Page 66 of Desired By Eros

Eros stared at her, his hands balling into fists. “Are you serious?”

Aphrodite smiled sweetly. “Very.”

Hephaestus snickered again.

Eros groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Unbelievable.”

Bob just kept staring, silent as ever.

Eros exhaled sharply. “Mama,” he said, exasperated, rubbing his temples. “Let him talk.”

“Fine,” she said, waving her fingers lazily in Bob’s direction. “There. He can talk. But only say what we need to know. None of that nonsense about screaming for help.” She sniffed again and glared at Bob.

Eros sighed, closing his eyes for a brief moment, willing himself to be patient. When he opened them, he turned his full attention back to Bob.

Bob took a slow breath, rolling his shoulders as if shaking off the effects of Aphrodite’s spell. Then, finally, he spoke.

“You’ve held up your end and brought the pyxis. Of course, I can free Psyche from the spell and wake her.”

“What do you think will happen when the magic is unleashed from the pyxis?”

Bob exhaled sharply, glancing at the ornate box as if he could already feel the power within. “We get our powers back,” he said simply, but there was an edge of anticipation in his voice. “Everything that was sealed away returns to us. The bloodline is restored.”

“It’s been thousands of years since the magic was trapped. Is everyone in the bloodline still in Vale Crossing?”

Bob paused, thinking, then shrugged. “Probably.”

“Really?” Eros demanded. “You’ve kept track of everyone?”

“That seems unlikely,” Hephaestus snorted.

Bob looked annoyed but admitted, “I can’t guarantee it. Geryons have left Vale Crossing over the centuries. Not all of them kept in touch.”

Eros exhaled sharply. “If we release the magic, everyone in the bloodline will get it—whether they know they have geryon blood or not. That will be a problem for those in the Upperworld.”

Bob waved a hand dismissively. “Right, but who cares? They’ll have their power. It’s their birthright.”

Eros studied him, searching for any hesitation, any sign that Bob understood what he was saying, but there was none. The mortal spoke with the certainty of someone who had spent lifetimes waiting for this moment.

“You can’t be serious,” Aphrodite exclaimed, eyes flashing. “Bob, we can’t have that happen. We don’t even know how many of them are in the Upperworld. It will cause so many problems—not to mention the trauma the descendants who don’t know they have geryon blood will go through.”

“It would be impossible to get to them now,” Bob argued.

“Exactly,” Eros said. “We need to let everyone know what’s going to happen so the Upperworld won’t be plunged into chaos.”

He and Hephaestus exchanged a look, both grasping the magnitude of what was at stake.

Eros crossed his arms, watching Bob closely. “We can’t just unleash this magic without a plan. We need to track down everyone in the bloodline.”

“Good luck with that,” Bob scoffed. “I told you, not all of them stayed in Vale Crossing. Some left generations ago. No records, no way to track them.”

“Then we make a way,” Eros said firmly. He turned to Hephaestus. “Can you craft something? A locator, a beacon—anything that can help us find them once the magic is out?”

Hephaestus stroked his beard, considering. “If we had a piece of the original magic before it was sealed, maybe. But right now, it’s all in the pyxis. Once it’s released, chaos will spread before we can contain it.”

“Honestly, what a mess,” Aphrodite sighed. “We should have just killed Bob when we had the chance.”

Bob paled.

---