But I could not ask any of those questions, not at the moment. They would need to be handled with a level of tact I was unsure I currently possessed. “How did this alliance begin?” I asked, gesturing between her and Ballard.
Jasper raised his pointer finger in the air, drawing our attention. “While the alliance is something we’ll need to discuss, I’ll ask the questions Rion won’t.” He threw a scathing glance myway, judgment pouring off him. “How the hell are you alive? And why haven’t you shown your face before now?”
Calia narrowed her eyes, knowing I was showing restraint by not asking what I wanted outright. Had she been hoping I would? Did the fact Jasper asked first make her think I didn’t care? That was far from the truth, but I could see in her eyes that she no longer trusted me. She was guarded in a way I had never experienced from her, and I would do anything to break down those walls brick by brick.
If that meant holding my damn tongue, then so be it.
When I did not refute Jasper’s claim, she began. “Let's be honest. Tensions are clearly high, and if we have any chance of stomaching one another and working together, we need a modicum of trust.” She looked at her uncle with raised brows.
Castor bristled under her chastisement but could not deny he was allowing the ill will he harbored toward me to cloud his judgment. “Fine,” he growled.
“Wonderful. Now thatthat’ssettled, I think we can begin diving into a very complicated narrative,” she said, sitting up straighter. She met every person’s uneasy gaze with false confidence, laying trembling hands upon her lap. “No matter how the events played out for us, each of you must understand that we were up against truths not yet come to light, and grudges that surpassed any we thought we knew. All of this is so much bigger than us, than the feud between Darrow and D’Arcy.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, leaning in. She had captured my attention as well as my heart. Whatever information she bore, it had the potential to change our lives as we knew them.
She paused, biting her lip as she thought of how to phrase her following words. “I mean that there is more to my miraculous recovery than you may believe. In the past few days, I’ve had to wrap my head around more revelations than I ever thoughtpossible,” Calia said, looking down at her hands. “I—I’m not what you think I am.”
The room stilled at her words, four pairs of eyes searching for a hint of the truth, while three others refused to meet our gazes.
She looked the same—completely unblemished, given what had occurred. Her cheeks were flushed with color, and her red hair was just as vibrant as before. Had she not been burned by the moon on her way down, she would have been able to survive the fall alone. Fae were nearly as resilient as vampyres in that regard. But I had seen it, had I not? The irreparable damage caused by the combination of the two had been severe. The image would be burned into my mind until my final breath.
It had been plaguing my mind since I saw her. The question of how was on the tip of my tongue, but the words died as I sensed a new presence among us.
“Whatareyou?” Sloane whispered, eyes wide in either horror or awe. I was not sure.
“She, dear child, is agoddess.”
All heads turned toward the back of the library, where a figure emerged from the shadows. His tall frame and broad shoulders blocked the view of the blood moon in the sky, drawing attention to his red hair.
A color, I noted, which was was identical to Calia’s.
With a sickening recognition, I realized I knew this man. He had been at Calia’s funeral, standing in the shade, watching as her casket was lowered into the ground before walking away. And again, in the atrium, in that wrinkle of time where I had been warned away from Calia.
All that time, I had wondered why there was an air of familiarity around him. Some itch I could not scratch. Seeing the two of them in the same room, I realized why that was.
“You son of a bitch,” I snarled, gripping my chair.
“Now, now,” he purred, lupine eyes gleaming with otherworldly power. “Is that any way to greet your father-in-law?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Father-in-law?” Jasper said, pushing to his feet. “Goddess? What the hell are you talking about? Who are you? What is going on?”
The man stepped up beside Castor, his chin held high. How I had failed to recognize their relation from the first moment I saw him was a mystery. Seeing the two of them side-by-side was jarring, the resemblance uncanny. He and Calia shared the same slight uptick of their nose, those forest green eyes that reminded me of the isle in the summer. Both had a natural pout to their lips, their cupid’s bows defined as though they had been chiseled.
“It has been imperative to keep my presence unknown, for if anyone knew the son of Niandra lived… Well, you can see it could have catastrophic consequences,” he drawled, laying a hand atop the leather-backed armchair.
Sloane still stared in wide-eyed shock, flitting between the man and Calia. Her pale skin, if possible, had been further leached of color save for a faint flush across her cheeks. “Niandra is the goddess of magic, the mother of witchcraft. She is the protector of the moon, the watcher of the sun.” Her handstrembled as she clasped them atop her lap. “Which means you are… a god.”
Elios dipped his head, smiling at Sloane, who sunk back into the deep cushions of the couch. “Indeed I am, witchling. Elios, to be precise. But please, you may call me Lio.”
“The gods haven’t shown themselves in millennia,” Jasper said, scoffing. Do you think we’re truly that foolish?”
Elios’ smile tightened, but he did not balk at Jasper’s disbelief. I assumed he was used to anyone who doubted his story. However, a preternatural aura surrounded him—something not of this world, woven of many magics and centuries of power—which gave away his true nature if one studied long enough.
“I think you would be foolish if you did not listen to my tale. For I will tell you what you want to know, but you must choose what to do with that information,” he said, fixing his uncanny gaze on me. “Are you willing to listen? Or would you prefer for us to leave?”
I closed my eyes and braced for impact as Jasper's little restraint began fraying around the edges. From his teasing comments only moments ago, I was not sure what the final straw had been for him, but shadows darkened his features.
