“Don’t ‘my love’ me,” she growled. “My daughter is not to be touched. You sent hellhounds after her again, you bastard.”
Persephone. Double shit. Max glanced between the two, his eyes growing even wider as he took another step back.
“She was not harmed,” Hades said, trying to brush off her anger with a roll of his eyes. “There’s no reason for you to be in such a tizzy.”
“I’ll show you a tizzy.” Persephone lifted her hands. Electricity arced out of her fingertips and hit Hades square in the chest. He flew back ten feet and slammed into the ground with a grunt. “That’s for attacking my daughter.” She lifted her hands again before he could get up, sent another current of electricity through his body that made him shake and writhe on the ground. “And that’s for interfering in my quest for the Orb. It will not be yours, husband. It will never be yours.”
She turned her icy glare on Max. And under her dead stare, every hair on Max’s flesh stood straight. “You.”
Before she could attack, Hades lurched to his feet and hurled a whip of fire out from the palm of his hand. It wrapped around Persephone, locking her hands at her sides, and yanked her backward. Her skirts flew up. She screamed as she was dragged toward Hades.
Her body slammed into his. He closed his arms around her. “It seems all your time on Olympus has made you forget who’s in control, little wife. I think it’s time I reminded you.”
He bit into her neck. And Persephone screamed again. But as her cries of protest turned to moans of pleasure, Max knew if he didn’t get out of here right now, he was going to be in even deeper shit than he already was.
He turned and ran. And hoped like hell they were too distracted to realize he was gone.
His heart pounded hard in his chest, was a roar in his ears, as he zigzagged around tree trunks and jumped over logs. He slipped on a wet patch of moss, hit the earth face-first. Pushed up again and tore off through the trees. Only when he was at least a half mile away did he slow and realize he could use the Orb to open a portal to a different location, far away from here.
With shaking hands he unzipped his jacket, was just about to pull the Orb from under his shirt when a growl echoed close.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
Slowly, he turned and peered up at the five daemons moving toward him from the shadows.
“He’s an Argonaut,” the one on the right said, drawing in a deep whiff.
“He’s Atalanta’s son,” the one in front said, a sinister smile twisting his gruesome lips. “We’ve been looking for you, boy.”
Max dropped his hand from his shirt. Zipped his coat. Tried to quell his racing pulse. But it didn’t work. Because this increase in tempo wasn’t from fear. It was from excitement. And the promise of retribution yet to come.
This time, he had no intention of running.
“Really?” he said in a voice that was calmer than he expected. “Well, here I am, dog-breath. What are you waiting for?”
Chapter Twenty-two
Gryphon sat crouched in the trees outside Atalanta’s new stronghold, a stone fortress set deep in the Scandinavian Mountains of Sweden. Scanning the compound, he took stock of the daemons on patrol around the property, the sharp-rising ridge to the west, the river to the east, and the lake not far beyond.
Snow littered the ground, but spring was trying hard to make itself known this late in May, though nothing—not even the sun trying to peek through the trees—could cut the chill in Gryphon’s soul. The darkness inside vibrated with too much intensity this close to its source. And the voice was all but screaming to draw him the rest of the way in.
He ground his teeth, blinked hard, and shook his head to fight off the urge. He’d let the voice and darkness pull him this far, but he needed to think. To regroup. To figure out how he was going to get inside without being caught. Everything hinged on that. On staying focused now more than ever. If only he had Maelea with him…
I didn’t take it. I promise. I didn’t make that deal.
Her words outside the castle spiraled back through his mind. And with it, the conviction in her voice when she’d added, I wouldn’t use you like that.
The way he’d used her?
Skata, he didn’t know what was real and what was a lie. He wanted to believe her, knew he’d jumped to conclusions without giving her any chance to explain, but he’d been duped before. By that warlock who’d sent his soul to Tartarus. By Atalanta, when she’d offered him freedom from his suffering. By Hera, with that damn soul-mate curse. He didn’t want to be the fool again.
This…it’s sudden and crazy, but…for the first time in my life, everything feels right.
Warmth slid through his veins when he remembered the way she’d looked at him, encircled his heart, squeezed until he could barely breathe. Being with her felt right to him too. In a way nothing else had ever felt right, even before the Underworld.
That was real. The way she made him feel, the connection they shared, the emotions he’d heard in her voice when she told him she loved him, the way she’d held him that night in her beach house when he told her about his time in the Underworld…that was all real. No matter what she’d arranged with her mother before their week together, he knew in the bottom of his heart what she’d said outside the castle in Tiyrns was true.
His pulse beat hard as he scanned the compound again. Skata, he was an idiot. So sure she had to be as dark as her mother, he’d ignored what he knew to be true in his heart. And now he’d probably lost her because he’d let that fear control him. Just as he’d let Atalanta control him for far too long.
Urgency pushed at him. He was done living in fear. Done letting others manipulate him. He still had just over three months before his deadline with Krónos. He could come back. He could bring Orpheus and some of the other Argonauts to help him. Demetrius, Zander, even Titus…they’d all relish a go at Atalanta. And thanks to the darkness inside him, he could lead them back to her. He could—maybe—be the key to finally bringing her down once and for all.
Dooouuulas…come to me.
The screaming voice, the darkness…they pulled at the center of his chest, drawing him in, but he knew now he could fight it. Thanks to Maelea and her faith in him, he knew he could fight anything.
He backed away from the compound, into the darkness of the trees, intent on getting far enough away so he could open a portal back to Argolea without drawing attention, but froze when a portal popped open not far from him, and five daemons stepped through.
“Atalanta will be most pleased with our catch,” the one in front said, staring down at something in his hand.
The one on the right chuckled. “Maybe she’ll make all of us archdaemons. Screw that sonofabitch Naberus.”
Gryphon narrowed his eyes to see what they held. The middle daemon in the back of the pack carried something that wiggled and turned as if trying to get away.
“Put me down! I can walk, you morons!”
Gryphon’s blood ran cold when he recognized Max’s voice.
Shit. Shit! Had the kid followed him? How would he even know how to get here?
He scanned the area. The daemons were marching for the front gate of the compound. If Gryphon didn’t do something right now, the kid was toast.
He grasped his blade at his back and stepped out of the trees into the daemons’ line of sight. “Looks like you boys found something that doesn’t belong to you.”
The daemon in front, the one holding something in his gloved hand, drew in a long whiff, then growled, “Argonaut.”