One week later...
"Are you sure about this?" Melancton halted in the doorway.
Vander nodded and set a backpack full of clothing and supplies down. "I need to find the rest of the Arcadians. With Orestes gone, Calix missing, and Dionysus with the syrinx, it is time to bring them together again."
Melancton worried about Vander going off on his own. What happened if he came across the Boeotians? Calix's life could still be in peril if they hadn't killed him. "Pan said he could handle it."
"He's a father now. I want him to stay out of the fight as much as possible. He deserves his happiness. Ariston's human, and you and Jacen are here. Open the inn back up, keep business in order, and all will be well." Vander smiled lightly and grabbed his phone and charger off one of the end tables.
For all intents and purposes, things would be normalized soon on the business end of things. Hermes had saved the day by ensuring any investigation the police were organizing was shut down. He'd switched the DNA samples with opossum blood. Human exposure threat: no longer an issue. Jacen would be running The Aegean Inn while Vander was away.
"Are you sure this has nothing to do with Bremusa?" Melancton asked. He'd caught him researching vrykolakas online the day before.
Vander pressed his lips tightly together and then sighed. "It has nothing to do with her, but if I find her, I will show no mercy. She rendered me incapable of lifting a finger to save my friend."
"She was only tracking Daphne to earn her freedom from the Olympians. You do not know the full story." Melancton didn't meet her, but she'd sounded like bad news. "Jacen told you this."
"He did, but I don't need to know the full story because I have no interest in locating her."
Melancton wondered if he spoke true or if he only wanted to believe that, but Vander could not separate what she'd done to him from what had happened to Orestes.
At least they could rest easy knowing Orestes' soul was where it should be. Hermes had ensured the proper burial rights were performed, and then personally ushered him across the river Styx with Charon and into the Elysian Fields.
Vander pulled on a jacket. "What about you? Isn't Daphne supposed to leave with Hermes shortly? I imagine letting her go without you will be difficult." He took his panpipes out of the backpack and deposited them into a deep jacket pocket. "Like to keep it close, you know?"
The corner of Melancton's lips tilted upward. "He will return her. I hope the endeavor brings her closure, whether she finds the advice she seeks or not. Watching her suffer tears me asunder." Daphne took Calix's abduction personally and seemed to believe she could have prevented him being taken if he'd trusted her with the syrinx. Melancton had pointed out that they had the syrinx and no reason to take him, but they had. It didn't matter to her.
Hermes arrived in much better shape than he'd been in the morning he came back from Tartarus. He eyed Vander's pack. "Cyprian is closest. He's not too far from where Ariston was, but more North. He's in Virginia masquerading as a game warden."
"Thank you. Keep Pan away from this. He's impulsive. He'll try to go straight at Dionysus." Vander shook Hermes' hand.
"Trust me—Kat, Ariston, Lily, and Hybris are keeping him trapped in Greece. All they have to do is dangle little Leonidas in front of his face and boom, argument over."
"Hybris, huh?" Melancton smirked. Daphne told him about her assisting Hermes in her escape from Olympus. Hermes deserved a little romance, even though he didn't seem thrilled by the prospect of it.
"Don't go there. Trust me. Don't. Long history which I do not intend to repeat. She's rebuilding bridges with Pan, at least. One board at a time. Which is great, but I try to avoid her as much as possible."
"Uh, huh." Vander chimed in.
Changing the subject, Hermes asked, "I can drop you off in Virginia. Save you on gas."
Vander shook his head. "I have to do this on my own. I need some time to think."
Melancton could understand that. He'd spent as much time alone as he could until Daphne returned to his life. Now she was all he needed, but he'd gained so much more than that from Vander and the others.
Daphne entered the room and smiled warmly. Then she noticed Vander's pack. "Leaving so soon?" She was worried for him, had told Melancton as much, but Vander needed to come to terms with what happened to Orestes, and it wouldn't hurt to have the rest of the Arcadians together again.
"Want to cover as much ground as I can before night fall. I already have the rest of my stuff in the car."
Daphne hugged Vander. "I wish you would stay, but I understand why you have to do this. Thank you for everything. I only wish it hadn't ended...as it did."
He nodded but busied himself with slipping on his pack.
She turned to Melancton. "You're not mad about me going are you?"
"You are leaving me for him?" He pointed at Vander, whose eyes bulged. Melancton laughed, which only made his eyes widen farther.
"He makes jokes now?" Vander asked Hermes, much to the rest of their amusement.
Melancton inhaled Daphne's wildflower scent and dragged her into an embrace. "Daphne, I know you wouldn't go unless you needed to. Cease worrying. I shall remain here awaiting your return."
Whispering so only he could hear, she said, "I will always come back. I'm never leaving you again." She turned to Hermes, "I'm ready."
The cave was located on the side of an island protruding from the ocean. Waves crashed choppily against the entrance behind where Hermes landed and set her down. A subtle glow ahead flickered and swelled. As she took a step forward, Hermes grabbed her wrist and stalled her.
"I'll be right here. When you're ready to leave, let me know." He released her and added, "Tell them I said hello, would you?" He winked.
Smiling despite herself, Daphne journeyed ahead until the light became more defined and revealed itself as the fire beneath a boiling cauldron. A flat, low stone shaped like a bench stretched between it and her. The Fates were perched on a similar stone on the opposite side. They passed around a crystalline orb, their appearance alternating between youthful and withered. She sat on the unoccupied stone, and the Fates raised their heads in unison to observe her.
"I told you she'd come back," said Clotho, and she handed the orb to Atropos. Her beautiful auburn form returned.
"Hello, Clotho." She nodded at the others. "Lachesis. Atropos." Clasping her hands in her lap, Daphne added, "Hermes sends his regards."
The three tittered among themselves.
Atropos pushed the orb into Lachesis' palms. Lachesis glanced at her sisters, sighed, and set the orb by her feet, also returning to her youthful appearance, not wanting to be left out.
"Why are you here, dear one?" Atropos asked.
"Didn't you know I was coming this time?"
"Yes." Lachesis stretched. "But we like to give visitors the benefit of the doubt as they demand Fate answer to them on a whim."
Daphne blinked. Is that how they saw her? Disruptive? Petty?
Clotho glared at her sister. "Rude. Daphne is our friend. We shall treat her as such." When she spun back around, Daphne relaxed.
Atropos leaned closer. "You wish to know the fate of one of the Satyroi?"
"So many to choose from," Clotho said.
"I know which I'd choose," Lachesis added. At her sisters' startled gasps, she shrugged. "What? You think I look at them in my orb and don't lust? Please." She seemed to have lightened up over the years.
Deciding to bring them back on topic before they were too distracted by Lachesis' lasciviousness, Daphne said, "I'm not so much asking to know their fates, but wishing to know if there is anything I can do to help them. One of their friends died because they sheltered me from Apollo, and—"
"Apollo?" Atropos spat. "Zeus still won't let me cut him."
Daphne smiled at the reminder of her first meeting with the Fates.
Lachesis, ever the sensible one, chimed in. "You worry about three, but we can tell you of only one."
"You must choose."
"Only one."
"But—" she started.
"Melancton," Clotho said, nodding.
"Evander," added Lachesis.
"Or Calix," Atropos finished. "Only. One." Lest Daphne forgot.
It wasn't fair, but she wouldn't argue. She had to think, and quickly.
She was desperate to know if, by helping Ariston change his fate, that she'd saved Melancton from the violent end the Fates prophesized would occur. Adonis had survived, but Orestes ultimately did not. Could she live knowing anything bad would happen to Melancton?
No. She hung her head. If she knew, it would be a giant weight on their shoulders, depriving them of any future happiness. Orestes' death already haunted them, so it was safer, and perhaps healthier, to rule him out.
Vander, however, had ventured into the world to track down the remaining Arcadians. She knew he did not long to be a leader, yet he was embarking on a voyage which would make him one. The prince was off claiming his kingdom, preparing for war. If it came to it, would knowing the future make it easier? Could she help him change the outcome if it didn't end well?
What about Calix? Did he still live? If so, for how long? He'd taken Orestes' death the hardest. Jacen told her when the four of them split apart a long time ago, Calix and Orestes were the first two to reconnect and had a bond of friendship so strong, they'd never been apart since.
She could not let him die too. She had to do something.
"I choose Calix."
Atropos nodded, Clotho cocked her head and studied Daphne as though she'd expected a different answer. Lachesis smiled and said, "The blond one over the prince and the lover. Surprising. He's the most insignificant to you, yet you seek his fate. Why?"
"Knowing Melancton's fate may hurt our future. Evander is on a quest of his own making. Calix is a prisoner. I've lived most of my life captive, and if I can spare him, I will."
"So noble." Clotho sighed.
"So brave," Atropos agreed.
Lachesis shrugged again. "And he's hot." Atropos smacked her in the back of the head. "Ow!"
"Focus. We're serious oracles of destiny. Not teenaged, lust-happy nincompoops."
Clotho giggled and earned a glare from Atropos before she picked up the crystalline orb. Once again, her skin wrinkled and sagged, her eyes turning milky white. "Calix...Calix...ah, yes." She stared at the orb for some time and then blinked up at Daphne. "He is where he needs to be."
"Excuse me?"
"His fate is not a gentle path. He will grieve and suffer before he sees light once more. Should you interfere, his life will end before it is predestined."
Clotho's brows bunched together, and she added gently. "Go back to Melancton, enjoy your life. Make love. Calix must find his own path back."
"Fates are ones' own to steer, unless, of course, someone holds the threads." Lachesis snickered at her own joke. When no one joined her she added, "Do not fret for Calix."
Disappointment pierced her gut as Daphne thanked them and returned to Hermes. One glimpse of her expression apparently caused him to fear the worst. "Uh oh. Grim face. Either they told you nothing useful, or they said something you didn't want to hear."
"Nothing useful is something I do not want to hear," she griped.
"Ah, well," Hermes said. "At least you tried. That's more than most people can say."
Night had fallen by the time Daphne strolled into their new bedroom on the third floor of The Aegean Inn and shut the door. They'd claimed the one across the hall from Jacen and London on the third floor, the one which shared access to the balcony. The glass door lay open wide to face the abandoned building across the street, as it had for the past week. A reminder, to them both, they were no longer caged.
Melancton was reclined in bed, awaiting her return. He set his book down on the bedside table next to the one illuminated lamp. The rest of the room remained dark, and he found no problem with that.
"Were the Fates obstinate in what they would share as you feared?" Melancton held her close after she climbed in bed with him. Just because they had allowed her to tamper once, didn't mean she was special to them. Friendly or not.
"First, they made me chose whose fate was more important to know between yours, Vander's, and Calix's. I thought knowing Calix's would be helpful. That maybe we could atone for Orestes by saving him. Do you know what the Fates said?"
"I will once you tell me."
She smacked him lightly on his chest. "They said he would make his own fate and my interfering would disrupt it. Then they told me to go home and make love to you."
"Mmm. Well, if the Fates command it, perhaps you should concede to their wishes." He kissed her neck in a spot she found extremely ticklish.
"Stop it. I'm brooding. Hermes said I was allowed to brood before I shrugged it off and dealt with the fact I cannot help Calix." She shifted and glanced at the thin white sheet. "Are you naked under there?" Daphne picked up the edge and peeked.
"I was waiting on you. See, the Fates know all."
She gave him an unamused expression. "You're only saying that because you're horny."
"Horny satyr jokes never cease to entertain," Melancton said in a dry tone as she reached up and delicately traced one of his horns.
"But they're so fun." She bit her lip and added, "Do you ever regret that we can't break your curse?"
"Never."
"I do."
Melancton drew her onto his lap. "Indeed? I have stamina that matches yours, and we both have an immortality to share together." He brushed her hair from her eyes and his thumb slid across her bottom lip, causing her breathing to hitch. "I never want to live without you again, and now I don't need to."
He kissed her, savoring the feel of her body against his, of her soft lips, her sweet tongue, her scent. Everything about her was perfect, and perfectly his. Most importantly, at long last, he never had to fear Apollo taking her away again. A bittersweet happiness passed over him.
The death of Orestes had been a tragedy, and if Melancton could go back and spare them all the loss of a truly good man, he would. But Orestes had wanted them to be happy. He'd given them a chance. To not honor him by living, well, that would render his sacrifice worthless. Though he wondered if he'd ever go a day without thinking about that night.
Melancton leaned his head back, and waited until Daphne's eyes opened and she sat up. "Marry me."
"What?"
"Be my wife, Daphne. I have wanted to ask you since the day we met, but then there was the impending battle, and then the curse, and—" She kissed him to shut him up. Melancton was almost embarrassed to have rambled on as such.
"Of course I'll marry you. Nymphs do not marry lightly, you know. Men often only want us for sex."
"Well, the sex is a bonus...
They laughed together, and she reached over to turn off the lamp. Daphne allowed Melancton to strip her of her clothing, and then they celebrated their love and newfound freedom until the sensations were so great they needed rest.
"I love you, Melancton," Daphne whispered as she curled her body against his, already dozing off.
He watched her fall asleep against his chest, her breathing slow and even, her hair sprawled over her shoulder and chest, mixing with his own long, dark locks. She was real, no longer a memory he clung to when he could escape the despair of life without her long enough to dream. She was his, and the pleasure of that knowledge alone overwhelmed him.
"I love you too, Daphne." He brushed the hair out of her eyes and settled into a better position, wrapping an arm around her protectively. "And I always will."