The daemon’s lips curled back in a grisly smile to reveal stained, pointed teeth. “And risk the wrath of Atalanta? I don’t think so.”
The daemon set Demetrius on his feet, but instead of the blinding pain from claws or teeth or blade, what came was a pat on his back as if they were old friends. The daemon turned to face the others. “What we have there, my comrades, is of royal blood. And lucky for all of you I realized this before you killed her.”
Demetrius’s gaze snapped to Isadora. She wasn’t dead? Hope erupted in his chest.
“Atalanta has been waiting for her,” the daemon went on. “What a lucky twist of fate that we are the ones who will bring her to our queen.” He turned and looked Demetrius’s way. “And she will be most pleased you are the one who brought her to us.”
That hope fizzled and died. Trepidation coursed through Demetrius as the leader’s chest swelled with pride. More daemons gathered to see what was happening. Murmurs and throaty whispers rose up in the night to circle the field like a malicious, pulsing halo of evil.
The leader of the pack held his arms out wide. “Warriors, pay homage to this Argonaut who will change the tides of our war. For Atalanta’s son has succeeded in his duties. Your brother has finally brought us our prize.”
Chapter 5
Orpheus felt like he’d been run over by a semitruck. The skin on his hands and forearms was fried from all the acidic witch blood. His shoulder hurt like a bitch where he’d taken a blast of Apophis’s energy. And he had enough nicks and cuts from claws and swords everywhere else to last him into the next millennium.
Man, the Argonauts owed him big-time. As he flashed to Delia’s tent city in the low hills of the Aegis Mountains, he corrected himself. Isadora fucking owed him.
And this time he planned to hold firm to his word and make sure she paid up.
Delia rushed out of the pavilion just as he lowered the invisibility cloak’s hood. She grasped his forearm, her fingers digging in deep to his already-seared skin.
He winced as pain shot into his arm and tried to pull away. But the witch had a death grip and her wide-eyed expression put him on instant alert. One look around and he realized the Argonauts weren’t here, where’d they’d planned to reconnoiter after rescuing Isadora.
“Where are they?” he asked.
“They left.”
Left? Why, those ungrateful motherfu—
“They sensed one of their own open the portal.”
“I know. The big one opened it to get the princess away from Apophis.”
Delia shook her head, white hair flaring out all around her shoulders. And his last thread of patience snapped. He’d nearly gotten fried, had risked his own neck so Demetrius could get Gryphon and Isadora the hell out of there, and then they’d gone and ditched his ass so they could—
“It didn’t reopen.”
“What did you say?”
“I said the portal didn’t reopen. They didn’t come back through. Not here, not in Tiyrns.”
His brow wrinkled. “How can you—”
“Because I sense anytime the portal opens, anywhere in Argolea. How do you think I’m able to monitor our mobile portals?” Her hand tightened on his arm. “I sensed it open to the human realm, but not back again. Orpheus, I don’t have to tell you, as one of the Horae, it’s not safe for the princess to be in the human realm.”
No, it wasn’t safe for Isadora to be in the human realm, but that wasn’t what set off a tremor of unease deep in Orpheus’s gut. Thinking about Gryphon unable to stand on his own when Demetrius had taken him through was foremost in Orpheus’s mind.
He didn’t bother to answer Delia, simply closed his eyes and pictured the castle in Tiyrns, then flashed to the grand foyer.
The guards at the front door caught sight of him and hollered, surprised he’d flashed inside walls. Turning, he looked up the massive staircase to where Theron and a few of the other Argonauts were coming down.
Footsteps pounded across the marble floor. Theron waved a hand from above. “He’s with us.”
The leader of the Argonauts stopped at ground level, motioned Cerek over to take care of the flustered guards. Then he turned his attention on Orpheus. “Glad you made it back.”
Yeah, right. “What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell us.”
“We were overrun. Demetrius took the princess and Gryphon through the portal to get away. I stayed back to give them a chance.”
“How in Hades did you get out?”
Orpheus didn’t like the accusation. The guardian might command this ragtag group of warriors, but he didn’t hold a damn thing over Orpheus. “I have my ways.”
Theron studied Orpheus for a long beat, and in his eyes there was skepticism and distrust, the kind Orpheus was used to seeing. But not when he’d volunteered to help. And definitely not when he’d nearly gotten zapped to smithereens as a result. This is what he got for being a fucking Good Samaritan.
He set his jaw, was just about to lay into Theron, when the guardian said, “They never made it back. What did they say to you before they left?”
Nothing that would help the Argonauts find them, that was sure. They could be anywhere. Except…“Gryphon was injured.”
“Where? How?”
“That piece of shit warlock hit him with some kind of energy. He could barely stand on his own. If they didn’t come back right away—”
“Skata.” Theron looked over his shoulder. “Zander, get Callia. We’re going to need her.”
As the blond guardian headed back up the stairs, Orpheus’s irritation with this whole fucked-up situation reached its limit. “Can’t you just track them with those fancy medallions you all wear?”
“The medallions work like a beacon, one way, and only if they’re pressed. Someone has to activate them for—”
Boots clomped on the floor above, and all heads turned to see what the ruckus was about. Seconds later Titus rounded the newel post and skipped stairs to reach them at the bottom. He was out of breath when he said, “I got it. Just came in.” He waved some kind of handheld gizmo. “Gryphon’s medal went off.”
“What about Demetrius’s?” Theron asked.
Titus shook his head. “Hasn’t been triggered. Theron, man. They’re at the half-breed colony.”
“Skata,” Theron muttered again.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that was the worst possible place to open the portal. The colony had recently been overrun by daemons, and the Misos—half human, half Argolean—were in the process of setting up new digs somewhere in Montana. If Demetrius had opened the portal there, odds were good they’d run into a shit storm of daemons, still running patrols and searching the area for stragglers. And with Gryphon injured, their chances of getting out alive diminished radically.
“Get Nick on the horn,” Theron said to Titus. “He’s still in Oregon rounding up his people and getting them moved over.”
“Got it,” Titus said, skipping back up the steps.
Zander was just coming back down the massive staircase with Callia at his side. “T,” he said as Titus rushed by. “What’s up?”
“Nothing good,” Titus muttered, then disappeared around the corner.
One hand gripping Zander’s tightly, the other holding her healer’s bag, Callia couldn’t hide the worry shrouding her face. She stopped at the base of the stairs, looked from Orpheus to Theron and back again. “Zander said Gryphon was hurt. How bad?”