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WITH HIS HANDS CUFFED BEHIND HIS BACK, ARIK DIDN&039;T flinch or struggle as M&039;Adoc hauled him into the sanctity of the triumvirate&039;s hall He&039;d never been inside this place before, not even in dreams It was the sacred douarded it from all the rest of their kin

No one knehy, but Arik had to give the guys credit It was an opulent palace old that they&039;d constructed here It was fit for a dreaod and even Zeus would be at home The council room where they as decadently comfortable with padded chairs and even a laptop computer that was so out of place as to be funny if Arik wasn&039;t about to die

M&039;Ordant was seated before it, and as they cauarded expression that showed both confusion and shock-two emotions he shouldn&039;t have "Dae this one?"

M&039;Adoc shoved Arik against the solid glass table, the corner of which bit into his hip bone and bruised hi out at M&039;Adoc But Arik had given his word and so long as the god kept his and didn&039;t harainst every part of his genetic ed as he ly In exchange for our keeping his hu the stunned look on M&039;Ordant&039;s face

"Was there no fight?"

Arik turned his head slightly as he heard D&039;Alerian&039;s deep voice from behind him He couldn&039;t see him, but he could feel D&039;Alerian&039;s presence Of the three of them, his had an unmistakable aura He wasn&039;t the most powerful, but his presence could be felt all the way to the ht me," M&039;Adoc said in a sinister tone

"Get over yourself, M&039;Adoc," Arik snarled "You had nothing to do with this There was no need in er since all you did was hurt Megeara by telling her of ive hie how originally the thought of her death had rieved over every tear and doubly over the ones he caused her "Just take me to Hades and end it"

M&039;Adoc took him by the arm His lips were twisted as he raked Arik with a sneer "Oh no, Arikos I don&039;t think so See, I hand you over to Hades and he&039;s going to start questioning how it is you have soto surrender yourself to save a simple human&039;s soul"

"Because Hades made him human," D&039;Alerian answered in a dry, stoic tone "There won&039;t be any questions over it It would only stand to reason"

M&039;Adoc turned on hi to take that chance?"

D&039;Alerian&039;s jaw flexed "There&039;s no chance involved, Adarian He is huod would expect no less"

Arik frowned as D&039;Alerian used M&039;Adoc&039;s real name, Adarian As part of their punishment and to push them away from the idea that they were individuals of any inal Oneroi had been stripped of their nanate their roles D&039; ned to watch over inated a human helper-as an Oneroi, Arik&039;s name had been V&039;Arik or V&039;Arikos, which he now hated since it sounded like a vein condition And the M&039; was reserved for those who policed them all There were many who called D&039;Alerian M&039;Alerian But for reasons no one understood, D&039;Alerian continued to use the na ranks

M&039;Ordant closed his laptop as he faced theht We should hand hiod of the dead He&039;s a nasty bugger"

M&039;Adoc scoffed at them "And when Hades kills Arik and his immortal soul is stripped bare while Hades tortures hi to discover the fact that little Arikos can feel so a human host to sponsor those eh hian to suspect that the eeara&039;son?"

"Shut up, Arik," M&039;Ordant snapped angrily

M&039;Adoc glared at his brothers "We can&039;t take a chance of theaze bored into D&039;Alerian "Of everyone in this room, Neco, you have the most to lose Don&039;t let your co what needs to be done"

Pain flickered across D&039;Alerian&039;s face before he gave a subtle nod

There wouldn&039;t be any iven to Arik, not that he had expected any Honestly, his welfare didn&039;t matter "I don&039;t care what happens to me," Arik said to M&039;Adoc "Just reeara"

One corner of M&039;Adoc&039;s lips twisted up into asmile "Oh, don&039;t worry I fully intend to take care of her Immediately"

D&039;Alerian scowled "I don&039;t like that tone, adelphos "

M&039;Adoc cast a belittling sives a damn what you like, Neco She&039;s a liability to us

She knows the location of Atlantis and she knoe exist Would you haveback to kill her Arik kneith every ounce of his being

"You swore toto fight, but as soon as he neared hi hot and solid pierce his stoered back and looked down to see a long, bloodied dagger in M&039;Adoc&039;s hand He couldn&039;t believe it as his knees weakened froony of his wound

M&039;Adoc lint in his eyes He buried a fist in his hair as his eaze burned into Arik&039;s "Sweet dreams, Arik," M&039;Adoc said an instant before he stabbed hi went dark

GEARY WAS NUMB AS THEY RETURNED TO THE DOCKS Over and over she kept going through everything with Arik But deep inside, she knew Kat was right Arik had loved her In spite of everything or , they&039;d fallen in love with each other, and she&039;d just thrown him to the wolves

She should have trusted in hiht have had bad intentions in the beginning, but he wasn&039;t like that now Why hadn&039;t she given hi to do, Kat?" she asked as they tied the lines

Kat sighed "There&039;s nothing to do He&039;s gone"

Geary straightened up to stare at the taller woman "I can&039;t accept that I can&039;t"

But Kat was i to have to"

"Why?" Geary asked

"Because sometimes life just basically sucks, and this is one of those times"

"And if I don&039;t want it to?"

Kat shook her head "When has it ever listened to you?"

She did have a point But it didn&039;t stop the pain inside Geary fro How could she have let M&039;Adoc take Arik? She should have fought Should have told him she loved him

Instead, she&039;d just stood there as he was taken and done absolutely nothing

Damn me, I&039;m such a fool She&039;d waited her entire life-time for love, and then when she&039;d finally found it she&039;d cast it aside in one er How could she have been so stupid?

"This can&039;t be how it ends"

Kat&039;s features softened as she neared her "Geary, look Arik sacrificed hi yourself into danger and dying Let hio"

She stared at Kat "If so because of you, could you let hio?"

Kat screwed her face up as if she was in pain "This isn&039;t about uished tone that answered Geary "Oh, okay, so I wouldn&039;t stand by and let the man I love suffer when I was the one who caused it Damn"

"Yeah Damn We have to find soh her hair as if irritated beyond her tolerance "I don&039;t even kno to begin to fix this"

"I do"

Geary put her hand to her temple as she heard Apollymi&039;s voice in her head " Not now please"

"Don&039;t dismiss her," Kat said out loud "Apollyht now"

"You know about" Of course she did "You hear her, too?"

"All the ti her way into prettyI do She&039;s terribly nosy that way, but she&039;s always a friend to me" She smiled before she addressed Apollyestions that don&039;t involve one of us letting you out?"

"That is the suggestion I prefer"

"Yes, but neither Geary nor I will do that You got anything else?"

"Yes, but it&039;s tricky Listen to irls You&039;re about to have an iod politics"

"SOLIN?"

Solin cursed as he heard Arik&039;s voice in his head " I have nothing to say to you"

"Fine I don&039;t want to hear it anyway What I need is for you to listen"

"Listen, my ass"

" I need your ears, Solin," he said wryly, " not your ass"

"Go to hell"

"I&039; odd brush against his collar It was the touch of the dead and he knew it even though it&039;d been centuries since he&039;d last felt one "What?"

A Shade of Arik appeared before Solin His features were ghastly white, his eyes dark and pain filled

He wore nothing but a pair of tattered pants "M&039;Adoc killed me"

Solin couldn&039;t have been more shocked had he been the one who&039;d died "How?"

"I surrendered ed on our bargain and is heading for her I need you to protect her fro the dupe in this Why should he put his life on the line for anyone? Who would he go to for help once he was a Shade? No one "Do you think I even care?"

"I know you do, Solin In spite of your protestations, I can see the real nore and hide" He paused before he spoke again, "Please, Brother She&039;s not a fighter and he won&039;t stop until she&039;s dead Don&039;t let an innocent die over nothing"

Still Solin didn&039;t want to get involved in this He&039;d made a similar mistake before and paid dearly for it