Page 30 of Bonds of Hercules
We were back in the villa where I’d gotten married.Where they devoured me sexually, and I liked it.Perversion really crept up on a person.
The altar was gone, but the grand staircase, dramatic windows, and ceiling fresco were the same.
Kharon stalked toward me across the waxed marble floor, hellhounds prowling at his feet. He was stopped by a servant, a tall man in a dark cloak who looked more like a warrior than a housekeeper.
Where’s Augustus?
I looked around in confusion.
Patro and Achilles were both staring at me—one with haughty smugness, the other danger.
I’d chosen them because they were the lesser of two evils,but from the way Achilles’s eyes were narrowed, I wasn’t so sure that was true.
Chest tightening with dread, I shuffled closer to Drex.
Crack.
Augustus appeared a few feet away, smoke rising around him.
I gasped.
A boy stood beside him.
They were of similar height, but where Augustus was powerfully built, the boy was skinny and lean, his shoulders hunched inward like he was trying to hide.
Charlie.
“For you, my carus,” Augustus said as he held my gaze. “Persephone has agreed that he can join Helen in tutoring—she said he’s turning eighteen on April 1st, barely a year’s difference—it will be good for both of them to have a classmate until they’re nineteen.”
Charlie shook his head at me. The movement was barely a twitch and no one else saw. Persephone had lied; he would turn nineteen in a few weeks.
I opened my mouth to respond, but no sound came out.
Augustus’s expression softened. “Get a good night’s sleep—your training begins tomorrow. We only have a week to prepare for Titans.”
Augustus addressed a servant with a fierce scowl. “Raisethe perimeter defenses.”
There was a whirling groan—the atrium vibrated, amphoras and bronze statues rattled—outside the grand windows an electric fence slowly rose from the earth.
“It’s to keep the enemy out,” Augustus said coldly.
The Titans or Medusa?
“The Olympians.”
Drex choked.
Augustus turned and walked away, back ramrod straight,shoulders tensed. He snapped at Achilles and Patro, something about weapons and a board meeting.
A bad feeling settled into my gut.
Screw Sparta and its convoluted politics.
Blond hair blurred in my blind spot—Charlie slammed against me—he smelled like clean soap and the forest at dawn.Home.My still-aching bones creaked under his strength, but I squeezed him back fiercely.
Long moments passed as we held each other.
Someone tapped my shoulder.
