As we dipped below the waves, I saw Quinn momentarily panic, and then force himself to keep breathing. The sea nymph leaned over to him and said something softly, and he seemed to stand up taller. I smirked. He was like a peacock. I would have to tease him about the sea nymph later, payback for all of the teasing I took about my husband.
At that moment, I felt a pang. As much as I enjoyed being with Quinn, I much rather would have had Brennan here with me. I disliked being away from him, and I knew he would be amazed by this experience. He was just as new to this world, really, as my New Guardians were, and everything was novel and amazing to him. It made me feel young again, to be with him.
And I spent far too much time away from him. I suppressed a sigh. On the other hand, I wanted him to be safe, which meant keeping him out of immortal affairs as much as possible. He has already been targeted by immortals, back when he was involved with Mollis, and I did not want him to go through that again. Ever. I knew he would, in a heartbeat, if he thought it would keep me safe or save me from pain, but the idea of him coming to harm hurt me more than anything else could.
So, yes, maybe it was better that he was not here with me now. Someday, I would show him the realm of the sea gods.
I glanced at the stunning nymph beside me. Maybe with fewer nymphs around, though. There were some minor male sea gods who could do the same thing the sea nymphs could. I would ask one of them to escort us, maybe.
We reached the depths of the sea, an area that mortals would see as a gloomy place where nothing but fish and seaweed resided. Once we passed a certain threshold, however, it was clear that it was so much more. There was an enormous bed of seaweed in front of us, feathery fronds reaching up maybe fifty feet or so from the floor of the sea. As we approached, a section of the seaweed parted, like a curtain, and the sea nymph led us through.
I heard Quinn gasp, and the sea nymph giggled. It was stunning, so I could hardly blame him. A palace rose before us, the same color of the white sandy beach we’d just come from. It towered there amid lush gardens of sea plants and coral, delicate arches and curves giving it a sinuous look that evoked the movement of the waves. Nymphs flitted here and there in the palace gardens, walking together or lounging on intricately carved stone benches.
“Coming through,” a gruff voice said, and the sea nymph pulled us to the side. A large, white, submarine-shaped wagon floated past us, pulled by a team of hippocampi, and Quinn stared after it.
“Every time I think nothing about this job will surprise me, something does,” he said. I smiled, watching the wagon pass, and we continued on toward the palace. Among the sea nymphs in the courtyard, other sea creatures roamed, including several minor sea gods I recognized. I nodded at those I knew, returned greetings to those who called to me. Amphitrite, Poseidon’s wife, was walking with a retinue of nymphs and a few of the lesser sea gods, and she came to a stop when our groups met on the path toward the palace.
“Guardian,” she said in greeting. “Guardians,” she corrected herself, nodding at Quinn.
“It is nice to see you Amphitrite,” I said. “How fares the sea?”
“Glorious and turbulent as ever,” she answered. “You come to see the sea god?”
I nodded. “I have questions.”
She looked uncomfortable. “I thought it would take longer for the rest of you to hear that Triton had returned.”
I tried to hide my surprise. “He is here? When did he get back?” I asked. As far as any of us had known, he was hiding from his father as well, knowing that Poseidon’s wrath over Triton’s betrayal of one of our own would be great.
“Two tides ago. I know he has things to answer for. He has not told us anything, refuses to talk about anything that has happened in relation to you or the Death Goddess. Please, Guardian, be merciful. Ask your Queen to be merciful as well.”
I studied Amphitrite. I liked the Sea Queen. “We are never needlessly hurtful,” I told her. “Our punishment is always equal to the sin.”
“So you say. But this is personal, and sometimes, the personal magnifies the sin. I just ask you to keep this in mind.”
“I do not let my personal feelings interfere with my work,” I said.
She gave a small smile. “I like how you pretend to be above pettiness, Guardian.”
“I do not need to pretend. I am what I am,” I told her. “He will be dealt with fairly.”
She just gave me a look. “Maybe so. You always were a strange one.”
I kept my face blank. Amphitrite gave me a small nod and continued on her way. We started walking again as well, and I glanced over at Quinn to see him fuming.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him.
He glanced at the nymph. “I don’t like the way some people treat you.”
“What?”
“That whole ‘you’re so odd’ thing. You’re a fucking Guardian. They act like it’s weird that we can separate our feelings from what we do. I never would have thought it possible, but since I’ve been doing this, I’ve been finding it easy to do that, to keep my emotions locked aside and deal with the task at hand without having any feelings or judgment about it either away. And I’ve seen some fucked up shit since I started,” he said.
“I know.”
“I mean, it doesn’t make us less, that we don’t feel things when we see this shit. We do our job. We’re fucking professionals,” he said, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the indignant tone. “We get our hands dirty every day, we work for days, weeks on end, doing the things no one else wants to do, and what do we get? ‘Oh, the Nether immortals are so strange, so morbid, so alien,’” he said, a mimicking tone to his voice. “Let them do this shit for even one day and see how they handle it,” he seethed.
The nymph and I exchanged a glance.
“For what it’s worth, I think the Nether gods are absolute badasses,” she said to Quinn. He threw her a grin. “I’m not just saying that. I dated a demon for a little while.”
“Oh, you just like bad boys, then,” Quinn teased.
“No. It didn’t work out. Demons are too… demonic,” she said. “Scary, for real. I can see why they make such good guards, but being involved with one isn’t something I think most beings can handle. The things they want sometimes…” she trailed off, shuddering. “But the gods of the Nether, the Guardians, the Furies, the Goddess of Death herself… such badasses. I mean, she rules over demons, and demons scare most of us to tears,” she said with a laugh.
Quinn grinned. “Demons aren’t so bad. But yeah, I wouldn’t want to date one.”
Alithera smiled at Quinn, and I looked away. I could see where this was going. I only hoped Quinn had the stamina to keep up with a sea nymph. If nothing else, he would be exhausted but happy. Many of the sea nymphs kept multiple partners. Alithera, from what I knew, was a one-male type of nymph, but it meant that her male usually took hard use, and from what I knew, she had not paired with anyone in decades, after her last lover had passed away. She’d loved him well into his old age, and they had been happy. I glanced over at the two of them again, Alithera speaking softly to Quinn as they walked. She seemed to like them bulky and bearded, I thought, remembering her old partner. Not a bad combination, overall.
We walked through the swirling white gates of the palace. Guards lined the main corridor, mermen, every one. In this place, in their realm, Poseidon and Triton would be in this form as well, the torso of a man and lower half of a fish. Amphitrite was usually the same, but she enjoyed walking with her sea nymphs, who had legs, so she usually forewent that form unless she was traveling great distances.
“Wait here a moment,” Alithera said to us when we reached the large gilded doors that led into Poseidon’s throne room. An instant later, the doors opened again and she waved us through.
“He was expecting you,” she explained. I nodded my thanks and walked into the throne room. It was magnificent, its white walls soaring so high that I nearly lost sight the top, the glint of sea and sky at the pinnacle
of the central dome. Rows of white stone benches lined the room, where petitioners to the Sea King would normally be seated, waiting to speak to their ruler or his representative. We took a few steps into the room. Poseidon sat on his gilded throne, tail waving a bit as he waited for us. My steps faltered when Triton walked into the room from a side doorway. He glanced toward me, then stood beside his father’s throne.
“Guardians, you are welcome here,” Poseidon said in greeting. “The Sea embraces you, as do I.”
I bowed to Poseidon, and, beside me, Quinn did the same.
“My thanks, your Highness,” I said.
“Rise, Eunomia,” he said, and I did. “I can guess why you are here. May I ask, though, how you knew he was back already?”
I kept my eyes away from Triton. I could not look at him. It just hurt too much, remembering that moment, the moment I knew he’d betrayed me and left me to die.
“In all honesty, we did not know he was here. I came to ask you if you had any new information about his whereabouts, since he was seen on land recently, near water. Near my home,” I added with a hard glance at Triton. “It was just luck that he is back here now as well.”
Poseidon nodded. “He has told me nothing. If he had, I would have told you,” he said, giving his son a disappointed look. “It is not our way to involve ourselves in the politics and ridiculousness of the other immortals.”
“I know that, your Highness,” I said softly. “I have so many questions.”
Poseidon’s kind blue eyes studied me. “Ask him whatever you need, Guardian. I hope he has the sense to answer you. I apologize for my family’s involvement in this mess.”
“Thank you,” I said. I took a breath and forced myself to look at Triton. It was a little alarming, the change in him. He was much thinner than he had been. He looked exhausted, haunted. Ashamed. Yet he met my gaze, seeming to understand that he owed me that much, at the very least.
I had so many questions. But one automatically leapt to my lips.
“Why?” I asked him, and I was pleased that despite how much it hurt, my voice remained calm, unwavering.
He closed his eyes, and when he opened him again, there was a sheen of moisture. “I’m sorry, Eunomia. You have to know that. I’m sorry. I hate that you were hurt. It killed me to do it.”
I forced myself to go cold. To be businesslike. “Then the question remains: why? Why did you lead me into that trap? Why did you leave me for dead? Why were you in London, near my home, and why did you not help Lethe when she was attacked by the undead?”
“Lethe? Is she all right?” Poseidon asked.
“She is weak, and tired, and she claims she was coming to tell me something, something important, but she cannot remember what it was.”
Triton looked at me in surprise. “I thought I stopped it before she could be compromised,” he said.
“What do you mean, you thought you stopped it?” Quinn asked at the same moment I asked, “what do you mean, compromised?” Quinn’s arms were crossed over his chest, and I knew he was more than tempted to reach for the Netherblade at his waist.
Triton glanced at him, then brought his gaze back to me. “I knew Lethe was going to be tampered with before she could reach you. I heard them planning it. I promised myself, when you made it out of that insanity in Whitechapel, that I would do whatever it took to prevent them from hurting you more. So I went to London and interrupted them when they were messing with Lethe’s mind.”
“Who? Who was tampering with her mind?” I asked him evenly.
He clamped his mouth shut and gave me a helpless look. Poseidon gave me an apologetic glance, but he did not seem surprised.
“Come on, boy,” Poseidon growled. “She came all this way. She’s always been a friend to us. Tell her!”
Triton just continued to give us that helpless look.
I studied him. “Is it that you won’t tell us, or that you can’t?”
“Can’t,” he said, and it sounded like he was in pain.
“Do you know who it is?”
He shook his head. “They did something to me. I know things they’ve planned. I know I’ve talked to them. I know I’ve probably seen them. But I can’t remember and anything I want to try to tell anyone, it’s like I can’t… like I can’t get the words out,” he finished.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me this?” Poseidon demanded.
“You never asked,” Triton said quietly.
“I can have one of the Furies look into his mind,” I said to Poseidon
“No!” Triton said, voice raised. I turned back to him. He had a wild, terrified look in his eyes, and he was holding his hands up as if he hoped to physically stop the idea before it went any further. His fear set me on edge, even more than I already had been. I drew my hands into fists, and then slowly, deliberately released, as if letting the tension go. Sometimes, that worked. This time, it only wanted to make me draw my hands into fists again and then hit something.
“Triton,” I began.
“Look, there’s not much I won’t do for you. You have to know this, despite what happened. Thousands of years, Eunomia,” he said forcefully. “Thousands of years, we were friends. I told you everything. There were no secrets.”
“Well, that is a lie,” I muttered.
He had been about to say something, but he stopped and his head jerked as if I’d slapped him.
“We weren’t friends?” he asked, confused.
“There were secrets. Even among friends.”
“So you kept things from me?”
“Not me, you idiot,” I said, and Poseidon made a sound that either signified annoyance or amusement. Possibly both.
“Me?”
“You are the only other possibility, yes.”
“What did I keep from you?”
My mind flashed back. Giggles, frenzied motions, moans of pleasure I should not have heard. The stupidly adolescent sense of betrayal I had once felt at the life he lived when he was not with me. “Nothing,” I said.
He studied me. “I don’t know what this is.”
“This is me, saying I do not trust you. I did, once, maybe even when I should not have. But this? This is a whole different level of betrayal, and you refuse to let me find out what or who is behind it. How else do you expect me to respond?”
“Like someone who’s known me forever, maybe?” he said, clearly irritated. He moved across his father’s dais, and then back again. “I’d never lie to you about anything important,” he finally amended.
“Then help me with this. This is bigger than you. It is bigger than me. And it is very likely that you are the only one who can help us figure out who is behind all of this so we can have a chance of stopping it.”
He gave me a look of such helpless misery that I almost felt sorry for him. “I’m sorry, Eunomia. It’s not that simple. If I could do what you’re asking, I would.”
“You know we’d protect you, son,” Poseidon said. “And I don’t doubt that Eunomia and her Queen would offer their protection as well.”
I nodded, watching Triton, who just gave another miserable shake of his head.
“I can’t.”
Poseidon and I exchanged a glance. I knew Triton well enough to know that not only would he help us if he could, but also that he was ridiculously stubborn when he wanted to be. Quinn stood, still as stone beside me, and I knew that it was his way of not making some kind of outburst or, more likely of late, pummeling Triton. We were all tired and utterly stressed out. He was not always the most docile person I had ever known, and the situation we were in seemed to make his temper shorter the longer it went on. I turned and met his eyes for a moment, and gave a brief, annoyed shake of his head.
“Well. If you decide to change your mind, perhaps, and do the right thing, I am not at all difficult to find,” I said to Triton. Then I turned my attention to the Sea King. “Thank you for your assistance and hospitality,” I told him, bowing. Quinn followed my lead, bowing to Poseidon as we
ll, and then we turned and walked out of the palace, escorted by a few of the guards that had been standing by.
“That was a waste of time,” Quinn muttered as we left the palace.
“Not entirely.”
“No?”
“No. We know for sure now that he knows something. We know it’s a ‘they’ involved. More than one being is behind this. We know that Triton is scared to death of something, and despite everything, I have never known him to be a coward.”
“If he wasn’t a coward, he would have let one of the Furies look at him,” Quinn said. We were making our way toward the surface now. Everything was getting lighter, and the water above us was like looking through the glass you sometimes see in what humans consider to be “old” houses: wavy, distorting what was beyond, but letting pure bright sunlight through. Our merman guards were silent. I did not doubt they would repeat anything we said to Poseidon, and in this case, it was fine. If Poseidon knew that I was at least trying to understand it from Triton’s point of view, I could likely count on him to continue to try to persuade his son to help us. Not that I was placing much hope on that. As with most things, I would have to try to find a way to figure this out for myself.
Chapter Four
Quinn and I parted ways. He went to check in with the other New Guardians, while I found myself standing atop a cliff I’d once known well, where a temple to Hades had stood. There were still remains of it, broken columns, pieces of what were possibly fallen cornices and parts of what had been elaborately-carved friezes. Grasses and weeds wove between the ancient stones, stones that I well-remembered new, shining, a marvel to all who saw them. I scuffled my foot, stirring the dust among the ruins. This place was useless to just about everyone, including us. Humans could no longer get to it unless they were flown in, and my kind… well. My kind had never especially seen the point in a temple to Hades. All would see Hades eventually, whether they believed in him or not.
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