Enslaved (13 page)

Who the hell was she?

“Do you think…?” She swallowed, turned to look behind them, drew in another gulp of air. “Do you think we lost them?”

“I don’t think they followed us. I don’t think they see well in sunlight.”

He slid the sword into its scabbard at his back, perched his hands on his hips, studied her as she nodded and regulated her breathing. Tried not to be impressed but failed. She’d held her own back there. She hadn’t had a weapon, but she’d fought against the kobaloi just the same. And she’d saved his ass on the way out. If she hadn’t been pulling him, he’d have slipped back down when that beast bit into his leg. He’d likely be lunch right now.

He looked down at his leg, for the first time taking stock of the damage. His pants were ripped at the calf and five large puncture wounds in the shape of a half circle oozed blood. Pain immediately registered in his leg, but he ground his teeth and ignored it. He’d heal, he didn’t doubt that. Argonauts healed faster than most. His gaze strayed to his arms, and the ancient Greek text that ran across his skin, marking him as a guardian of his race. Disgust rolled through him. Not that he was an Argonaut anymore—or deserved to be. Not after the things he’d done.

Forcing back the memories that threatened to creep in and consume him, he looked out over the valley and realized night was coming fast. They needed to find shelter before that happened. Needed to rest and regroup. And he needed to figure out how he was going to find Atalanta, now that he was free.

“Where do you think we are?”

Her soft voice brought his head around again. Her sleeve was ripped at the shoulder, and her clothes were dirty, but he didn’t see blood anywhere, which was a good thing. Since he’d decided to keep her with him, he didn’t need anything slowing them down.

“No idea.” He scanned the valley again, didn’t recognize it. “A ways from the colony, that’s for sure.”

Thank the Fates for that little blessing. He had no doubt Nick and his men would be looking for them. But if they ventured into those tunnels, the kobaloi would slow them down. It wasn’t as if anyone in the colony wanted Gryphon to stick around. With any luck, Nick and Orpheus and the others would just give up searching for them altogether.

Orpheus.

Thoughts of his brother spiraled in. Of the sacrifice Orpheus had made going into the Underworld to rescue him. Of the sacrifice Orpheus had been willing to make to leave the colony with him after the mess yesterday. Gryphon’s chest pinched tight as he pictured Orpheus and Skyla together, and he rubbed a hand over the spot, wondering what the hell was causing the pain. It hurt like a son of a bitch, but Gryphon had been dead inside so long, he couldn’t imagine it was an emotion. He didn’t have emotions anymore. Likely it was nothing more than a muscle spasm from running. Like before.

Maelea pushed up to her full height, and the movement dragged at his attention, pulled his mind away from Orpheus and back to her. In the sunlight she looked taller than she had in the tunnels.

She wasn’t Misos. He couldn’t sense even a drop of hero blood running through her veins. What had she been doing at the colony these last few months? Residents of the colony could come and go as they pleased—they weren’t prisoners, not like him. So long as they took measures to make sure they weren’t followed, they were free to do as they pleased. But she’d clearly been escaping. What was the female hiding? Or what had she been hiding
from
?

“Well,” she said, looking out over the valley herself. “I guess that’s it then. Good luck wherever you’re heading.”

He grasped her by the sleeve before she made it a step away, and tugged her back to face him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“You said if I cooperated and helped you get out of the tunnels, I’d be free to go. I did that.”

“That was before.”

Her eyes narrowed with distrust. “Before what?”

“Before I realized I need you.” He didn’t miss the flash of fear in her eyes at his words, followed by the quick burst of anger. Anger that told him keeping her with him might not be the smartest idea he’d ever had, but it didn’t do a thing to change his mind.

“But you said—”

“Forget what I said before, female.” His hand tightened around her upper arm. “Focus on what I’m saying now. You’re not going anywhere. Not without me.”

Chapter Eight

“My lord, we have…a problem.”

Seated on his blackened throne in the heart of the Underworld, Hades turned his attention from the view of the boiling red sky he’d been gazing out at to Orcus, the four-foot-tall gnomelike troll whose one and only job was to monitor that fucking stain Maelea.

“Be careful in how you present this
problem
, Orcus, or it will be the last you ever voice.” Hades was in a piss-poor mood already. Not only had his wife, Persephone, been summoned back to Olympus for the miserable summer, but Maelea hadn’t shown herself in months. The stain knew he was hunting her, so she was hiding somewhere, likely with those pathetic Misos. Only no one knew where their precious colony was located. He’d had hellhounds searching for Maelea for months, and they’d come up empty. Not even Orcus, who always knew where she was, could find her.

Hatred brewed hot in Hades’s veins. Because Maelea had not only helped Orpheus find the Orb of Krónos, but had helped the Argonauts, she had to pay. Fuck the Fates and their so-called rules that said he couldn’t touch her unless she ventured into the Underworld. Fuck his wife’s inevitable reaction. He didn’t care what it cost him. He wanted Maelea dead and gone once and for all. It had become his obsession.

Orcus, knowing the extent of Hades’s fury, swallowed, tapped his long clawlike fingernails together. “Yes, my lord. It seems Maelea is on the move.”

Hades pushed himself forward in his throne, excitement bubbling in his chest, the first he’d felt in months. “That’s not a problem, you moron. It’s what we’ve been hoping for.”

“Yes, my lord, I know. It’s just…”

Hades rose out of his chair and glared down at the pathetic creature, his patience at its breaking point. “Spit it out already, Orcus.”

“Somehow she ended up in a tunnel. She and…an Argonaut.”

Those fucking miserable Argonauts. Always interfering. Orpheus—the son of a bitch who’d become a good-for-nothing Argonaut, thanks to Lachesis the Fate—obviously had a soft spot for the stain. “They left together?”

“It looks that way,” Orcus answered.

An Argonaut would be of use getting her settled somewhere, but out in the open, Hades’s minions would be able to track her. One measly Argonaut was not a detriment to Hades’s goal. And if Orpheus was killed in the process? Even better. “I’m still not seeing the problem, Orcus.”

Orcus wrung his scaly hands together, looked right and left. “My lord, the tunnel they were in…” He swallowed, finally looked up at Hades. “It was the Tunnel of Arima.”

Hades stiffened. “She found the therillium? Is that what you’re telling me?”

Orcus nodded. “Yes, my lord. She and the Argonaut…They found it and…and it’s possible they took pieces with them.”

“Do you know this for certain?”

Orcus looked to the left and motioned with his hand. A kobalos, a distant cousin of Orcus, hobbled into the room, his long nails clicking along the black stone floor.

“My lord Hades.” The kobalos bowed. “It is with great pleasure I meet you, my king.”

“Dispense with the pleasantries,” Hades snapped. “Tell me what you know of the stain.”

The kobalos lifted large, round eyes to peer up at Hades. “She and the male escaped the tunnels before we could catch them.”

That anger morphed to fury. “How the hell did they get there in the first place?”

“I don’t know, my lord. Perhaps the river. We had no warning. They escaped through a crack in the rocks just before Typhaon arrived, hindering our pursuit. A few tried to follow, but the sunlight…”

Son
of
a
fucking
bitch.
Hades barely resisted the urge to backhand the kobalos across the room. One more reason to despise his brother Zeus. The King of the Gods had banished the monster Typhaon to the bowels of the earth, and the beast had discovered Hades’s therillium supply. It guarded the ore now, making it nearly impossible for the kobaloi to mine. Typhaon was a problem Hades was constantly trying to work around, but Hades adapted because it was imperative the therillium supply
not
be found. If any of the other gods—especially Zeus—got their hands on it, Hades would no longer be the only god who possessed the power of invisibility.

He started down the steps. Both Orcus and the kobalos backed up quickly, eyes wide with fear.

“You”—Hades pointed at the kobalos—“seal the holes, do you hear me? And you find out where she came from. If anyone else discovers our mine I will hold you personally responsible, and I will torture you until you are begging for death. And you.” He rounded on Orcus. Orcus’s eyes flew even wider. “Send hellhounds. I want Maelea dead. Her and that fucking Argonaut who helped her. You find them and you kill them, or I’ll make his”—he nodded toward the kobalos—“torture seem like nothing.”

Both creatures nodded quickly and stared up with enormous, frightened eyes.

“Go!” Hades bellowed.

They scurried off like rats.

Alone, he pressed his fingers against his temples, drew two calming breaths. He was juggling too many balls, trying to keep too many from stealing his power, from taking what was rightfully his. His wife would be pissed when she returned from Olympus and discovered he’d killed her precious child, but Hades didn’t give a fuck. Aside from his own bitter need for revenge, there was more at stake here than just one mere mortal’s life. Atalanta, the bitch, was still scheming for a way to get the Orb and control the human realm. And if she somehow found his therillium mines because of Maelea or that miserable Argonaut, she might just have a chance.

His hounds would pick up Maelea’s scent and kill her. With one problem solved, he needed to stop worrying about the stain and focus on the Orb. Once he had that, everyone would bow to him, even the monster Typhaon.

He crossed to the window. An acrid burst of hot air swept across his face and he breathed in the misery floating on the wind. Somehow, Atalanta planned to use the Argonaut who’d been freed from the Underworld to get her that Orb. Since the Orb now resided in Argolea, that plan made sense, especially since Atalanta couldn’t cross into that realm—no Olympian god could.

But Hades could.

A plan began to form in his mind, and his anger slowly dissipated one agonizing moan at a time. He knew just who in Argolea he could use.

***

“You bastard,” Maelea sputtered as Gryphon hauled her through the woods next to him.

“I’ve heard that before.” He didn’t loosen his hold on her arm, all but dragging her as he skirted the cliff and headed down the hillside in the direction of the valley.

Dusk was rushing in fast, and that fact only made Maelea more determined to get away. She wasn’t spending the night with him. Not after what had happened in those tunnels. “That’s because you are one. We had a deal.”

“The deal changed.”

She tried to wrench her elbow from his grip, only he held her too tightly. “I didn’t agree to this.”

He jerked her to a stop. Glared down with those dead, light blue eyes. Eyes, she noticed out here in the daylight, that were more piercing than they’d been in the tunnels. And much more unfriendly. “Get this through your head, female. I don’t care if you agreed or not. You’re not leaving me. Not until I’m done with you.”

He yanked her forward again. And as she struggled to keep up with his long legs, her mind spun. What if he really was crazy, just as those females had said? She’d seen the way he twitched and looked around as if he were hearing things. It didn’t matter that he’d saved her life back there in the caves. He’d nearly gotten her killed too. If she stayed with him, only bad things would happen. She felt it in her gut.

And the darkness inside her…it was too attracted to him. Too tempted by him. She had to get away.

Escape plans tumbled through her mind as he dragged her around pine trees and over downed logs. The forest grew darker with every step they took, and her arm ached where he held her bicep with a death grip. She couldn’t break free until he loosened his grasp. But when he did…

“Where are you taking me?” she asked when she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Into that town. We need wheels.”

She nearly choked. “I have no money. I know you have no money. How do you plan to find
wheels
?”

“That’s not something you need to know.”

Maelea’s temper skyrocketed. She wasn’t a helpless female. She’d lived for thousands of years by keeping to herself and never relying on another. She wasn’t about to change that philosophy now.

Stay
calm
, she told herself as they reached the bottom of the hillside and headed for the river. When they got to the town, when he was distracted looking for
wheels
, then she’d make her break.