Which brought her back to her list. She quickly ran through them again in her head and found the place she’d left off. Number five on her list was the most frightening. If all the rest was real then they had to survive until midnight tonight or Marko would lose his soul to Hades. In the meantime, Hades and his minions would try to either kill them both or convert Marko to the dark side.
Kellsie frowned and came to a stop. Marko was still holding her hand and tugged her a few feet before he’d realized she was trying to pull him to a halt. He turned to her and frowned. “Are you feeling okay? We need to keep going. Are you thirsty? There’s a brook off to the right.”
She cocked her head and listened but heard nothing. “How do you know there’s water there? I can’t hear anything.”
He tapped the side of his nose. “I can smell it. And I can hear it.”
“Really?” She wondered if all his senses were enhanced.
He nodded. “I can also hear the squirrel in the tree behind you, the owl in the tree off to the left and there are several bears in the vicinity.”
She shivered and moved a little closer to Marko. The corners of his mouth twitched and she knew he was fighting a smile. Easy for him to laugh it off, he was a bear. She, on the other hand, was very human.
“It’s perfectly safe,” he told her. “They won’t come near unless I ask them to.”
Good to know. This situation was well beyond the realm of her experience. In fact, some of it made no sense at all to her, and she asked him the question that had been bothering her for quite some time now. She’d had plenty of time to think while they were walking and everything boiled down to one question.
“Why does Hades want you? Any of you?” The Lord of the Underworld had manufactured this opportunity. “Hades set up this entire thing. He had to know I’d release you. Or at least one of you.” She nibbled on her bottom lip as she thought through everything. “What does he want?”
Marko ran his fingers through his hair. She frowned when she realized there wasn’t a tangle in his hair or a smudge of dirt on his face. Must be more of those super-duper powers.
And she really was getting sleep-deprived if she was concerned about Marko’s hair, no matter how sexy and touchable it looked.
Still, she wished she looked half as fresh. She was sweaty and dirt coated her clothing where she’d tripped once or twice during their hike through the thick woods. She didn’t even want to think about what her hair looked like.
“He wants us to lead his armies.”
Now that wasn’t exactly what she’d expected to hear. “Why? Doesn’t he already have plenty of demons for that?” Didn’t sound sensible to her, but then again, she really didn’t know Hades, and she hoped to keep it that way.
He shrugged. “Why do the gods do anything? Power. He can’t risk the other gods knowing he plans to overthrow them and steal their power. Our energy is already here in this world. They would suspect nothing until it was too late.”
Now that wasn’t exactly comforting. “What exactly do you mean by power?”
He framed her face with his hands, his expression grave. Kellsie got a sinking feeling in her stomach. This wasn’t going to be good. “He wants to rule the world—your world. Hades has always craved power, never been satisfied with what he had.”
A light bulb went off in her head. “That’s why he attacked the Lady of the Beasts.”
Marko nodded. “He wanted her power, though it was starting to fade by then.”
Now Kellsie was lost. “Why was it fading?” Didn’t gods and goddesses have a set amount of power? To think of it as a fluid thing was a new concept, and a scary one. Because if a god could be stripped of his power as Hades seemed to want to do with his contemporaries, then a god could gain a heck of a lot of power too. Unlimited. Out of control.
Marko dropped his hands and she immediately missed his touch. He spread his arms wide to encompass the forest and mountains around him. “Mankind changed. Developed. No longer did they worship nature or live in harmony with it. They settled in towns and cities and subdued nature. They worshiped new gods, ones that would bring them money, wealth and power.”
His arms came back down by his sides, the muscles rippling. She marveled that he could walk around bare-chested and not even notice the cool night air swirling around them.
“A god or goddess gains power when people worship them. The Olympians were gaining strength as the old gods were weakening and dying. My Lady was weakened but still happy. The children of man would always need food, and therefore animals were still held in esteem. She was content and craved no more than she had.”
“But not Hades?” She knew the answer before he gave it.
“No, Hades wanted what she had, but he misjudged her. And us.” Pride rang from his voice as he continued. “We battled, long and hard.” He shook his head. “I have no idea for how long the battle raged. Eventually, the sheer numbers of Hades and his brothers’ minions began to take their toll. Even we could not hold out much longer.”
It was easy for Kellsie to picture Marko fighting in both forms—man and bear. Relentless. Powerful. Massive. There would be no quit, no give in him. If the rest were like him they would be formidable foes. Yet Hades had defeated all but one of the warriors released.
Something painful swelled deep within Kellsie. Marko could not die. Hades could not have him. The thought of him being tormented for eternity was unbearable.
Marko’s voice brought her back to the present. “The Lady used the last of her waning power to cast the spell, to place the curse on us.” He practically spat the last word. “I would rather she saved herself and let Hades kill us than to end up his prisoner.”
“Marko.” Kellsie didn’t know what to say. There was such pain, such self-loathing in his words.
“No. We have been imprisoned in our animal forms for these thousands of years, but we’ve been able to absorb the world around us and learn. It’s enabled us to keep our sanity when all seemed lost. We could only share thoughts on occasion, but we had each other. Our Lady has been alone, locked in the darkest pits of Hell all these years.”
His shame was palpable even though she knew it wasn’t his fault his Lady was imprisoned. Marko would have fought until the bitter end. Kellsie went to him and rested her hand on his forearm. It felt like a steel slab beneath her fingers. “Maybe she knew something you didn’t. Maybe the curse was her hope.”
A new tension invaded Marko as she continued. “Maybe she gave you this chance because she trusted you’d defeat Hades this time.” She thought about it another moment and nodded, certain of her reasoning. “If you escaped the curse and Hades and gained back your strength wouldn’t that mean she would get stronger?”
Marko stared down at her, dawning wonder on his face. “You are amazing, Kellsie.” He leaned down and kissed her. The embrace was hard and fast but still packed a powerful punch.
She shrugged off his praise, not willing to admit to herself how much it meant to her. “It only makes sense.”
“We have to get going.” He grabbed her hand and started back down the trail toward the carnival. “Maybe we can release Arand and Leander. At the very least, we can get your netbook and try to contact Roric. Maybe he can tell me how to defeat Hades and rescue the Lady.”
Kellsie realized she’d momentarily forgotten her role in this drama. She was last on the list, the most expendable. The Lady and his fellow warriors came first. Once again, she was last.
The ache in her heart made breathing difficult but she battled through it. What had she expected? That he’d suddenly declare his undying love for her after spending a few hours with her? She wasn’t an idiot.