Not wanting to interrupt his tale, Aimee folded the omelet and let it continue cooking. Tears pricked her eyes as she thought about Roric, his six warrior friends and the Lady being overwhelmed by evil demons.
“The fight raged for weeks. Months. I’m not quite sure. Time lost all meaning. We were losing. The end was almost upon us. Sensing that, the Lady used the last of her power to protect us.” He thumped his chest with his fist, the sudden violence startling. “Us. Her warriors who failed to protect her.”
His anguish was a living, breathing thing. Aimee wanted to go to him, wrap her arms around him and offer comfort. But she knew he’d see it as pity and would reject any sign of what he thought of as sympathy.
The toaster chose that moment to pop. She grabbed the bread and spread butter over each slice. She split the omelet in half and put a section on each plate next to the toast.
Roric was still as stone, head bowed, lost in another time and place. “I wasn’t certain she was still alive until I saw her in your picture.”
Aimee grabbed both plates and carried them to the table. She placed one in front of Roric and the other one in front of the chair to his left. She went back to the counter and poured two mugs of coffee and dug some cutlery out of the drawer. Juggling all of it, she went back to the table.
She made another trip to the refrigerator for a bottle of strawberry jam and a carton of milk. She didn’t use it in her coffee, but Roric might like it. When everything was on the table, she sat next to him. “Eat, you’ll feel better.”
The omelet looked delicious, but she needed caffeine first. Aimee added two spoonfuls of sugar to her coffee and stirred before taking a sip. It tasted like manna from the gods, and the only right way to start any day.
As she sipped, Aimee thought about everything Roric had told her. One question kept coming back to her time and time again. “Why now?”
Roric hadn’t made any move to eat, but he raised his head at her question. “Why what?”
She picked up her fork and pointed it at him. “Why now? Why have all of you been released in the past few decades. After all this time, what does it mean? Is the curse getting weaker? Is this just part of it? What does Hades want with you?”
“He wants to kill us all and take our souls.”
Aimee shook her head. “Too easy. If that were all he wanted, he’d have already done so. We were totally surrounded by his demons at the carnival. Plus, he called me the lady of the beast. One beast. Obviously, he meant you. We both know I’m tied up with this somehow.”
Roric cocked his head to one side. She could almost see the wheels in his mind turning. He looked at the fork in her hand and picked up his own. It struck her then that he’d never used one. Back in ancient times, people used their fingers, carved spoons and forged knives to eat. For all she knew, Roric had hunted and eaten in his animal form, bypassing any need for utensils altogether.
Shaking her head at her wayward thoughts, she went back to her earlier point. “Then there’s the fact that you’re all being released one at a time and by different women. There has to be some reason for that.”
“I know.” His frustration was palpable. “All of us can communicate to some degree while we were imprisoned on the carousel, but it’s mostly images and emotions. None of us has been able to reach those already released.”
“That would be the serpent, phoenix and jaguar.”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Mordecai, Phoenix and Stavros. We all hoped that one of them would be able to communicate with us, to contact us somehow and let us know what is going on.” He picked up the mug, took a sip of the coffee and grimaced before putting it back on the table.
“If you don’t like the coffee, you can add sugar or milk.” She pushed both toward him. He shook his head. Coffee wasn’t for everyone, and not many people liked it at first taste. It was an acquired addiction.
Roric picked up a piece of toast and tore a corner off with his sharp, white teeth. He chewed and swallowed. It wasn’t fair. The man looked sexy even when eating.
Roric placed the rest of his bread back on the side of his plate. “I can only assume they are dead, their souls now in Hades’ possession.”
“Maybe.” Aimee chewed on a piece of toast, her mind working frantically. “Maybe they can’t talk to you. Maybe that’s part of the curse.”
“Perhaps.” She could tell from the way he spoke he wanted to believe his comrades were alive but didn’t hold out much hope.
“When I visited Hell in my dream, it seemed as though Hades wanted something. He told me not to disappoint him. I’ve already released you from your animal form. If there wasn’t more to it than that, why haven’t you already been attacked by demons?” It made a twisted kind of sense to Aimee. They needed more facts, but there was nowhere to go to get them.