Red Mortal by Deidre Knight Page A

Leonidas’s news would shake the very foundations of their existence, whether Spartan, immortal, or human.
    “Leo.” Daphne placed a tender hand on his shoulder, stepping beside him. They faced the fireplace together, her hand moving to his forearm. She gave it a squeeze. “I will stand with you, if you wish.”
    He cut a sideways glance at her. She had come to the meeting dressed with authority: her traditional Oracle’s gown of white, her hair braided atop her head with ribbons of crimson. She looked every bit his queen as well as a demigoddess. She met his gaze, searching his face. Her familiar light blue eyes were warm, unafraid. She was his lady strength, unwavering right when he most needed her support.
    “I need to do this alone,” he said. “But just looking into your eyes gives me power. Thank you for that.”
    She gave his hair a quick stroke, smiling at him one last time and then walked away. She would take a seat with the others, and he hoped that the normalcy of that positioning would ease tensions somewhat.
    With a steadying breath, he turned on his booted heels. Holding his head high, he squared his shoulders and allowed the group to look upon his features. Slowly he swept his gaze from person to person, seeing the awareness dawn, watching their eyes widen in shock. One by one, he catalogued it all, the gamut of emotions from his comrades. The reactions were as diverse as the people gathered before him.
    Jax returned Leo’s glance with a stalwart nod, he being the only one who wasn’t surprised by Leonidas’s visual revelation. Glancing past Jax to the man’s wife, Leo saw that Shay was equally unsurprised. So Ajax had told someone, but Leonidas knew from experience that husbands didn’t keep many secrets from their wives.
    Emma’s blue eyes instantly welled with tears, and she averted her face, the pregnancy hormones making her reaction impossible to mask. River stared back at his king, pain visible in his golden eyes—he and Emma were mortal, aging themselves with every passing day. The difference from Leo’s own situation, however, was that River had chosen the mortal’s path so he could live apace with Emma. Leo, on the other hand, would be forever separated from Daphne if he couldn’t find a way to reverse the aging process.
    When Leo’s gaze settled on Aristos, that warrior’s emotions were undisguised. “My lord and king,” Ari blurted. “What we see . . . it can’t be possible.”
    Jax cut his elder brother a corrective look, but said nothing. Their other brother Kalias frowned at them both and then turned to face Leo again. He was always master of his emotions, and this moment was no exception; he stared and waited with stoic calm.
    Ari looked around among the entire group, aghast. “Aren’t any of you going to say something? Are you just going to gape like idiots? Our king is in trouble.”
    “Ari, I will explain,” Leo said simply. Of all the Spartans, Ari’s heart had always been the biggest and kindest.
    “Leonidas, you are my king and I swore long ago to protect you,” Ari insisted, eyes shining with unshed tears. “Looking at you right now, I can see you’re in danger.”
    “I am dying,” Leo said softly. Bluntly. And he didn’t allow time for reaction from any of them before continuing. “Ares has chosen to revoke my immortality in punishment for . . .” He glanced briefly at Daphne. “Many things. The stand we’ve taken against him, our alignment with our Oracle. He has promised to age me swiftly and painfully—you see the first evidence of that threat in my appearance right now. I would estimate that I began this day as a man of some thirty-five years as I was at Thermopylae. Now, here at nightfall, I am more a man of forty-two or -three years. And so as you can plainly see, I am on borrowed time unless we find a way to counteract this curse.”
    Ari spoke again. “What about Eros? His bathing pool is how Juliana became immortal. So what if Ares has