Enslaved (7 page)

“Then step up attacks in the area. That’ll draw those bloody Argonauts out. Torture humans, half-breeds…I don’t care which. Just find out where that half-breed colony is located. I guarantee my
doulas
is hiding there.”

Her
doulas
was the key to everything. As an Argonaut, he could infiltrate Argolea. He could gain the other Argonauts’ trust, slip into the Argolean castle, take the Orb their queen had hidden there. And then he could bring it—and one of the Horae, the descendants of the ancient goddesses of balance and justice, whom Atalanta needed to control the Orb—to her. Gryphon was tied to Atalanta now, thanks to Krónos’s help. When he finally gave in and came to her, he’d be bound to do her will. And once she had the Orb, she could negotiate more time with Krónos. Without all four sacred elements—earth, air, water, and fire—the Orb couldn’t be used to its full power. And Krónos needed the Orb at maximum power to be able to escape the Underworld. Once she had the Orb in her possession, Krónos would be cornered into giving her more time to find the remaining elements. And when she did…

When she did, well, he’d bow to
her
. Not the other way around.

“Yes, my queen,” Galto said, backing out of the room, his long, clawlike nails clicking against the stone-cold floor as he moved.

Alone, Atalanta looked back out the window. A storm was moving in. Dark gray clouds on the edge of the horizon waited to unleash their frigid fury. Being back in the human realm was both a blessing and a curse. Here she once more commanded her army, but she was mortal. If it weren’t for that one limitation, she’d be out hunting Gryphon herself. But even with her goddess powers, she couldn’t take the risk. However, once she had the Orb…

One corner of her lips curled as she watched the first snowflake drift to the ground. Once she had the Orb in her hands again, she’d be close to achieving her ultimate goal: seeing every single Argonaut destroyed.

Once they were wiped from the cosmos and she had the power to command the human realm, only then would she rest.

***

The air was bitter cold, but the water cut with the bone-chilling frigidity of a thousand knives stabbing into every inch of his skin.

Gryphon plunged beneath the surface, kicked hard to come back up. They’d fallen for at least fifteen seconds before hitting this ice-cold pool of water. He gasped when he reached the surface, gulped in air, opened his eyes, and tried to get his bearings.

Dooouulaaaas…

He shook the water from his ears.
Not
fucking
now!

He turned in the water. No, not a pool. An underground river. The current was swift, already rushing him downstream. The voices of Nick’s men—of Orpheus—hollering from above were long gone, and he couldn’t see shit in the dark.

“Mae—” He sputtered water. Coughed as he tried to keep the current from sucking him back under. “Maelea!”

No cry for help met his ears. Nothing but the increasing roar of water crashing close. He swiveled in the dark, tried to squint to see ahead. Saw nothing but pitch-black darkness in every direction. “Maelea!”

Dooouulaaaas…

He ground his teeth. Worked like hell to ignore the voice. The churn of water grew in intensity. Something brushed his leg beneath the surface. He tried to swim back the way he’d come, but the current was too swift. Panic pushed in as he was forced downstream. “Maelea!”

A splash echoed to his right. Then a gasp. And a cough. He twisted in that direction, kicked hard to reach the noise. “Maelea?”

Maelea sputtered somewhere close.

His hands pushed through water, passed over flesh, tightened around muscle and bone to tug her close. “Grab on to me.”

“What’s that”—she coughed, dug her fingers into his flesh—“noise?”

He shifted toward the roar. Realized it was a waterfall. Shit. They were going over. “Don’t let go of me!”

Her scream met his ears just as they rocketed off what had to be an enormous drop-off. Water sprayed into his eyes, messed with his vision. For a second he thought he saw something glowing green beneath them, but it was so dark in here, that couldn’t be right. Air rushed up his back, but he didn’t let go of Maelea’s forearm. Not as they sailed through the frigid air, not as they hit—thank gods—another pool of water, not as they submerged beneath the surface and his breath rushed out of his lungs like air from a popped balloon.

He kicked as if Hades himself were after them, gripped her arm tighter so he didn’t lose her. And gasped when he finally came back up. Musty, damp, bone-chilling air filled his chest. Beside him, Maelea broke the surface and drew large gulps of air.

Realizing she was okay, that they’d both survived, his heart rate began to slow and he let go of her as he treaded water and tried to figure out where the hell they were.

To his surprise, the pool of water they’d dropped into was indeed glowing green, the light enough to illuminate the giant cavern around them, the underground lake they’d fallen into, even the small stream leading out at the far end, which continued like a phosphorescent trail toward freedom.

He looked up at the forty-foot waterfall they’d just come down. No other bodies sailed over the edge, which meant no one had been stupid enough to follow them. Nick and his men…and Orpheus…probably all thought he and Maelea were dead by now.

Beside him, Maelea’s teeth knocked together. He looked her way as she shivered in the cold water, her long black hair a wet mess plastered to her head, her normally pale skin even whiter in the glow of the lake.

He didn’t know what was making the water glow, but he was thankful for it. Especially since he didn’t have a flashlight. “We need to get out of this water.”

“I…” Her teeth clattered together and her body shook, but she didn’t fight him when he pulled her toward the rocky edge of the pool. “I…d-d-d-don’t…l-l-l-like you.”

“You wouldn’t be the first.”

He climbed out of the water, hauled her out next to him. Chilled air rushed over his already wet and cold skin, sent a shiver down his spine. Maelea wrapped her hands around her waist and trembled harder.

Shit, he was totally unprepared for this. No matches, no blankets, not even any supplies. They weren’t going back out the way they’d come in, and looking around the cavern lit by the eerie green glow, their only hope was to follow the river and see where it came out. But they couldn’t do that until they got warm.

“Take off your clothes.”

“Wh-
what
?” Her shocked and enraged eyes shot to his. Eyes, he noticed up close, that weren’t just dark, as he’d guessed from the hours he’d watched her from his room at the colony. They were black. Jet-black. The same color as her hair. The same color as the vileness of the Underworld that lived inside him.

He reached for the hem of her long-sleeved top. “It’s either that or freeze to death.”

She swatted at his hand and moved back an enormous step, those dark eyes growing wide as saucers. “D-d-d-don’t touch me!”

“It’s not my first choice, female, but it’s either that or die. And I’m not about to die down here.”

He reached for her shirt again. She smacked at his hand, stumbled back a step. “I said don’t t-t-t-touch me. I’ll scream!”

His own anger ramped up. “Go ahead. There’s no one to hear you. Do you think they’re coming after us? They think we’re dead. And even if Nick and the others figure out a way to climb down safely, it’ll be hours before they reach us. That river brought us at least a couple of miles underground. In hours, I plan to be long gone.”

He grasped the hem of her shirt before she could think of words to match her shocked expression, and yanked it up to her head. She let out a muffled scream, threw her arms up to push him away, but her limbs weren’t working yet because of the cold and it did little good. When she stumbled, he didn’t try to catch her, knowing the rock wall of the cavern would do that soon enough.

A crack echoed as her head hit stone. In her dazed yelp, he ripped the rest of her shirt off, dropped it on the ground. Then he went to work on the buttons of her slim black pants. “Hold still, dammit.”

She struggled against him, tried to kick him with her foot. He moved down, barely missed getting cracked in the nose by her knee. While she pushed against his shoulders, he braced one arm across her hips to hold her tight to the rocks and used the other to unzip her boots then drag her pants down her legs.

“You s-s-s-son of a bitch! If you so much as t-t-t-touch me, I’ll—”

She was still shivering, likely in shock. He tugged off one boot, then the other, dragged her pants the rest of the way from her legs. “You’ll what?”

She slammed her fist against his spine. “I’ll k-k-k-kill you! I swear I w-will!”

“With what? Your fingernails? I don’t think so, female.” He pushed back up to his feet, pressed his hips into hers to hold her still, and let go long enough to strip his own dripping shirt over his head.

Anger erupted in those obsidian eyes. But her pupils were dilated, and he wasn’t averse to taking advantage of her disorientation in any way he could.

She raked her fingernails down his chest. Fire burned across his skin where she gouged his flesh.

“Son of a bitch.” He captured her hands easily in one of his. Pinned them over her head and glared down at her. “Stop fucking around. I’m not going to rape you, dammit. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

She struggled against his hold, finally realized she was trapped, and slowed her flailing. But when he reached down with his free hand to unbutton his jeans, her gaze shot to his waistband and her eyes flew wide all over again. “D…don’t.”

The tremble that ran through her body had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with fear. His gaze strayed to the cream-colored bra against her much paler flesh, then lower to the bit of nude lace at her hip peeking out where he wasn’t pressing into her. And against his groin, her stomach tightened. Followed by a rush of heat. A whole lot of heat he wasn’t sure came from only her.

He looked back into her eyes as something sharp stabbed his chest. Not her fingers this time, since they were still bound above her head, but…an emotion? No, definitely couldn’t be that. He hadn’t felt a damn thing other than empty since returning from the Underworld. It had to be something else. Leftover adrenaline from nearly being discovered or even a muscle spasm from almost drowning.

Cool air washed down his spine, spread beneath the waistband of his jeans, sent a shiver over his skin. Enough dicking around. If they didn’t warm up soon, they were both going to die from hypothermia, and then this argument would be nothing but a past-tense waste of time.

Eyes still locked on hers, he toed off his boots, kicked them across the rocks. A buzz echoed in his head, but it wasn’t like the screaming voice he was used to. This, at least, was manageable. He popped the button on his jeans.

Against him, she sucked in a breath and went still as stone.

People were afraid of him. He was used to that reaction. But hers pissed him off more than most. Why, he didn’t know.

“I told you before, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, working not to yell as he pushed his pants down and wrestled his way out of them, leaving him in nothing but soaking-wet boxer briefs. “If you cooperate, that still holds true.”

He let go of her hands, pushed her arms to her sides, and wrapped his around hers, crushing her to his chest. She drew in another startled breath but was smart enough—this time—not to fight back. He turned them both around and sank down to sit on the rocks, holding her close as another shiver racked his body.

“Wh-why are you d-d-doing this to m-m-me?”

Now that the fight had left her body, the shock was crashing in hard. He loosed his hold, rubbed his hands up and down her arms to stimulate circulation. “I’m not doing anything but trying to break free. Just like you.”

“You d-did that.” She bent her elbows, drew her forearms up against his chest. “You d-d-don’t need me now.”

He didn’t, technically, that was true. At least not after he got warm. Keeping her around wasn’t an entirely ludicrous idea, though. There was no telling where this cavern let out, or who’d be waiting for them when they finally made it back to the surface. Any hostage was better than no hostage.

But dragging her along…he hadn’t planned for that, and it created a whole other set of problems. Problems he needed to work through in his head. And right now, though he didn’t understand why, the voice wasn’t screaming at him, so it was his best chance to think. “Shut up already and just”—he wrapped his arms back around her, tugged her head so it fit under his chin—“try to generate body heat.”

She shivered against him for several minutes, then finally drew in a shuddering breath and relaxed a few muscles at a time. But she kept her hands pressed against his chest, ready and waiting to push away as soon as she could.

Her warmth seeped into his skin as they sat in silence. Water gurgled nearby, and the green glow from the bottom of the lake gave the entire cavern an eerie feel. His mind drifted to where he’d go after he got out of this cave. If he let the voice guide him, he had no doubt he’d find his target. The question was…could he fight the voice? If he let it take hold, could he keep the darkness from consuming him?