Chapter 20: The Eldest Heir

That night, Augustus’s rage over Alexis’s concealed partial deafness drives him and Kharon to action. After rough interrogation of an Olympian doctor from Athena’s house, they teleport to Alexis’s childhood trailer park in Montana to seek answers. There, Augustus kills an abusive man, arms a battered woman named Katie, and learns locals were threatened with “grizzly” retribution if they helped Alexis and Charlie, who’d been orphaned after their father killed their mother.

As they canvass the park—leaving several abusers dead—they hear of a tattooed man who once helped the siblings. At a well-kept trailer, a young man covered in satanic symbols reveals ancient, animalistic mental defenses; he evades Kharon’s shot in a burst of smoke. Augustus concludes the figure is primordial, part creature, and dangerously strong, deepening the mystery of why such a being lived there.

Seeking direct accountability, they travel to the Northern Hemisphere’s human prison and take Alexis’s stepfather, who brags about abusing her. By morning, back at the villa dungeon, both men want to kill him, but Augustus insists they must earn Alexis’s trust by letting her decide his fate. Kharon barely controls his homicidal urges, and Augustus steadies him, committing together to respect Alexis’s wishes.

In the hall, they awkwardly encounter Alexis, Helen, Drex, and Charlie. To mend fences, they present a carefully commissioned gift: a graphing calculator with a recorder and titanium holder. Alexis’s genuine delight eases Augustus’s pounding fury. After the group departs, Kharon reveals a dire concern he sensed away from the villa: Achilles and Patro intend to take Alexis from them, sharpening the coming conflict.