Heart (21 page)

A wind gusted through the room, whistling
through the columns. I tore my gaze away from Hades and looked to
the entrance where three figures landed on graceful feet.

Orange and black hair whipped out from the
middle woman, thrashing in the suddenly violent wind.

Eryn.

I recognized her immediately. She looked
ethereal and dangerous in the low light of the lanterns. Her skin
seemed to glow as bright as the candlelight and as subdued as the
cloud-covered moon. She radiated danger and anger, barely
restrained in her shocking face.

If it hadn’t been for the jagged scar
slashing down one side of her face, she would have been
beautiful.

Her sisters flanked her. The one to her left
had red hair the color of a ruby. Her eyes never stopped flashing
with lightning as they surveyed the room with keen awareness. The
one to her right was taller than them both and seemingly made from
granite. Her alabaster skin was as hard and muscled as the stone
surface of the mountain and her silver hair wrapped around her
waist in a complicated series of knots and bonds.

One was named Meg and the other Alecta. I
didn’t know which was which, but I knew they we deadly And I knew
one would betray her.

Eryn seemed to know it too, by the way she
kept them just slightly in front of her. She watched them as
closely as she watched the rest of the room. I read her expression
as if it were my own. Nothing would get behind her. She would let
nothing stab her in the back.

Movement and chatter in the room stilled with
their arrival. I saw several of the guards glance at Hera as if she
would explain why they were suddenly here.

She lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug and
kept the answer tightly sealed behind an innocent smile.

She’d obviously called them, but for who? Me?
Ryder? Nix? Why were they here and what destruction had they been
permitted to wield?

Eryn nodded at her sisters and they moved
through the room. They stepped over broken wine glasses and spilled
food. They did not break stride even though Ares reached for them
lecherously and the killing glares from the rest of the godhood
would have had me cowering in the corner.

Eryn did not stop until she stood directly in
front of me. Her long finger extended to point directly in my
face.

“I will protect you, Siren, until you cross
me. And when you do, I will be the first in line to slit your
throat.”

Chapter Seventeen

Rage bubbled through me. It started in my
toes and worked up through my legs, extending out to my fingers and
filling my head with righteous indignation. My chest burned with
the acid of the accusation.

I jumped to my feet. The table next to me
tipped over and tossed the food I had barely touched. The pretty
silver serving tray clattered against the smooth marble floor.

Embarrassment mingled with fury, but I
refused to let these gods and goddesses intimidate me.

I pointed my finger at Eryn and said, “That
all depends on what side you’re really on.” Her face flushed with
anger. Power rippled through her, darkening the sky overhead and
bringing out the bright flashes of lightning that speared through
the black clouds.

“You doubt my loyalty to Olympus?” she
hissed. Her sisters stepped forward and took arms at her sides.
Light sparked at their fingertips.

I licked my dry lips and ignored the room of
deities watching me closely. “I couldn’t care less about your
loyalty to Olympus,” I threw back at her. “My problem is your
attitude towards me. As long as you’re not on his side, then there
won’t be a reason for you to fear me.” I jabbed my finger in Nix’s
direction. It took all of my will power to restrain myself from
scratching his eyes out when his low chuckle followed my point.

“You think I fear you?” she laughed
haughtily.

I took another step forward, placing myself
directly in front of the three deadly Furies. “I think this entire
mountain fears me.”

She didn’t have a response for that. Her
throat worked to swallow a bitter response, but she didn’t
disagree. Somehow I knew she wouldn’t.

Exactly why these gods had reason to fear me
was slowly working itself into place, but I didn’t have all of the
answers yet. I needed my mother for those.

I looked back at Ryder. He’d slid to the edge
of his seat, ready to jump in if I needed him. One foot bounced
rapidly while he struggled to keep his calm but other than that, he
remained the picture of cool and collected.

“I think I’ve had enough dinner,” I told him
with a jerk of my chin.

“You and me both, Red.” He pushed up from his
settee and managed not to knock his tray of food over. Linking his
hand with mine, he led me out the back way.

I chanced one glance back at the room I was
leaving behind and wished I hadn’t. They watched me go with a
communal aggression that became palpable frustration in the sky. A
lightning storm like I had never seen before waged war in the
churning clouds. Every color of lightning bolt cut through the sky
in angry slashes. Sometimes they would run into each other and an
explosion of sparks and light would vibrate overhead.

It was awesome and terrifying all at
once.

I reminded myself that these were gods. I was
just a mortal.

And yet why didn’t they chase me? Or put me
in my place? Why did they let me get away with so much?

“What am I?” I whispered. We had walked for a
while before I’d dared to make any sound. The question had been
weighing on my mind for a long time, but I couldn’t bring myself to
say the words aloud until now.

I was too afraid of the answer.

“Ivy Pierce,” Ryder replied. “You’re just
this girl I know from school.”

I gave him a grateful smile. “Just this girl
you know?”

He nodded. “Just this girl I know that
worships coffee and can play a pretty damn good keyboard.”

It was pretty amazing how Ryder could take
this horrific situation and turn this moment into something
beautiful. I had been headed down a one way path to an epic pity
party, but with a few honest words and sweetness that defied
everything we’d been through, he had managed to flip my attitude
around and make me feel infinitely special.

“It’s a lovely night for a stroll,” he
quipped after we had walked for a while.

“It is, isn’t it?” We passed Hermes estate to
our left without saying a single word about it.

We didn’t exactly know where we were going,
but we didn’t talk about it. Instinct pushed us both to keep moving
and a silent agreement passed between us.

We followed the road as it wound down the
backside of the mountain and trusted intuition to lead us. We held
hands the entire way, clinging to each other for support.

The houses grew less prestigious the further
along we traveled. The sprawling estates of the gods turned to
ramshackle hovels that leaned on each other. The road suffered too.
The smooth, glittering limestone became chipped and rough. We had
to pay closer attention to every step our feet took.

The moon hid behind thick cloud cover. The
only light that seemed to penetrate this side of the mountain was
the stray lightning streak that bolted across the sky. We were
submerged in a sinister darkness. The shadows moved; the air was
heavy and aggressive.

I couldn’t say for sure, but it definitely
felt like we were on the right path to find the Fates.

Unfortunately it was also the wrong path to
safety.

The housing stopped when the mountain jutted
upwards abruptly. The road split the towering rock in two, creating
two sharp points on either side of us. The mountain walls blocked
out the little remaining light and hollowed out into a tunnel that
would submerge us in darkness completely.

All of a sudden, this became a very bad
idea.

I tried to swallow down my fear. “Do you
think we should keep going?”

Ryder rubbed his thumb over mine. “Seems like
a good place for evil to hide.”

“We didn’t even bring weapons,” I reminded
him.

He turned to face me. He grabbed my other
hand and held it firmly with his reassuring grip. “Ivy, you are the
weapon.”

“All they have to do is cut a piece of
thread, Ryder. That’s it. They could kill us both in less than a
second.” My shoulders started shaking. The closer we got, the more
right this felt. But also, the more dangerous it became. I couldn’t
think beyond the fear and sense of dread poisoning my thoughts.

“So what do you want to do? What are our
other options?” His solemn gaze met mine and I felt the point he
gently made.

We didn’t have any other options.

“Okay,” I told him. “You’re right.”

“They’re probably expecting us anyway,” he
reminded me. “I mean, what kind of future-telling witches would
they be if they didn’t already know we were on our way?”

“That is
so
not helping.” Panic flared
in my chest.

He pulled me close until we were nose to
nose. His lips brushed over mine, giving me the slightest taste of
him. I automatically leaned forward. I wanted more.

I needed more.

He didn’t hesitate to give it to me. His
mouth met mine at the same time his hands dropped mine to grip my
waist. His tongue slipped between my lips and I opened for him,
deepening the kiss with a hungry sigh.

I poured everything that was inside of me
into that kiss. I let it be therapy and confession, hope and
healing. I let Ryder’s touch, his intentions and his heart sweep
away my fears and doubts and replace them with the promise that he
would not leave me like I left him.

He would not let me go through this on my
own.

He was with me.

He would stay with me.

Rocks skittered down the side of the mountain
behind Ryder. They echoed through the too-still night and scared us
both. We jumped apart and quickly surveyed the area, expecting the
worst.

Something flapped its leathery wings overhead
and we pressed ourselves against the cold rock of the mountain.

“There will be more time for that later.”
Ryder nudged my side with his elbow. “You’re going to get us
killed.”

I smiled even though he couldn’t see me in
the pitch black of the passageway. “Death by kisses. That doesn’t
sound so bad.”

I heard his smile as we inched along. “True
story.”

His hand slid down my forearm and took my
hand again. He pulled me along the gravelly road, occasionally
tripping over a large rock we couldn’t see.

Bats, or something like bats, screeched
overhead. In this kind of darkness, the rest of my senses were
hyperaware of every little thing. My hearing picked up the flapping
of their wings as they swooped from perch to perch and the
scratching of their claws as they landed somewhere on the rock
overhead.

Ryder and I had to turn sideways to fit
through the ever-narrowing tunnel. The mountain pushed in on us
from either side. The sharp rock jabbed at my sides and exposed
arms. My gown snagged more than once and I was afraid I would be
standing in nothing but a rag if we ever managed to make it out of
here.

The darkness just got darker.

I had never experienced anything like it. It
weighed down on my skin, making my arms sluggish and numb. My feet
tripped more often and I started to worry that there were drugs in
the air.

My mind spun with possibilities. Was this the
Fates’ defense? Did they incapacitate intruders before they got
anywhere important?

Ryder’s grip on my hand grew weaker and
weaker, his steps moving slower and slower. My stomach clenched
with fear, but it was a muted reaction compared to normal.

“Ryder,” I whispered, thinking we should go
back. He didn’t respond.

Was it just my imagination or had the bats
creeped closer? Had something flown by just over my head?

Ryder’s feet stumbled and our hands nearly
slipped apart. His fingers slid from mine, but our pinkies linked
and I felt that connection as strongly as I did the haziness in my
head and the sluggishness in my muscles.

I couldn’t let him go. This was my one
lifeline to something real. Something lasting.

I was completely blind in this place. My eyes
never adjusted to the darkness. They couldn’t, there was no light
to give them any reprieve. But after a while, I started to
hallucinate that I could see things.

Insidious images started to flash before me.
I saw hideous creatures with bloodied talons and gaping mouths. I
saw men beneath them with their guts spilled out. Their eyes were
wide with agony, but their mouths curled into pleasured smiles.

I saw serpents the size of humans with horned
heads and forked tongues. Their bodies wrapped around more
creatures made from nightmares. Their heads bobbed our direction as
we walked by them.

Instinctively I knew not to look in their
eyes. I knew to keep my head down and my eyes on my feet as much as
I could.

A woman walked through their midst wrapped in
dirty gauze. Her hair moved around her shoulders in thick, tangled
strands as if it had a life of its own. I knew not to look at her
face, but I watched her clawed toenails grip the harsh ground with
every step she took.

Medusa
, my Greek brain told me.

Her hair
did
have a life of its own.
Or
lives
of its own. The slender snakes moved as one unit,
but each had its own head, each had the power to kill.

Another woman caught my attention. Her long,
black hair reached her feet and wrapped around her ankles and
calves like a vine. Her pale legs seemed to glow in the darkness,
so frail and delicate that their weakness was a visible thing. Her
thin arms wrapped around her too small waist and hugged her torso
with a desperation I felt in my bones.

I braved looking at this woman’s face and
nearly stumbled off the path when I took in her lifeless eyes and
slack jaw. Her dark eyes would have been pretty once, as well as
her high cheek bones and heart-shaped lips. Once upon a time.