Ash adjusted the backpack on his shoulder before he followed her through the house. As they neared the kitchen he paused at one of the pictures on the wall. It was a family photo with Tory standing front and center, but there were three people in it he knew intimately.
Geary, Arikos and Theodoros Kafieri.
No wonder he couldn't see her thoughts or future. "Is this your family?"
She glanced back. "Yes. My papou's the one next to me."
Theo. Ash smiled at his old friend. Theo had been only seven years old when he'd been blinded during a World War II attack on his village that had killed his whole family. Ash had been the one who'd brought the child to America where he could start a new life and be safe. He'd been watching over Theo ever since.
So it wasn't that Tory had anything to do with him, it was the fact she was tied to Theo and to Arik who was married to Geary. Arik had once been a Greek god of sleep. Those connections to Tory explained so much.
Ash relaxed immediately. "You've got a great looking family."
She smiled. "Typical Greek. There's a million relatives, but then with a name like Acheron, I'm sure you know all about it." She cocked her head as if she thought of something. "You know, my grandfather has a dear friend named Acheron."
"Really?"
"Yeah, they met in Greece and came to America together. But that was a long time ago." She went back to the kitchen and pulled open a drawer that held small brown packets of coffee and tea. Pulling one out, she started her Flavia coffee pot, then pointed to the kitchen table where she had a bunch of books, maps and notes littered.
Ash made his way over to it and was impressed by it. She'd been a very busy woman.
"Cop a seat," she said, pulling her mug out before she opened the door to her fridge.
Ash widened his eyes at the sight of her extremely organized refrigerator. The shelves were lined with neatly stacked clear plastic containers that had white labels with their contents carefully catalogued. "Got enough Rubbermaid there?"
"I have a little problem with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Ignore it." She grabbed a container from the B section. Seriously.
"That's really beyond slightly OCD. You've got a major problem, don't you?"
"Shut up, sit down and read."
With the exception of his demon Simi, no one since his rebirth as a god had ever been so dismissive with him. "Please?"
"You need something?"
He cocked a brow at her. "You to be polite to me, Ms. I Own The World-Now Do What I Say You Pathetic Pleb."
She scoffed at him. "You don't strike me as the kind of guy who takes orders anyway."
"Yes, but a simple please goes a long way. I'm the one doing you a favor here."
She set her container of baklava on the table. "Fine. Please sit down, shut up and read."
Ash lifted his hands up in surrender. Honestly he should be appalled by her treatment of him and yet he was strangely amused by her. Shrugging his backpack off, he sat down and pulled Ryssa's journal over to him. "What do you want to know?"
"You claim you can read it. Read it."
Tory sipped her coffee while she watched him and noted that his long legs barely fit beneath her table.
He turned to a random page and then started speaking in what had to be the most beautiful and fluent pronunciation of ancient Greek she'd ever heard. She could only recognize random words, but the ease with which he read and the inflections in his voice led her to believe he might actually be telling the truth about understanding the words.
"Could you try that in English?"
He didn't even pause. "It's raining today. I don't know why the sound of it bothers me so, but it always has. Before it began storming, I went to see Styxx out in the covered atrium. He was with Father as usual and the two of them were learning war tactics. Even at eleven, Styxx shows a lot of promise to be a leader and warrior of great renown. I couldn't be prouder of my brother. His blond hair has grown lighter this summer since he's spent so much time outdoors. I tried to get him-"
"Stop," she interrupted. "You're really translating that, aren't you?"
He looked perplexed by her question. "Is that not what you wanted?"
Tory didn't even know how to respond to his question. Yes, it was what she'd wanted more than anything. But no one knew this language.
Except a Goth, punk alcoholic frat boy with a stud in his nose . . . and a body made for sin.
How in the world was this possible?
"Where did you learn Greek?" she asked.
"In Greece."
She couldn't accept that. "No, ancient Greek. Who taught this to you?"
"I grew up with it."
"You're lying. I know you're lying. No one on this planet speaks ancient Greek the way you do. I've consulted experts all over the world and not one of them could do what you just did."
He shrugged nonchalantly as if her concerns were nothing. "What do you want me to say?"
She shook her head, not really sure herself. "I want you to tell me how you know ancient Greek like that."
"My family spoke it and I learned it from the cradle. In many ways, it was my native tongue."
She would have called him a liar but for the fact that her own parents had been that way with her. Even so, she couldn't do what he'd done. It was simply amazing. "Tell me about your accent when you speak. It's not a typical Greek accent."
He answered her in flawless Greek. "I was born in a place called Kalosis. It's so small that it's not on a map. It's an island province and my accent is a cross between my mother's and old Athenian."
"When did you come to the U.S.?"
"After my twenty-first birthday."
"And yet you speak English like a native?"
He switched back to his mainstream American English. "I'm exceptionally good with languages. As for my native accent, it comes and goes depending on my mood and the word I'm speaking."
Such simple explanations really, and they made her suddenly feel like Torquemada during the Inquisition. "I'm sorry, Acheron. I just realized how shrewish I must sound while you're trying to help me." She let out a tired sigh. "You and I have gotten off to a really bad start, haven't we?"
He shrugged. "I've gotten off to many worse ones during my lifetime."
She appreciated his graciousness. "Yeah but not from someone you were trying to help, I'd wager."
Ash had to bite back a sarcastic laugh at that. If she only knew . . .
She smiled at him and strangely everything seemed to be forgiven. "Again, I'm sorry that I attacked you. It's just Atlantis has been my whole life. You can't imagine how important the history and my research are to me."
Probably as important as keeping it hidden was to him. "Look, I was a shithead in Nashville. I admit it and for that I apologize completely. I don't normally embarrass people like that. It's just I know for a fact that Atlantis is only a myth. You found some really interesting artifacts, but that's all they are. It's apparent to me that you're a brilliant and sincere scholar and I can appreciate the dedication. However you're wasting valuable time on a moot topic."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "How do you know it's a myth?"
"How do you know it's not?"
She leaned forward, so close that they were almost nose to nose. "Because the man who brought my grandfather over as a child told him stories of Atlantis and the ancient island of Didymos to entertain him and to take his mind off the severe burns he'd received from the Nazis. My papou said that the way this man described Atlantis and its marvels was as if he'd lived there. The man described the same exact buildings that I've found buried in the Aegean."
Ash went cold as she pricked memories he'd buried. Why had he ever told Theo those stories?
Because he'd been a terrified child and Ash had wanted to comfort him. Reassure him. Damn. How could he have known that that one act would come back to burn him so badly sixty years later?
"But the most important is this." She reached into the wooden box on the table and pulled out a coin he hadn't seen since he'd placed it in Theo's tiny hand when he'd left the boy with an adoptive family in New York with the promise that he'd be back to visit. It held the image of Ash's mother on one side and her sun symbol on the other.
Fuck.
Tory tapped the coin. "The writing on one side is something I'd never seen anywhere else until our discovery last summer. On the other side, it's Greek and though I don't know all of it, I can make out the name Apollymi. Now tell me this isn't from Atlantis."
"It's not from Atlantis," he said, his voice sounding hollow to his own ears. It had actually been from his pocket. "It could be anything. Might not even be a coin. It could be a necklace. Maybe she was someone's wife." Or his mother.
"I never said it was a coin. They wouldn't have had money at the time, would they?" Her gaze pierced him. "You know the truth, don't you?"
Ash made his phone ring. "Hold that thought." He pretended to answer it and got up as he tried to think of a plausible answer.
Damn her for being so quick.
Tory watched as Ash walked out of the room to take his call. He came back a few minutes later.
"I have to go."
"But you can't. I've got more questions for you."
He seemed frustrated about something. "I really don't have time to answer them."
"Can you come back?"
He shook his head at her. "I doubt it. I travel a lot for work and I won't be in town much longer." He grabbed his backpack from the floor and headed for the front.
She followed him. "I can pay you for your time."
"It's not about the money."
She pulled him to a stop. "Please, Acheron . . . please."
Ash wanted to shove her away and frighten her. The god in him didn't like to be grilled.
The man in him wanted to taste those lips that beckoned for a kiss. "I can't, Tory." I can't. . . . His resolve set, he gently took her hand from his arm and left.
Tory wanted to scream as she watched him descend the stairs in front of her house that led to the street. He turned right and headed toward Bourbon Street.
There had to be some way to get him to help her. He was the only one who could read that book and by all the conviction inside her, she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
At the end of the day, she was a Kafieri and no one told a Kafieri no. "You can run from me all you want, Mr. Parthenopaeus, but you won't be able to hide. You will give me what I want." She was going to make sure of it.