“It pretty much is the Arctic, dumbass,” Titus said, shifting the toothpick in his mouth to the other side and stomping his boots in the thin layer of snow that covered the permafrost.
From his spot on the other side of the old-growth trees they were all huddled under in the frigid forests of northern British Columbia, Demetrius watched the banter with keen eyes. Next to him, Cerek shot Phin and Titus a glare. “Stop your bitching. It’s better than Siberia any day of the damn week. Trust me, I know.”
“Ladies,” Theron said as he studied the rough sketch of Atalanta’s compound that Max had put together for them. “If we’re done gossiping, I could use some focus here.”
The boy had detailed the main lodge, the training yard, and the barracks with chilling accuracy, but luckily he hadn’t remembered just how to reach Atalanta’s stronghold. That, thankfully, had kept Demetrius in the loop and had made his presence necessary.
They were half a mile away, hidden in the trees just outside the northern city of Fort Nelson. Moonlight cast looming shadows across the frozen forest floor. A slight breeze blew, rustling the evergreens in the dead of night. In addition to the Argonauts, Orpheus had agreed to join the raid, but he wasn’t listening to Theron or studying the schematics of the compound. No, his icy eyes were pinned on Demetrius and murder brewed in their dark depths.
Get in line, shithead.
Beneath the thin dark jacket he wore, that blackness inside Demetrius shifted. The closer they’d gotten to Atalanta and her daemons, the stronger it had grown, giving him the power and strength he’d been lacking. Until now it was all Demetrius could do to keep it at bay. But soon enough he’d let it free. If his plan went as he hoped, soon enough it would consume him. And Orpheus just might get that murder he so desperately sought.
“Z?” Theron asked. “You ready?”
Next to Demetrius, Zander scowled. “No. I’d rather kick some daemon ass.”
Theron folded the map and stuck it in his back pocket. “Too bad. I’m not risking you in your condition.”
“I can’t be—”
“You can be hurt. And none of us have time to haul your ass out of there if things get rough, which I fully expect to happen.” His gaze swept each of the Argonauts and hovered on Orpheus. “Rescue mission only. We clear?”
The guys nodded in agreement, all except Orpheus, who still had a death stare dialed in on Demetrius.
Yeah, he deserved it, but a small space in Demetrius’s chest pinched with the realization he was now the outcast. Though he’d never truly fit in with the others, he’d been a part of something greater than himself for a short amount of time. Now? Now they all regarded him as the enemy. Which, ironically, he was.
“O?” Theron asked.
Orpheus tore his gaze from Demetrius and looked toward Theron. But something shimmered over his face before he turned, and for a split second his eyes shifted to a glowing green before hardening once more. “Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s do this.”
The blackness inside Demetrius jumped to life, recognition sparking it into action. He hadn’t been sure before, but now he knew for certain. Orpheus was—
“Zander,” Theron said, “you know what you have to do.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Zander mumbled. “I’ve got it under control. He’s not going anywhere. Just don’t have too much fun without me.”
Casting Demetrius a withering look, Theron turned and motioned the others to follow.
The Argonauts disappeared into the trees, their path a circular loop in different directions around the property, out of sight of Atalanta’s sentries. Thanks to what Demetrius had told them and Max had confirmed, they were targeting the main house. But that wasn’t where Isadora was being held. Demetrius stared out over the barren brown field. Far off in the distance, he sensed Isadora was close to Atalanta, in her stronghold, where her powers were greatest and where no one could get to her but him.
Zander shoved his hands into his pants pockets, jumped up and down a few times to ease the chill. “Fucking freezing out here.”
The guardian was ticked he’d been relegated to baby-sitting detail, but Demetrius couldn’t have picked better. And even though Demetrius was cuffed and Theron had brought Delia in to cast some sort of spell on the cuffs before they’d left so Demetrius couldn’t use his magick to break free, he knew it was only a matter of time before opportunity presented itself. Now he just had to bide his time and wait.
Footsteps pounded in the trees no more than thirty yards away, followed by muffled voices and grunts that definitely weren’t human. Or Argolean.
“Skata.” Zander tugged Demetrius back into the darkness of the trees. With his hands bound behind him, Demetrius watched from the shadows as three daemons, obviously running patrol, emerged from the woods and crossed the barren field.
Yes.
“Fuckers,” Zander muttered when they were nearly across the field. “We’re lucky they didn’t see us.”
Demetrius closed his eyes as a chant rose up in his mind. Calling on the magick that had been born into him, he reached out with an invisible limb, his power a dark mist curling along the ground until it reached the feet of the daemons, now more than a hundred yards away. Contact and pressure erupted in his hand. He imagined the mist wrapping around the ankle of the middle daemon and clamping down. Then he gathered his power and yanked.
A cry erupted across the field as the middle daemon was wrenched up and back to slam into the frozen ground. The other two jerked to a halt and looked back with perplexed expressions on their gnarled faces.
“What the hell—”
Demetrius shifted around to face his kinsman. “You’ve got about twenty seconds before they reach us.”
“How did you—”
“The magick works like a beacon, Z. It’s how they found me the first time. It’s how they’ll find us now. You can either stay here and be overrun, or you can unbind my arms and help me save Isadora.”
“Save her? I thought—”
A roar erupted across the field and footsteps pounded the earth, signaling that the daemons had realized just where they were. Demetrius’s pulse picked up speed. “Contrary to what Theron thinks, I didn’t hand her over to Atalanta. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back. Even sacrifice you if I have to.”
Zander’s eyes flashed from silver to gray, signaling he’d called up one of his legendary rages. “You sonofa—”
Another roar sounded, this one a hell of a lot closer.
“Five seconds, Z. You more than anyone know things aren’t always what they seem. The others won’t be able to get to her. I’m the only one who can. Help me.”
Zander’s eyes held Demetrius’s, indecision warring within their gray depths. “Motherfucker.”
Whether it was the plea or the truth that made up Z’s mind, Demetrius didn’t know. But Zander shoved Demetrius around without another word. Metal clicked against metal as the key slid into the lock, then the cuffs clanged together as they separated.
Zander thrust the ten-inch hunting knife from his thigh into Demetrius’s hand and took a step away, reaching back for the parazonium at his back. “You’d better not make me regret this.”
Demetrius didn’t have time to answer. The first daemon plowed into his body, taking him down hard. His skull cracked against the frozen ground, but he arced out with the knife, catching the daemon at the jugular with the blade. Blood sprayed all over him and the ground. The daemon fell forward, his weight pinning Demetrius to the frozen earth. The beast wasn’t dead, though, and Demetrius had seconds before it got its second wind.