reminded me” — I ducked under another meant for my head — “that I trained for this.” I jumped to avoid a sweeping kick to my ankles.
“That even if Apollo never finds a way to restore my sight, Charon trained me for every possible outcome. Even this.” She gestured to her ribbon-clad face.
“I fail to see how that is peace,” I admitted, rolling out of the path of her swinging arm.
“It is peace because she reminded me that I have withstood far worse. That I don’t need eyes to carve those fuckers into oblivion — just my bare hands will do.”
“A ribbon can do all that?”
“No. A woman’s resolve can.”
Aphrodite whooped. “Absofuckinglutely it can!”
I cracked a smile at the seemingly dainty goddess of love and desire cheering like a young girl witnessing the thrill of her first stadion race.
“Now, Athena,” Nyssa began. “Where did we land to end this war? What portion of Ephemeron will forever be known as the final resting place of Titans?”
Athena’s answering grin was all lethal severity. “The plains of Theris, your grace. King Crestos and Queen Kassandra are evacuating their people as we speak, but it was the least inhabited, most easily defensible land we could find.”
“Excellent. And how long until our armies are ready to move out?”
“The Athenians are ready now. Contingents from our allied kingdoms will meet us there within the next twenty-four hours.”
“So how do we get Kronos to meet us there? Send up a smoke signal?” I mused.
“Oh he’ll come. He’s already on his way, if my suspicions prove correct,” Nyssa declared, in a tone that brooked no argument. A tone that sent a chill down my spine.
What did she suspect? Or, more accurately, who?