Chapter 76
Cyrus couldn’t help but notice when Ender’s mood shifted in the doctor’s office. The Gorgon had obviously remembered something painful.
His gaze briefly met Killian’s as they ushered Ender out of the office. The look in the Siren’s eyes told him he wasn’t the only one who had noticed. But they remained silent as they walked back.
“Let’s go meet with Severo and his family,” Ender announced on reaching the faded red double doors of their home.
“No,” Killian snorted. “You are on nest rest. They can come to you.”
Ender sputtered. “I can spare a moment before that!”
“Don’t make me pick you up again,” Cyrus warned. “She said any day now, so you are going directly to bed after shifting.”
“You are not the boss of me! Respect your elders!” Ender blustered, in full old man fashion.
“Up you go.”
“DON’T YOU DARE!”
He scooped the protesting man up before he had a chance to run away.
The Gorgon grumbled, but did not do much in terms of fighting him off.
It didn’t take long to reach the room they shared with Ender.
And after more complaints, eventually, they’d managed to get the man in his Gorgon form, and settled in his nest.
Now in just a white T-shirt that was molded around his large, rounded belly, Ender was sitting with his tail coiled beneath him, the very tip hanging over one edge. Partly slithered under a mound of loose clothes he had in his nest, the Cryptid was clearly pouting as he sat there, arms crossed.
Killian and him had just crawled onto the bed when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Killian called out.
The door opened and a very tired looking Severo and Seri walked in, bags under their eyes, their expressions strained.
Cyrus winced, before blurting, “I’m sorry.”
The Shadow Dweller shook his head. “Not your fault.”
“Skya and Avery?” Killian asked.
“Quill is setting them up in a room, and my mom is helping pick out one for us,” Seri explained, before adding, “Uhh, while they still want me to refer to them as Mom, Avery is experimenting with their pronouns, and is currently going by they/them. They aren’t quite sure if it’s the right fit, but they didn’t exactly have a chance to explore growing up. ”
“Understood,” Cyrus stated. “I meant to call my parents before you all arrived, to let them know what was going on, but…we’ve been a bit busy.”
“Did you tell yours, Severo?” Ender asked, the Gorgon apparently done pouting.
He frowned when the Dweller didn’t say anything, and it deepened on noticing the man almost blankly staring at Ender.
“Fuck you're big,” Severo blurted after a few seconds had passed.
Ender let out a low threatening hiss, his fangs flashing, while the action and noise was echoed by the slithering snakes that were currently his hair.
“SEVERO!” Seri squawked in horror.
“Sorry! It just came out!” the Shadow Dweller sputtered. “It was between that and ‘that’s weird’, and for some reason, my brain went with, well, what I did.”
Killian scoffed. “You do tend to make stupid decisions when you're sleep deprived.”
“Hey!” the Cryptid huffed, before his mouth pursed and he mused, “Have to say, I’m curious as to why you are in your Gorgon form. Ignoring the fact you are sitting in a giant nest, I’ve rarely seen it unless you were terrorizing someone.”
Ender glared at Severo at the accusation. “I do not terrorize people!”
His glare pointed Cyrus’ way when the Fate uttered, “Bullshit,” under his breath.
The man just smiled.
Huffing, he looked back at the Dweller. “I’m due soon, and I’ve been put on nest rest. It’s better that I already be shifted when the time comes, over having to shift while in labor.”
Severo nodded. “Ah, that explains it.”
“Your snakes are pretty,” Seri complimented sweetly.
“Thank you, Seri.” Ender chuckled. “Now, as I asked before, Severo, have you talked to your parents?”
The Shadow Dweller sighed. “I did. Seri made me.”
The Water Nymph hmphed. “Damn right, I did.”
“What did they say?” Cyrus asked.
“To keep going where we planned to go.”
Ender frowned at that. “Did they say anything else?”
“To update them if anything else happened, but for now, stay away and stay hidden.”
That could mean one of three things; they were planning something, they were gathering information before action, or they were waiting to see how far it would go before moving forward with any plan because Fates were involved.
As influential and powerful as Emiliano and Annabella Voli were, he supposed even they would have to walk carefully with the Grimms involved. The couple were likely pissed off, however.
Ender bit his lip as he thought on it further.
Things weren’t adding up. While he didn’t trust most Grimms, even as far as he could throw them, the fact was, what was happening at the North America Headquarters didn’t line up with how they usually operated.
At least not in an official capacity, and so out in the open.
“Cyrus, have you spoken to Etholus at all, since the start of this?”
The Fate grimaced when everyone looked at him in question. “He was the one I called when I went to quit. But the one who answered happens to be the person currently terrorizing the North American Headquarters, Brom Grimm. And I haven’t tried reaching my uncle again since.”
Once more, the name was drawing a curious blank in his mind, yet he was sure he recognized it in some capacity.
Again, it wasn’t as if he was drawing a blank because he knew nothing, it was more that the information was just not where it should be.
Which did concern him, as it wasn’t the only time this had happened recently.
I should talk to Soren about it.
Ender’s frown deepened when the thought brought a wave of dizziness, and just an urge to suddenly not do it.
The fuck… Something was obviously off here.
And whatever, or whoever, had done what they did to his brain, they did not want him digging.
So, of course, he was going to dig. But after he had these eggs, because if it was going to make him feel sick, he at least wanted his hormones to be normal first.
“So you haven’t spoken to him at all?” Severo mused.
Cyrus shook his head. “When I initially called, Brom informed me that Etholus was on an extended break, and that he was in charge now.”
“In charge now, or for now?” Ender pushed.
“I’m not sure which way he meant it. I did try my uncle’s private numbers before calling the office, but never got through.”
Severo groaned. “Then we can assume, everything that is happening, your great uncle, or whatever the heck he is to you, Etholus doesn’t know about it?”
A laugh forced its way out at that. “No, no, there is nothing that man doesn’t know.”
“If he knows, then why is he letting it happen?” Seri asked.
Cyrus sighed. “Likely for the same reason I said nothing about what I knew would happen to you…because the outcome is what he’d prefer to happen. The only question is…what outcome.”
That was one possible reason. But there were others that were a bit more concerning.
One being that the ancient Fate wasn’t sure what the best outcome was, so had decided to do nothing.
Or worse, that the outcome was horrible, no matter what he did, and Etholus was doing nothing over actively participating or putting in the effort it took to change it.
Their differences aside, and they definitely fucking had them, Ender knew Etholus, while often fair, could be a very all or nothing type of man.
When Seri yawned, with Severo following right after, he smiled and said, “Why don’t you two go get settled and get some sleep.
Later today or even tomorrow, I’ll have Toddles show you around.
It’s been a while since you’ve really been here, Severo, and it’s not like Seri really had the chance to look around the last time he was here. ”
Severo yawned again. “Sounds like a good plan.”
“Congratulations,” Seri said, before the Dweller prodded him out.
His smile widened at how sincere it was, and he murmured, “Thank you,” right before the door closed behind them.
Ender’s smile dropped a bit as he eyed the other two men when they came into his nest, his mind going straight to the conversation he’d overheard—well, more that he'd secretly listened in on. Feeling awkward or not, he didn’t protest when Cyrus pulled him onto his lap, with Killian cuddling against him, because they were warm.
In the Siren’s case, warmer than him at least.
Ender couldn’t help but tense when Killian asked, “Could you…tell us about them?”
While ‘them’ could literally mean anyone under the sun, he already knew who the Siren was asking about. Even so, he asked, “‘Them?’”
Killian cleared his throat awkwardly. “Your children…? Your husband…”
“Ah…” Ender swallowed. “Feel like digging, huh?”
Cyrus slowly ran a hand over his baby bump. “You don’t have to tell us anything, if you don’t want to.”
Sighing, Ender forced himself to relax in the Fate’s hold, and as detached as he could be, he summarized, “I met Cooper ‘Coop’ Imorus at eighteen. He was a Gorgon, and he’d moved into the valley earlier in the year.
I came across him while running. He was older, and I’ll admit, I was instantly infatuated with what one would consider back then a ‘city boy’.
My family, of course, hated his ass with a passion for those first few years.
“Ten years later, we married, and nearly a hundred and seventy years after that, after many failed attempts, we had our first child, Kovo. Kovo was an energetic—” Ender took a shuddered breath as tears started to fill his eyes against his will.
“—little boy, who never seemed to be able to sit still.
Five years after that…only a few months before exposure and the war started, I had Nyla.