Her mother had only lived six months before she'd succumbed to an illness herself. At least that's what they told Delphine. But she'd known the truth. Unable to live without her father, her mother had willed herself dead. Nothing Delphine had done had been able to cheer her mother.
"You will find love one day, daughter. And you will understand. I only hope that when it comes for you, you're able to grow old and have decades together." Those had been the last words her mother had spoken to her.
Arik had brought her here three days later.
Since the day of her arrival on the Vanishing Isle, Delphine had given up on ever understanding what her mother had tried so desperately to explain.
And when it had finally come for her, she'd found it in the most unlikely of places. In the arms of a god of hatred...
Who would have ever imagined?
She propped her head up on her hand to stare up at his beautiful eyes. "That was incredible."
He laughed gently as he brushed his fingers through her tangled hair. "I'm pretty sure you broke me."
She jerked up, concerned over what he meant. "What? Did I hurt you?"
"No. I'm just too content now to move."
She returned his smile. "You're so wrong."
Jericho wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against him until she protested. Never in his life had he felt like this about another being.
No anger. No pain.
Just her.
At least until a sharp crash sounded outside their doors. He could hear angry voices and something that sounded like breaking glass.
Anger destroyed his hard-won peace. "I should have known it was too soon to be feeling satisfied," he groused, dressing himself.
"Let's at least hope it's not a gallu."
He scowled at her, and the tone of her voice that said it was the worst thing she could imagine. "Why? They're not all bad, in a smelly, skanky, need-to-be-killed kind of way."
"My point exactly." She dressed and joined him by the bed.
Jericho took her hand and led her from the room, making sure to keep himself between her and the possible threat they were heading toward.
By the time they reached the hall, three Oneroi were holding Zeth back while M'Adoc brushed at his clothes. It appeared that Zeth must have attacked him.
But at least M'Adoc was looking better. Some of the bruises had healed, and he wasn't nearly as pale as he'd been earlier.
"I want his heart in my fist," Zeth snarled.
M'Adoc gave him a patient stare. "As do we all. But for now, we're blocked out of Azmodea. The best we can do is prepare to fight until we find a way in."
Zeth struggled against the men holding him. He let loose a battle cry that echoed around them.
"Easy, tiger," Jericho said, letting go of Delphine to join their small group. "I don't want that shit ringing in my ears. If it does, you've got a much worse problem than Noir. I'll be the one beating your ass."
Zeth shook the others off him. He straightened up to give Jericho a knowing once-over. "I remember you. You tried to get through the drugs to talk to me."
Jericho inclined his head. "You were definitely out of it." He looked around at the Skoti and Oneroi. . . and remembered a time when the two groups had seldom interacted. "You guys all good now?"
M'Adoc shrugged. "Depends. Now that we have emotions again, some of us are harboring grudges and hard feelings." He passed a meaningful look at Zeth. "While others just want to kill because they can't handle their anger."
Jericho scoffed. "Sounds like a regular walk in the park for me."
M'Adoc gave a sarcastic laugh. "We're trying to restructure our duties, and some of us are in disagreement about who the new leaders should be."
Zeth curled his lip. "The Skoti need their own rep. We don't trust you assholes. Too many centuries of you killing and stalking us."
M'Adoc growled low in his throat. "Excuse me? You were the ones who provoked us. None of you could behave, and you were one step away from bringing the wrath of Zeus down on all of us. Having been one of the original ones he tortured, I can tell you we were kinder on you than he would have been on us."
Zeth rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
Jericho cast a sideways glance to Delphine, who seemed as bemused by their argument as he was. Not to mention he really resented being pulled out of her arms for something so stupid. They were lucky he was feeling a bit mellow right now.
Delphine looked about the room of gathered Oneroi and Skoti. "You all appear a lot more clear-headed than you were earlier. What else have you decided?"
M'Adoc indicated several of the Oneroi around him. "We're getting rid of the nomenclature Zeus forced on us."
Jericho scowled, not understanding. "The what?"
"M, V and D apostrophe names. Zeus gave them to us as a punishment and to strip out our individuality. Our real names were forbidden, and he used those letters to further humiliate us by reminding us that we were his obedient servants and not our own entities."
Zeth's blue eyes glowed with hatred. "Each letter designated a job we were supposed to perform. M were those who policed the Oneroi and Skoti-basically the narcs of the group. The V's helped humans through sleep and the D's helped the gods and the Dark-Hunters. It's why one of the first things Skoti do when they rebel is to revert to the names we were given at birth. In most cases. There have been a few such as V Aiden who didn't. But I've always thought he was an idiot anyway."
Madoc glanced to Zeth. "And we're now one force reunited. Right, Zeth?"
"Bite me, asshole."
The Oneroi standing behind him popped him on the back of the head. Zeth turned to attack, but didn't manage more than a step before Madoc had him in a headlock. "Don't try my patience, Zeth. It's running perilously thin." He let out a deep sigh as he glanced back to Jericho. "It really makes you wonder how Ash manages to handle the Dark-Hunters, doesn't it?"
Jericho laughed. "So what name do we call you?"
He released Zeth, who snarled, but thought better of attacking him again. "I'm sticking with Madoc. It'll remind me of why we can never let Zeus or anyone else ever subjugate us again."
"I can respect that. And I think I know how Ash handles his crew." Jericho pulled off the whip that Azura had given him and handed it to Madoc.