Skyla shot their seething enemies a quick glance before realizing that escaping with Orpheus was her only choice at the moment. With her bow and arrow still in hand, she ran after him and caught up on the dock outside the boathouse. He kicked the door in with his boot. The little bit of light shining in from the watery opening at the end of the boathouse reflected the word Olympian painted across the side of the nineteen-foot motorboat.
“Fitting.” She tossed her bow into the boat as Orpheus dropped Maelea in a seat and searched compartments.
“Where are the keys?” he asked Maelea.
“Hanging in the second compartment. There.”
Skyla untied the boat and threw the rope in. She jumped in the back, picked up her bow and arrow. Outside she could hear the snarls and growls of the monsters as they raced across the grass. “Um…anytime would be good.”
“Goddamn it.” Orpheus opened panels and slammed them shut. The sound of claws racing along the dock outside echoed in the air.
“Orpheus?” Skyla readied her bow, aimed for the door.
“Found them!” Keys jingled as Orpheus jumped behind the wheel.
The outer door shattered into a thousand pieces.
“Now!” Skyla screamed.
The boat’s engine roared to life. Orpheus punched the throttle. The hounds rushed into the boathouse. Skyla fired one arrow, readied the next shot just as the boat tore out of the boathouse and cut across the water.
She fell backward into the seat behind her. Water sprayed her face. When she found her footing and pushed up, the hounds were already pacing the end of the dock, their glowing red eyes tiny points of light far off against the shore.
They motored out of Union Bay and into Lake Washington. The dashboard lights highlighted Orpheus’s sandy brown hair blowing in the breeze as he maneuvered the boat through the glassy water as if he’d done it a thousand times before.
To keep from staring at him, Skyla moved to check Maelea’s arm. Looking at him made her wonder about that element. Where he’d gotten it and what he planned to do with it. And what else about him was the same as Cynurus.
Maelea jerked her arm back from Skyla’s touch. After arguing with the girl for five minutes, Skyla finally gave up and sat on the other bench.
They slowed as the lake came to an end. “Through there.” Maelea pointed toward a dock with her good arm. “There’s a park.”
Orpheus killed the engine and brushed past Skyla to tie the rope to the dock. A rush of heat swept over her skin where he grazed her, followed by a chill that left her with gooseflesh.
“How bad is the arm?” he asked, helping Maelea out of the boat.
“It’s—it’s fine.” Maelea wrapped her good arm around her bad.
“Let me see it.”
“No, it’s fine.”
When he grasped her hand and tugged it away from her body, moving the sleeve out of the way to have a look, she protested again. “I don’t need—”
“What the…?”
Maelea broke the eye contact, tugged her hand away, and cradled her arm against her stomach again. “I told you it was fine.”
Orpheus’s jaw tightened, but instead of arguing he turned toward Skyla and said, “She’s fine. Let’s go.”
Maelea took a step back. “I’m not going anywhere with either of you.”
Orpheus rolled his eyes. Then whipped her into his arms.
“Put me down!”
“When you start listening to directions, we’ll talk about it.”
“You sonofa—”
“Where are you taking her?” Skyla asked, grabbing her weapons and hustling to follow as he strode down the dock toward shore.
“Where’s the closest airport?” he asked Maelea.
“Airport?” Maelea repeated in surprise. “Why do you need an airport?”
Orpheus stepped off the dock and stopped on the grass, glaring down at the girl in the moonlight. “Let me explain this to you so you get it. I ask the questions, you provide the answers. If you give me answers I like, I’ll consider answering a few of your questions. You got it?”
Maelea’s mouth snapped shut. She glanced past Skyla to the dark lake beyond.
“Airport?” Orpheus asked again.
She pursed her lips. Looked as if she wasn’t about to answer. In the silence Skyla could practically see the steam brewing in Orpheus as his patience waned, and she prepared herself for the worst. Now that she knew he was only after Maelea to get to the Orb, his reasons for protecting her the night of the concert made sense. But there were no daemons out here. No hellhounds either.
Finally, Maelea mumbled, “Snohomish County Airport. But it’s at least ten miles from here. My house—”
“Is probably already toast,” Orpheus told her, walking again. “And by now those hellhounds have reported back to Hades and told him you’re with me. You’re not safe on your own anymore.”
Sickness slid across Maelea’s face, and at his side, Skyla clenched her jaw at the way Orpheus was carrying the girl—the same way Rhett Butler had carried Scarlett up the stairs in Gone With the Wind. Orpheus picked up speed as he climbed a small knoll in the park. “We’ll find a cab, head toward that airport. There’s gotta be a charter plane we can catch there.”
“Where to?” Maelea asked, cringing and clutching her injured arm as he jostled her.
“Was that a question?”
Her mouth snapped shut again, and this time her jaw clenched with barely contained anger.
Looking pleased, Orpheus said, “I’ve got a friend in Montana. He can take care of you there.”
“Montana? But I live here!”
Orpheus’s face went stony. Skyla drew to a stop, her breath catching at what he would do to the injured female. She’d seen him in battle. Had seen the way he could shift into daemon form with just a thought. Why he’d screwed around and hadn’t shifted back at Maelea’s house she didn’t know, but she’d soon find out. About that and the earth element. And just what he had planned.
Skyla waited for his eyes to change to signal he was calling up his daemon, but they didn’t. “Do you want me to take you back to your house?” he asked.
Maelea stared at him. Swallowed. Seemed to debate her options. Slowly, she shook her head.
“Okay then.” Orpheus resumed walking through the trees. “I think we’re your only option at this point.”
Maelea’s gaze found Skyla, and it was clear she believed the hybrid. And didn’t like it.
Be careful, female.
They reached Bothell Way, a major thoroughfare, in silence. Streetlights illuminated the four-lane highway. “There won’t be any flights going out this late,” Skyla pointed out. “Unless you’re planning to hitch a broom to Montana, we need to hole up somewhere until morning.”
“Then we’ll take a train,” Orpheus said. “But we’re not sticking around here. I guarantee those hounds have our scent.”
“Yeah, but we don’t need to run all the way to Montana to lose them.”
Orpheus ignored her—he was damn good at that—and looked to Maelea. “What about a train station?”
“Um…there’s one close,” Maelea said. “Edmonds. About twelve miles, maybe—”
“There won’t be any trains leaving at this hour either,” Skyla protested.
“Fucking fine, Miss Transportation Guru.” Orpheus moved down the sidewalk. “We’ll find a car and drive north to Bellingham, catch a train from there.”
“Find a car?” Skyla liked that less than his idea to run for Montana.
Orpheus veered into a parking lot, where he dropped Maelea to her feet and peered into the window of a Ford Explorer.
“You’re gonna steal that, aren’t you?” Maelea asked.
“Sure as shit, I am.” He used his elbow to knock out the back window. An alarm sounded. Seconds later he was in the front seat, bent down under the steering column, pulling wires free. The alarm clicked off, then the ignition roared to life. “Get in. Both of you.”