Wave of Memories: The Sons of the Zodiac Read Free

wasn’t all that surprised to note, despite that regret and all that had come before, he still wanted Meg with a desperation that tightened his chest and left him practically gasping for air.
    Why her?
    He’d asked himself the question so many times through the centuries he’d lost count.
    There was no answer to the question. Nothing that could explain this fierce need for someone he was clearly not meant to have. Aidan took another sip of his beer—now in a nice pilsner glass as Callie wouldn’t allow bottles at her table—and keyed back in on the conversation.
    “You say Tyrus has revealed himself?” Montana’s quick assessment of the situation was refreshing, her acceptance of who and what they were absolute. “But how? From what you’ve just outlined, he was a boy centuries ago. And he’s not one of the warriors, correct?”
    “No,” Meg confirmed, her long fall of rich brown hair framing her face like a lover’s caress. “He’s not a warrior, but he’s been turned immortal by someone. Earmarked by another god for their use. I knew it the moment he began stalking me that it was him.”
    “A mercenary?”
    “Sort of,” Meg acknowledged. “Although I suspect he’s more like a pawn. A pawn with immortality and an attitude to match.”
    “Who’d give that piece of shit immortality?” Aidan heard the growl in his voice before he smarted inwardly at the pain the name Tyrus could cause even after all this time.
    “Aidan’s right,” Quinn added. “It’s not to anyone’s benefit to start turning humans at whim. Especially one who was so crafty at violence in life. Tyrus and his father and their aide to Sparta nearly turned the tides of battle. Even the members of the Pantheon can’t be so stupid as to think giving him immortality is a good idea.”
    “Is he Enyo’s?” Aidan thought that might fit, the Goddess of War was always more than happy to impress a “few good men” into her service. Add in his expertise in battle and they’d be a near perfect match.
    Meg shrugged but those light brown eyes focused in on him for the first time since they’d sat down. “It’s hard to tell. From what I’ve been able to piece together from the little he’s revealed to me in our game of cat and mouse, he was turned around the same time you were. Almost like a retaliation against Themis.”
    Her last words were whispered and Aidan felt the sharp lance of guilt and need and residual anger that was never far from the surface rise up and grab him by the throat.
    He’d earned his turning, damn it. He’d worked hard and had never given Themis any doubts that he belonged in her service.
    “That was more than two thousand years ago.” Aidan shook his head, still unable to make sense of how Meg’s past actions tied to what was currently happening to her. “It has to be something else. Some other reason.”
    “Meg and her sisters have grown powerful in the last several centuries,” Callie interrupted in a solemn voice. “As the human population has grown, so has their power.”
    “The same could be said for all of us, Callie,” Quinn argued. “As protectors of humanity, we’re sure a hell of a lot busier than we once were. And no one could have called the Middle Ages easy.”
    Montana laid a soft hand on his arm and Aidan didn’t miss the flash of understanding—or the clear bond—that lived between them.
    “But your powers are unchanged. Meg’s power has grown, as has her sisters’. They are Furies. With each successive act of selfishness by humans, they grow stronger.”
    “You believe that’s why I’m a target?” The already pale skin of her cheeks grew whiter as Callie’s words sunk in.
    “Yes.”
    “And the gods don’t like to share power,” Montana whispered, the memories of her own ordeal months prior clearly stamped across her face.
    Silence fell as Quinn’s free hand covered their joined ones and it was long moments before Montana spoke again. “What is your power, exactly?