Ravaged: An Eternal Guardians Novella (1001 Dark Nights)

by Elisabeth Naughton

  Silas leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table. “Olympians can’t cross into Argolea. It was the one safeguard Zeus put in place, to protect the Argonauts from Hera’s wrath. But that safeguard turned out to be a source of frustration for Zeus. See, Ari took the nymph to Argolea. He tended her wounds, gave her a place to live, and eventually they fell in love. But when Zeus discovered Ari had stolen his prize, he was livid. Since he couldn’t cross into Argolea himself, he sent his Sirens to get her back. There was a confrontation. In the struggle, Ari’s soul mate was killed.”

  It was the same story Daphne had heard from the Sirens. With one minor change: in the telling she’d heard, the nymph hadn’t loved Ari. He’d recognized her as his soul mate, kidnapped her, and she’d been trying to escape his clutches when the Sirens arrived to rescue her.

  “Ari lost it then,” Silas went on. “The death of a soul mate is like losing half of who you are. He withdrew from the Argonauts, went into isolation in the human realm, struggled to deal with his grief. Months passed, but he couldn’t find the strength to return home. His son Cerek wouldn’t give up on him, though. Cerek tracked him down, tried to bring him back, but Ari refused to go. When it became clear to Ari that Cerek was never going to give up on him, he faked his death. You saw those scars on his neck?”

  Daphne remembered the scars she’d seen up close last night in the library. “Yes.”

  “They cover the whole left side of his body.”

  “From what?”

  “A fire. One he set on purpose. His son thinks he’s dead. Most everyone does.”

  Everyone but Zeus and Athena and the Sirens. Daphne tried to imagine the scene but couldn’t. Tried to imagine what it would take to isolate one’s self so dramatically, but came up blank. Even in her darkest moments, she’d never wanted to be alone, which was why she’d jumped at the chance to become a Siren when she’d been chosen.

  “It wasn’t until after all this that Ari started having his episodes,” Silas said.

  “Episodes?” Daphne looked back at the male across from her.

  “Spans of time where he completely blacks out. He’s not aware of what he’s doing while in these episodes, but he has flashes of them afterward, and of the things he’s done while in them. From what we’ve been able to discern, the episodes are usually triggered when he senses Sirens close by.”

  Daphne’s head was suddenly spinning. Zeus and Athena had implied he killed Sirens in his crazed need for revenge, but if that were the case, he would have started killing them as soon as his soul mate died. What Silas was describing made it sound like Ari’s “episodes” began after he’d left the Argonauts. Months after his soul mate was already gone.

  That didn’t sound like revenge at all. It sounded like...a curse.

  Daphne opened her mouth to ask more, but before should get the words out Silas went on.

  “For a while, he kept himself locked in this hold. Thought if he isolated himself, he could stop the episodes. But his duty was too strong. The need to protect is engrained in his Argonaut DNA. He now runs his own missions, hunting daemons and safeguarding the people he swore to defend ages ago. But any time he has a blackout, it weighs heavily on him. Thankfully, they’re few and far between these days.”

  Daphne’s brow wrinkled again. Zeus had made it sound like Ari’s attacks were stepping up, not lessening.

  Silas shook his head. “Things changed a few months ago, though, when one of Ari’s friends called asking for his help. Nick is one of the few people from Ari’s old life who knows Ari’s still alive. I was hesitant about Ari traveling to Mexico. Offered to go with him but he wouldn’t let me. You see, he hasn’t had an episode in quite a while, and I was worried about how he would react. Turns out Ari didn’t encounter any Sirens on his trip, but something did happen there. When he came back, he was different. Sullen. Moody. No longer laughing and lighthearted as he’d been when we were renovating this place.” He looked up and around again. “He’s never said exactly what occurred, but I think seeing his old friend made him realize what’s missing in his life—friendship, family...love.”

  Daphne’s head grew light. Did she have those things? Definitely not love. She’d never known a male deep enough to fall in love. And with her parents gone, she had no family left. She had friends, though, didn’t she? Her Siren sisters were her friends. But even as she tried to convince herself of that fact, she knew it was a lie. The way Sappheire had left her in the woods without a single word of comfort or encouragement proved she wasn’t a true friend in any sense of the word.

  “He reacts to you in a way I haven’t seen him react to anyone else,” Silas said. “He’s nervous around you. Not in a dangerous way, but in an interested one. I’m not trying to set you up, just to be clear. That’s not my goal. I simply think your being here is good for him. It forces him to see that he can be around others and not flip out. And he needs that. He needs to see he isn’t the monster everyone believes him to be.”

  Daphne stared down at the table, taking in all this new information, trying to process it, trying to fit it into what she’d been sent here to do. He still killed Sirens. That fact was irrefutable, and she couldn’t ignore it. But if he didn’t know he was doing it, if he really was cursed in some way, then that made a huge difference to her.

  She needed to spend more time with him. Needed to figure out if Zeus or Silas was correct. Then she’d know how to proceed.

  “I don’t want you to think he’s dangerous,” Silas said. “He can be a grouchy pain in the ass sometimes, but he’s never had an episode while he’s been in the hold, and as I said, the only ones at risk when he does are Sirens, which you are clearly not.” A half smile curled his lips then faded. “But yes, I’d like you to stay. If you’re amenable to the idea. At least until I return.”

  She was. But not for the reasons he wanted.

  Knowing she couldn’t agree too quickly, Daphne bit her lip. She still needed to play the damsel-in-distress role. No matter what she decided to do about the Argonaut in the end, she couldn’t let her cover slip. “He won’t want me here. Especially if you’re gone. He pretty much told me last night to get lost.”

  “I know.” Mischief filled Silas’s light-blue eyes. “That’s why I have an idea. The question is simply whether or not you’re brave enough to go through with it.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Daphne wasn’t sure about Silas’s so-called plan. He wanted her to take the damsel-in-distress façade one step further and insist Ari teach her self-defense. She had to admit it wasn’t the worst idea out there, but she wasn’t a hundred percent sure she could pull it off. Sure, she sucked at marksmanship, but she knew full well how to take care of herself.

  Like you did with those daemons?

  She scowled at a book on the shelf in Ari’s library. Told herself no one stood a chance alone against a horde of daemons—especially unarmed and wearing those stupid shoes Athena had given her. But even as she tried to justify it to herself, a little voice in the back of her head whispered, You’re not Siren material, and you know it.

  Shaking off the voice, she wandered through the library, looking at books and trinkets on the shelves. Silas had started a fire before he’d left, and even though the room was warm and cozy, she couldn’t seem to relax. Reading didn’t sound the least appealing, she didn’t feel like tackling a puzzle, and she was too keyed up to sleep. Nerves humming, she wandered from room to room, wondering when Ari was going to return. Wondering how he’d react when she proposed her little “you teach me to fight and I’ll agree to leave you alone” plan.

  She stopped outside the wing that led to his suite of rooms. Drew a deep breath. Knew she shouldn’t invade his privacy but wanted to know what he kept locked behind this door. To her surprise, the handle turned with ease.

  A hallway led to a wide-open bedroom suite complete with a simple bed, another fireplace already burning thanks to Silas, a sitting area, closet, and a door partway open to a bathroom. The room wa
s sparse, nothing hanging on the walls, only two pillows and a plain white blanket on the bed. No pictures or trinkets or anything that personalized it as his. She moved to the closet, flipped on the light, and eyed the scattering of clothes hanging on the rack. All rugged. All made for being in the elements. All boring colors and way too functional fabrics.

  Turning out of the closet, she looked over the room again and couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness for how boring his life must be. Silas had said he kept himself closed off from people. This room was a reflection of him—simple, empty, lonely.

  An image of her room back on Olympus filled her mind. White walls, white furnishings, white bedspread and pillows. No pictures on her walls either. The only thing of personal value in her room was the stack of books she’d collected.

  Telling herself she wasn’t anything like the crazy Argonaut, she headed back for the hallway that led to the door. The last thing she needed was for him to find her snooping in his space. But just before she got to the hall, she noticed another door she hadn’t spotted in the shadows when she’d first entered.

  She pushed that door open and stepped inside. Darkness surrounded her. Feeling along the wall, she found the switch and flipped it on. Light flooded the room from above. She let her eyes adjust, then scanned the space. A scuffed wooden desk took up the middle space. A couch sat across the room. Shelves stuffed with books lined three whole walls. But her attention landed and held on the fourth wall, on the giant world map stretching from one corner to the other.

  Her brow lowered as she stepped closer and looked at the tiny red flags stuck in various locations across the earth. They were scattered all over Europe, Asia, North and South America, even the Arctic. But it was the symbol on each flag that made her eyes widen and her stomach draw up tight. A bow and arrow cut by the Greek symbol for sigma.

  “What in Hades are you doing in here?”

  Ari’s voice boomed at her back, but Daphne didn’t turn to look, didn’t move, couldn’t take her eyes off the map.

  “You’re supposed to be gone.” He moved back to the door, mumbled, “Skata,” then yelled, “Silas!”

  Daphne’s gaze swept over the map, both disbelief and dread swirling in her belly to form a hard, tight knot. “You’re tracking Sirens.”

  “Where the fuck is Silas?” he demanded.

  She couldn’t believe it. Silas had made her think Aristokles didn’t hunt Sirens on purpose, but this map proved otherwise.

  She whirled on him, no longer caring if he was upset she’d invaded his space. He was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, his face flushed from the cold outside, his dark hair mussed, his bare feet insanely sexy against the hardwood floor, but she ignored the way he looked and focused on the facts. “Why are you tracking Sirens?”

  His gaze narrowed. “How do you know what I’m tracking?”

  She pointed toward the map. “Because I’m not stupid. I know the Siren symbol. You are hunting them.”

  A steely look crossed his features as he stepped slowly back into the room. “What do you know about anything I do?”

  “I know—” Her mouth snapped closed when she realized she was about to give everything away. “I’ve heard stories. About an Argonaut who hunts Sirens. It’s you, isn’t it?”

  He glanced toward the map with all its little red flags, then back at her. But he didn’t say a word.

  “Answer the question,” she demanded.

  He still didn’t speak. Just stared at her with hard, narrowed eyes. And she knew instinctively that he wasn’t going to answer, but she needed the truth once and for all.

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared at him, no longer caring how this impacted Silas’s silly plan or what Zeus wanted. “Silas is gone. He left to get supplies. Why are you tracking Sirens?”

  “Stupid half breed,” Ari muttered. He glanced toward the map. Still didn’t seem to want to answer, but after several long seconds said, “Not that it’s any of your business, but this is for avoidance, not tracking.”

  “Avoidance of what?” she asked skeptically.

  “Sirens. I have a personal distaste for their Order. I started mapping their movements years ago so I could stay well out of their way. That’s why I picked the Snoqualmie National Forest as my home base.” He pinned her with an annoyed look. “Happy now?”

  No, Daphne wasn’t happy. She glanced back at the map. There was only one Siren flag in the Pacific Northwest, south of their location, but still close enough to Stonehill Hold where he could get to the location quickly if he wanted. “What happened to those Sirens?” She looked back at him and pointed toward the map. “The ones marked there in Washington?”

  He scrubbed a hand over his forehead. “I’m not going to get rid of you, am I?”

  “Not until you answer my questions.”

  He dropped his hand to his side. “I’m going to fucking kill Silas.”

  When she only continued to glare at him, he scowled. “I don’t know why you care but there was only one Siren in that location, and I never personally ran into her. She, luckily, was too interested in a different Argonaut to taunt me.”

  Sirens didn’t taunt. They lured. But Daphne didn’t bother to explain the difference because she knew it would be lost on him.

  She looked back at the map, taking in the flags all over Europe, following the intricate lines he’d created of the Sirens’ movements, thinking of the hours and months and years it must have taken to compile this information. But her awe drew to a shuttering stop when her gaze landed on a collection of flags marking a location in Northern Greece.

  “What is this?” She stepped toward the map, her eyes growing wide. “Why are all these flags grouped together in the Pindus Mountains?”

  “What are you looking at now?” he muttered.

  Fabric rustled, indicating he’d moved further in the room, but she didn’t care how close he was. The pressure pushing on her chest was all she could focus on. “Here.” She pointed. “Marking this tiny village.”

  “Because Sirens were there. Just like every other mark.”

  “I get that,” she said calmly when all she really wanted to do was scream. “But why so many? And what does the black flag in the middle mean?” Her gaze skipped over the rest of the map. There were only a few other black flags on the map, randomly scattered over the continents, but if there was a pattern to their marks, she couldn’t see it.

  “Black means they wiped it out.”

  Everything inside Daphne went cold. “Wiped what out?”

  “The entire village.”

  Daphne’s heart felt as if it skipped a beat, then picked up speed until it was a whir in her ears. Her hands grew sweaty. Her legs swayed. He couldn’t be right. The map blurred in front of her eyes, but somehow, she found her voice and asked, “H-how?”

  “Gods, you’re curious.” His feet shuffled. “If I tell you, will you go?”

  “Yes! What happened?”

  Panic was rising in her voice. She could hear it herself. Several minutes of silence ticked by, but she didn’t turn to look at Ari. Couldn’t because she was too afraid of what she’d see. Truth? Lies? She wasn’t sure which she wanted at the moment.

  “It was like twenty years ago,” he said at her back. “Zeus has always had a thing for nymphs, and this village was made up of nothing but nymphs. There was a female there he wanted. Simple thing. Wasn’t interested in Olympus or the gods. But you know Zeus. He always gets what he wants. He pursued her, but she repeatedly turned down his advances. When he grew aggressive, she threatened to call the Argonauts in to protect her.”

  “Argonauts aren’t sworn to protect nymphs.”

  “They’re sworn to protect the human realm from otherworldy threats. Zeus can be a definite threat. Anyway, Zeus didn’t like the ultimatum. He backed off, let her think she’d won. When enough time had passed and she’d let down her guard, he sent his Sirens to teach her a lesson.”

  No. No, no, no, no, no. It couldn’t be true.
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  “I heard they burned the village, top to bottom,” Ari said. “When they were done, there was nothing—and no one—left. Nice girls those Sirens, huh? Now you know why I avoid them.”

  The room spun around Daphne. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be.

  “You seem shocked by this,” Ari said. “Sirens have killed hundreds of thousands over the years. Anyone Zeus wants gone. What does one little village in the middle of nowhere matter to you?”

  The map blurred. Flames flared in Daphne’s memory, cries for help echoed in her ears. Hot, burning tears threatened, followed by a wave of pain she thought she’d put behind her long ago.

  “I...” Pushing away from the desk, she bolted for the door, rushing past him, needing space, needing to think, needing to figure this out before the memories swept her under and devoured her. “Get out of my way.”

  * * *

  Ari was cold, wet, and more than a little frustrated. He’d spent the last twelve hours tracking a horde of daemons across two ridges before losing them in the snow. All he wanted was a hot shower, food, and a few good hours of sleep—in that order—so he hadn’t been happy when he’d stumbled into his rooms and found the nymph who was supposed to be long gone invading his space.

  Only now, food and sleep were the last things on his mind. Now all he could think about was the way she’d bolted out of this room as if she’d just relived a nightmare.

  He looked at the map again, eyed the flags marking the location where that village used to be, then pictured Daphne’s sickened face. And finally put two and two together.

  “Skata.”

  He turned out of his room before he thought better of it. Was on the stairs before he even realized where he was heading. And pushed her bedroom door open before he could stop himself.

  The room was empty.

  For a fleeting moment, he thought maybe she’d left, then realized there was nowhere in this wilderness for her to go. He turned out of the bedroom and headed back for the staircase. Halfway down, he caught a flicker of movement through the tall, arching windows across the great room and stopped.