He dropped his hands, moved back mere inches. Never took his eyes off his treacherous wife. She was to blame too. Still was to blame. “And?”
She drew a deep breath. “And I sent hellhounds to stop him, but they got away.”
Hades looked past his wife to the marble relief again. Only this time all he saw was betrayal, not victory. A betrayal he would douse with vengeance. “And the bastard?”
Persephone frowned. “My daughter is not a bastard. But yes, she got away with him. I didn’t send the hounds there to harm her.”
No, of course not. Persephone loved that fucking stain. Even though that love made Hades hurt his wife time and again.
“What would he want with the bastard?”
“I don’t know.”
Hades looked back at her, only this time he didn’t see his wife’s beauty anymore. He saw deception of the most calculated kind.
“Find out,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Of course, my lord,” she said in that sickeningly sweet voice again. The one that this time energized his anger. “Anything for you, love.”
She turned for the door, and for a second he thought of stopping her, of dragging her back by her hair and bending her over the altar behind him to punish her. But he didn’t. Because right now he had more important things than her insolence to deal with.
When she was gone, he snapped his fingers. The four-foot-tall troll-like creature emerged from a small door hidden in the wall and dragged a lame foot behind him as he scuffed across the floor. He stopped to look up at Hades with his green scaly hands and twisted, too-long nails pressed together in subservience. “Yes, my lord.”
“Orcus, where is that stain Maelea?”
It was Orcus’s one job in this realm to monitor Maelea for Hades at all times. If Zeus so much as made even the most minute contact with the girl, Hades had just cause to strike her down. It was an agreement he’d made with Lachesis, that meddling Fate, when he’d cast Maelea out of his realm and banished her to the human world eons ago. He’d waited and watched for that opportunity, but so far, over three thousand years later, Zeus hadn’t shown even an ounce of interest in his bastard daughter. But perhaps now, monitoring her might come in useful after all.
“She’s on a train, heading east.”
A train heading east. Hades looked out the window again at the depravity he’d worked so hard to create, all within the Underworld. For the last two hundred years or so, Maelea had taken up refuge in the Seattle area. She ventured out, but she stayed close to home. Until now, that is. “With Orpheus.”
“Yes, my lord. There’s also a Siren with them.”
Hades whipped around. “A Siren? Which one?”
“Skyla.”
The eldest and most fierce of Zeus’s assassins. Oh, this just got better and better. Zeus was after the Orb too, it seemed, and he was using his Sirens to track Orpheus, then no doubt take the Orb by force when they found it. But why would Orpheus need Maelea?
He rubbed a hand over the patch of hair covering his chin as he thought through the possibilities. Maelea had no powers. At least none he was aware of. But what if she was somehow linked to that Orb? He wouldn’t put it past his brother Zeus to bestow on her some gift the King of the Gods could one day use to his full advantage.
He dropped his hand. “Send the hounds.”
“They’re on a train, my lord. Traveling at rapid speed.”
“I’ll deal with the train. Have the hounds kill Orpheus and the Siren. But leave Maelea to me.”
“But the Fate, my lord—”
He slashed Orcus a look that struck fear to the center of the scaly creature’s soul. “The Fate cannot interfere because I won’t harm the bastard child. I have other plans for her. Now stop asking asinine questions and do as you’re instructed.”
When Orcus slithered away, Hades looked back out at his view, clasped his hands behind his back, and scanned the flaming red horizon. No doubt Lachesis would be pissed he’d sent the hounds to kill her precious Orpheus, but he could handle the loss of Orpheus’s soul. Yes, the soul of a hero had been a prize worth fighting for over thousands of years, but for the chance to find the Orb and rule what was rightfully his, Hades would gladly go back on the deal he’d made to give the hero a second chance at life. He didn’t care what role Lachesis claimed Orpheus played in the balance of the world. All he cared about was getting his just due.
And after all, some things required sacrifice. Even on his part.
Chapter 9
Maelea lay still as stone as the door to the stateroom flew open and clanged shut again. She held her breath and listened, wondering if Skyla and Orpheus were about to pick up where they’d left off. Feet shuffled, the steady in-and-out breaths of one mouth floated in the air. Followed by a muttered “Skata.”
When a thwack sounded from below, she peeled her eyelids apart and tried to see what was going on. From her vantage on the top bunk she could just see Orpheus standing in the center of the room with his hands on his hips, staring down at Skyla’s leather armor, which was strewn across the floor near the wall.
Obviously, things had not gone so well out in the hall.
“I know you’re awake up there, Ghoul Girl, so stop holding your breath.”
Maelea still hadn’t decided what she thought of Orpheus. Yeah, he’d saved her from Hades’s underlings back at her house, but he hadn’t done it for her. He’d done it because he wanted something from her. Kidnapping was kidnapping, no matter the reason.
She pushed up to sitting on the top bunk, drew her legs to her chest, and wrapped her arms around herself as she glared down at him. Outside, the moonlit snow-covered mountains sped by, an eerie sea of light and shadow.
Orpheus frowned up at her. “Stop looking at me like I’m going to eat you alive. Have I yet?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean you’re not planning to at some point.”
“Nice comeback, Ghoul Girl. There’s hope for you yet.”
He flopped down into the chair he’d been sitting in before, tapped his long masculine fingers against the armrest. They sat in silence for several minutes, the rhythmic rocking of the train and wheels clanking along the tracks the only sounds. Finally, when she couldn’t stand it anymore, she worked up the courage to ask the one thing she needed to know. “Where are you taking me?”
“Montana.”
“You said that already. Where in Montana?”
“A friend’s place.”
“What friend?”
He scowled up at her. “Does it matter?”
“To me it does. You’ve made me a prisoner.”
His gaze shifted back to the empty bottom bunk. “No, Ghoul Girl, Hades and your precious pop made you a prisoner. I’ve just changed your holding cell.”
Anger welled in Maelea’s chest but she pressed her chin to her knees to keep from antagonizing him. Though it burned, what he said was true. Hades and Zeus had both made her a prisoner in this realm. No one cared for her. No one looked out for her. She was alone in every sense of the word.
“Look,” Orpheus said. “We’re going to be there soon. Things will go a lot smoother if you just tell me right now where that sonofabitch warlock is. Then I can be on my way.”
She knew exactly which warlock he was talking about. And why Orpheus wanted to find him. But she knew if she told him what he wanted to know, he’d be gone and she’d still be held captive. Wherever the hell he planned to leave her. Her anger swelled at the way she was being treated like a prisoner. She lifted her head to tell him to go to hell when she sensed a vibration radiating from deep inside the earth.