20
THE ELDEST HEIR
AUGUSTUS: THAT SAME NIGHT
The night was dark and sinister outside our bedroom window.
Emotions choked me as my skull pounded.
So much fucking rage.
Every second that Alexis refused to talk to me, the madness grew.
Seething inside my chest, the urge to slaughter, destroy, maim was mounting. There was nothing that could put out the fire, and it was becoming harder to pretend that I was a reasonable man.
Kharon stalked inside the room.
His pupils were blown, eyes full of fury, because he wasn’t going to be able to watch Alexis sleep tonight.
We both pretended he didn’t have a problem.
“You ready?” Kharon asked as he stared at my hands. “The plan’s still on?”
I dropped the gasping Olympian doctor to the floor.
The purple owl of the House of Athena was embroidered on his white coat; dark hair was a tangled mess around his withered face; green eyes darted around wildly.
My finger marks were stark around his pale throat.
“Last chance,” I said calmly, as I flexed my knuckles. “What have you heard about why the Titans are mutating? What do the Olympians know?”
The doctor shook his head. “I told you. Nothing. Nobody knows why they
—”
I engaged my powers.
His head rocked back—eyes exploding—limbs sprawled as he slumped
unconscious.
Kharon arched his brow.
I smiled.
For the first time in weeks, my headache abated, and a sense of peace settled over me.
“Whatever.” Kharon stepped over the Olympian. “Let’s go.”
He held out his tattooed arm—I grabbed it.
“Domus.”
It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the new brighter light.
The sun hung low on the horizon, setting in streaks of vibrant pink. Birds flew overhead, and insects chirped. The air was crisp and scented with wet earth.
Location: trailer park, bumfuck Montana.
I cracked my neck with anticipation. The site was a reminder—Alexis hid from us that she was partially deaf. Someone was going to pay.
My headache started up again, worse than before.
It was time to get answers, and where Alexis grew up was the perfect place to start.
I wiped wetness off my face, my fingers covered in scarlet.
All this time, Alexis couldn’t hear out of one ear. During the fucking
crucible, we screamed at her while she— I needed to stop thinking about it.
Struggling to breathe, to calm myself, to tamp down the madness, I tried to focus on our mission.
Golden hair blowing as she raised a gun and a knife, glaring at the Titans with determination.
Alexis wasn’t weak. She didn’t need my pity.
Kharon palmed a gun. Click. He slid in a cartridge and flicked off the
safety.
“What are you doing?” I snapped.
Ignoring me, Kharon stomped down the gravel road toward the row of
dilapidated trailers, gun raised and his black cloak trailing behind him.
I stalked after him.
Sighing, I reached down my hand to offer—
Poco isn’t with you anymore.
My heart squeezed.
Kharon banged on the door of a trailer, scoffing at the hand-painted sign hanging above it: Private property, organ harvesters beware.
“Open the door,” Kharon shouted. “Or I’m kicking it in.”
The various metal sheets, patched together to create the front of the trailer, rattled like they were going to fall apart.
The door flew open.
A portly middle-aged man held up a crowbar. “I’m gonna fucking whack
you, you goddamned—”
Kharon smiled with his teeth.
“S-S-Spartans?” the man whispered in horror, crowbar dropping as he stumbled back.
Since we stood taller than the peeling door frame, we had to duck our
heads to keep him in our vision.
Have humans always been so puny?
I pulled out the pictures of Alexis and Charlie that I’d secretly taken at dinner last week.
“What can you tell me about this girl and boy?”
The man blanched and shook his head, his eyes darting around. “I d-don’t know them.”
“You’re lying.” Kharon held the gun up to his head.
Whimpering, the man’s mouth opened and closed with a wheeze.
A woman appeared.
Gray-haired, wearing hole-riddled clothes, she cleared her throat as she pointed to the picture I was holding. Her arm was covered in fresh bruises.
“Alexis and Charlie,” she whispered. “Those rug rats lived behind the tree line … Good kids. Everyone in town knew about them—especially Alexis … She was a prodigy. We heard she’s a Spartan.” Her voice filled with awe. “Is it true?”
Kharon worked his jaw back and forth. “Why … did no one help her?” he asked.
“Shut the fuck up, Katie.” The man whirled toward the woman. “Don’t say another goddamn word or I’ll—”
Thud.
He dropped to the floor with a splattering sound.
Wincing, because I’d only meant to knock him out, I nudged him with my
boot.
Cerebral fluid leaked out of his ears.
Not my best work.
Katie gasped, raising her bruised arms in front of her face protectively as pieces of the man’s brain oozed from his nose.
Fresh rage filled my chest, and I wished I could kill him a second time.
“Really?” Kharon looked at me.
I focused on Katie. “Madam, you’re safe now. This man can’t hurt you anymore.”
Slowly, she lowered her arms, wide eyes staring up at me in disbelief.
“Why … why would you help me?” She looked confused.
Alexis’s admission about her ear echoed in the back of my mind.
“Men who hurt women don’t deserve to live.”
Katie made a strangled noise.
Gazing around the decrepit trailer, I patted down my empty pockets with increasing frustration. “I’ll come back with some healing paste and money so you can—”
“Here.” Kharon pulled a Spartan gun out of his holster. “You should be able to pawn this for money. Right? Also, you can use it to protect yourself if anyone else tries to hurt you.”
Katie blinked in disbelief as Kharon placed the gun in her hand.
Kharon wiggled it. “Careful—don’t shoot yourself.”
Katie jumped.
I slapped Kharon across the back of the head. “Sorry, madam, he doesn’t get out much.”
“It was just a joke,” Kharon grumbled, but he stepped back and gave the woman space to hold her new weapon.
“Do you have anything else you can tell us?” I asked her, letting my desperation show on my face.
She shook her head no, and stared down at the gun with awe.
I tasted bile.
Her face morphed into Alexis, then Helen, then back to Alexis.
I left as quickly as possible, needing to get out of the trailer. Kharon followed without a word.
“Wait!” Katie yelled from the door.
We stopped.
I couldn’t look over at her.
“The rug rats—we couldn’t help them, because rumor was …” She lowered her voice. “Someone threatened to make grizzly food out of any folk who helped them—that’s all I know. Swear to God.”
“We appreciate it,” Kharon said calmly, even though his eyes flashed with
wrath.
Katie disappeared inside her trailer.
Both of us scowled.
Dark emotions were rising between us—killing wasn’t enough—we needed to hold Alexis as she told us every bad thing that had ever been done to her, then avenge it all.
“When she said grizzly—” Kharon bit out. “Does she mean the antique semiautomatic weapon I was researching for our initial prototype bodies and
—”
“It’s a type of bear,” I said.
Kharon made a face.
An hour—and four dead men—later, we’d learned Alexis and Charlie had once lived in a trailer with two supposed parents, but the father was arrested for killing the mother, and they were homeless orphans.
Also, this trailer park had a problem with men hurting women.
The only men who seemed nonviolent in the park were a group of elderly guys who lived at the edges, and a young man named Paul who wouldn’t stop talking about birds and … government drones? He wasn’t well.
“I can’t believe someone threatened them to let kids live in the fucking woods, and they all did nothing.” Kharon kicked a rock, and it shattered against a distant tree. “Why the fuck would anyone do that? Do you think it was their foster father?”
I clenched my teeth. “The scars on Alexis’s wrists and her ear.”
“They’re old injuries.” Kharon stilled. “She must have been a child because her Spartan healing hadn’t kicked in yet … We need to pay a visit to the prison.”
I nodded in agreement. “That one woman said something about a tattooed man helping them—let’s find out.”
The last trailer, positioned at the edge of the forest, was maintained better than the rest.
As we moved toward it, Kharon’s face became blank, the whites of his eyes filling as he activated his Chthonic powers. He stopped walking.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
Seconds stretched into minutes as I waited for him to do or say something.
Just when I was convinced he needed medical help, the blood receded and his blank expression disappeared.
His expression was livid. “We have a problem,” he said darkly.
I pointed to the last trailer we needed to investigate. “Save it—we need to finish what we started.”
Kharon looked like he was going to argue, but he eventually nodded and stalked forward.
“Open up or we’ll shoot!” Kharon kicked at the front door.
The door swung wide immediately. “How can I help you gentlemen?”
The man who answered was about our age, slightly shorter, and his face
was covered in satanic symbols.
He smiled pleasantly.
Without preamble, I stabbed my powers into his mind.
Solid darkness greeted me. He had mental defenses, extremely strong ones.
I pressed against them, searching for weak points, but they were heavily fortified. Animalistic growls echoed in my head each time I pushed against the solid rock. The only minds I’d ever felt that were somewhat similar were — I withdrew from his mind. “Shoot him,” I ordered.
Kharon fired, but it was too late.
Smoke billowed and there was nothing but empty space where the man had
been standing.
He’d leapt away.
“What the fuck?” Kharon turned to me. “Who was that?”
“Not who—what.”
Kharon stomped into the trailer, opening drawers and pulling shit apart as he searched for a clue. “Was it an Olympian?”
“He was primordial—ancient.” I shook my head. “I think … I think he was part creature. His defenses were animalistic, but he was strong. Extremely so.”
No one had ever fully stopped my mental attack.
Minds were breakable.
Always.
Kharon threw down the letters with frustration. “Why would a powerful
ancient creature be living here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fuck!” Kharon kicked at the trailer wall; his foot dented the metal. “I don’t like this—I don’t like this at all.”
“Me neither,” I said. “We need answers.”
Kharon straightened his dark cloak, determination on his face. “Well, then
let’s get them.”
Crack.
White flurries fell furiously through freezing air and I exhaled an icy cloud —a white-covered concrete building towered before us with a tall barbed wire fence surrounding it.
The only human prison in the Northern Hemisphere.
Snow crunched beneath our boots as we walked up the path to the guarded entrance.
The human guards paled as we approached.
“We’re here on official Spartan business,” I announced. “We’re looking
for a prisoner.”
They blinked up at me.
“My name is Augustus. I am the heir to the House of Ares. I suggest you
open the door for me. Now.”
The gate rose.
Kharon’s cloak whipped behind him as he stalked forward, a jagged ruby
crown gleaming on his head.
It was time to avenge our wife.
The next morning, I stomped up the steps leading out of the villa dungeon
with Kharon trailing behind me.
Both of us were vibrating with fury.
“Her stepfather bragged about hurting her as a child,” Kharon said. “Fuck
this shit—we need to kill him.”
I nodded in agreement.
He injured little Alexis. He needs to die.
We both turned and had made it down a few steps before I gathered my wits about me.
“No,” I said as I grabbed Kharon’s back, pulling him out of the dark stairs
into the brighter hallway. “We agreed.” I shoved him against the wall. “We need to earn Alexis’s trust … We’ll leave him for her. She’s the one that’s been wronged—she can decide what she wants to do with her foster father.”
“She’s gonna forgive him or some fucking bullshit,” Kharon spat.
Seething, I nodded in agreement.
“We have to kill him.”
FUCK.
No.
I stopped both of us from leaving the hall.
The protective urges—the unholy madness—was making it hard to think. I was being torn to shreds.
Kharon placed a hand on my shoulder. “I … understand,” he said through gritted teeth. “What you’re saying.”
His support grounded me, allowed me to think, to focus. “We have to show Alexis that we respect her,” I said hoarsely. “That means we respect her wishes … whatever they are.”
Kharon nodded sharply, then his chest caved in like he’d been punched. He gasped as he hyperventilated. “I can’t do this—I need to kill someone. It’s too much. It’s—”
I wrapped my arms around him in a hug, holding him upright.
“Breathe,” I coached as we inhaled at the same time.
He relaxed against me.
Neither of us moved, silent understanding coursing between us. We were doing this together; we would be better men for Alexis, or we’d be nothing at
all.
Footsteps sounded around the corner.
“No way,” Alexis’s voice echoed.
“Oh, come on,” Helen replied. “Just open it—it’s probably an expensive necklace or something pretty. Everyone knows that Kharon loves blue diamonds—rumor is the House of Artemis has an entire vault full of them.
I’m jealous. The House of Aphrodite prefers pearls, which is so boring. My life is not fair.”
“You gotta just open it to see,” Drex said.
Kharon stiffened in my arms, and I released him.
Alexis and Helen are heading to breakfast.
They were going to pass us in the hall.
Standing up straight, I wiped my bloody knuckles on my black pants
hastily.
Kharon adjusted his wrinkled shirt. He ran his hands through his hair, desperately trying to pat it down, but somehow looked messier after he touched it, strands sticking out in every direction.
Then, he relaxed his shoulders and smiled, like he was practicing looking approachable—his teeth were covered in blood.
I pointed at them, and he scrubbed them clean with his finger.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. Kharon had struck a dramatic pose, leaning against the wall, knee bent, arms crossed.
“Act casual,” he said out of the side of his mouth.
I put my hand on the wall and leaned toward him like we were talking.
Alexis, Helen, Drex, and Charlie stopped as soon as they turned the corner.
A small horse (Fluffy Jr.?) and two hellhounds halted beside them.
They stared at us.
Helen froze mid-motion—she was holding out a black box to Alexis. It was the gift we’d left outside the door for her. The one I’d spent months working on. I’d gotten it commissioned the day after our marriage day, after Alexis leapt away.
Awkward silence stretched as the group cautiously moved forward down the hall, straight toward us.
Nothing to see here. Just two men hanging out by the entrance to a dungeon.
Alexis had purple smudges under her eyes.
Is she sleeping?
I swallowed down the urge to beg her to talk to me.
She crossed her arms over her stomach and purposefully looked away from us as she got closer.
It felt like I’d been slapped in the face.
“So, um,” Kharon said. “Augustus—how did you … sleep?”
“What?”
“How did you sleep?” Kharon repeated.
I stared at him with incredulity.
He knew we’d been out all night killing and torturing people for our wife.
Kharon narrowed his eyes and tilted his head in Alexis’s direction.
“Amazing,” I deadpanned as I realized what Kharon was doing. “I feel so well rested.”
Kharon stretched his arms above his head in an imitation of someone
waking up. “Same—I think I got a full ten hours last night.”
Real smooth.
Helen made a sound as she she neared, openly staring at the scar on the side of Kharon’s head where his ear used to be. The fucking Falcon Chronicles still hadn’t stopped writing articles about what Kharon had done.
The headlines called it “the most romantic sacrifice of the century.”
They should have been working on finding out why the fucking Titans were mutating, not glamorizing my wife’s suffering.
Heart thudding painfully, I turned to Alexis, mouth opening to ask her to— My jaw clicked shut.
Poco was sitting on Fluffy Jr.’s back, holding his ears like reins, and his gray fur looked more unkempt than usual.
Is anyone spritzing him with water? He clearly needs a trim. What are they doing?
“Is anyone brushing Poco?” I asked. “He needs four brushes a day.”
Helen laughed. “Yes, we do it constantly. His fur just looks puffy because he keeps wrestling with Fluffy Jr.”
Since my wife’s protector was borderline obese, that did not make me feel better.
Poco chittered shrilly as if agreeing with her.
I glared down at him. “Don’t you dare take that tone with me, mister.”
Poco crossed his gray arms and stuck his nose into the air, staring up at the ceiling.
I leaned down and got in his little face. “No fish treats for you.”
His black eyes widened and he shook his head as if he didn’t believe me.
“I already threw out the bag.”
Poco tipped his head back and screeched like he was dying.
I’d actually just paid a seven-figure sum to have a box of them personally shipped from the other side of the world because global supply chains no longer existed, and I was stooping to bribery to get him back.
“Yep,” I said. “That’s what happens to bad raccoons who don’t take their afternoon naps.”
Poco wailed mournfully, still stuck on the treats.
Someone laughed.
It took me a moment to realize everyone had stopped moving and was staring at me.
Flushing with embarrassment, I stood up straight.
“Open the box,” Kharon said as he quickly snatched my gift out of Helen’s hand and held it out for Alexis to take.
She stared at it, but didn’t move.
“Please,” I said.
The urge to fall to my knees at her feet and beg for forgiveness was
mounting. My legs shook.
I would do it.
I’d do anything if it meant she’d look at me without a pained, guarded expression.
“Please,” I repeated. “I promise, it’s not jewelry.”
Alexis reached out and gingerly opened the box. She peered over the side.
Helen frowned. “Ew—what is that? No girl wants—”
“For me?” Alexis’s lips parted with awe as she stared at the black item.
“It also has a built-in recorder,” I said, desperate to keep the smile on her face as I pointed to the button on the side. “I had it custom made, so if you don’t have a pen or paper, you can still record your findings and play them back. And a cable port to hook it up to a computer and transfer your
findings.”
“Thanks, Augustus.” She smiled at me.
Kharon puffed up his chest. “I designed the metal holder—it’s bulletproof titanium.”
Alexis stared at him like she couldn’t tell if he was joking, then she shook her head and beamed at us.
Her smile was as breathtaking as sunshine on a cloudy day. The pounding in my skull lessened.
I’d had to pay our weapons manufacturers a small fortune to create one from scratch, because they’d had to consult with an Olympian lab, but it was so worth it for the joy on her face.
“Can someone please tell me what in Kronos’s kingdom is that ugly thing?” Helen asked with a huff.
“It’s a graphing calculator,” Alexis said reverently, her fingers trailing over her name engraved in gold on the back.
“Wow,” Drex said as Alexis held it up for him to see. “I didn’t know they
still made those.”
They don’t.
Alexis grinned at Drex, and I cleared my throat, tamping down the urge to slaughter him violently.
“Thanks again.” She glanced up at me through long lashes. A single curl hung against the delicate column of her neck.
“Anything for you,” I said, feeling faint.
Alexis turned back to the calculator and resumed walking toward the dining room, Charlie and Drex following.
Helen leaned close as she walked past. “You’re acting pathetic,” she whispered. “It’s embarrassing me.”
I nodded dumbly, too busy trying to remember how to inhale.
Seconds later, we were once again alone in the hall.
Kharon’s face twisted, sharpening into cruel edges. “I just remembered— I’ve been waiting to tell you what I saw while we were away.”
“What?”
“Achilles and Patro … want to take her from us.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Alexis,” Kharon said. “Let’s go.” He whirled around and headed down
the hall.
I scowled and followed.
No one messed with our wife.
