“And,” Perseus continued, his patience clearly wearing thin, “when a basilisk house is shunned, no one deals with them. No alliances. No information. No cooperation.”
She looked up slowly.
“And no one,” Perseus finished flatly, “will talk to us about Zeus’s kids.”
The words landed like a weight in the room.
“The whole point of our mission.”
She bit the inside of her lip. The pieces slid together in her head with unpleasant clarity. If Maldenis’s family was ostracized…then the basilisk community would close ranks. Which meant any demigods among them—any children of Zeus—would remain hidden.
Unwarned and unprotected.
Her chest tightened.
Perseus pushed away from the table and crossed his arms. “Fix this.”
Then he turned and walked out of the office, and the door shut behind him with a quiet but decisive click.
Liora stood there for a moment, staring at the floor. She didn’t want to be the reason those basilisks were left vulnerable. The triplets were there to find them. To warn them before something worse found them. If the basilisk community shut down…they’d lose that chance.
She rubbed her forehead slowly. She hated this. Hated the pressure tightening around her. Hated that it came back to the same impossible fact.
She didn’t want to be married. Not to a basilisk she barely knew. Not because of some ancient ritual spring. Not because a group of elders had decided it counted. But the consequences of walking away were suddenly a lot bigger than just her pride.
Medusa watched her quietly for a moment. Then she said gently, “He seemed worried.”
“Of course he did,” Liora let out a humorless laugh. “His family’s reputation is exploding.”
Medusa tilted her head slightly. “I don’t think that was the only thing he was worried about.”
Liora didn’t look up. “Well,” she muttered, “that sounds like his problem.”
Medusa watched her for a moment longer, quiet and patient in that unnerving way she had.
“I can see that you don’t want anything to do with Maldenis,” she said finally.
Liora let out a short breath through her nose. “That obvious?”
“Yes.”
Liora rubbed the back of her neck.
“But,” Medusa continued gently, “there’s a bigger picture here.”
“Yeah,” Liora muttered. “I know.” She shifted her weight and glanced toward the door Perseus had stormed out of. “How mad is he?”
Medusa shook her head slightly. “Don’t worry about that.”
“He looked pretty mad.”
“Heis,” Medusa admitted. “It’s just…different for him.”
Liora nodded slowly. “I get it.”
Perseus took the mission personally, especially since they were technically looking for his half-siblings. And even though he hated Zeus, he couldn’t let others be harmed. It was part of the reason he and Medusa had started this whole operation in Vale Crossing in the first place.
And if a group of basilisks out there were about to lose access to help because of her…Yeah, she understood why he was furious.
