Ink of Copper

60. In Which an Unlikely Answer Comes From an Unlikely Source

Chapter 60

In Which an Unlikely Answer Comes From an Unlikely Source

S everal days of tending to Callassa’s burns had passed. Ellie woke early and headed up the familiar stone staircase around the column. Passing the landing this morning, Liam was still asleep, his back to the wall, facing Callassa’s door. His wings wrapped themselves around him, arms tucked into his chest. He opened his eyes as she tiptoed by and watched her enter. Other mornings, he was up before her, waiting for Callassa to need him. Liam aged by the day, his face more ragged, more haggard, his eyes rimmed in dark circles. He held the look of worry and exhaustion like shields. Silence had been their only communication, mutual nods as she passed with her bowl and fresh bandages.

The tower wasn’t dark and dank like she would assume a prison to be. It was light, the stone bleached white by the sun.

After that first night, she put a protective shield in place, effectively keeping the prisoner from her captors. The only one who could cross it was Ellie, an ability she didn’t know she possessed. This meant she was the only one who could care for Callassa, which she took seriously. Every time she crossed the threshold, a tingle would go through her body, the oddest of sensations.

“There.” Ellie patted her wing as she wrapped the old bandages up in themselves.

Callassa grunted, still hoarse from smoke and screams.

“Do you need water? Or breakfast? What can I get you from downstairs?”

Sitting up, she sighed and shuffled her shoulders, causing her wings to ruffle as they fell off the opposite side of her single bed. They opened just enough that she hissed and tucked them back together. Her wounds were healing, and from the looks of things, Callassa wouldn’t have scars once her plumage grew back. From this angle, Ellie could see how impressive her wings were. She had thought they were all black, like a raven. But in the morning light, they were more intricate, more luminous. Streaks of auburn, deep blues, and purples ran the tips of each feather. Others had silvery-gray speckles that splashed across the plumes. Like the person they belonged to, the depths of colors were more complex than they let on.

“I would like water and something to eat if I’m allowed to have it.” She sat staring out the window as she spoke; whatever fight she had had been snuffed out.

She wanted to grab Callassa and run far away from here, far away from them. The image of her friend’s face when she learned Valerius betrayed her had played in her mind. Untangling the web of lies told over the last few weeks had Ellie desperate for home. She needed a plan out of the nightmare she found herself in. Ellie cleaned up the bandages and came around to face her. At first, Callassa refused to meet her gaze, but she flicked her eyes up after a few strained moments. They were cold and hard; gone was the warmth, the glimmer of sultry mischief. Dark-brown eyes, void of hope, met hers.

“Well?” she snapped, arching an eyebrow at her.

“I wanted to say again that I don’t blame you.”

Callassa only blinked.

“I know Valerius tricked you and—”

She moved through the air at an astonishing speed and collided with the stone wall behind her. Ellie wasn’t sure what happened until Callassa’s forearm landed across her clavicle, holding her shoulders to the wall. The stone was icy and unyielding, mirroring the dark-brown depths of anger.

“I don’t need your pity,” she snarled.

Ellie tried to shake her head, but pinned as she was, she could only roll it from side to side against the wall. “I’m not—I’m not pitying you. I’m trying to understand—”

Callassa shoved, making her whimper in pain from the biting stone.

“I don’t need a human to understand anything about me.” She shoved her once more and stepped back, keeping her deadly glare trained on Ellie, threatening to rip her apart for any perceived infraction. But it was all an act. Bravado she put on to shove away her friendship. Ellie knew she was trying to cut ties, to treat her as the men had the last few days, but she refused.

Ellie rubbed her chest. “I wasn’t trying to imply that I know your world. Valerius screwed you with that glass orb thingy, and I can—”

For the second time, she found herself pinned by an angry siren. Briefly, she wondered when she’d learn to keep her thoughts inside her head. The last few days, her words had earned her sore muscles on her back and a sore throat.

“You know nothing, human. Nothing.” Pounding her fist on the stone caused Ellie to flinch.

“I know that I should be pissed you sold me out to a dick with a golden cage,” Ellie spat back, anger taking over. “Did you know he would lock me up? Was that part of the bargain, Callassa?”

She bared her teeth, and Ellie noticed hers were fangless.

“Fuck you, human.”

“Same to you, siren.”

“Let her go.” Evander’s demand was soft, but not any less threatening.

“I don’t need saving.” Ellie scowled, rolling her eyes.

Callassa looked over her shoulder and released her grip.

“I’ll be back later,” she said, grabbing the bowl of bandages.

“Leave me alone.”

“No,” Ellie said.

“Leave me.”

“Make me. Be a bitch all you want, but I’m the only ally you have at the moment.”

Callassa said nothing in retaliation, but her clenched fists sent a distinct message.

“I’ll bring you up breakfast.” She left, slipping past the shield and enjoying the thrill of her magic.

“Like hell you will,” Evander huffed from the doorway; he moved to make room for her, and she sighed loudly.

The last few days were taking their toll. Maximus was spending more time running drills outside in the rain. Camulos had been obsessively pouring over Pandora’s book. Liam resolved himself to this tower, and Evander was hovering, and frankly, getting on her nerves. He knocked on her door every evening, but she refused to open it. She hadn’t locked it after that first night and he respected the door. Sort of. She had to maneuver around him every morning. She wasn’t in the mood to talk, and while she knew she would eventually need to hear him out, she also knew she needed the truth. The truth about Callassa needing an orb. The truth about Ann and who she was to him. The truth about why she was tangled in this web of the gods. And finally, the truth about Pandora and why she created this mess in the first place. If they were going to be locked in this house together, adrift on a raft of uncertainty, she would need answers. Or she could turn the men into pigs and live happily ever after. Frowning, she solidified that as plan B. They descended back down the tower steps in silence. When they reached the corridor to the kitchen, Ellie deposited her items in a little closet, leaving the salves and wraps to retrieve later, and headed through the archway, Evander at her elbow.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting breakfast for Callassa,” she said, her back to him as she put a tray together.

“Absolutely not.”

Ellie whirled glaring. “I do not need your permission, Evander.”

“You need to let one of us—”

“No. Y’all were the ones who locked her in that tower and locked me in this house. Is that all you men can do? Keep women in cages?”

They glared at each other as a kitchen maid scampered between them.

“We need to figure out what to do next,” he mumbled.

“No. You need to figure out what to do next. I’m doing whatever the hell I want while I’m a prisoner here.”

“You aren’t a prisoner, Ellie.”

She huffed and roughly grabbed a butter dish. “Sure feels like it. I have a warden outside my door every night, and I have to try not to trip over his giant-ass feet in the morning.” Her hands found her hips, and the storm outside picked up, thunder rumbling in the background.

“You needed me that first night.”

“I didn’t.”

“You did,” he insisted.

“All you see in me is helpless. I’m a project to you. You lied, Evander. You said you love me, but you failed to mention your wife. That died. You let me go on and on about Penn and never once did you mention her. I’m an idiot for sleeping with you.”

He took in a long, steadying breath, and his green eyes filled with pain as he fixated on her face. Pain at her words or his actions, she couldn’t tell. “I didn’t lie about how I feel about you. I didn’t say it to get you into bed. I’m in love with you. Desperately. I have been since the moment you kissed me. When the storm started, I knew it was you, and I went to your room. I could hear your scattered breathing, your heartbeat slamming into your chest. He hurt you, Ellie. You came back bruised; your hands, your shoulder.” His gaze slid to the now yellow outline of Valerius’ hand on her neck. “You needed me and wouldn’t let me in, so I sat outside your room. I wasn’t going to leave you alone and afraid and hurt.”

“Like you hurt Ann?” Lightning lit the kitchen in a silvery glow.

He clenched his jaw, the muscle bouncing out of control.

“That isn’t what happened,” he growled low. His hand ruffled his hair and dragged down his face. “It doesn’t rain on Olympus, Ellie.” Changing the subject as thunder rocked the house. “It has rained every day since you’ve been home.”

“This isn’t my home,” she snarled, stepping to him and raising her hand. Movement out of the corner of her eye caused her to jerk her head. “Don’t worry, Cam. I’ll only shock him.”

“Do it.” Evander challenged, stepping to her. “Do it.”

He unlaced his tunic and bared his warrior mark to her, smacking his chest with his fist. “Do it. Aim right here, for my heart. If you’re going to kill me with magic, Ellie, do it right.”

Breathing hard at his insistence, a spark jolted out from between her fingers, a warning, calling his bluff, hoping he’d back down. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her to him, placing her palm on his skin. His thumb swept back and forth across the back of her knuckles as he glared. Ellie narrowed her eyes, raising her chin. A dance of wills and stubborn pride. She snatched her hand back.

“Let the servants take her breakfast.”

“Do you think you can just order me to do whatever you want, and I’ll hop to it like a little bunny?” The annoyance muscle in his jaw bounced like a trampoline. Ellie pointed her finger at him. “You have no leg to stand on here. You do not give me orders, and I sure as hell don’t have to follow them. I’m getting Callassa breakfast. I’ll bring it to her. I’ll dress her wounds, and then . . .”

Finding his voice, Evander said, “And then what?”

Tray in hand, she pursed her lips together. “Stay the hell away from you.” She marched past him and up the kitchen stairs.

“Let her go,” Camulos said from the other side of the bustling kitchen. He came around the island, watching Ellie’s retreating form. His voice sounded as strained and tired as everyone else.

“You should have let me beat the shit out of Valerius, Cam. I want to fucking rip him wing-from-wing. That half-breed dickhead had his hand around her neck enough to leave a bruise.”

Cam’s large shoulders shrugged. “Yes, you’re right. I should have let you go off, half-cocked, to fight a demigod. What a bastard I am.”

Evander snorted through his nose in defeat. Camulos was right, of course. Going after Valerius was stupid and could land him in a deal he couldn’t escape.

“Arsehole,” he tossed out, and Cam shot him a look. “I can’t understand how she can believe Valerius and his damn lies. She has given me no opportunity to explain.”

“Why did you keep it from her in the first place?”

Shrugging, he shook his head in defeat. “Because she was only supposed to be here for a fortnight. What was the point of telling her everything about my past when I couldn’t choose her in the end? I selfishly wanted her to only know the man I am now, not what I was back then. She’s being so stubborn.”

“So are you.”

He eyed Camulos. Then nodded in agreement.

“What could you possibly gain from being angry with Liam?” He folded his arms over his chest and rested his hip on the table.

“That’s different, Cam, and you know it.”

“Do I? Seems to me you both fell in love with these women. You both are hurting because they are hurting, but neither of you will cross to the other side and extend an olive branch. You need each other, Evander.”

“She’s a siren, Camulos.”

“I’m well aware of what she is. But is that the worst thing a person could be?”

“Leave me alone.” Callassa hadn’t turned around when she entered her room. Again.

She refused to get drawn in and rebuild the bridge. The moment she made a deal with Valerius, she burned it, struck the match, and set it ablaze. The very second she gave the message to Aro she had severed ties. She needed to get out of this place, this tower, and run. She hated seeing Liam every time the door opened; his presence loomed over her as much as the dark clouds outside. He hadn’t said anything to her, hadn’t asked questions. Liam alone in the hall, wordless, brooding, and broken; it was killing her to see her mate dealing with the carnage of her betrayal. Ellie shuffled her feet.

“Are you going to continue annoying me?” She walked over and picked up a scone from the tray, and her heart squeezed. How many days had they spent in each other’s company, a bond between them? And now Ellie refused to let her be swallowed up by the darkness on the edges of her soul. Being around Ellie, Liam, Evander, hell, even Cam and Maximus made her forget how lonely she had been for centuries. They had laughed together at meals. Dominoes in the evening as Liam bantered and teased Evander. Ellie giggling, joining in. The light from the chandeliers bathed them in the glow of simple friendship. All the evenings, leaning against the windowpane as Ellie crocheted, a silence between them that was easy and light. She had felt at home here. Ellie was everything good, the light in her darkness. Then she had taken a bomb and thrown it in the middle of their friendship, igniting the world around them as it exploded. So, here she stayed, imprisoned in Maximus’ tower. There was a beautiful symmetry to it. When she was queen, the senators kept her locked away in the silver towers. Different tower, same prison. As if it was her destiny to spend her life trapped.

“I think I have a way for us to escape.”

Callassa shook her head, a crease forming along her forehead, her full lips in a thin line. “Out of the question.”

Ellie blinked. “I think I can get us out of here. Don’t you want to get away from all this? From them?”

“No.”

To escape would mean bringing the four warriors’ wrath down on her. Not to mention the legion they belonged to, which included Apollo’s centurions. Her rebellion on her island had taught her that escape never meant freedom. Running with the Celestial Legion after her was a suicide mission. If she wanted that, she’d return to her court and let the guards capture her. A voice boomed, cutting into her thoughts.

“I want answers, siren.” Maximus angry was a sight to behold. “I’m tired of waiting. What were your orders from Valerius? How long have you been working with him? Answer me!”

“I would, but you leave me no way to answer when you rattle rapid-fire questions.” She was unfazed by his temper.

“Don’t be smart with me, siren. Give me one good reason not to gut you for your betrayal. For handing over the human in our protection and lying about your species.”

“For starters, I exchanged her.”

“The human has a name, Max,” Ellie chimed in, earning her a look from Callassa.

Forgetting the shield, Maximus slammed into it with such force the room rattled.

“Ellie!” he snarled. “Ellie. Take down this protection.”

Ellie crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”

“Ellie!” His voice rose in volume as it deepened.

“I won’t let you hurt her. You want Callassa? You’ll have to go through me.”

Liam had risen and was yelling at Max just outside the door.

“Why are you protecting me?” Callassa asked as she came to stand beside her.

“Because you need protecting.”

“I don’t.” She huffed, annoyed at the stupid human and her idiot feelings.

Ellie turned to face her. “You protected me. You could have left me there. When Valerius pushed me out of the cage, you could have come for me, could have attacked me, you could have killed me, but you didn’t. You attacked him. You knew the warriors weren’t coming and came back for me.”

Callassa shook her head and sighed loudly. “They weren’t coming because I betrayed you, Ellie. Hell, I betrayed everyone.”

“I could hear your voice in my head. I don’t know how, but I heard you say your real name.” Her sharp gray eyes studied her.

She shrugged one shoulder, playing it off. From every corner of Valerius’ throne room, she had watched the umbramortis magic flow. She wasn’t aware Ellie could tap into that type of dark magic. The Shadow Realm was unpredictable and void, unlike anywhere on Olympus. The tendrils crawled their way up her friend, and she knew she had to do something drastic. And so, she did the one thing that would have Ellie focusing on her, pulling her out of trying to wield gaia in a place as unstable as the Shadow Realm. It had worked; her magic flowed through her as the dark magic flowed out. She couldn’t let Ellie pull the darkness in with her goodness, couldn’t let her become consumed by the death and shadows. Couldn’t let her become like her.

“I could hear you, Callassa.”

“Hear me?” she played dumb.

“Yes. Your voice. I heard you. I heard you say my name, and I heard you were sorry. My head filled with memories, your memories. I saw places only you would know.” She put a hand to her mouth. “Your mother in a field; the sun shone on her face as she swung you around. Her hair was dark and flowing like yours, but much longer.”

Callassa stopped breathing, her eyes wide in pain. Her mother, her beautiful mother, she hadn’t seen her since the night of her coronation.

Ellie continued. “I saw the four towers. White stone towers reached high into the sky; below them, a garden, and above them, a net. Oh, a net, so you can’t fly away. You’re trapped there too—a prisoner. Your people have locked you away. You—you are sitting on a wide throne. There’s a crown on your head.” She gestured wildly as if she couldn’t help herself, as Callassa’s memories were breaking free. “Callassa, you’re a queen.”

Quickly, she shielded them from the men. She couldn’t risk anyone hearing Ellie.

“I’m not a queen. Not anymore.”

“You have a crown. A crown of sapphires and some green I have never seen before.”

“Malachite,” she whispered.

Her gray eyes were red, rimmed with tears as drops slipped past their borders.

“You have endured so much pain.” Her voice was trembling. “Your senators tortured you, used you. You were—oh god, Callassa—you took their place. When you took the throne, you shielded your people, becoming the only thing between them and the gods. You protected your females by letting the gods use you as a weapon. Zaphine! She’s so cruel to you. The ones in the castle betrayed you.” Her red-rimmed eyes flicked down to the gold cuffs that now seared into Callassa’s wrists.

“Aerelia,” she breathed.

“Ellie, stop.”

“Aerelia. Your senators traded you to Aerelia.”

“Ellie, stop, please,” Callassa begged, tears gliding across her cheeks. The pain of centuries of torture, of protecting the weaker sirens of her Congress, of having to commit unspeakable offenses in the name of duty, the sting of being a queen without liberty, came tumbling into the room.

“They used you.”

Callassa grabbed Ellie’s other hand, squeezing as she pleaded with her to stop talking. The men insulted each other on one side of her as her memories tumbled out.

“Please, stop. No more.”

The grief of what she had to endure all these years became too much for Ellie. She crumpled, hyperventilating, her face void of all color.

“They killed her. Your friend. They killed her right in front of you. You were—oh god”—she gasped—“raped. You were hurt and beaten and afraid. For so long, you’ve been afraid. And Zaphine kept choosing you, kept forcing you. You have not had a choice since they placed the crown on your head. They stole everything from you.”

Deep male voices yelling caused a crescendo of noise around them. Something slashed through Ellie, forcing her to snap upright.

“The mark! The mark.”

Callassa moved before Ellie had a chance to say anything else. She clamped her hand over her mouth and shook her.

“Look at me, Ellie. Ellie.” Her voice rose above the commotion outside the door. “Ellie. Stop.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she blinked twice.

Thump!

Both women jumped in unison.

“You bitch!” Maximus roared at them, slamming his body into the shield. And then he was gone. He flew, feathers and leather, as Liam grabbed him and rammed into the opposite wall.

“Get away from her!” The snarl that tore through him was primitive and ancient. Callassa didn’t know what to panic over first: Maximus and his anger, Ellie and her memories, or Liam. With his wings unfurled, her mate’s imposing frame now blocked the doorway to her little room.

“What happened?” Ellie’s eyes were wide as she looked over Callassa’s shoulder.

“What happened?”

The sound of Liam and Maximus arguing filled her prison and bounced off the stone walls, crashing into her. Words flying between them harsh and unyielding, as if they were throwing punches in a ring. Callassa closed her eyes, finding her peace in this storm of chaos.

“I—I . . . Your memories. Your memories are in my head.”

Callassa nodded, hopeful now that she wouldn’t reveal her secrets.

“Why are they in my head?”

“I put them there.”

The men moved just beyond her peripheral, but it was soft and flowing, like seeing them from underwater. She could hear them, their voices muffled. Ellie watched, confusion written on her face.

“Are you doing this?”

“I had to stop you; the only way I knew how was to cloak us from them,” she confessed. Callassa lowered herself so they were eye to eye.

“Do not mention the mated mark, Ellie.” Her face was grave, her lips pursed in a tight line. “They can’t know. Do not mention my mark, please. Do you understand?”

She nodded, and Callassa felt like she could breathe for the first time since her memories overcame Ellie like a swollen river. She lowered the cloak, and the sound of the men slammed back into them. They were growling and hissing at each other, mixed with insults.

“Come out and face me, siren!” Maximus called over Liam’s impressive shoulder. He turned his murderous gaze to his man. “How dare you choose that whore over your company, Liam!”

Maximus was spitting out insults like he was throwing daggers, trying to wound and injure, but Liam didn’t budge. He stood, guarding her doorway, a winged sentry, refusing to back down to his leader. Ellie walked to the doorway, and Liam moved just enough that she had to duck under his wing. She brushed feathers off her forehead and stood alongside him. Her mate and her friend, the only ones in this tower to take up for her, unified in their stare-down of the leader of the company.

“I won’t let you hurt her, Maximus. You or anyone else. Never again.”

If Callassa could, she would have wrapped her arms around them. No one, not a single person in all these centuries, had protected her since she became queen. Seeing Liam, whose frame imposed the space the door occupied, and Ellie, coming up to his bicep, refusing to back down—a Doberman and house cat fighting for the same cause—filled her with something she had never felt before.

Hope.

She watched as Ellie stepped forward. Only seeing a sliver over Liam’s shoulder, she could have sworn Max retreated.

“Touch her, and I’ll kill you myself,” Ellie snarled.

She stormed past him and down the stairs, Max close behind, railing as he went. The quiet that followed almost suffocated her. She slumped into the chair in the corner, her head in her hands.

“What mark?”

His voice sent chills down her spine. She desperately wanted to run to him. Tell Liam everything and beg him to accept her as his mate. But she stayed seated, threading her fingers together, and looked up at the open door.

Liam’s face drooped, dark circles rimming his eyes. His hair was disheveled, sticking up in every which direction. A dark, ugly bruise lined his handsome face. Callassa shook her head.

He picked something imaginary off the frame and leaned against it. “I see. Like so many of your secrets, you’ll keep it to yourself.”

“Liam, I’m—” But she didn’t know how to finish that sentence.

“I trusted you, Syr—Callassa. You are special to me. Do you think I care you’re a siren?” He looked so hurt and confused that she had to will herself to stay in the seat.

“Was anything I felt for you real? Was anything you felt for me? Was I only a means to get what you wanted?”

She stared at the floor. “No. None of it was real.”

“I don’t believe that.”

She shot her head up.

“I haven’t left this spot.” He pointed behind him to the makeshift bed on the stone floor. “I have laid here night after night, day after day, waiting for you to look at me. Waiting for you to see me.”

Her lip trembled. He sounded so genuine that she wanted to believe him. She had played a dangerous game all those weeks ago on the ship. Played for freedom, rolling the dice for her people. She had played, and he had lost.

“My heart ripped out of my chest, a chuisle, seeing you on the floor of the throne room, burned and lifeless. I wanted to tear Valerius’ throat clean out for what he did to you. I have been going mad, gutted, out of my mind waiting for you to see me. I feel like someone has been taking my very breath away, like I have been gasping for air for days. And now you sit there, refusing to look at me. I came close to ripping Maximus apart for how he speaks to you. I am at war with my deartháir —over you.” He leveled his gaze at her. After several breaths of silence passed between them, he spoke.

“What mark?”

Callassa gathered her strength. Telling him would be the final nail in the coffin. How Liam would look at her once he knew they were mates would rip her heart from her chest. He would finally see what everyone else did, that she was a whore trained for one purpose. She didn’t deserve to be mated to anyone. She earned the death she would get when she left this tower and walked back into her court. After this, she would welcome it. She would tell him the truth and break the last remaining tether between them, setting him free and condemning herself. With shaky hands, she lifted the edge of the chiton and turned her ankle so he could see. She swallowed against the lump of fear in her throat.

“Mated mark.” Her voice was a whisper in the deafening quiet. “I’m mated to you, Liam.” Her eyes on the floor, she couldn’t bring herself to look at him, bracing for the insults she was sure he’d hurl at her. “You are forever linked with me. I know—I know it’s not what you want. I will set you free.”

Silence.

Silence seemed to stretch for miles between them, her ears ringing in the emptiness. When she looked up, his face remained stoic, watching her every move. His once lively schoolboy charm now dulled under the weight of the last few days. Callassa watched him breathe as if relieved, his face softening by degrees. Her eyes followed his hands as he reached the edge of his tunic. He unlaced the ties and pulled it down over his mark; the one Athena had given him. He placed his hand over the tattoo, over his heart, and began slowly running it down the emblem. As he did, tiny changes crept into the ink. Filagree twisted, vines intertwined, and as he reached the bottom of the crest, two swords identical to the ones on Callassa’s leg appeared. Revealing the one thing she never thought possible.

The world stopped spinning.

“No need to break the bond, anamchara . You are forever linked with me as well. My beautiful mate.”