Laughing, London slid out of bed and started getting dressed. "You can ask all your questions when Melancton comes to talk to you because I want to go check on Sage if she's awake yet."
That must be the nymph. Finally, his brain was catching up with the conversation.
About fifteen minutes later, London abandoned him as she let in Melancton. The tall Boeotian satyr stared at him expectedly and stood just inside the room after the door was closed behind him.
"Please, sit." Jacen nodded to the armchair across the room. Melancton took it and let out an uncharacteristic—for him, anyway—sigh. "Rough night?"
He gave him a look that spoke volumes.
"What? It couldn't have been worse than mine." Three against one was never a fair fight. He could have probably stood a better chance against them had he been armed or prepared.
"I must ask a question you aren't going to like." When Jacen didn't comment, he continued, "Did Theron or the others force you to drink anything?"
"Drink…what are you talking about?" As he asked it, his meaning made sense. "The false ambrosia."
Melancton nodded once.
"No, not that I am aware of, anyway. Nothing when I was conscious. I'm immortal though, not human." Had he been human already, what could they have done to him? It was a question he didn't want to know the answer to, but he had the feeling they would know soon enough what Theron had planned for that vial of Priapus' blood. "They didn't use it on me."
Some of the tension eased out of the room and Melancton's shoulders relaxed. "London informed you of Adonis' arrival?" the Boeotian asked, an eyebrow arching.
Dear gods, what happened? He was only there one night. Jacen tried to sit up, but his broken ribs throbbed with pain and he quickly gave up on that idea. Damn it. "What has he done?"
Melancton shot him a look that all but implied there were far too many answers to that statement to go through. "Well, we have to replace a door on the third floor…"
"What?" He closed his eyes and silently berated himself for getting injured. They never should have allowed—
An odd sound startled Jacen out of his indignation.
He turned toward Melancton, who was failing to cover a laugh behind his hand and proceeded to fake cough instead. "This is funny to you?" he asked
Melancton continued as though he hadn't laughed at all. "Sage locked herself on the balcony. He had to break into the room to let her back inside."
"That's…all?" Why the hell weren't they sharing a room to begin with… Unless they couldn't sleep together until the eclipse…shit. Shit! Had he missed the Satyr Moon? All their planning would have been for naught…until next year's first lunar eclipse. "When is—"
"Tomorrow."
Some of his panic eased. So, Adonis had found himself a nymph. Imagine that. "He really wanted to help look for me?"
Melancton, having recovered from his amusement at Jacen's expense, nodded. "He truly wants to make up for his actions. Pan has been informed, though no one has called to tell Ariston."
Not going to be me. "Someone will have to, if he's staying around."
"Perhaps let us wait and see if he can break his curse at all tomorrow evening. Then we bring it up."
Ah, the good ol' ask for forgiveness, not permission trick. "Probably a good idea. Wait…" He narrowed his eyes. "Why wouldn't he be able to break his curse if he has a nymph and they weren't sharing a room last night."
Melancton seemed to find the threading on the chair arm extremely interesting all of a sudden. "He did share a bed with her last night, quite loudly, but it will probably be fine since he cannot, how should I say this…perform. Because of Pan's added curse after the events with Lily and his brother."
Wow, he must really have been befuddled since it took a moment to process all that information. And still he had questions. "He can't…perform?"
"Pan provided unto him a mystical chastity belt. That only happens around one nymph. His nymph."
Jacen blinked. "I honestly don't know if I want to laugh about that or be horrified."
"Precisely." Melancton ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "He might not be able to break his curse at all."
That really sucked. The one thing all satyrs wanted more than anything was to rid themselves of the curse. Something didn't add up though. "If he can't perform, how'd he cause so much noise last night?"
Melancton clasped his hands together and leaned back in his chair. "His tongue is still in working order…and he didn't give that nymph any reprieve until dawn. Honestly, I am impressed. Daphne was too." His lips thinned. "I had to ensure she did not become jealous, by distracting her with my own."
Too much information… Jacen would have done the same thing though. Maybe that was what had drawn Aphrodite to keep Adonis around for as long as she had and what made her so greedy to have Ariston too. "Anything else I need to know?" He regretted those words as he asked them.
Melancton nodded once. "Are you ready for the bad news?"
Gods, what now? "Adonis being here breaking doors before we re-open wasn't the bad news?"
"Theron stole your panpipes."
Chrys glared at his cell phone. No signal. Still. He'd been hiking through this godsforsaken jungle for a day and night and missed having a thyrsus dearly. Dionysus' power had flowed through those handy little magic staffs that could transform into other objects, including cell phones—that never lost a signal. Hell, he could have called someone in Olympus had he wanted to with that. Now though, even with a set of panpipes, his phone was just a phone, nothing extraordinary, and he didn't know how the humans had not lost their minds with annoyance and threw every last one of them into the
