His eyes narrowed as he drew close. “I don’t like that look.”
She smiled, loving that she put him on guard. It meant he was feeling the same damn thing as she. “What look?”
“The one that says you’re plotting something.”
Need pulsed through her. She was plotting something. What she was going to do about her order. How she was going to keep Zeus from going after him. When she was going to get the man in front of her back in bed, hopefully sooner rather than later.
He nodded to the west. “Apophis’s compound is just on the other side of those hills. Probably guarded by a dozen witches.”
“He’ll be expecting an attack,” Demetrius pointed out, moving up on his side.
Orpheus scrolled through screens on his fancy phone. “Which is why he’ll never see us coming.”
Skyla glanced from male to male. “What are you two planning?”
Orpheus grinned, tucked his phone in his back pocket. A sinister twist of his lips did wicked hot things to her blood and told her he was planning his own something. “To lure him out. With a new recruit.”
Oh, no. She took a step back. “You two are Medean, not me.”
“Yes, sweetheart, but you’ve got the goods. Apophis only likes females. Special females. I’m thinking maybe you can be of use after all.”
A shimmer of foreboding rushed down her spine. Yes, she wanted him, but something told her what he had planned wasn’t anywhere near what she had in mind.
“Relax, Siren,” he said. “You may like this. Would I ever lead you astray?”
Yes, yes he would. And he’d enjoy every minute of it.
The problem was, so would she.
Chapter 19
Skyla wasn’t scared. She’d been trained never to show real fear. But then, a warlock hiding out in the human realm with godlike powers didn’t exactly put her at ease. And pretending to be a virginal witch, when she was anything but, also didn’t leave her overly reassured this crazy plan would work.
The hem of the thin white gown they’d bought for her grazed her thighs, made her itch to scratch her legs. The sandals were way too open for her taste and she felt naked without her armor. Since there’d been nowhere to hide her bow in this getup, she’d relinquished it in favor of the blade strapped high on her thigh, and the little spell Orpheus had cast on her—the one he’d said was necessary for this ruse—didn’t sit well with her either. In fact, it made her thighs ache.
She tried not to fidget as she waited inside the circle Orpheus and Demetrius had cast. The earth element was heavy in her palm. In the clearing, surrounded by dark hills filled with cypress and oak and pine that towered above like decrepit old men, moonlight filtered over the stones and branches and wild orchids littering the ground, making the entire area look gray and barren rather than colorful and alive.
She could feel the energy invoked by Demetrius and Orpheus somewhere out in the trees. Knew the earth element in her fist was amping that energy. And she was sure Apophis could feel it too. Magic recognized magic, and she had no doubt the power from the circle would eventually draw the warlock from his hiding place. But a small part of her stiffened just the same. Orpheus was still frustrated with her for pushing her way into this quest. She just hoped that hero streak she knew was inside him showed itself when Apophis finally appeared. Because earth element or not, without her weapons there was no way her warrior skills were a match for a warlock.
Branches crackled to her right. She held her breath. Nothing moved around her, nothing but the air stirred by Orpheus’s and Demetrius’s incantations. Another crackle sounded to her left, and she tried to see through the darkness. Couldn’t. The blade felt heavy against her thigh, the earth element hot against her palm. Neither slowed her pulse.
A figure stepped out of the trees. Her breath caught.
She’d known he’d taken the body of an Argonaut, but what approached was not what she’d expected. Dark blond hair, a youthful and handsome face with a square jaw covered in just a dusting of dark stubble. Unlike Orpheus, who had that dark, dangerous look, and Demetrius, whose scowl was downright frightening, this Argonaut was movie-star handsome, tanned from days in the sun here in Greece, body muscular and at the same time artistic, as if his shoulders and chest and thighs had been chiseled from solid stone.
But that blue glare coming from his eyes…that wasn’t right. Whatever was inside him was definitely not Argonaut. And it was most certainly not heroic.
Apophis stopped just beyond the stones forming the circle, tipped his head. Those eyes glowed brighter. “I feel power radiating from you, little one.”
It was all she could do not to tell him what he could do with his power. But she bit her lip, reminded herself she was luring him in. It was no different from what she did as a Siren. Even if the virgin thing was a real stretch for her.
“I heard tales of a great warlock in the Peloponnese,” she said in a sickeningly sweet voice, lowering her head in a subservient way. “I hoped we would meet.”
His blinding gaze illuminated her body. “You are most delectable. There is promise in you.”
Sickness floated up from her stomach. “I’ve been studying the dark arts for quite some time. I had a vision my master would soon come for me.”
Oh, man, she was so going to hurl if this didn’t end soon.
“A vision?”
She nodded. And as they’d planned, opened her fist so he could see the earth element in her palm. “A vision that told me my master would unite a disk of great importance with this.”
His eyes grew wide, their glow illuminating the clearing. “Where did you get that?”
“I stole it. From a man. I told you I’ve been practicing my art.”
His eyes narrowed in deep distrust. “You are a virgin?”
Not even.
But Orpheus had been right. The warlock was attracted to that, the sick bastard. She knew why. He got some kind of enhanced power from the induction of a virgin into his order, but it pissed her off just the same.
“Yes, I am,” she lied, hoping Orpheus’s little spell was working to block his ability to sense this particular aspect of her being.
“Open the circle.”
This was the moment of truth. He couldn’t enter without invitation. And she was safe until he did. “I can only open it for my master. How do I know you are he?”
For a heartbeat he did nothing. Then slowly he fingered the buttons at his chest, popped one, then another. And pulled his shirt open to reveal the Orb of Krónos lying against his toned skin.
Its power reached her across the distance. The earth element grew even hotter against her palm, so close to its home. No wonder Zeus was willing to kill for this thing. Even from here she could feel the all-consuming draw and command.
The energy of the circle fractured and opened. The warlock stepped inside. Skyla’s pulse skyrocketed. She hadn’t opened the circle, Orpheus had. And though she knew it was all part of the plan, that didn’t ease her anxiety.
He approached slowly but with intent, and stopped only when he was a foot from her. He drew in a deep breath, held it. Smiled slowly. “This will be a very good union, virgin. You will be most important to the coven.”
“Think again, warlock.” Orpheus moved out of the trees with Skyla’s bow in his hands, arrow trained on the warlock’s heart.
As the warlock turned to look in his direction with fire in his eerie blue eyes, Skyla darted around behind him and sprinted for the opening in the circle.
“You,” the warlock growled.
“Yes, me,” Orpheus said, coming closer to the edge of the circle, arrow still ready to strike. “You took something that didn’t belong to you and we want it back.”