by Addison Fox
“I have no regard for you.”
Ilsa ignored the remark, but it stung. Way down deep, it stung. “Fine. But know that I have a very high regard for Kane. And my only priority is keeping him safe.”
Her sister’s eyes narrowed, but her tone softened. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to see the sorcerer who put the curse on Kane.”
Callie’s eyes widened at that. “You know who he is?”
“Yes.”
“And you think you’re going alone?”
“I am absolutely going alone. Kane’s weaker than he wants to admit and no one here cares what happens to me. I need to take care of this on my own and I won’t drag others into it.”
“Kane will be mad.”
Ilsa sighed. Callie was right. No matter how much she wanted to deny it or believe she could talk her way out of it, Kane would be mad when he found out.
It was a risk she was willing to take to keep him safe.
Emmett looked around the small café. He had no desire to be here—and he didn’t want a fucking latte—but he sat still and waited. Nemesis’s message had been clear about that.
She slid into the booth opposite him, her hair windblown and her eyes bright.
“You’re looking well, Goddess.”
“As are you, Emmett. Thank you.”
Polite niceties out of the way, he nodded. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes. I know we haven’t seen each other in a while and I wanted to address our arrangement.”
There it was. The moment he was waiting for.
“Yes. Go on.”
“I fear the original agreement can no longer be upheld.”
He deliberately arched one eyebrow, but kept his tone neutral. “And what has changed your mind?”
“My reasons for vengeance have changed. The assumptions I operated under when we made our agreement are no longer valid. Basically, my needs have changed. Surely you can appreciate a woman’s right to change her mind.”
“Actually”—he leaned forward across the table, reaching for her hand and covering it with his own—“I can’t.”
“I had suspected as much. Which is why I’m prepared to make you a deal. I do understand your plans are equally important to you. But I believe I have an alternative you might appreciate.”
Emmett did have to give her credit. At least she arrived with a bargaining chip.
Or what she thought of as a bargaining chip.
“Tell me more.”
“When you suggested a bargain between us, your rationale included a way to get back at Themis. I no longer require that. I’ve decided to approach the goddess a bit differently in my quest to resolve our differences.”
Ah, so his little Nemesis had been busy. Just as he suspected.
“You do realize my reasons for approaching you last year haven’t changed.”
“Yes. Your desire to capture an immortal.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m proposing a trade, actually. So you can still get what you want.”
“A trade? I’m not sure that will work. Themis’s Warriors are fine specimens. They are the immortals I am most interested in.”
“I understand that. But surely, after your review of the Pantheon, you understand they’re not gods.”
Emmett gave her a slight nod, unwilling to look too eager, but his interest was definitely engaged. What was she driving at?
Although he was quite certain he wasn’t interested in whatever it was she was peddling, Emmett couldn’t stop the curiosity. If anything, the one skill he’d always had in spades was his enterprising nature. If there was something better she could offer, perhaps he’d been too hasty to simply demand a Warrior.
“Yes, Nemesis. I’m aware of that.”
“I’m prepared to offer you a god in place of a Warrior.”
“And who would that be?”
“You can have me instead.”
“She went where?” Kane turned his head in the direction of Callie’s voice, watching her from his position on the weight bench.
Although it galled him to admit it, he was grateful for the reprieve. The poison was doing a number on him this morning, using his hangover and the decreasing time until the Antares zenith to tighten each of his muscles into long, inflexible ropes.
“To see the sorcerer.”
“Callie. I know you don’t like Ilsa, but this is a bit much.”
Storm clouds filled her eyes as she marched forward. “Just because I don’t like her does not mean I’m lying to you. I’ve spent the last hour trying to figure out how to tell you.”
Kane wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat up. “How the hell would Ilsa know how to find the sorcerer?”
“She claims to know where he is.”
Well, didn’t that just beat all?
How was it possible Ilsa knew where to find the sorcerer who cursed him? He and his brothers had searched for the man for years—and they still had no leads.
“What did she say? What exactly did she say?”
“That this didn’t concern you and that she’d take care of it.”
Damn it!
How did the infernal woman manage to build him up one moment only to emasculate him the next?
And why—why, why, why?—was she insistent on dealing with her problems on her own?
Was she immune to what they had built together?
Or had he blown all of it out of proportion?
“Kane, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. I am, too.”
A shout came from some far part of the house and Callie bustled out into the hallway to holler back.
“It’s Ava,” Callie informed him. “Ilsa’s home.”
Kane grabbed a towel on his way out of the room, his steps quickly outpacing Callie’s as he raced down the hall.
Ilsa stood in the foyer, the blue of her eyes in stark relief to the pale color of her face.
“What happened to you?”
This last lifting session had left him weak and his legs felt made of spaghetti as he stalked toward her.
Quinn, Drake, Brody and Ava stood around her in a circle as Ilsa chattered with abandon.
As soon as she caught sight of him, Ilsa smiled. A real smile, broad and true.
One that reached all the way to her eyes.
And then it faded in the onslaught of his words.
“Why did you do that? Why did you go to him?”
Ilsa shot Callie a glance, but it didn’t hold anything other than acknowledgment. “I wanted out of our bargain.”
“Your bargain?”
She nodded, the small edges of a smile still visible on her lips. “It’s the final piece. The final part of my old life I need to be rid of. So I put the wheels in motion.”
“What are you talking about, Ilsa?” Quinn’s question echoed off the marble. Kane listened to the resonating sounds that matched the echo in his head.
Bargain? With a sorcerer? With the sorcerer who’d captured him and then later poisoned him?
Endless questions filled him, but the most important—the most insistent—came first. “Did he agree?”
“Who knows?” Ilsa’s shoulders went up in a delicate shrug. “Probably not.”
“What?” Ava pressed her. “Tell us what happened. Here. Let’s go into the family room and you can fill us all in.”
Kane stood at the doorway, not sure of his exact place.
He wasn’t sure why the thought of her going alone to visit the sorcerer angered him so badly.
Her visit had introduced a sense of hope into his situation that he hadn’t dared feel in years.
Was it possible she’d be successful in getting the curse lifted? Where the rest of them had failed repeatedly, would Ilsa be the one to find success?
A cure? Or more likely, an antidote.
As if on cue, a wave of fire shot through his bloodstream. Cold sweat joined the sheen of his workout and one of his knees buckled. Kane grabbed the w
all for balance, struggling to keep his feet. He was unwilling to have the others see him and come running back to help him.
When he felt strong enough to walk the few short steps to the living room, he joined everyone. Ilsa had settled herself in one of their leather club chairs while the rest of them assembled in the various couches that made up the conversation area. Kane remained at the door, not trusting his legs to carry him across the room.
Ilsa smiled at him one more time before she began her tale. That lone action—a simple smile—went a long way toward bolstering the hope in his soul the poison was hell-bent to destroy.
“Several months ago, I made a bargain with the same sorcerer who released the poison into Kane’s system.”
“How convenient.” Quinn’s dry input wasn’t enough to derail her.
“Stupid,” Ilsa added. “Monumentally stupid. But if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met Kane, so I’m trying to focus on the positive. On the future.”
Again, it was Quinn who pressed her. Quinn who had the harsh words of recrimination. “You don’t deserve a future. You’ve lied to us. Lied to Kane.”
Kane moved into the room, suddenly quite sure of his place.
Quite sure of where he wanted to stand.
Moving into the room, he stood next to the chair Ilsa occupied. “This is your chance, Ilsa. I want to hear everything. It’s your choice. Tell us and we all deal with it. Or you’re on your own from here on out.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Phobos hopped from foot to foot, his frenzied dancing nearly driving Enyo back to Mount Olympus.
“Phobos!” She whispered for what felt like the hundredth time in the last five minutes. “Put your hat back on so no one sees your horns. I know this is London, but they’re going to get attention. And stand still for one fucking minute.”
Her nephew stilled, but the air practically shimmered around him from the energy coursing through his body.
Two Destroyers stood sentinel, flanking either side of them where they stood and waited in Trafalgar Square.
“What are you looking for, Aunt Enyo?”
“I told you. We’re waiting for someone.”
“Waiting’s boring.”
Enyo sighed, her nephew’s dense inability to grasp the most basic of concepts another reminder of his inane simplicity. He knew how to incite fear in a target. Nothing more and nothing less. It often surprised her when she was again faced with the single dimension in which her nephews operated their lives.
And then she forgot about it until she needed them again.
Shifting her attention from her nephew, Enyo turned toward one of the Destroyers. “You understand how I wish to have this handled?”
“Yes. At any signal from you, we’ll take care of the sorcerer.”
“That’s correct. However, I don’t think that will be necessary and I’d prefer to keep him alive if at all possible. He’s got the potential to be useful.”
“Of course, my queen.”
Emmett walked up a short while later, precisely at the time he had proposed. “Thank you for coming.”
“You suggested that things were ready to move.”
“Oh, they absolutely are. But we’ve had an interesting development.”
“Oh?” Enyo allowed the word to hang in the air.
“Nemesis found me several hours ago. Let me know she wanted to change the terms of our agreement. Demanded it, really.”
“I suppose you laughed her from your presence.”
“I heard her out.”
“And what did you discover?”
“She’s prepared to sacrifice herself for the Warrior.”
As the words hung there, blowing on the light spring breeze that filled the square, the deeper implication of what he suggested became clear.
“She’s in love with the Scorpio.”
“I’d say so.”
Oh, this was delicious. Truly, wonderfully delicious. “Does he feel the same?”
“I can only assume he does.”
Enyo turned that one over in her mind. Even if Kane didn’t love Nemesis, he likely had some feelings for the woman. And the fact he wasn’t with her when she visited Emmett was another mark in favor of that.
“She came to you alone?”
“She did.”
More interesting news. The goddess hid her visit from the Scorpio.
Was she unwilling to expose him? Or unwilling to tell him of the bargain in the first place?
“What did you tell her?”
“I suggested I needed some time to think and that I’d like a follow-up meeting. She agreed immediately.”
“Where did you suggest?”
“Where it all began.”
“What changed your mind?”
Kane and Ilsa were the only two left in the family room, the others all leaving for various parts of the mansion.
Ilsa focused on Kane’s words. “You mean about the bargain? Or telling your family about the poison? Or going to Emmett at all?”
“All of it.”
“You. And Ava. The two of you convinced me.”
The last hour had gone far better than Ilsa ever expected. All the Warriors had taken the news of her alliance with Emmett and subsequent actions with surprising equanimity. She was still reeling from that turn of events, in between trying to figure out why.
“How so?”
“I can’t have a life—can’t move forward—if I don’t take care of this. If I—”
As the silence expanded, he prodded gently for her to continue. “If you what?”
How did she explain what now seemed so very, very clear? “Last night was special to me.”
“It was to me, too.”
She smiled. “The part between us was wonderful. Perfect. But I mean the whole evening.”
A desperate urgency overtook her as she sought to find the words that would make him understand. Leaving her chair, Ilsa sat next to Kane, perching on the edge of the cushion next to him. “I spent several hours talking to Ava. Learning about you and your brothers. Learning about this place. And learning about her.”
His dark eyes twinkled with merriment. “So that’s why you had so much wine.”
“We had girl time.” Awe filled her at the thought.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“I loved it. It was fun and funny. And I had someone who understood when I tried to explain how I felt about things. And . . . I think I made a friend.”
Kane nodded. “As much as I’d like to murder them where they sleep on occasion, that’s how I feel about my Warrior brothers. They’re my battle companions. They have my back. And they’re my friends.”
“I never expected that to be so comforting. But it is.”
His dark gaze captured hers and he leaned in for a kiss. His mouth pressed, soft and lush against hers, his tongue running a lazy request for entrance against the seam of her lips.
This was so right.
How could she have ever thought there was any other emotion in the universe to compare?
Under the light of his love and affection, the need for vengeance that beat in her soul had no room to sustain itself.
“What the fuck, Monte?” Quinn paced the computer room he used as command central. Monitors covered the desks and hung from the ceilings, dictating a variety of information and shooting live feedback from an assortment of cameras around the globe.
Their bull might be a stubborn, know-it-all pain in the ass, but he sure as shit knew his technology.
And he used it to their advantage, as another weapon in the Warriors’ arsenal.
Drake added from the far corner of the room where a book lay on his lap. “Why didn’t she tell us about the blood? Before? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I’ve been working through that one.”
“In between fucking her?” Quinn snorted.
Kane whirled on the bull. “I am so done with you. You either need to decide you can accept her, or you lose me. You can pull your s
tubborn-as-shit routine all you want, but she’s staying. I made a call so I could handle it as I saw fit. She gave me some fucking respect by telling me, Quinn, which is more than I can say for you.”
Quinn’s large form unfolded from the rolling leather chair he sat in. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’ve put strings on your aid and on your friendship. That crap the other day about not taking us to the Underworld. A fucking power play. You had nothing to lose—hell, it wouldn’t have taken you more than five minutes start to finish—but you used your power to screw me.”
Quinn’s fists clenched and unclenched at his sides and the start of sentences bubbled up on his tongue only to be discarded. Finally, he spoke. “I didn’t agree with your choice. And knowing what the poison is doing to you, I couldn’t help you make the trip.”
“Is the view nice from your glass house? Because the best I can tell, you’re sitting in there all by yourself.”
Kane turned on his heel, anger and frustration riding his ass like a demon.
He should have expected this response. Should have expected all he’d get from the bull was a lot of “I told you so” and “Why should I help you?” questions.
What Kane never expected was the large hand that wrapped around his biceps as he hit the halfway point of the hallway.
As he whirled, his scorpion flicked its stinger where it rode high on his shoulder. He held it in, but wasn’t surprised when its tail flicked in annoyance. He bit back the words that hovered at the tip of his tongue, instead forcing Quinn to talk first.
“When do we leave for London?”
“As soon as we put together a battle plan.”
“Then let’s get to it.”
Enyo had been back on Mount Olympus for hours and still her conversation with Emmett replayed continuously in her mind.
Something didn’t sit well with her. His ready acquiescence. Nemesis’s ridiculous expectation that she’d get out of the bargain. Even Emmett’s willingness to tell her about it.
No. It was abundantly clear something wasn’t right.
Tigers not changing their stripes and all that. There was no way Emmett would change gears and give up his quest for a Warrior.
She needed a backup plan.