“In a sense,” Aidas said. “Your physical body remains in your world.” He glanced over a shoulder. “In Helena’s cave.”
“You knew about it this whole time,” Hunt accused.
Aidas’s eyes gleamed. “Would you have believed me?”
This close to Hunt, Bryce felt every muscle in his body tense. Her mate said, “The truth might have been a good start toward that.”
Before Aidas could answer, the boat approached a small quay leading to what appeared to be a temple. A figure emerged from between the pillars of the temple and descended its front steps. Golden-haired, golden-skinned.
Hunt’s lightning sparked, illuminating the whole city and river.
Apollion lifted a hand. Pure, sizzling lightning danced around it, arcing out to meet Hunt’s.
“Welcome, son,” said the Prince of the Pit.
59
Every word eddied from Hunt’s head. Apollion, Prince of the Pit, had called him—
Bryce leapt out of the boat and onto the shore, chest blazing with starlight. “What the Hel did you just say?”
No matter what tension or argument might lie between them, she’d go down swinging for him. Hunt jumped after her, wings steadying him as his boots hit the loose black stones. Apollion had called him son—
The Prince of the Pit swept down the stairs, his every step seeming to echo through the vast cavern. Another male in dark armor followed him, his tightly curled hair almost hidden by his war helmet.
“Thanatos,” Bryce said, drawing up short, pebbles skittering under her neon-pink sneakers.
Hunt had enough sense left in him to get to his mate’s side, but Aidas was already there, lifting a hand. “We are here to talk. There will be no violence.”
From within the ornate helm, Thanatos’s eyes blazed with murderous rage.
“Do as he says,” Apollion ordered the Prince of the Ravine, halting at the base of the temple steps.
Hunt’s lightning twined up his forearms, ready to strike as he growled at the Prince of the Pit, “What the fuck did you mean by—”
He didn’t finish his words as Aidas reached to touch Bryce’s shoulder. Acting on instinct, Hunt lunged, intending to shove the Prince of the Chasm away from his mate.
He went right through the demon prince.
Hunt stumbled and lifted his hands. His fingers shimmered faintly with a pale, bluish light. Bryce had the same aura around her.
They were ghosts here.
Apollion let out a low chuckle as Hunt backed toward Bryce’s side once more. “You will find that you cannot harm us, nor we you, in such a state.” His deep voice pealed like thunder off the walls.
Son. It wasn’t possible—
“Helena planned it that way,” Aidas said. His gaze remained fixed on Bryce while he explained, “During my time with Theia, Helena was a quiet girl, but she always listened.”
“You spoke too much,” Thanatos snapped.
Aidas ignored him. “Helena learned black salt would allow her to commune with us while protecting her mind and her soul.”
Just like the barrier of it that Bryce had sprinkled in her apartment, that day she’d summoned Aidas. When Hunt had still thought her a frivolous party girl, playing with fire.
“Fine,” Hunt cut in. “Great, we’re protected.” He eyed the Prince of the Pit. His very bones shook, but he forced himself past his fear, his dread. “What the fuck did you mean by calling me son?”
Thanatos scoffed. “You are no son of his.” He yanked off his war helmet, cradling it under an arm. “If anything, you are mine.”
Hunt’s knees buckled. “What?”
“Let us sit and be civilized about this,” Aidas said to Bryce, but she was peering into the shadows of the temple looming at the top of the steps.
“I think we’re good here,” she hedged. Hunt cleared his reeling thoughts enough to follow her line of vision.
He saw them, then. The dogs. Their milky eyes glowed from the gloom between the pillars.
“They will not harm you,” Aidas said, nodding toward the hounds that looked an awful lot like the Shepherd that Bryce and Hunt had fought in the Bone Quarter. “They are Thanatos’s companions.”
Hunt reached for his lightning, little that it could do in this insubstantial form. It zapped against his fingers, normally a familiar, comforting presence, but …
No one had ever known who had sired him. Where this lightning had come from.
“My concern exactly,” Bryce said, not taking her attention off the hounds. She nodded to Thanatos. “He eats souls—”