Danae pulled a slim tablet from her bag, her movements precise and efficient. “Since my argument with Andie, I’ve continued to investigate. I went to the venue of her last wedding.”
Her fingers moved across the tablet screen, pulling up readings I barely understood. “I discovered traces of energy still lingering in the air. Not from any of the wedding party. Not from any identifiable source. It was just… there. Ambient. Like radiation, but magical. A kind that persists.”
Helena’s shoulders stiffened further. “Hera’s Gaze,” she said quietly, still not turning from the window.
“It is not the Gaze that matters right now,” Cassandra said, her tone gentle but firm. “It is the curse’s persistence. This is a chronic illness. We have to treat it as such.”
It was a different perspective. Helena and I had looked at cures coming from the gods or had searched for miracles in new, revolutionary drugs. But maybe that was never what we were supposed to find. “Chronic conditions can’t be cured,” I mused. “But they can be managed.”
Danae set the tablet down on Cassandra’s cluttered desk, her expression thoughtful. “I’ve been doing some reading,” shesaid. “In ancient times, Alphas favored collaring Omegas. It’s distasteful and not a practice we’ve kept, but I think there may be more to it than aesthetics.”
Helena turned sharply from the window. “You cannot be suggesting—”
“Let her finish,” Cassandra interrupted her. Helena pursed her lips but said nothing else.
Danae pushed her glasses up her nose nervously. When she spoke again, her voice was steady. “I think Cassandra and I can work together to create a collar that could interfere with the curse. Not magic, per se, but science. Making sure brainwaves are aligned normally and using the patterns of House Zeus’s aura powers to do so.”
My breath caught.
House Zeus aura powers. The subtle electrical influence we carried in our blood, the charisma that made others want to listen, to trust, to follow. I’d always favored it over brute strength. It was useful in negotiations, dangerous in its potential for manipulation, and often our most valuable asset.
But during the ritual at Maracaibo, my father had gone a step further. He’d used his aura to trap me, just as Agamemnon had been trapped in the bath.
The conclusion was simple. Influence didn’t have to mean manipulation. It could mean stabilization. Grounding. The way alightning rod channeled dangerous energy safely into the earth. Like the temporary bond I’d given Andie.
“The collar would need to be worn constantly,” Cassandra added. “And it would require regular adjustments as we learn more about how the curse manifests in Andromeda specifically. This isn’t a cure. It’s management.”
“But it could work,” Danae said firmly, meeting my eyes. “It could give her back some semblance of normal life. Not complete freedom—the curse will always be there, lurking. But control. Agency. The ability to function without constant spiraling.”
I didn’t hesitate for a moment. “When and where do we start?”
Danae’s lips curved in a small but determined smile. “I’m a firm believer in efficiency, Lord Stormwright. Andie has waited long enough.”
Cassandra straightened and assessed me with clinical detachment. “I’ll need to examine the bond structure first. Take your shirt off and lie down on the examination table.”
I moved to comply, shrugging out of my jacket and unbuttoning my shirt with steady fingers. As I lay down on the metal table, Cassandra’s hand settled over my chest. I had to force myself not to flinch.
Her touch was warm, the healing fire creating a tingling sensation that spread outward. It was professional contact. Even in its kindness, House Hestia remained impersonal. The clinicalefficiency of a healer who’d touched hundreds of bodies in her work. It felt wrong.
No one should be touching me like this except Andie. Even this innocent medical contact was a violation of something primal and possessive that lived in my bones. The temporary mark I’d left on Andie’s neck might be fading, but whatever fragile connection we’d forged was still there.
Helena and Danae moved closer, flanking the examination table. Danae pulled up more data on her tablet, her eyes scanning information I couldn’t see. Helena’s hands remained clasped before her, but faint purple-gold energy began to gather around her fingers.
“If my understanding is correct,” Helena said, “I will have to work to isolate the incipient bond between Andie and Alexander, correct?”
Danae nodded without looking up from her screen. “Yes. We need the information. The bond structure, the electrical patterns, how the curse is interfacing with the natural connection. All of it.”
A jolt of panic shot through me, sharp and visceral.
The last time I’d seen Helena touch a bonded Alpha was at the Olympian Council. Damon Blackwood’s bond with Cora Ellis had snapped under Helena’s power. And then the shadows had swallowed him whole, his own power turning inward, devouring him from within.
It hadn’t surprised me then, not really. It had been a possibility from the moment Damon had gotten in our way. But that didn’t mean the memory didn’t bother me, now that I was the one at risk.
I didn’t fear for myself. But every survival instinct I possessed howled at me to move. I had to get away, to protect what little connection I had with Andie before it could be destroyed.
I forced myself to stay still.
My fingers gripped the edges of the examination table so hard the metal creaked. Cassandra’s hand remained steady over my heart, her healing fire a constant warmth. Helena’s power descended toward the fragile bond I couldn’t afford to lose.