Tentyrian Legacy by Elise Walters Read Free Book Online

playing in her makeup by now, waiting for Calypso
to come home. Ceres was Calypso’s crown jewel, and while she would
do anything to protect her, the pain of losing Hector slaked her
thirst for revenge. She needed time to think and consult with
Alexander. Her husband always knew how to calm her with reason. And
lately she felt like she was losing her ability to think
rationally. Being married to a Luminary wasn’t easy, but Alexander
took it in stride. Alexander was second-generation Tentyrian like
her. Their ten-year marriage was just the beginning of what they
planned for as eternity.
    Narcissa, the Fourth Luminary, wasn’t
married, but she cared for her little nieces and nephews like they
were her own. Her sisters and mother were her best friends, the
Council of the Zodiac her family. She couldn’t imagine a world
where they weren’t together or where
    Tentyris didn’t exist. Yet she knew they
would not be safe if they stayed.
    Damian and Karis looked at each other
knowingly as they sat on their shared stone bench. Married for
twenty years, the Scorpio and Virgo leaders governed a blended
Coven that their four-year-old daughter, Calandra, happily knew as
her family and protectors. To put their daughter in danger was
their greatest fear. However, they wanted her to grow up in their
homeland.
    “Evander and Zoe, would you rather we do
nothing?” said Stavros to the Pisces and Aquarius Coven
leaders.
    “We don’t believe aggression is the answer,”
retorted Evander. Damian rose to Stavros’ side and asked, “What do
you all propose then?”
    “We propose we leave,” responded Zoe with
resoluteness.
    “I can’t support that decision when I know we
have no reason to,” challenged Stavros. “Who here feels this way?
Let us take an informal vote. Say aye if you believe we should
leave.” Seven ayes followed. “Calix, Aglaia, Asia, Damian, Karis,
and Calypso, I see that you don’t support abandoning Tentyris,
along with me. To the rest of you, why are you so quick to fold? By
the gods’ good graces we are basically immortal. Yet you want to
flee in fear of the mortals? The mortals who are thankless for all
that we have done for them?”
    Daria stood to face Stavros. The same zodiac
pendant that hung on a gold chain around her neck, as it did from
her sisters’ and mother’s, twinkled in defiance.
    “Stavros, it is true that if it weren’t for
our presence, there would surely be thousands more poverty-stricken
Egyptians,” said Daria. “All of our laborers are well taken care
of. Not to mention we’re the only legitimate source of medical help
throughout the Sixth Nome. And while we may not always receive the
thanks we deserve, their blood gives us life. That life coexists in
a balance with the humans. If we overturn that balance, the outcome
may not be in our favor . . . as my mother has already seen.”
    Stavros’ ice-blue eyes turned directly to
Hathor as he addressed the Council. “Hathor has said it herself.
Her visions and the future are not absolute. They are also not as
dependable as they once were now, are they?” Hathor held her anger.
It hurt to hear Stavros’ dig at her recent inability to call her
sight to her. But it was true. A prevailing weakness plagued her,
and more often than not, she had headaches rather than visions.
    Her headaches were not the same as those she
had experienced when first finding her sight, or even those she
knew Daria and the other telepaths often experienced due to the
energies they were so sensitive to. It was something more. Hathor
knew deep down that she was dying. It was a miracle she was able to
put together the fragments of her recent vision to finally see
Auletes’ involvement in Hector’s death and predict her own
demise.
    “If I may interrupt,” said Aglaia lightly. “I
hardly think Stavros is saying we abandon the Code, overturn the
Ptolemaic dynasty, and appoint ourselves leaders.” Hathor,
meanwhile, wasn’t so sure that Stavros wasn’t