“And you’re Doreán’s father?” Epione said, eyeballing Demarco.
He nodded.
“Of course. Everything makes sense now.” She looked back and forth between us a few times before announcing, “I bet he is one beautiful child.”
I sighed. “You have no idea.”
“You’ll get him back,” she assured us. “And then you’ll bring him here and I’ll feed him sweet potatoes until he’s round in the face, just like I used to do to you.”
Talking about the situation with them made me feel better for some reason. I leaned against Demarco’s arm as Asclepius filled up everyone else’s wine glasses.
“How do you two know Romi?” Demarco asked.
“She started coming here with Shade when she was still in diapers,” Asclepius said, smiling fondly at me. “It had been a long time since we’d had a little one around, and Romi here was such a joy. A real breath of fresh air. We’d watch her while her sire soaked in the healing water.”
“But then Shade stopped coming?” Tweety asked.
Epione held her glass up and Asclepius poured. “Shade was ejected,” she clarified. “He tried to kidnap our daughter, and Romi here saved her.”
“Wait, what?” I asked.
“While he was in the bathhouse. Don’t you remember?”
Like it was yesterday, but kidnapping? “I thought he tried to rape her.”
Asclepius and Epione both stared at me.
“Not at the time,” I hurried to say. “Back then I didn’t know what was going on. Shade told me to stay outside the bathhouse and I heard noises. Fighting. Screaming. I couldn’t go in there because that would have been disobeying an order from him, so I went and found Asclepius.” I gestured at the old doctor. “You were furious. I didn’t know what was going on, but when I got home I did some reading. I thought… my gods, why would Shade want to kidnap her?”
“He told Aglaea he wanted to get her pregnant. Just like he did your mother,” Epione replied.
“Your mother?” Tweety asked.
Now definitely wasn’t the time to go into that story. I looked away, shocked by the pain blossoming in my chest. Avoiding Tweety’s question, I focused on what Epione had implied. “So he would have taken the child in exchange for Aglaea’s freedom, just as he did with me and my mother.”
Asclepius nodded. “We believe so, yes.”
I would have had a little half sister or brother.
I’d spent my entire life alone… well, except for the times I was training or running jobs. I’d always wanted a sibling, but now that I was older I’d never wish my life on someone else. “I’m so glad you got there in time, Asclepius.”
He nodded. “Me too, child. Me too.”
“Wait.” Tweety set down his wine glass and clasped his hands. “Something doesn’t make sense. Why would Shade make Romi wait outside? He could have forced her to help him and then they could have left together. Nobody would have known and he’d have both Romi and the child he planned to put into your daughter’s womb.”
Epione took a deep breath and looked to her husband, who nodded. “This is going to be difficult for you to hear, Romi.” She grabbed my hand and held it tight. “But your sire intended to leave you behind.”
She was right, it was difficult to hear. In fact, her words felt like a kick in the gut. Not because I would have missed Shade and didn’t want my sire to abandon me. No, the air was knocked out of my lungs because I would have done anything to have been left behind. Seriously, I could have grown up loved and valued by Asclepius, Epione, and their children. I would have learned to heal, rather than to fight and steal.
“Shade would have released me?”
Again, Asclepius and Epione shared a look.
It wasn’t a difficult question. Frustrated by their lack of answers, I asked, “What are you keeping from me? Just tell me the truth.”
“You were headstrong and intelligent, Romi. I believe Shade recognized the error he’d made in allowing you to learn to read. He wanted someone more… manageable. He wanted to start over.”
And my luck hadn’t manifested yet. Shade must have written me off for a difficult to manipulate dud and was ready to offload me the minute he had another option.
The hut door banged open and a gorgeous woman rushed in. Perfect hourglass figure, blonde waves flowing down to her thighs, the same bright blue eyes as her mother, Aglaea glowed with good health, as was her birthright.
“Romi!”
I’d never heard my name spoken with so much anguish and sorrow before. I watched as she raced across the space between us, turned my chair around, knelt at my feet, and sobbed.
“Aglaea?” Tweety asked.
I nodded, wondering why she was balling her eyes out. We’d been extremely close, and she should be all huggy and happy to see me.
“I am so very sorry!” she wailed. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I could go back to that moment and—”
“What’s going on?” I asked, searching the faces around the room.
Aglaea continued to cry and Asclepius looked away.
“Shade knew how much Aglaea loved you,” Epione finally said. “How much we all loved you. He promised her he’d release your contract if she’d just give him a child.”
“And she said no,” I breathed, finally understanding why she was a blubbering mess at my feet.
“Forgive me,” Aglaea sobbed. “Please, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to save you, but… my child?”
“Romi—” Epione started.
“No, I get it.” I lifted Aglaea’s chin until she met my gaze. “There’s nothing to forgive, because I don’t blame you at all. Yes, I would have loved to grow up here with your family, but not at the expense of a kid. I have a child now, Aglaea. He’s being held by the gods until we finish a job, and not having him where I can hold him and kiss him every single day is tearing me up inside. I would never ever want you to turn a baby over to Shade.”
She sniffled, still managing to look beautiful despite her watery red eyes and splotchy skin. “But you would have been free.”
“And it would have been a wonderful childhood,” I replied. “I’m not gonna lie, my childhood was awful. But if I hadn’t suffered through it, I wouldn’t have met Demarco.” I patted his arm. “We wouldn’t have had Doreán. Tweety wouldn’t have showed up to babysit for me and would still be stuck in captivity. My life would be completely different.”
And as screwed up as my life was, I kind of liked it now. Of course, I’d like it better once we got Doreán back and said sayonara to the asshole gods currently trying to manipulate us, but… baby steps.
“You really don’t hate me?” Aglaea asked.
I pushed out of my chair and fell to my knees in front of her so I could wrap her in a hug. “Never. You were always like a sister to me. Nothing Shade did to me was your fault.”
We remained locked in each other’s arms for several minutes before Aglaea finally released me.
“See?” Asclepius said, patting Demarco on the shoulder. “Dialog leads to healing. Come. Your baths are hot and ready.”
OVER THE NEXT several hours Demarco, Tweety, and I were bathed, deep tissue massaged, mud bathed, bathed again, and stuffed in a sauna. Our spines were adjusted, our skin was poked with needles, and our auras were cleansed. Incense burned, cleansing our spirits and calming our minds through age-old aromatic methods perfected by the family of healers. Sometime during the mud bath I relaxed enough to nap and spent the rest of the treatment drifting in and out of consciousness as I was moved from one station to the next.
When I finally awoke for good, morning sun warmed my face. I opened my eyes to find myself nestled into a spidersilk hammock in the recovery hut. The small, round hut was made of living beechnut wood, still connected to the ancient tree beside it. One continuous open-air window circled the top, just beneath the roof. The incense burner beside my bed was cool, long since extinguished. The hut held no adornments nor furni
ture other than the spidersilk hammocks—which looked a lot like giant cocoons—hanging from each corner.
All the other cocoons were empty and I was alone. As I wondered where the guys were, the door opened and Aglaea entered carrying a crystal glass of clear liquid.
“There you are, sleepyhead,” she said. “I was beginning to think you would sleep all day. Your friends are eating with Mom and Dad.”
I bolted upright. “Someone should have woken me.”
“What do you think I’m doing?” she asked. “Be easy. Breakfast hasn’t yet been set out so you have time. How do you feel?”
I untangled myself from the hammock and stretched. Nothing hurt or ached. My muscles stretched with ease and my bones felt like they’d been oiled. My entire body felt lighter than it had ever been, and my head was clear. For the first time in a long time, I felt completely centered and focused. But my heart still ached for my kid. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Perfect.”
“Good.” She smiled and lifted the glass toward me. “Be sure to drink lots of fluids, beginning with this.”
I slid to the floor and accepted the glass. Sweet nectar raced over my tongue, energizing and refreshing me. One more benefit of this place I’d missed over the years. I drained the glass before handing it back to Aglaea and following her to the dining hut. Asclepius and Epione were seated beside Demarco and Tweety, but the rest of the table was empty.
“Where is the rest of the family?” I asked Aglaea.
Her gaze flickered toward the door. “Busy. Please, have a seat. We don’t want the bread to get cold.”
Strange answer. Family meals had always been such a big deal to everyone and I hadn’t seen Aglaea’s siblings other than during the treatments. And none of them had been very talkative. Before I could drill her for more information, she sat me down and filled my plate with fruits, nuts, and warm spiced breads.
Asclepius, Epione, and Aglaea took turns questioning us about our individual healing experiences while we ate.
“I was concerned about the mud bath,” Demarco said, looking at his hands. “It felt a lot better than I thought it would. It did get rid of some of my callouses, though. I’ll have to work hard to build those up again when I get home.”
Asclepius and Epione laughed, but the confused look on Demarco’s face made it clear he wasn’t joking.
“The needles were intimidating at first,” Tweety said. “Do they have to be so long? You put them about an inch into my skin.”
“What?” I asked. “An inch? How did you not bleed to death?”
“Being in human form doesn’t change how deep your pressure points are, Tweety,” Epione explained. “Because your griffin skin is so much thicker than a human’s, we had to go deeper to hit them. We’d have to go even deeper on one of Poseidon’s sea creatures.”
“Sucks to be them,” Tweety mumbled.
Breakfast ended far too soon, and I knew it was time for us to head home. We had lots more studying and preparing to do before we met with Eris and Talon, and now that my head was clearer, I wanted to revisit a few key passages in the book and make sure we hadn’t missed anything. After hugging and thanking our gracious hosts, I wrapped shadows around me and the guys and we traveled back to Demarco’s place.
Since our stomachs were full and we’d hit the big refresh button on our minds, we went straight into Demarco’s shop and got to work. This time, Tweety paced as I lounged on the sofa with my back against Demarco’s side, reading from The Lowly Pawn’s Comprehensive Guide for Surviving Amongst Gods.
“According to this,” I said, tapping the page, “Ares is easy to goad and known for reacting without thinking or planning. He’s been bested lots of times. Sometimes he flees, sometimes he gets caught.” I pointed at a specific passage. “Look. Here he was imprisoned in a bronze jar by a group of giants. Hermes had to rescue him. No doubt embarrassing for the Olympian warrior.”
“Bronze?” Demarco asked, leaning over my shoulder to read. “Why bronze?”
His proximity made butterflies dance in my stomach. I silently shooed them away and forced myself to read the rest of the page. “It doesn’t say, but apparently he couldn’t break out of it. Maybe bronze is Ares’s kryptonite. Why? Can you do something with that?”
“The idea definitely has potential.” Demarco scratched at the three-day growth along his jawline. He usually kept his goatee clean, but I liked the scruff now covering his chin. It made him look even tougher and more intimidating. Seriously hot. “I can make bronze.”
It took me a moment to remember what the hell we were talking about, but thankfully Tweety piped in.
“What do you mean, make bronze?” The griffin sat on the loveseat across from Demarco, avoiding the broken arm. “How?”
“Bronze is an alloy made mostly of copper, but also tin and traces of other metals.” He patted my back and I sat up so he could stand. He headed directly to a thin rapier hanging on the far wall, removed the weapon from its shelf, and returned, holding it out in front of him.
“Bronze?” Tweety asked.
“Yes.”
“Can I see it?”
Demarco handed the weapon over. “Be careful; it’s extremely sharp. I used copper, tin, aluminum, and manganese to craft it. I could also use nickel or zinc, but the kicker is going to be finding someplace with enough copper and tin.”
“Eris did say she could get Ares to a location of our choosing,” Tweety pointed out slashing the air with the rapier.
Demarco nodded and reached for the laptop resting on his nightstand. “Exactly. It’s gonna be difficult to find a place heavy with enough of both key metals, though.”
I had an idea. “How much copper do you think you’ll need?” I asked.
“A lot. There are different grades of bronze, but to be safe we’d probably need it to be about 90 percent copper. We’ll need enough to cage a god… any idea how tall Ares is?”
I shook my head. “Hades and Poseidon are at least seven feet in their natural forms, so I’d guess somewhere around there.”
“We’ll need to make sure it’s thick enough to keep him from breaking out. I wish this book gave us more details… dimensions… something. A quarter inch thick should work, but I’d feel safer if we could get it closer to a half inch, which means we’re going to need a hell of a lot of copper.”
It seemed like it wouldn’t be too difficult to get our hands on some cheap copper. I retrieved my pack from the floor and dug around in the money pocket until I found a penny. I tossed it to Demarco. He turned it over in his hand a couple of times. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“It’s copper,” I explained. “If we had enough…”
“There’s copper in here, but it’s maybe two percent. This is mostly zinc.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Positive.” He sat beside me again, fired up his laptop, and punched in a few keys before turning it so I could see the screen. “Between 1837 and 1857 pennies were made of bronze. Then from 1857 to 1982 they were made of copper. Pennies made after 1982 consist primarily of zinc,” he read.
“Let me see that a sec.” I took his laptop and did my own search. “Okay, the old bronze pennies are outrageously expensive and there’s no way we’d ever find enough. But look, we can buy five thousand-plus copper pennies for seventy dollars plus shipping and handling, and they have more than ten of these five thousand bags available.”
“One problem, we’d need an address to ship it to,” Demarco replied.
“Okay, so… we can e-mail them and see if we can swing in and pick them up. Fifty thousand copper pennies should be enough to wrap Ares in a thin layer of bronze, right?” I asked.
“We’ll probably have to make multiple trips,” Tweety said. “I don’t think even Demarco and I could carry fifty thousand pennies between us.”
“Not a problem.” I waved him away.
“Wait.” Demarco clicked and the laptop screen changed. “What about this instead o
f pennies?”
I read the description aloud, “Ten pounds of fine copper bullion scraps for sixty-four ninety-nine. That’ll work better?”
He nodded and bookmarked the page before opening another browser window. “It’s purer and easier to melt down and blend. Now we just need to find a location with a lot of tin.”
“You can sense the metal beneath ground, right?” I asked.
“Most of the time.”
“Great. We can take a field trip.”
“A field trip?” Tweety asked.
“Yeah, we’ll hop around to several different places I’ve been to until we find a remote location with enough tin for Demarco to create bronze.”
“Once we designate a spot, I’ll need to build a forge,” Demarco said. “If I can work with the metals and get them all mixed and prepared, it won’t take long to trap Ares. We might be able to avoid a battle all together.”
“You’re forgetting about his goons,” Tweety said. “Eris will take care of the twins, but Enyo won’t just stand there and let you trap Ares.”
I nodded. “Tweety, you and I will have to keep Enyo busy. Holy crap. This could actually work. Demarco, you’re brilliant.”
The smile he beamed at me reminded me so much of Doreán it made my heart constrict. Sadness and longing washed over me as I couldn’t help but wonder when I’d see my kid’s smile again.
“Hey.” Demarco sat beside me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “This will work. We’ll get this essence and maybe Athena and Artemis will let us get a little more time with our son before we go after the next three essences. Then we’ll get him back for good. I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that happens, Okay?”
I leaned against his chest, breathing in his unique metallic scent as I stared up into his silvery-blue eyes. “I know you will. Let’s go find the perfect location to trap the god of war.”
THE FIELD TRIP idea seemed like a good one until we hit the fifth location and noticed a theme. Most of the places I’d stolen from were deep in heavily populated areas where throwing down with the god of war would mean far too many human casualties.
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