“What if it’s not Alpha Tarva? What if it’s his sister, Acantha? She might have planned it all.”
“You have a theory?” he asks.
I always have a theory. “She eliminates all of you and then sets herself up as Alpha Sinta. That way, she doesn’t have to kill her brother or her nephews, which could prove difficult, she ends up with allies next door, and she still gets her own throne, which is all she really wants.”
Griffin frowns. “Alpha Fisa won’t want two realms allied against her. Would she attack?”
I’m having trouble thinking over my excruciating headache. I take a deep breath, but it doesn’t help. “She’d strengthen her border, but I don’t think she’d attack. She’d probably think no one would dare invade Fisa, and not be too worried if they did. Fisans are pretty convinced of their own superiority.”
“You don’t say?” Griffin drawls.
I give him the evil eye. It doesn’t feel very evil. “Magic is strongest in Fisa. It has the biggest chunk of the Ice Plains, and the Fisan royals are the only ones still blood-related to the Origin.”
“The Origin? You mean the first king of Thalyria?”
“He was a God, remember. Zeus’s son. Half-Olympian, half-Titan. A combination of the old Gods and the new. Zeus created Thalyria for him.”
Griffin curses. “Does that mean Andromeda has God-like power?”
I shake my head. “She’s very powerful, but the line is too diluted for that. It’s been thousands of years. Gods are immortal, not unkillable. The Origin’s demigod offspring, two sons and a daughter, turned on him. They beheaded him and then fell into war with each other, eventually splitting their father’s kingdom into three realms: Sinta, Tarva, and Fisa.”
“And Andromeda is the only living descendant of the Origin?”
“Andromeda…and her children.”
His lip curls in distaste. I think I turn a shade whiter, but I was probably pretty pasty to begin with.
“Does she hold Zeus’s favor?”
I swallow, my chest tightening with indefinable emotion, the echo of a booming voice swelling in my head. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Griffin asks. “She’s his blood relation.”
She’s not the only one…
Griffin is so capable that I sometimes forget we come from completely different backgrounds. In the south, people learn to fight and survive, farm and build, make and trade. Everything is like the climate, gritty and real. Ancient history is irrelevant, and Gods are worshipped, not studied. “Zeus hates infanticide because he was almost swallowed whole by his own father. In my opinion, Andromeda has brought about the death of too many of her own children to hold Zeus’s favor,” I explain.
Griffin looks out over the crowd, his eyes cool and assessing, his bearing confident and proud. People watch us curiously, but no one dares approach our private alcove. The guests here aren’t stupid enough to bother the Alpha wolf in his den. “The Power Bid is in motion. There’s no turning back.” Griffin shifts his gaze back to me. “So let’s do it our way.”
“Do what?” I ask.
“Take over the realms.”
I stop breathing. “Excuse me?”
“We’ll bring things full circle. No more divided rulers. One kingdom, like the Origin’s.”
“Who? Where?” I sputter.
“Us. Wherever you want.”
And I thought I felt sick before. This conversation is giving me a new appreciation for the dangers of tachycardia. “Ambitious, aren’t you?” I ask, trying not to hyperventilate.
“You think I’d be here if I wasn’t?”
“You already have a realm. We could all die in a war. We could destroy it all.” I could destroy it all. “It’s not worth it.”
“It is worth it. We could change everything.” His eyes suddenly blaze, turning a luminous gray. “That’s what you told me in the oracular dream.”
“I… But…”
“It’s why Poseidon brought us together.” Determination darkens his features, molding them into his conqueror’s mask. “I understand now. It’s what we’re supposed to do.”
“No.” All I can do is shake my head, stubbornly denying what sounds too true. “No.”
Turning to me, Griffin smooths his hands down my arms. “I know you’re scared, but maybe we can avoid an all-out war.”
“How?” I croak.