Page 40 of Castor
I touched his arm, and he glanced at me, a sad smile touching his lips. He didn’t say anything as he grabbed his bags from the trunk.
The building rose high in the air, and I arched my neck to look up before we passed under the doorway and entered the main lobby. Cream-colored marble floors, golden walls with red trim, and reflective ceilings screamed of elegance. Dark red-and-brown couches sat to the right, and a few center columns had round divans circling them.
The man at the front counter smiled as he saw us and hung up the phone. Other patrons in the lobby nearly broke their necks to watch us as we passed by. I was sure we were quite the sight. Raiden stood the tallest at six foot seven, but the rest of us weren’t far behind that. I was the shortest at six foot.
Alastair checked us in before we took the elevator up to the presidential suite. The spacious room had a king-sized bed, a huge living space with two long couches and a fancy red armchair, as well as a balcony that had a view of the city and port in the distance.
“Oh no,” Bellamy said, setting his luggage down. “There’s only one bed. What are we gonna do?”
“Get that grin off your face, Lust.” Castor lightly shoved Bellamy’s shoulder. “I’m not spooning with you.”
“I’ll cuddle with you, Bell,” Raiden said. “But only if you hand-feed me chocolate-covered strawberries.”
“I reserved the executive suite as well,” Alastair said, handing Bellamy the key. “Everyone get some rest. At nightfall, we leave for the island.” He then walked toward the bedroom and closed the two doors behind him.
“He’s hogging that king bed all to himself.” Bellamy shook his head. “Selfish prick.”
“I heard that,” Alastair called from inside the room.
Bellamy and Raiden grabbed their luggage and left for the executive suite while Castor and I walked out onto the balcony. Since we’d napped on the plane, we weren’t tired. The view of the city was beautiful, but it was the quiet, red-haired Nephilim at my side that captured my attention the most.
He closed his eyes as a soft breeze swept around us. “Piraeus was once the most important port in the Greek world with the largest naval base. With Athens so close, the Athenians used it for their fleets, and it prospered for many years.” When his eyes opened again, they held a soft shine. “I lived outside of the city, but my mother would bring me here sometimes to look at the ships. Usually, it was when my father returned home and we’d go out as a family.”
His father. A fallen angel who had fought for Lucifer. The wordfamilycaught me off guard.
“You were close with your father?”
Castor nodded and rested against the balcony railing. “To so many, he was a ruthless killer. But to me? I admired him. Wanted to be just like him. I didn’t know at the time who he was fighting for or what wickedness he was helping spread through the world. All I knew was he loved me and my mother something fierce. How is that even possible? For a man to be so evil, yet so good at the same time?”
“I don’t know.” I stood closer to him, our arms touching. “I guess even villains have the ability to love. Did your mom know the truth about him?”
“Looking back now, yeah, I think she did. But she loved him anyway. And gods, how he loved her. He always looked at her as if she were a goddess. Treated her like one too.” Castor moved his gaze to the harbor. The sun shone on his face, making his green eyes sparkle like maybe they were emeralds after all. “My brothers had different upbringings than me. Galen’s father left before he was born. Alastair never speaks of his, but our mind link has shown me things, much to his frustration. His father was a cruel man whose sole purpose was proving himself to Lucifer, even if it meant harming his own son. Meanwhile, my father taught me to fish, how to ride a horse, and he told me stories before bed.”
I held my silence, unsure what to say. It was the longest conversation we’d ever had that didn’t involve banter or throwing each other down and fucking like animals.
Castor brought forward his dagger and stared down at it. The sunlight reflected off the gold hilt and danced across the gems. “He gave this to me. One of my favorite stories when I was little involved a dragon who lived in a mountain surrounded by treasure.”
“A dragon, huh?” I bumped his shoulder.
“Don’t get a big head.” He smiled, but like the other times, there was a hint of sadness to it. “In the story, the dragon saved a young soldier. He took the man back to his mountain and healed him. Befriended him. Years later, a king marched on the mountain with an army to defeat the dragon in hopes of taking all of his treasure. The soldier was one of the king’s men and sacrificed himself to save the dragon. In his grief, the dragon transformed the soldier into a golden sword so that he may always stay by his side, beautiful and strong. Eternal.”
I regarded the dagger in his hand. It was a symbol of the love his father had for him.
“I thought I lost it,” Castor continued. “Lazarus showed up after my eighth birthday and took me from home, forcing me to leave everything behind. I returned ten years later to find rubble where my home once stood. War had destroyed everything. But I saw a glimmer of gold and found this dagger in the ruins. I’ve kept it with me ever since.”
“What happened to your mother?”
Pain clouded in his eyes. “She took her own life when my father was killed.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No,” he said, a crease forming in his brow. “But I did nothing to save him, which is just as bad. Lazarus killed him while I stood there and watched. I couldn’t move.” He trembled a little. “What kind of person just stands there and does nothing while his father is killed?”
“Lazarus brainwashed you.”
“Brainwash,” Castor said with a humorless snort. “Maybe so. He trained us to hate Lucifer and anyone who followed him. He taught us the evils of the world and how it was our purpose to stop it. Yet, he wasn’t wrong. As much as my father loved me, he still fought beside Lucifer to destroy humanity. When the time came to stop Lucifer, I had to pick a side. Fight for mankind or help my father destroy it.”
“That’s quite the predicament.”
