"For my guests of honor," Deius booms, leaning forward in his seat.

I stare over at Aidon, but his eyes are on the coffins, pupils flared wide as he swallows compulsively. He begins to rise, taking my hand to draw me up with him, but I don't budge.

"You...you drink from humans? But I thought—Ichor..."

"Syntrofos didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" I'm glaring up at him now, suddenly fighting back a sensation like a frightened bird trying to escape my ribcage.

Flashing a sideways look across the table to his bemused brother, Aidon sits back down, taking my hands in his.

"Gaia's criminals. The truly hopeless ones. The murderers and rapists. They send them to our side. It's part of the treaty."

I just stare at him, frozen.

"And you...drink from them? Over time, or you drain them completely?"

His brows knit together. "We drain them," he says. "There's no stopping once you start when it comes to living human blood."

Many of the others are staring now. I don't care.

"How could you take part in this? It's barbaric! It's not even necessary!"

"Kore—" he pauses, takes a deep breath. "It's tradition. These people would just be put to death some other way. And though we don't need real human blood, it's good for our health to have it occasionally. Very good, actually."

I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. But some distant, detached part of myself apparently does. In that moment, it takes over.

"Guardian," I say, standing and whirling to face the floating orb. "Call for Syntrofos to join me. I'm going back to the Corvus."

"Kore, please," begins Aidon, but I'm already on my way to the lift. The others are all murmuring to each other now. Deius gets up from his seat, trailing after his brother as he follows me. But I get to the lift in the next instant to find Syntrofos waiting for me behind its sliding doors. The moment my guardian crosses the threshold, I press the control panel to snap them closed.

"You know what happened, I take it?" I ask as I select the first floor and the lift begins to drop.

"Yes. Your Guardian flashed me the footage. I'm so sorry, Kore. I didn't realize it would come up so soon, and I just felt—from my analysis of your current mental and emotional state—that this was something it would be better to ease you into. I didn't realize it would come up so soon."

I just shake my head, burrying my face in my hands as I lean against the wall. The lift comes to a stop and the doors slide open.

We're halfway across the bridge back to the main house when Aidon catches up with us.

"Kore, please. Wait. Can't we ju—"

I whirl on him.

"You should have told me you were a monster at the start. I had a right to know what I was marrying,"

He freezes, cloak whirling around his suddenly rigid form as he stares down at me. In that moment, I could swear the air grows colder.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Then he takes one step closer, and I can feel something building in him. It's all I can do not to take a step back.

"I asked you if you were sure," he says, voice barely above a murmer—but with an edge of a growl to it. "I gave you a chance to turn back. You knew what they call this place. And you accepted it. I thought you accepted me."

My lips part as I begin to shake my head, to argue...though I have no idea what I intend to say. But he forges on, taking another step closer.

"You knew Gaia puts its worst criminals to death. Knew it and accepted it. But now that you're faced with how it's done, you take issue? We can't help what we are, Kore. You don't even know what it is we're giving up, in how little living blood we consume. You haven't experienced it."

"And I never want to!"

Aidon laughs derisively. "That's because you're brand new. It's a thirst, a longing, a need that builds with time, once the last of your own human blood has gone from your veins."

"I'll resist it."

"Will you? Will you resist it when the ones who tried to assassinate your sister are caught and sent to us and we've wrung every last bit of information from them that we can?"

"I..." my heart constricts, a sudden burst of rage alighting within at his mention of the attempt on Eurydice's life. "I don't know," I admit. Even now I can feel the edge of his need through our connection. Even just seeping into the periphery of my senses, it's distracting. Awakening things within me that I'm not ready to face.

It might be the real reason I turned and walked out.

His icy eyes tighten around the corners.

"You will soon enough, I promise you. How do you think I manage to visit Gaia without being a hazard to the humans there? How do you think you’re going to do it?” He flings an arm out and back, towards the tower. “You drink your fill before you ever step foot in the dome. It’s the only way.”

When I have nothing to say to that, he exhales briefly through his nose and turns from me.

"Go back to the Corvus if you like. I and the other monsters have certain niceties to attend to. I'll join you in no longer than an hour"

"You didn't even want to come to this party to begin with," I protest.

He opens his mouth to say something more—but then closes it again, jaw setting into a hard line. Then he turns from me and strides away.

~*~

Back in the Corvus's narrow sleeping quarters, a sudden enormous crash of thunder jolts me out of a red haze of unpleasant thoughts and confusing emotions.

"Again with that? Syn, wha—" Another rumble drowns out the rest of my words. Then I'm up, shoving my shoes back onto my feet, Syn and the Guardian hurrying after me as I dash out of the Corvus and back through the house to the tower. "What's happening?" I call to my companion, knowing he'll be picking up on all kinds of flashes from the other Synthes on the scene.

"A duel. Between Deius and—"

"Aidon." I grit my teeth. "But he doesn't even have a thrall with him."

I slide to a stop outside the entryway into the ground floor of the tower, jaw dropping open and hands flying up to cover my ears just as my husband rolls out of the path of a third lightning strike. Even from here, I can tell that there's something different about him. The power radiating from his essence has intensified tenfold, and there's a feral sort of joy in his eyes even as he dodges the attack. In the open space over the metal tree, a pair of airborne figures slash and strike at one another before coming together in a tangle of limbs and fury.

One of them is Deius—electricity crackling around the silvery-white wings now sprouting from his back. The other's a cloud shrike, the big, terrifying creatures that hunt the skies over the relatively temperate regions along Styx. But there's something off about it. It's not until a chunk of flesh breaks away and lands with a meaty splat several paces away that I realize it's dead and decomposing.

Both their Guardians are nowhere to be seen—deactivated somewhere out of sight beyond the delighted crowd.

"Syn," I reach for his arm as he comes up beside me. "Lightning can't kill a Variant, can it?"

"No," he says, squeezing my arm with his and placing his free hand atop it too. "Only severe damage to the heart or the complete destruction of the brain."

I let out a deep breath as my husband avoids another close call. "Good."

The next instant, Deius and the shrike come crashing to the ground, their struggle to incapacitate one another intensifying. But each time Aidon avoids a bolt of lightning, his control of the new thrall falters. The next strike sears the edge of his shoulder, burning his shirt and cloak—giving Deius the chance to roll out from beneath the grip of the shrike and free himself entirely. He grins, fingers extending into claws as he lashes out to tear at the fleshy membrane of the beast's wings before dashing to its side, ducking low, and slashing its tendons.

Then he's a blur, making straight for Aidon. As he closes the distance, his claws come together...forming a long bony spike which he drives straight through my husband's chest and out the other side.