The Sixth Life of Medusa

36. A Reluctant Alliance

Medusa's temples throbbed from the effort it took to chew the bear meat. The only thing that made the meal slightly palatable was the spiced honey sauce; other than that, she felt like a camel chewing hay.

Across from her, Vyron sat stiffly next to Akrivi. He wouldn't stop glancing around the empty dining hall, his unease clear in the way he shifted in his seat.

"Leader, is the bench burning your ass?" Akrivi asked as he cleaned his fingernails with a flint. "You just got here. Relax."

Instead of answering, Vyron clenched his jaw and remained silent.

Finally done with the meal, Medusa pushed her empty plate aside. Since waking up a while ago, she had been in a fine mood. For one, that horrid experience with her duplicate didn't recur during her sleep, and she had woken up strangely refreshed with her aether sensitivity better than ever.

Akrivi had also saved her dinner, saying it was the least he could do for his 'generous patron.' Then there was the matter of the stones—the real reason he was treating her like a VIP.

For her plan to work, she'd need more than two high-grade stones, and her only hope to get them was Clotho. She recalled the Moirai had boasted about being rich before she dropped her off with Demeter. If she could convince her to maybe let go of three or four high-grade stones. Maybe...

"I don't know if Akrivi told you why I wanted to see you."

Before sleep knocked her out, she'd given Akrivi a brief version of her plan, but he'd rolled his eyes at the mention of Vyron, muttering something about a long-overdue confrontation.

"He didn't," Vyron said. Since the boy joined them, he hadn't directly looked at Akrivi. His attitude didn't seem malicious or hateful, more like intense distaste mixed with wariness and fear. "And can we be quick with this?"

Medusa's gaze danced between the boys. Akrivi appeared nonchalant while Vyron sat ramrod straight at the very edge of the long bench with his gaze occasionally darting to the door.

"Why is it like this between you two?"

"Like what?" Akrivi lifted a dark brow, appearing clueless. Though Vyron said nothing, his expression grew sour.

Medusa dragged a hand down her face and stifled a sigh. "Look, for this to work, both of you need to be in sync."

"Sync?" Akrivi cocked his head. "What's that?"

"Umm." Medusa searched for the right word.

He peered at her, eyes bright with curiosity. "And you said something in a strange tongue when I offered my love last night."

Medusa frowned in confusion before laughing when she remembered. What an amusing fellow. "How's making me a third girlfriend offering me your love?"

In her first life, she had always grown flustered when people hit on her. But by her fourth and fifth lives, having a face above average had numbed her to such advances. Well, except for Antonii. He'd been unfairly smooth and far too easy to love.

"How is it not?" Akrivi asked with a laugh.

Vyron's face contorted with disgust as he whispered something about Akrivi being a philandering son of a whore.

The lightness in the air vanished as Akrivi's expression hardened. Before her eyes, a strange shift in his appearance began. The soft lines of his face sharpened as bulging veins gathered around the corners of his eyes. When he blinked, darkness bled over the white of his eyes and dyed his iris black.

The change did not stop at his face; his fingernails turned black, sharpened and punched into the table.

"Did I hear you correctly?" There was a subtle guttural note in his voice.