Breathing heavy through her nose, Callia tried to catch her bearings as sweat slid down her spine. Behind her, Loukas was also huffing from the exertion, but his body remained a solid presence at her back, reminding her who was in charge.
“Hello, Eirene,” Atalanta said in a menacing voice, drawing Callia’s attention. “We’ve been expecting you. Haven’t we, Maximus?”
Callia cut her gaze from Atalanta to Max. He stared at Callia with wide eyes. Did he know who she was? Did he have any idea he was hers and not Atalanta’s?
“Enough with the pleasantries,” Loukas barked at her back. “Let’s do this.”
“An ándras of action,” Atalanta said. “I like that. I trust you brought the orb?”
Loukas shifted his legs wider. “When the youngling is dead, I’ll give it to you. Not before.”
Panic clawed up Callia’s chest. She shrieked beneath the hand clamped hard over her mouth, but the sound that came out was nothing more than a grunt.
Loukas tightened his arms around her until pain shot through her nerve endings, cutting off her voice. Callia gripped Loukas’s arms, tried to pull them free, but he was too strong.
“The Orb of Krónos is quite a treasure, Loukas,” Atalanta drawled. “I never bothered to ask. However did you find it?”
“How I came to have it isn’t important.”
“Oh, but I think it is.”
Loukas tensed at Callia’s back. “My cousin found it. Now the boy—”
A feral smile slid across Atalanta’s perfect face. Far down the hill, the sounds of battle drifted up to them, but Atalanta didn’t seem to hear. “Shall I tell you a story, Loukas?”
“I—”
“Oh, it’s a good one,” she said with a smile. “One I think you’ll like. You see, not long ago, an ándras of your world came across the Orb of Krónos high in the Aegis Mountains. Being one who is always—how shall I say this…looking out for himself?—he decided to see what he could get for it. He posed a riddle to Persephone who, realizing what he had, managed to steal the orb right out from under his nose.”
Sweat slicked Callia’s back, only it wasn’t just hers. It was Loukas’s as well, seeping through the cloth separating them. His heart rate picked up against her skin, and his anxiety sank into her as if it were her own.
“The gods are never to be trusted,” Atalanta went on. “Remember that, Loukas. Now, Persephone took the orb to her husband, Hades, who was, as I’m sure you can guess, more than thrilled with her little find. He kept it close to him for quite some time. Which is how I encountered it.”
Loukas’s pulse skyrocketed. Moisture gathered on his palms where he held Callia.
“It always amazes me how single-minded males can be,” Atalanta said. “Even gods. If you fuck them long enough, you can get them to forget everything. Even what they’ve done with something as precious as the key to the world.”
Loukas swallowed hard. His muscles bunched. Out of the corner of her eye, Callia caught movement in the brush. She looked closer and saw—It couldn’t be. Her father?
Simon placed a finger over his lips, signaling her to be quiet.
Atalanta’s eyes hardened on Loukas. “Did you think you could trick me? You don’t have the orb. You’ve never had it.”
“But I do.”
Callia’s gaze flicked to the side where Orpheus had just poofed into appearance, holding the Orb of Krónos in front of him by its long chain.
Holy…Hades. Where the hell had he come from? Callia’s eyes grew wide all over again. Orpheus could flash on earth like they could in Argolea? That didn’t make sense…
“Let the youngling and the female go, Atalanta,” Orpheus announced. “Or I promise you’ll never see this trinket again.”
“Callia!”
The scream from below registered for all of them at the same time. Callia’s gaze shot down the hill to where Zander was tearing toward them, lashing out with his blade right and left as he struck daemon after daemon on his way to her. A pack of daemons halfway up the hill realized where he was heading and charged.
And then things happened so fast, Callia barely registered the movements. Loukas let go of her and darted toward the trees. Atalanta’s arm shot out toward Loukas and a beam of energy slammed into his body, throwing him forward. He screamed as his body hit hard, bounced, then collapsed and twitched uncontrollably against the cold earth before going deathly still.
Her father charged from the brush, blade held high. Atalanta’s arm swung out and around and she backhanded Simon easily down the hill as if he were nothing but a puppet. Then she shifted and threw her arm past Callia toward where Orpheus stood holding the orb.
“Do you want this?” Orpheus yelled.
Atalanta’s eyes grew wide. He pulled the orb back and swung it forward by the chain, hurling it across the distance between them. She threw a ball of fiery energy his direction, but before it reached him, Orpheus disappeared in a poof of smoke only to reappear at her back where she couldn’t see him.
Atalanta screamed in frustration. The orb had disappeared right along with Orpheus. Chest heaving, Atalanta whipped in Callia’s direction, and her eyes blazed as red as her robe. “You.”
“No!” Max screamed.
Callia’s heart rate jerked. She took a step back and braced herself. Behind Atalanta, Orpheus shot Callia a keep-her-distracted look, then silently stooped to untie Max’s hands.
Oh, gods. This was it. Callia’s gaze darted to Max. He could escape. All she had to do was keep Atalanta focused on her…
“You will pay for what the daemon spawn has done.” Atalanta lifted both arms and thrust her hands forward. But nothing happened. No heat flared from her fingers, no energy whipped from her palms. Eyes wide, the demigod looked down at her hands in shocked stupor.
Then her body jerked hard and was thrust down, much like Loukas’s, and she crashed against the ground with a squeal of pain.
She rolled and stared up at Max who had both hands extended out toward her, as if he’d just thrown her own energy back at her.
“Don’t touch her,” Max said.
Atalanta took one enraged look at Max, at Orpheus by his side, then over at Callia. Then she vanished, right into thin air.
“That’s right,” Orpheus said to the empty ground where Atalanta had just lain. “Tuck tail and run like the lower life form you are.”
Max stared down at his hands as if he couldn’t believe what he’d done.
“Dude,” Orpheus said, glancing at Max. “You’ve got the power of transference.” A victorious smile burst across his face. “That…totally…rocks!”
“Callia!”
Growls and shouts drifted up the hill along with the sounds of metal clanging against metal and flesh and bone. Callia tore her gaze from her son to the edge of the hill where Zander, bloody and dirty, and her father, looking much the same, battled back the ten or so daemons headed straight for them.
Oh, shit. They weren’t out of this yet.
“Orpheus!” Callia screamed.
“I’m on it,” he yelled. He shoved something in his pocket before he drew his blade. “Been a while since I kicked some daemon ass.”
He poofed into nothingness just as Callia saw her father go down.
“No!”
Orpheus reappeared behind the seven-foot monster. His blade arced out and around, severing the daemon’s head, preventing the monster from stabbing his blade into Simon’s chest.
“Dad!” Callia shot a look at Max.
“Go,” Max said. “Go!”