Ravaged: An Eternal Guardians Novella (1001 Dark Nights) Read Online Free PDF Page B

“I take it from your reaction you didn’t expect that.”
    “I...” Heck no, she hadn’t expected that. “I recognized the markings on his forearms. He’s a warrior, not a healer.”
    Silas looked down at his vegetables. “He is. But Ari also has a healing gift. One he doesn’t often use. Only when the situation is dire.”
    What situation would the crazed Argonaut consider dire? Daphne’s gaze swept back over Silas’s scars. “He saved you as well?”
    Silas nodded.
    “Why?”
    A smile pulled at the corner of Silas’s lips. “Because it’s in his nature to help those in need.”
    Daphne’s brow wrinkled. “I’m not sure I understand.”
    Silas moved the diced tomatoes to a salad bowl. “The Argonauts are duty-bound to protect the human world. My people are part of that world.”
    “Yes, but...if he lives here instead of in Argolea, he no longer serves with the Argonauts.”
    Silas looked up again, only this time when his eyes met hers, they narrowed. The knife in his hand hovered above the cutting board. “Now that, I know, you did not pick up from the markings on his forearms.”
    Oh Hades. A quick shot of fear rushed down Daphne’s spine.
    Think...quickly.
    “I...” Her mind spun. “No, I-I didn’t. But in my circle, I’ve heard whispers of a rogue Argonaut. One with mismatched eyes who no longer serves with his Order. I just assumed—”
    “Naturally, you assumed the worst.” Silas’s jaw clenched as he went back to slicing. “Not everything those gods you surround yourself with say is true. Ari might not serve with the Argonauts anymore, but that doesn’t mean his duty is any less.”
    An odd tingle spread across Daphne’s nape. She’d offended the Misos. Her memory skipped back to the laughter she’d heard from the lower level. The two were friends. She opened her mouth. Closed it. Wasn’t sure just what to say.
    After several awkward seconds of silence, Silas said, “My village was attacked by daemons. We lived in a remote area high in the mountains. Kept to ourselves; were a peaceful community. We thought we were safe. Turns out we weren’t. A daemon horde attacked us in the night. The raid was bloody and vicious, and before we could defend ourselves, it was all but over.”
    “I...” Daphne didn’t know what to say. She knew what it was like to lose her entire village, too. “I’m sorry.”
    “Nothing to be sorry about. It happened.” He moved all the salad fixings to a bowl, cleaned off the cutting board, then stepped toward the refrigerator again and pulled out a casserole dish covered in tinfoil. “I made peace with it a long time ago. Ari found us after. He’d been patrolling the area as he often does. He tried to heal as many as he could, but in the end, I was the only one who survived.”
    A humming sounded in Daphne’s brain. Everything she’d been told about the Argonaut seemed at sudden odds with what she’d just learned. She wasn’t sure what to believe. All she knew for certain was that the Argonaut could have killed her. He could have left her for dead in those woods. But he hadn’t. He’d saved her, brought her here, and healed her. And though she wanted to chalk that up to his weakness for nymphs, she was starting to wonder if that was true. Because he’d done the same for Silas.
    Her gaze drifted toward the open door. She had no idea where the Argonaut was or what he was doing, but her mind skipped back over that moment in the woods. After he’d killed those daemons. When he’d stalked toward her, knelt at her side, and reached for her. She’d been too afraid to listen then, but now two words echoed in her mind. Two words she hadn’t realized he’d whispered until right this very second.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    Daphne wandered through the halls of Stonehill Hold late in the evening while Aristokles’s words continued to ping around in her mind. It was late, well past midnight, but she couldn’t sleep.
    You’re safe...
    Had she ever felt safe?