Page 99 of Blood of Olympus

I began toward the winding staircase, explaining everything that had happened from the moment Cerberus had woken us up. By the time we reached the third floor, Aros had calmed, glancing at our queen with such worry and devotedness I was almost jealous.

But theirs was a relationship forged in friendship. And I’d be a fool to strip her of the friends that remained to her because of stupid masculine pride.

Aros had deviated from his pursuit of her anyway. From the second he’d learned of our entwined fates, how I felt for her, and our almost-love a decade ago, he’d backed off. Sure, he still flirted relentlessly and teased her mercilessly, but that was just his nature. And she needed someone to ground her like that.

“So,” he sighed. “Sleep.”

“Sleep,” I agreed, depositing her onto the narrow bed intended for humans, not gods.

“Caelus, there’s something else you should know.” He glanced at her still form, curled up on her side. “Something both of you should know.”

“What is it?”

“While you were gone, the messengers returned.”

“Which ones?”

“All of them.” His hand rested on the hilt of a sword tucked against his left leg. More of a warrior’s habit than anything else.

“And?” I prodded, washing the golden stain of Nyssa’s blood from my forearms in the tiny bathroom provided.

I abhorred this sight more than any other. Her ichor made my stomach do backflips. It clawed at my heart, screaming this is not right. More than any other, even that of innocents I had spilled myself, it troubled me. And so, I scrubbed until no trace of it remained. Until Aros grasped my right hand, stilling the motion.

“And they have agreed to meet.”

I looked sharply at him. “All of them?”

“All of them. Tomorrow at sundown, we are to meet every mortal nation’s ruler on the Isle of the Gods — and hope that they will join us.”

“So be it,” I answered quietly, taking a damp cloth over to the bed, gently scrubbing away the outward signs of Nyssa’s hardship.

“So be it,” Aros repeated, closing the door and sinking to the floor in front of it.

I eyed him skeptically. “You can’t sleep there.”

He grunted wordlessly, then, “I’m wound tighter than drawn bowstring, Caelus. I’ll not be sleeping tonight. The least I can do is assuage my emotions and protect her while she sleeps to make up for the fact that I wasn’t there to protect her earlier.”

“Aros… what could you have done to protect her from herself?”

He glared at me across the room, eyes flickering with angry flames. “I don’t know what I would have done, but it would have been a fuckload better than twiddling my thumbs here.”

Ignoring the rage that was not really directed at me, I slid onto the bed and dragged her back into my arms, where she belonged.

Aros sighed in the background.

“Sorry,” he breathed. “Get some sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s time.”

Needing no further encouragement, my eyelids drooped shut and I joined Nyssa in the depths of sleep.

CHAPTER 27

Nyssa

I was jostled from darkness by a gentle hand and familiar undertones.

“Nyssa,” he said. “It’s time to wake up.”

I managed to crack one exhausted eyelid open, and peered up at he who dared disturb my slumber.