Aella's Song by Jade Buchanan Read Free Book Online Page B

before releasing her to walk out of the room. She touched her lips, staring after him.
    Damon laughed. “Don’t mind him, he gets like this when he’s excited about something. He’ll be planning strategies all day, going over them and over them until he has every angle worked out.”
    She glanced at him, looking away. “So, what do we do now?”
    She was starting to sound like a damn recording, but she had no clue what step to take next. Ask her to look after animals, or where the best place to get bargain shoes in Athens and she was the right girl. Find and dupe an insane immortal? Uh, not exactly something she was used to.
    “We figure out which temple is the best location. Your father has his fair share of places where people come to seek him out, but they aren’t all appropriate for what we need. The biggest temples are damn tourist attractions today, and it would be almost impossible to stage anything within them without having the police breathing down our necks within minutes. No, it will have to be something small, out of the way, unknown to the general population. Any ideas?”
    Aella thought about what he was describing. She hadn’t been to all the places dedicated to her father, like Damon had said, there were a hell of a lot of them. But she’d done her fair share of exploring when she went through a phase a while back. She had attempted to learn as much as possible about her father so she could discover where she came from. She supposed it wasn’t all that different from the way humans studied their genealogy. Granted, it was a lot easier for her to get information on her immortal family, but there were still places that weren’t covered in any history book or website dedicated to Greek mythology.
    “There’s a temple not far from here that isn’t on any map you’ll ever find. Father took me there once when I tried to get him to tell me more about his past. It’s no secret that this area is plagued with deep focused earthquakes. More than one has been the cause of some ancient building disappearing or cities lying in ruins. Well, that’s what happened here. The temple was hit by an earthquake, and the entire section of land it was sitting on slid into the sea. It had once been one of Poseidon’s favorite spots so he preserved it, letting it sink underwater but not letting it decay as it normally would.”
    “How far away is it?”
    “Uh, we can swim there in a few hours. I think. I haven’t been in a few years, but I know where it is.”
    Did you get all that, Pyth? Damon asked.
    Got it. We leave in an hour. Make sure the Princess is ready.
    “I heard that, you ass.” Aella scowled, desperate to hide her smile. Pythias’ deep laughter rang out from the next room.
    “Little eavesdroppers never hear what they want to.”
    “I can’t help listening in when you’re broadcasting so loud.”
    Damon drew her attention back to him. “I don’t like leaving the seals unprotected here but we can’t bring them with us. Will Phocas and the others be safe?”
    Touched that he’d think of her seals, Aella thought about it. “I have my own protections set up around my home. I don’t think anyone short of one of the Olympian gods could enter here and destroy anything. I don’t want to leave them either, but we don’t have much of a choice. I can’t think of anywhere we can put them for the moment and I don’t even think I could contact anyone to come and look after them.”
    Pythias returned, throwing a small bundle to Damon. “We should leave now, to make sure we don’t tip him off. It won’t take long to get to the temple but still, I don’t like leaving anything to chance.”
    She angled her head, trying to see what Damon now held but he turned it away from her. Hmph.
    Aella led the way down to the shoreline. She would have loved to take her boat partway, but the Whirlwind was too noticeable and if anyone was watching them they’d be able to follow them easily. She wasn’t sure what