Page 45 of Summer’s Seduction (Sinful Seasons #2)

MORPHEUS

“ B ut my father was a witch…” Larkspur pressed her palms over her eyes, shaking her head as if denial could change the truth.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. I’d planned on talking to her about my theories again, but then everything had gone to shit, and we were left picking up the pieces.

“The man who raised you was still your father,” Hecate soothed. “Just not by blood. Odysseus was the last king to sit on the throne, but your birth father must have been a witch because I feel my magic running through your veins, as slight as it might be. Your mother, Dahlia, can be traced back to the goddess.”

“Epialos,” Larkspur whispered, her brows furrowed. I recalled the name of the man in Larkspur’s memory—when she’d been trapped in a nightmare. “That’s what my mother called the man who claimed to be my father. Who is he?”

Hecate shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

I stepped forward, letting Larkspur know I was there for her if she wanted, but I didn’t try to soften this. She deserved the truth, and it seemed like Hecate was the only person who could give it to her.

“How did my father and Egerius know?” I asked, my eyes narrowed on The Goddess of Witches. I’d had my suspicions about Larkspur’s true identity only after I’d glimpsed Larkspur trapped in a nightmare, but there was no way Hecate, Hypnos, or Egerius, for that matter, could have known who she was.

“I suspect Hypnos and Egerius recalled the scent of her blood.”

My wings snapped wide as my grip tightened protectively over Larkspur’s waist. “If they harmed her?—”

“They didn’t,” Larkspur cut in. “I mean, they did, but not in the way you’re thinking. They imprisoned me.”

The last sentence came out in a disbelieving rush. My little monster’s brows were furrowed, her eyes distant and focused on a long, forgotten past.

“I was in the forest wandering through the mist toward a stream. It was too cold to swim, but I liked to climb up and sit on top of the large boulder beside it, dreaming of what life would look like when I finally escaped my mother.

“There was an attack on the palace. I remember being unable to tell ash from mist as the two mingled together to create a heavy, suffocating cloud. Night Children took to the skies. I watched as their dark wings cast shadows across the moon while steel clashed. I was so afraid.”

My wings bristled, but I fought for control, letting Larkspur work through this.

“Mother found me. I thought I was safe when she grabbed my hand and led me away from the battle, but then Egerius found us.”

Larkspur’s tortured gaze found mine, still lost in the past but seeking encouragement in the present. I took her hand, my wings extending protectively around her. She leaned into my warmth, soothing some of the tangled knots in my chest.

“My mother left me at Egerius’s feet,” Larkspur breathed, tears rolling down her cheeks. “She turned and ran, abandoning me—all but killing me herself.”

Larkspur’s breathing grew ragged, her heart hammering with pain and grief and rage. I wish I could bear this burden for her. I’d only just learned how gut-wrenching it felt to have a parent—one of the only people in this life trusted to keep you safe—turn on you. And it was devastating.

“Hypnos captured you and placed you inside The Glass Palace,” Hecate finished. “Hades and Thanatos found your mother’s body, and there was no evidence of where you’d gone. It wasn’t until we found you wandering around the marshlands to the west that we realized you were alive.”

“I don’t understand,” Larkspur shook her head, seeming to return to herself as she pinned Hecate under a hard glare. “Why do you seem to know these details about my life when I can’t remember anything?”

Hecate swallowed, and it was the first time I’d seen her look nervous. “I know because I was the one who placed a binding on your memories.”

My stomach twisted as I felt Larkspur’s fury swirling together with tendrils of fear and deception.

“Why,” my little monster gritted out through clenched teeth. “Why steal my memories, and why wait till now to tell me?”

Hecate glanced toward the mouth of the cave, hearing distant movements of Artemis and the huntresses, before looking back to Larkspur. “I couldn’t risk you staying with me, not with how closely I work with The Olympians, but Medusa hid you for decades. She taught you how to hone your magic until she couldn’t shroud your power any longer.”

“Larkspur lived in The Underworld for decades?” I asked as Larkspur leaned into me. She’d burned through a lot of magic helping us escape Lycia, and though my little monster didn’t want to admit it, she needed to rest.

Hecate nodded. “Medusa and I consulted The Oracle of Delphi. We knew you couldn’t remain in The Underworld with such power, not when Hypnos had already discovered you once and slaughtered your entire family.”

I flinched, feeling guilty that such a horrible creature was my father, even more so that I’d been too weak to do anything. Hecate must have seen the small movement because her following words were directed at me.

“You were a boy when all of this transpired, Morpheus. You were the one who discovered her tracks leading away from The Glass Palace and concealed her escape. I doubted you knew how big of an impact that small bravery would create, but even as a child, you were never aligned with Hypnos.”

Something in my chest clenched under her praise because it didn’t help lessen my shame. Even knowing how horrible Hypnos was, it had still taken me decades after that day to stand up to him. Countless lives had been torn apart before that one prisoner had finally given me the courage to change. Feeling like a failure for the second time this evening, I glanced down at Larkspur, imagining her as a little girl wandering through the north alone.

“The Oracle warned that binding memories could get a little messy. Those involved in Larkspur’s childhood might have been affected.” The goddess wrung her hands, causing the white snakes tattooed along her forearms to dance.

“It wasn’t an option I took lightly, but all other futures ended with you crossing The Lethe before your allotted life thread and The Underworld falling. The Oracle was lax on the details, but it sounded like if you died, it would lead down a path of war and death without Hades to clean it up. So, I bound your memories and a vast portion of your magic and placed you with Soterio in The Realm of The Living. He raised you the way life would’ve been if you’d been born only a witch and not the princess of The Nightmare Kingdom.”

Larkspur was quiet for a long moment, the churning rage inside of her growing thicker by the moment. The pressure in the air shifted like thousands of particles becoming charged, and I swear I felt anger prick along my skin like a hive of crawling ants. Finally, she spoke.

“You mean to tell me I was powerful enough to have my magic bound?”

“Yes.” Hecate glanced at me, wary of the calm, low voice Larkspur was using. “The Oracle said you must not be imprisoned by Hypnos.”

“It wasn’t ideal, but you were safe?—”

“I was suffering,” Larkspur cried, the pain of haunted memories causing her voice to break.

Hecate’s dark green eyes pricked with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. “I didn’t understand what was happening between Demeter and Hypnos. If there had been another way, I would’ve taken it, but The Oracle said?—”

“Fuck The Oracle,” Larkspur snapped. “And the fates.”

Hecate’s eyes widened as the cloudless sky above us seemed to darken.

“Are you telling me that all of this—having my home destroyed, my life erased, my sister taken, and then forced into a place where witches were murdered and worse—all of this was part of some plan divined by The Oracle? Because that seems pretty fucked up.”

“The Oracle sees only what might be,” I breathed, feeling the churning storm inside her about to erupt. She looked like she was trying hard not to scream. I held her gaze, letting her take what little strength I had left because she needed it.

Truth be told, I thought this whole thing was fucked up, too. The fates either had far less power than we thought or were the worst type of primordials. Either way, raging about things out of our control wouldn’t help Larkspur now.

Larkspur’s breathing evened out, most of her panic fading before she turned to face Hecate once more. “Has Psyche had her memories and magic stolen too?”

Hecate’s eyes softened as the footfalls of the huntresses grew louder from behind us. “She was another recused soul brought to Soterio just before we relocated you. She is a witch… and something else. I wasn’t the one who found her, but I know she is the daughter of a forgotten king and queen and was fleeing two wicked siblings.”

“But she is still your sister,” I whispered as I felt Larkspur’s pulse race. I wove my fingers through hers.

“Psyche hasn’t had her memories altered,” Hecate said, her voice dropping as the others neared. “She’s spent most of her childhood viewing you as her big sister. I tried, but something about her power, even as a child, prevented it from working.”

My spine stiffened under Hecate’s description of Larkspur’s sister. Most of those secured in The Glass Palace were creatures rivaling those of Tartarus or enemies of my father who had done unspeakable things. There were a few political annoyances, and some had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time… but power like Hecate described was rare. So rare that there’d only been one who came to mind—the young girl I’d seen seven years ago when I’d finally realized I didn’t want to be Hypnos’s puppet any longer.

“Did her power feel like it had pushed its way inside you?” I asked, doing my best to ignore the way Larkspur’s head whipped around. “Like she could sense all of your thoughts and emotions—could read your soul—and then force you to feel all the parts you wanted to hide?”

“Yes,” Hecate breathed. “There was no hiding the truth from someone who saw only that.”

I’d assume Larkspur’s sister would have similar features to her, or at least a similar magic system. Still, if the two had never been related by blood, then the young girl I’d led to my father’s prison cells—to the ones he reserved only for those he took a keen interest in—was Psyche.

Larkspur ripped her hand from mine as she stepped back just as the huntresses and their goddess emerged from the cave. “You knew where she was this entire time and didn’t save her?”

Artemis narrowed her eyes on me, her body tensing as if she were contemplating eviscerating me on the spot.

I grimaced as Larkspur’s fists clenched, wanting to explain why I’d left her sister there that would make this better, but there was nothing. So, as weak as it would sound, I settled on the truth.

“Hypnos made me escort her from the lower cells to the top tower, the one with the spire still piercing the snow.” Nausea twisted my gut as I watched the tenderness in Larkspur’s gaze shift to mistrust. “She took my hand right as we reached the door and told me, ‘All is as it should be.’”

“Say the word, Larkspur, and I’ll send him to The Lethe,” Artemis promised, but Larkspur paled at my words, stumbling back as if I’d slapped her. The others turned worried glances her way, stepping toward her for protection as if I’d take advantage of her vulnerability.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” I stammered, afraid I was losing my little monster. Knowing that she deserved so much more than a fucked-up coward like me. “It was like she was speaking in my mind, telling me that was where she was supposed to be. I know it sounds crazy, but I left feeling like I’d done the right thing like we’d meet again when the time was right.”

Larkspur looked like she’d seen a ghost. She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and tried again.

“Psyche told me the same thing the day we were captured.” Larkspur took a shaky breath, tears pricking her eyes as she forced the words out. “I was in the forest that morning. I didn’t know they were in danger until it was too late. When I got there, The Night Children already had Psyche bound. Lucius was there.”

“Lucius?” I asked, eyes going wide.

“He tried to help her, or at least I think he did. He also didn’t tell The Dark Ones I was there.”

My brows furrowed as I tried to piece him out. So much shit had gone on between the two of us. We’d been close as brothers after having been raised by Egerius, the one commander among Hypnos’s army who had a shred of kindness to him, but he’d chosen to stay. He had withdrawn primarily from Hypnos’s service in favor of Egerius’s, but I knew he carried out horrendous tasks, just as I once had. So, why cover for Larkspur when Psyche was taken? Why save her life a second time when Egerius was actively trying to end mine?

“Psyche must have gotten to him, too,” I whispered, connecting the pieces. “He withdrew from Hypnos’s service just before I did. It must have been her.”

“I am sorry for the cost your sister has had to pay,” Artemis said, speaking directly to Larkspur. “But we must focus on what we can control at this moment. Hypnos would’ve heard of our visit to Lycia. Whatever moves he was planning have just been accelerated.”

“You think he’ll attack?” Hecate asked.

“I think we can’t afford to have any weaknesses, not when we’ve been playing a game with half the deck.” Artemis glanced from me to Larkspur, her warning clear.

“I trust him,” Larkspur said, pointedly not looking at me, but Artemis nodded.

“I have funeral rites to bestow on my fallen huntresses once Hecate’s blessing has been given. Afterward, I'll find my brother with the intent of gathering as many allies as possible to end Hypnos and any who stand with him once and for all.”

“You’re sure Apollo will be on our side?” Hecate asked. “He spends most of his time in The Above with the Olympians.”

“We’re twins,” Artemis answered as if the idea they could have differing opinions on something this large was preposterous. “Do you have any idea where Hypnos and Areas might be holding their army?”

“We think Hermes is working with them, too,” Hecate added. “She’s blocked all connections from our realm to The Realm of the Living, except one.”

Artemis grinned, the look more feral than any wild beast I’d seen. “The lost portal of The Nightmare Kingdom.”

Hecate nodded.

“Tell Hades I will meet him there at dawn in three days’ time. I intend to smoke out the traitors among us and then let my arrows fly.”