Page 90 of A Touch of Chaos

“No,” she said.

“No?” he asked, increasing the pressure against her throat. He felt her swallow beneath his hold. “Or never?”

She did not answer, and after a moment, he dropped his hand, pleased by the way she seemed to slump when he released her. He thought he almost liked her fear more than her acquiescence.

“If you had said never, I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said. “And then I would have killed you.”

She didn’t even blink, and he could not decide if she was brave or foolish.

He had played this game for years, and he knew the kind of person she was—an opportunist, eager to please so long as it meant a ride to the top—and he was willing to indulge her until she was no longer useful, though he had no doubt she was planning to stab him in the back before then.

It was a good thing he was invincible.

Helen turned, and he watched as she retreated, speaking only as she made it to the door.

“His name is Acamas,” he said, and when Helen looked back at him, he offered a warning. “I know yourloyalty is tied to ambition, Helen. Just remember you can’t rise from the dead.”

Theseus teleported to the Asclepius Community Hospital.

When he arrived, he expected Tannis to greet him in the hallway outside Phaedra’s door but found it abandoned. In fact, the whole wing was quiet. His immediate reaction was not to overthink—perhaps Tannis had cleared the wing and gone inside to help Phaedra prepare for her departure.

When he entered, he found Tannis, but he was not with Phaedra. He was on his knees. Perseus stood behind him, a gun pointed at the back of his head.

Theseus closed the door.

“Tell Lord Theseus where his wife is, Tannis,” Perseus said.

There was a brief pause, and then in a quiet tone, Tannis said, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know,” Theseus repeated. He looked at Perseus and then around the room, but there was no sign of their belongings. “And what about my son?”

“I…don’t know…my lord,” Tannis said.

“But he was born?” Theseus’s voice trembled.

“I heard his cries.”

Theseus clenched his teeth. Each word only succeeded in making him angrier. He could not describe this feeling, this rage, but all he could think was that he had had a son and now he was gone. It was the only thing he could think and that…surprised him.

“Whendid you realize he was missing?”

“The doctor never left the room,” Tannis answered.

Never left.

Never left.

He fixated on those words.

Never left.

Someone had certainly left, and they had taken his wife and his child.

His property and legacy.

Theseus regarded the bodyguard for a moment and then met Perseus’s gaze. The demigod pulled the trigger, executing Tannis with a single bullet to the back of his head. Theseus had no more use for the man who had failed to protect his wife and child, no need to ask him any more questions. He knew who was responsible for this.

Ariadne.

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