Chapter 20 The Eldest Heir #2
No one had ever fully stopped my mental attack.
Minds were breakable.
Always.
Kharon threw down the letters with frustration. “Why would a powerful ancient creature be living here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fuck!” Kharon kicked at the trailer wall; his foot dented the metal. “I don’t like this—I don’t like this at all.”
“Me neither,” I said. “We need answers.”
Kharon straightened his dark cloak, determination on his face. “Well, then let’s get them.”
Crack.
White flurries fell furiously through freezing air and I exhaled an icy cloud—a white-covered concrete building towered before us with a tall barbed wire fence surrounding it.
The only human prison in the Northern Hemisphere.
Snow crunched beneath our boots as we walked up the path to the guarded entrance.
The human guards paled as we approached.
“We’re here on official Spartan business,” I announced. “We’re looking for a prisoner.”
They blinked up at me.
“My name is Augustus. I am the heir to the House of Ares. I suggest you open the door for me. Now.”
The gate rose.
Kharon’s cloak whipped behind him as he stalked forward, a jagged ruby crown gleaming on his head.
It was time to avenge our wife.
The next morning, I stomped up the steps leading out of the villa dungeon with Kharon trailing behind me.
Both of us were vibrating with fury.
“Her stepfather bragged about hurting her as a child,” Kharon said. “Fuck this shit—we need to kill him.”
I nodded in agreement.
He injured little Alexis. He needs to die.
We both turned and had made it down a few steps before I gathered my wits about me.
“No,” I said as I grabbed Kharon’s back, pulling him out of the dark stairs into the brighter hallway.
“We agreed.” I shoved him against the wall.
“We need to earn Alexis’s trust … We’ll leave him for her.
She’s the one that’s been wronged—she can decide what she wants to do with her foster father. ”
“She’s gonna forgive him or some fucking bullshit,” Kharon spat.
Seething, I nodded in agreement.
“We have to kill him.”
FUCK.
No.
I stopped both of us from leaving the hall.
The protective urges—the unholy madness—was making it hard to think. I was being torn to shreds.
Kharon placed a hand on my shoulder. “I … understand,” he said through gritted teeth. “What you’re saying.”
His support grounded me, allowed me to think, to focus. “We have to show Alexis that we respect her,” I said hoarsely. “That means we respect her wishes … whatever they are.”
Kharon nodded sharply, then his chest caved in like he’d been punched. He gasped as he hyperventilated. “I can’t do this—I need to kill someone. It’s too much. It’s—”
I wrapped my arms around him in a hug, holding him upright.
“Breathe,” I coached as we inhaled at the same time.
He relaxed against me.
Neither of us moved, silent understanding coursing between us. We were doing this together; we would be better men for Alexis, or we’d be nothing at all.
Footsteps sounded around the corner.
“No way,” Alexis’s voice echoed.
“Oh, come on,” Helen replied. “Just open it—it’s probably an expensive necklace or something pretty.
Everyone knows that Kharon loves blue diamonds—rumor is the House of Artemis has an entire vault full of them.
I’m jealous. The House of Aphrodite prefers pearls, which is so boring. My life is not fair.”
“You gotta just open it to see,” Drex said.
Kharon stiffened in my arms, and I released him.
Alexis and Helen are heading to breakfast.
They were going to pass us in the hall.
Standing up straight, I wiped my bloody knuckles on my black pants hastily.
Kharon adjusted his wrinkled shirt. He ran his hands through his hair, desperately trying to pat it down, but somehow looked messier after he touched it, strands sticking out in every direction.
Then, he relaxed his shoulders and smiled, like he was practicing looking approachable—his teeth were covered in blood.
I pointed at them, and he scrubbed them clean with his finger.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. Kharon had struck a dramatic pose, leaning against the wall, knee bent, arms crossed.
“Act casual,” he said out of the side of his mouth.
I put my hand on the wall and leaned toward him like we were talking.
Alexis, Helen, Drex, and Charlie stopped as soon as they turned the corner. A small horse (Fluffy Jr.?) and two hellhounds halted beside them.
They stared at us.
Helen froze mid-motion—she was holding out a black box to Alexis. It was the gift we’d left outside the door for her. The one I’d spent months working on. I’d gotten it commissioned the day after our marriage day, after Alexis leapt away.
Awkward silence stretched as the group cautiously moved forward down the hall, straight toward us.
Nothing to see here. Just two men hanging out by the entrance to a dungeon.
Alexis had purple smudges under her eyes.
Is she sleeping?
I swallowed down the urge to beg her to talk to me.
She crossed her arms over her stomach and purposefully looked away from us as she got closer.
It felt like I’d been slapped in the face.
“So, um,” Kharon said. “Augustus—how did you … sleep?”
“What?”
“How did you sleep?” Kharon repeated.
I stared at him with incredulity.
He knew we’d been out all night killing and torturing people for our wife.
Kharon narrowed his eyes and tilted his head in Alexis’s direction.
“Amazing,” I deadpanned as I realized what Kharon was doing. “I feel so well rested.”
Kharon stretched his arms above his head in an imitation of someone waking up. “Same—I think I got a full ten hours last night.”
Real smooth.
Helen made a sound as she she neared, openly staring at the scar on the side of Kharon’s head where his ear used to be. The fucking Falcon Chronicles still hadn’t stopped writing articles about what Kharon had done.
The headlines called it “the most romantic sacrifice of the century.”
They should have been working on finding out why the fucking Titans were mutating, not glamorizing my wife’s suffering.
Heart thudding painfully, I turned to Alexis, mouth opening to ask her to—
My jaw clicked shut.
Poco was sitting on Fluffy Jr.’s back, holding his ears like reins, and his gray fur looked more unkempt than usual.
Is anyone spritzing him with water? He clearly needs a trim. What are they doing?
“Is anyone brushing Poco?” I asked. “He needs four brushes a day.”
Helen laughed. “Yes, we do it constantly. His fur just looks puffy because he keeps wrestling with Fluffy Jr.”
Since my wife’s protector was borderline obese, that did not make me feel better.
Poco chittered shrilly as if agreeing with her.
I glared down at him. “Don’t you dare take that tone with me, mister.”
Poco crossed his gray arms and stuck his nose into the air, staring up at the ceiling.
I leaned down and got in his little face. “No fish treats for you.”
His black eyes widened and he shook his head as if he didn’t believe me.
“I already threw out the bag.”
Poco tipped his head back and screeched like he was dying.
I’d actually just paid a seven-figure sum to have a box of them personally shipped from the other side of the world because global supply chains no longer existed, and I was stooping to bribery to get him back.
“Yep,” I said. “That’s what happens to bad raccoons who don’t take their afternoon naps.”
Poco wailed mournfully, still stuck on the treats.
Someone laughed.
It took me a moment to realize everyone had stopped moving and was staring at me.
Flushing with embarrassment, I stood up straight.
“Open the box,” Kharon said as he quickly snatched my gift out of Helen’s hand and held it out for Alexis to take.
She stared at it, but didn’t move.
“Please,” I said.
The urge to fall to my knees at her feet and beg for forgiveness was mounting. My legs shook.
I would do it.
I’d do anything if it meant she’d look at me without a pained, guarded expression.
“Please,” I repeated. “I promise, it’s not jewelry.”
Alexis reached out and gingerly opened the box. She peered over the side.
Helen frowned. “Ew—what is that? No girl wants—”
“For me?” Alexis’s lips parted with awe as she stared at the black item.
“It also has a built-in recorder,” I said, desperate to keep the smile on her face as I pointed to the button on the side.
“I had it custom made, so if you don’t have a pen or paper, you can still record your findings and play them back.
And a cable port to hook it up to a computer and transfer your findings. ”
“Thanks, Augustus.” She smiled at me.
Kharon puffed up his chest. “I designed the metal holder—it’s bulletproof titanium.”
Alexis stared at him like she couldn’t tell if he was joking, then she shook her head and beamed at us.
Her smile was as breathtaking as sunshine on a cloudy day. The pounding in my skull lessened.
I’d had to pay our weapons manufacturers a small fortune to create one from scratch, because they’d had to consult with an Olympian lab, but it was so worth it for the joy on her face.
“Can someone please tell me what in Kronos’s kingdom is that ugly thing?” Helen asked with a huff.
“It’s a graphing calculator,” Alexis said reverently, her fingers trailing over her name engraved in gold on the back.
“Wow,” Drex said as Alexis held it up for him to see. “I didn’t know they still made those.”
They don’t.
Alexis grinned at Drex, and I cleared my throat, tamping down the urge to slaughter him violently.
“Thanks again.” She glanced up at me through long lashes. A single curl hung against the delicate column of her neck.
“Anything for you,” I said, feeling faint.
Alexis turned back to the calculator and resumed walking toward the dining room, Charlie and Drex following.
Helen leaned close as she walked past. “You’re acting pathetic,” she whispered. “It’s embarrassing me.”
I nodded dumbly, too busy trying to remember how to inhale.
Seconds later, we were once again alone in the hall.
Kharon’s face twisted, sharpening into cruel edges. “I just remembered—I’ve been waiting to tell you what I saw while we were away.”
“What?”
“Achilles and Patro … want to take her from us.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Alexis,” Kharon said. “Let’s go.” He whirled around and headed down the hall.
I scowled and followed.
No one messed with our wife.