Skybuilders (Sorcery and Science Book 4) (10 page)

Leonidas felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and turned to find Ariella giving him a reassuring smile. He must have looked even sicker than he felt.

“Could you get him to pull himself together? We’re in a rush and don’t have time to wait and see if he’ll vomit on the next creature that crosses our path,” Silas said to Ariella.

“Shh, give him a moment. He’s worried about Marin.”

They were talking like he wasn’t even there. Again. Leonidas grunted.

“Ah, he’s advanced to animal noises. It shouldn’t be long now,” said Silas.

Leonidas wondered what Marin could even see in the behemoth Elition psychopath. Sure, Silas made the men that graced the covers of bodybuilder magazines look like scrawny stick figures. Leonidas wouldn’t have been surprised if the Elition could tear boulders apart with his bare hands. Or perhaps, it was the eye-changing act? Leonidas could understand how many women would fall for that, but Marin? She was too smart for that. She
should
have been too smart for that.

But then why did she hang on Silas’s every word? Why did she totter on after him like a lost puppy? What was so great about him? He didn’t even care about her. She was a curiosity to him, that was all. He didn’t deserve her.

“Why are you here?” Leonidas growled.

Silas looked at him, eyes narrowed. “What are you going on about now?”

“Why are you here?” he repeated. “You don’t seem to have any real feelings, unless you consider grinning sinisterly evidence of emotion.”

“Leonidas,” Ariella said quietly.

But he was too pissed off to heed any warnings. “So if you don’t care about anyone, why are you out here, risking your neck for others in a magically infested forest?”

For a few seconds, Silas was silent. His eyes pulsed a few times, but that was all. As soon as Leonidas had decided the Elition was not going to speak, Silas surprised him.

“King River made it my duty to protect the sons of Ambrose Selpe.”

“Duty?” Leonidas snorted. “You expect me to believe you’re doing all of this because of a job? People aren’t like that. They don’t do things without some personal reasons. No one is that selfless.”

“Just because you are entirely governed by selfish motivations, does not mean we all are.”

“Entirely…governed…” Leonidas spat back.

“You are a pleasure seeker, Leonidas Chase. Your attention perpetually wanders from one thrill to the next.” His brows arched. “And from one woman to the next.”

Leonidas swung out to punch the smugness off his face, but Ariella was faster. She caught his fist, then when he swung the other around, she caught that one too. He pushed forward with all his strength, trying to get to Silas, but she held him in place. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck and his muscles screamed, but she didn’t even look the least bit strained. Damn Elitions.

“Stop,” she whispered, her voice as calm as a sleeping lake. “You don’t want to fight Silas.”

No, he didn’t. He glared at her anyway.

“Let him go, Ariella. If he’s so intent on seeking out a beating, there’s nothing you can do for him.”

Ariella shifted to block Silas from Leonidas’s sight. Well, most of him. Silas really was a behemoth. Even a mountain couldn’t hope to completely conceal him.

“If you want to save Marin, we all need to work together. We
will
save her, Leonidas,” Ariella promised.

Leonidas tried to glare through her at Silas. “I don’t trust
him
.”

“You don’t have to. You just need to trust me. Marin helped us. I will not let her be a victim of some sinister plot.”

Leonidas looked into Ariella’s violet eyes and read the same determination that he saw in his own whenever he looked in a mirror. He decided he could trust her. Ariella’s shoulders relaxed as Leonidas unclenched his fists and took a step back.

“It’s a good thing you look more trustworthy than I,” Silas told Ariella. He stood with arms crossed, fingers tapping the slender silver knives strapped above his elbows. “Or maybe he just prefers a woman’s touch.”

“Hush, I just got him calmed down,” she replied.

“I trust Ariella because I can see her motivations for being here.”

“She’s here for the same reason I am. Duty,” Silas said. “Hayden and Ian Selpe are half-Elition, and King River has told us to keep them safe from harm.”

“She’s here because her best friend is very fond of the boys. As is she. Those are called feelings. Feelings may be selfish, but I can trust someone if I understand their motivations. That’s the problem with you, Silas. I don’t know why you’re here.”

“Then you weren’t listening. Allow me to say it again for your benefit.” Silas flashed his white teeth. “King River made it my duty to protect the sons of Ambrose Selpe.”

“Bullshit,” countered Leonidas.

Silas stiffened. “I beg your pardon?”

“I heard what you said, and I smell bullshit.” Leonidas scrunched up his nose. “There’s a real reason. Somewhere down beneath that glacial front of yours there’s a feeling screaming to get out. What is it? Vengeance?”

Silas said nothing. His glare did not waver.

“No, that’s not it. Perhaps money?”

One look at Silas told Leonidas it wasn’t that either. Then what? Leonidas’s eyes fell over the metal chain around Silas’s neck. Usually tucked neatly inside his shirt, the medallion dangling from the end had come loose. Formed from bronze and iron, the shape most resembled a rose with melting petals. He didn’t recognize the symbol, but it seemed
—
unsurprisingly
—
to be of Elition design. Silas was too functional to be burdened with jewelry when he could have used the space on his body for additional weapons. The necklace had to be sentimental or
—
Leonidas realized uneasily
—
a weapon. He was banking on sentimental.

“A woman?”

The corner of Silas’s lip twitched ever so slightly. The movement was gone again so quickly that Leonidas had nearly missed it.

“Ah, so that’s it, is it? Who gave you that necklace?”

“Irrelevant.”

“But it
was
a woman.”

Silas did not answer. He didn’t have to. His eyes told all. Leonidas had never seen them burn so white before. The glare was blinding. Even Ariella was staring at him.

“The question is what does this mystery woman have to do with Hayden and Ian Selpe?” Leonidas wondered. An impossible thought came to him. “Wait, you’re not their father, are you?”

Silas continued to glare. Maybe Leonidas was onto something.

“Silas,” Ariella said, nudging him in the chest. “This isn’t true, is it?”

“Of course not,” he growled. “Don’t be ridiculous. If I were their father, they would look entirely Elition.”

“Right,” she said, reddening. “Sorry. I should have thought of that.”

But if Silas’s sour face were any indication, Leonidas was on the right track. The boys’ mother. Before she’d hidden her Elition identity to become Ambrose Selpe’s wife, she’d been the high priestess at an Elition temple.

“You knew her. You knew Livia Selpe,” he said to Silas. “She’s the one. The reason you’re here.”

The Elition fingered the links of the chain around his neck. “I knew her as Livia Cross.”

“Cross?” muttered Ariella. “As in
—
”

“As in the younger sister of Jasmine Cross,” Silas cut in. “The bloodline that ruled Elitia from the time the sixteen kingdoms were united until eleven years ago.”

“Eleven years ago, Jasmine Cross was killed,” Ariella said, her eyes drifting up in thought. “Livia died just a year later. Avans both times.”

“And?”

She puffed out air, rustling her silver bangs. “It’s suspicious is all.”

“We have all the conspiracies we can handle right now, Ariella. We need to concentrate on Hayden and Ian. What happened all those years ago is irrelevant,” Silas told her.

Leonidas bottled the urge to point out that what happened all those years ago was the reason Silas was even here. Surprise, surprise, the man actually had real feelings. He wondered what had happened between Silas and Livia. Why had she abandoned Elitia—and everything she was—to be Ambrose Selpe’s empress?

It must have tortured Silas to serve as protector of the man who had taken his love, and yet he had done his job with unwavering vigilance. Perhaps too much vigilance, Leonidas thought, remembering once again how Silas had held him out of a window on suspicion of plotting against the emperor. And now, even after Ambrose’s death, Silas was protecting Ambrose and Livia Selpe’s children. Leonidas would have loved to hear the whole story, but he was pretty sure Silas would feed him to the two-headed peacock if he dared to pry into it.

“You’re right, Silas,” Ariella replied. “We need to concentrate on our current problem, not the past.”

Leonidas was surprised by the disappointment that laced her words. He never would have pegged her for a mystery chasing sort of gal. It was the sword on her back. Definitely. Swords screamed, ‘I viciously behead problems that dare to stand in my way’, not ‘I solve problems using thorough investigation and sound reasoning’.

An eerie chorus of howls burst into a wretched song that promised death. Leonidas couldn’t see whatever it was that had made the noise, nor did he care to stick around to discover yet another mythical creature was in fact real. And most certainly not a pack of mythical creatures.

Ariella had drawn her sword, and Silas stood ready with his twin knives. No, make that twin insanely-large-two-handed swords that anyone else would have fallen over trying to hold up but Silas handled as though they weighed no more than steak knives.

Leonidas drew his slender daggers, mere toothpicks next to Silas’s entourage of weaponry. He waited beside the Elitions, deciding to follow their lead. He’d never fought a magical creature before, whereas Silas was an encyclopedia of beastie trivia. Another howl tore through the forest, this time closer. It was answered by a shriek from above. Thunder roared in the sunny sky, and lightning pierced a nearby tree. The giant trunk cracked and echoed hollowly, balancing precariously in place for a second before crashing through the underbrush toward the ground. Thankfully, it happened to fall away from them.

The shriek split through the sky once more, and Leonidas caught the hint of orange and yellow feathers. A bird the size of a whale. That could summon lightning. Yeah, they were in trouble.

“No, not there. The bird is harmless,” said Silas.

According to Silas, all birds were harmless, even the two-headed saw-toothed ones and the ones that spit forth lightning bolts.

Silas elbowed him, drawing his attention to the ground. Three black-haired beasts were coming through the trees. They looked like oversized dogs
—
only Leonidas had never seen a dog with fire-red eyes. The dogs glared, drooping their jaws. Saliva dangled from their hungry lips. Two more emerged behind the first three. The air stank of burning metal and flesh.

“Hellhounds,” Silas explained as the dogs’ numbers continued to grow. There were eight of them now.

“Weaknesses?” asked Ariella, warming up her sword arm.

“They’re tough animals. Decapitation is your best bet,” Silas advised. “And don’t let them touch you. They’ll burn your skin right off.”

He nodded toward the nearest beast. As it approached, the fallen leaves and grass beneath its paws crumbled to ash. It was getting crowded on the narrow path. The hellhounds’ numbers were up to eleven, and they were shifting around, trying to surround their prey.

“On second thought, our best bet is to retreat,” said Silas.

Leonidas was sure he must have misheard.

“Run!” Silas shouted, darting back as the front dog lunged at him.

He took off through the trees. Leonidas and Ariella didn’t wait to follow him. The hellhounds sang out in unison, an ear-splitting howl that promised a painful death. Then the dogs bounded off after them.

Leonidas could hear the rasp of their synchronized panting, high on the hunt, close on his heels. He pumped his legs as fast as he could will them to go, cursing his ridiculous costume. When he had put it on, he’d entertained no notions of fleeing from gigantic fire dogs. The Selpe Intelligence Network claimed their suits were designed to meet the demands of even the most rigorous of physical activities. They could stuff it. The heels of the boots were too high to run in, and the jacket constricted his arms.

He darted between trees, focusing on the silver shimmer of Ariella’s ponytail to guide him. Three hellhounds hopped up onto some overhanging trees and took a running dive at him. Leonidas dodged, but the trees simultaneously combusted behind him. Sweat dripped down his neck and drenched his back. His breaths were growing stuttered, but he could only push himself faster. The alternative was to let the pack eat him alive.

A ladder loomed before him, its top disappearing inside the canopy. Ariella had already ascended out of sight, and Silas was nowhere to be seen. Leonidas’s heart pounded hard, rumbling his chest as he sprinted the rest of the way there. Shaking and exhausted, he scurried a few clumsy steps up, nearly falling off as the ladder shuddered. Something had hit it. He gripped on tightly and chanced a quick glance down.

Silas stood on the other side of the pack, his arms extended. Two of the hellhounds lay motionless on the ground at the foot of the ladder. The rest were facing Silas, snarling as they paced. As two of them lifted off from the ground, their legs wheeled with furious kicks, struggling against the invisible force holding them. They were catapulted over Silas’s head and smashed headfirst into a tree behind him. The others closed in, pushing him back. He stumbled and regained his footing. There were still seven of them, and Silas didn’t look up to any more mental acrobatics.

Ariella scurried down the ladder, pausing just above Leonidas.

“Wait,” he told her.

“There’s no time. Silas needs our help.”

A dog lunged at Silas. He sidestepped, but the circle was too tight. Another dog sank its teeth into his leg. Silas roared as smoke seared off of him. He shook his leg, but the beast held on. Gritting his teeth, he swung his sword down in one neat stroke. The hellhound’s decapitated body dropped to the ground. Silas pried the teeth off his leg and kicked the head at the pack. Burning saliva dripped from their growling mouths, splattering the ground. Silas jumped back from the line of burning grass.