Page 26 of Queen of Tempests and Sin

‘Thank you both,’ I said quietly to Thanatos and Persephone. I released a long breath and dropped onto the bed again, grief blooming inside like a poisoned flower. Thinking about Amelia and what she had done caused a shockwave of anguish to ripple through me.

‘Going back to your question… I told my acolytes that under no circumstances was I to be disturbed. They followed orders. This isn’t on them.’ I held my brother’s gaze. His eyebrows inched up his forehead, but he gave a curt nod.

Fates, this was a high scale clusterfuck.

‘Ixion?’ Hades squinted at me.

I shrugged and looked down. ‘Probably.’

‘She had my helm.’

My head snapped up. ‘What?’

‘I sensed its presence for a fleeting second, plus the smell of cherries. But I was so worried about you, I ignored it.’

I thought back to earlier that day when I thought I’d smelled Amelia in my apartment. I’d also ignored it. Damn fool.

Hades was my closest ally, and I’d behaved like an idiot, taking my frustration out on him. ‘Sometimes we forget we are not totally invulnerable,’ I said.

‘No being is so powerful it cannot be weakened,’ Hades answered. ‘I’m glad we found you, Brother.’

After a beat of silence, Perseus spoke, ‘We found a rope and a grappling hook on the balcony. She was prepared.’ He hesitated. ‘She drugged you, Sir. There was a vial with white powder in the trash. Likely a magically infused form of Conium Maculatum, because it’s odourless.’

‘Poison Hemlock,’ Persephone muttered.

‘The only toxin known to temporarily incapacitate a god,’ Perseus confirmed.

Icy rage from my acolytes permeated the room; I had a maelstrom of emotions swirling around inside me, but the one I was trying to control was anger.

She tried to fucking kill me... For Ixion.

I stood from the bed and stalked into the living area, spying her dress on the floor. The dress I’d bought her. At the sight, fury sucker-punched my gut—it was a toxic weed rampaging inside me.

‘Theseus,’ I growled, voice low and dangerous.

‘Yes, Majesty.’

‘Do you have eyes on the tracker in her phone?’

‘I do. As we expected, she was already gone when we were made aware of events. Currently, she’s about two hundred miles away, and still going. Probably heading for a private airport.’

‘She won’t get a flight until tomorrow at the earliest,’ I snarled. Rage lit me up from the inside; blood hammered in my veins. Power coiled inside me, wild and tempestuous.

‘She’s mine… Ajax, Perseus, let’s go hunting.’

CHAPTER 10

CORDELIA

After eight hours of driving, I ended up in the arse-end of nowhere—a dusty little town about a hundred miles away from a private airport.

I’d managed to charter a private flight, but it couldn’t get me home until late tomorrow. It was now seven in the morning, and I needed a motel and some sleep.

Passing the “Vacancies” sign, I pulled into the parking lot and eyed the exterior of my temporary lodgings. It looked exactly like every old-school roadside motel, two levels, peeling paint, and a balcony-style walkway on the second floor, fenced in by a waist-high metal railing. Going to a motel was like choosing junk food: you knew it’d be underwhelming, maybe even a little bit toxic—but it was cheap, and more importantly, low-profile.

‘Hey,’ I said, stepping into the reception area with a smile for the manager—a twitchy guy, with greasy black hair and a gappy smile.

‘Room?’ he drawled.