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I was, in that moment, profoundly grateful that it was Aster and I who had come for him, and not my brother. Atlas would have run out of patience long before now, and there would already be a Theron-shaped hole in the floor. The Gorgon King himself flung headfirst into the deepest pit of hell.

Theron’s expression cooled. “I would watch that tongue of yours, little prince. I can turn you to stone where you stand, with a single look, or did your scholars forget to teach you of me during your studies?”

My heart slammed against my ribs at the words. I had spent far too long already trapped, helpless inside my own body, screaming where no one could hear. I had no wish whatsoever to spend an eternity frozen in some garden. Beside me, Aster shifted, almost without thinking, putting himself half a step in front of me. As though to shield me from the threat.

I would remember to thank him for that, even though it was unnecessary.

“Alex is in trouble,” he said. “She needs you.”

I was surprised he’d given up that information so easily. More surprised still when it worked.

Because Theron’s gaze snapped to his, and I did not miss the way his eyes widened. The reaction lasted no more than a heartbeat. But it was enough. Whatever lazy calm he’d been wearing suddenly felt like a thing built carefully, brick by brick, to hide whatever lay beneath it.

“Why am I not surprised?” He sighed and reached for his wine again. “Of course, she’d go and get herself into trouble. So… What mischief has the little mortal got herself into this time?” He asked with a sigh.

“We don’t have time to explain.”

“Would five minutes be so very unreasonable? I haven’t even exfoliated yet.”

“No,” Aster and I said together in unison.

Theron scowled. “Three?”

“No.”

“Fucking one?”

“No!”

He let out a long, theatrical sigh. “You are both being terribly rude toward royalty. Didn’t your elders ever teach you manners?” he mocked.

“To deal with the likes of you, no, can’t say it was a lesson I would ever waste time listening to,” I muttered.

Aster went for the jugular, “Now you’re just getting on my very last nerve.”

He strode forward then, all that towering bulk and broad-shouldered menace, a Minotaur in a man’s skin, a sight that had sent armies running. And the Gorgon King, with a put-upon sigh, set down his goblet, braced both hands on the lip of the bath, and rose.

And rose.

And kept rising.

Because Theron, it turned out, was every bit as vast as Aster. Easily his match. Broad, carved and towering, water sheeting off a body that was plainly no stranger to a battlefield of its own. The two of them faced one another across the steaming room like a pair of mountains deciding whether or not to collide.

“Out,” Aster said. “Now.”

Theron’s eyes narrowed. “You may be able to order that king of yours around as you please. But you’ll find yourself in a great deal of deep shit if you try to do so to me again, young bull.”

Aster rolled his eyes so hard I was genuinely concerned he might strain something.

“Did you not hear me? Alex needs you!”

“Oh, I’m sure she does. Doesn’t she have a king of her own to haul her out of her little scrapes?”

“Right. That’s it.” Aster snapped, and before Theron could so much as react, Aster lunged, plunging a hand into the bath to seize his arm. I rushed in for the other, water exploding everywhere.

Theron merely laughed.

And then he moved.