WE BOTH DUCK ON INSTINCT, AND THE ARROW SLAMS into the milky-white stalagmite behind us, embedding itself deep into the mineral deposit.
Kato reaches for me, but another twang sends us diving in opposite directions. I scramble toward another stalagmite, slipping on the ice and skidding beyond my mark. The bowstring hums again, and my right foot gets punched out from under me.
I hit the ground hard on my side and slide. Grunting, I flip onto my stomach and then scrabble back over the ice until I crash into the back side of the mineral tower. Another arrow clatters across the ice just as I snatch in my trailing foot.
“Cat!” Kato is ten feet away, behind a stalagmite that’s not even as wide as his shoulders. “You’re hit!”
A colorfully fletched arrow sticks out from the heel of my boot. “It’s in the sole.” I yank it out and drop it next to me. “I’m fine.”
“Not for long,” a singsongy voice croons from a gallery of caves high up along the opposite wall of the cavern. “You’re oh-so-wrong.”
I take a quick look out from behind my shield, trying to discern the archer’s form. “Atalanta, I presume?”
There’s a pause. “She knows my name. That’s not part of the game.”
Twang. Crack!
She aimed high. I look up and see a huge, lethally sharp icicle speeding toward my head.
I jump out of the way, forced to forsake my shelter. Another arrow flies before I can take cover again and slams into my shoulder.
I gasp, staggering back. Then Kato has me. He shoves us both into the debris of the shattered icicle behind my stalagmite an instant before another arrow skids over the ice where I just stood.
Fuming, I grab the shaft and yank the arrow from my shoulder. Kato looks horrified.
“It hit a buckle. The armor blocked it.” Mostly. Under the tough leather, warm liquid dampens my tunic, making the material cling to the side of my breast.
His eyes close briefly in relief. Then, setting me behind him, he calls out, “We’re here on a mission from the Gods. We don’t want any trouble.”
Atalanta laughs. It’s a light, airy sound, like wind through trees. Preternaturally fast, she flits from cave to cave along the far wall. “So handsome. I think I’ll hold you for ransom.”
“What?” I say through gritted teeth.
Kato looks at me. The wariness in his cobalt eyes doesn’t color his arch tone. “Now she can rhyme.”
My jaw drops. “I can rhyme!”
“Live among bears, get covered in hairs!” Atalanta sings.
I roll my injured shoulder, testing it. It stings, but that’s all. “She makes no sense. She’s trying to kill us. We have to get past her.”
Drawing a Kobaloi knife, I rub my thumb over the sinew while I watch the way the archer’s silhouette moves. When I think I’ve nailed down the pattern, I throw the blade into an empty gallery, counting on her to flit through it at the same moment. She does, but she catches the knife, stopping it right in front of her armored chest before twirling back into the shadows.
I blink. Titos and now this? Those Kobaloi knives were the worst purchase of my life!
Atalanta pops into the next cave, flips my knife in her hand, and then throws it back. The blade sticks in a mini stalagmite an inch from my foot. I jerk back, thumping mad.
“It’s not with a knife that you’ll take my life.”
I pry my knife free and then sheathe the blade again.
Twang. Crack!
Kato yanks me against him and spins to the side as another icicle falls from the roof and smashes down next to us. Shattered ice blasts our legs and scatters in a chiming wave.
“Nock an arrow, hit the marrow,” Atalanta chants, letting another bolt fly.
Too late, I realize Kato isn’t entirely behind the stalagmite anymore. He slaps his hand over his neck, right at the base of his skull.
Fury gathers inside me like a storm as he moves us both closer to the mineral deposit again. I reach for his wrist. “Let me see.”
He lowers his red-stained fingers, and I rise to my toes, using the arm he still has around me for balance.
“It’s just a scratch.” But mini Titos’s forked tongue is lapping up the blood.
I pat Kato’s chest in what I hope is a reassuring way, trying to keep my eyes a normal size and my voice steady. “You’re fine.” Animated tattoos and vampiric snakes are not something he needs to worry about right now.
I pull my tunic from my pants, rip off the relatively clean hem, and then wrap the strip around Kato’s neck, securing the ends with a knot. “There. Good as new.”
He gives me a tight smile. “This stalagmite isn’t big enough for the two of us. I’ll go back to mine.”
“Don’t.” I grab his arm. “She’s too good. She’ll pin you in seconds.”
He hesitates and then gets behind me, pushing me right up against the frosty surface. Stuck, I can’t even give Atalanta the evil eye anymore.
“I can’t breathe,” I eventually protest.
“Good. Then you can’t move.”
“And that’s ever so helpful in a fight!”
“Atalanta!” Kato calls, not moving an inch. “Zeus and Athena sent us. We’re meant to bring a treasure to the Ipotane Alpha.”
I roll my eyes. “Fantastic. Just tell her we’re here to steal her treasure.”
“It might not be hers.”
“She might be guarding it,” I argue.
I feel him shrug behind me. “Or she could say she was expecting us.”
“Expecting to kill us,” I mutter.
Kato inhales sharply, moving enough for me to lean over and see what he sees. Atalanta has stepped out onto a ledge. Framed against the gallery of caves above, she’s magnificent. Wild and dark. Silky hair falls to her knees, spilling over her arms, hands, and lowered bow. Diaphanous skirts cover her long, shapely legs only to mid-thigh, and gleaming, golden upper-body armor illuminates the smooth, pale skin of her neck and face. Dark brows wing across her forehead, arching delicately. Her full mouth looks like it’s been stained by kalaberries, offering an exotic splash of color against her flawless, almost translucent complexion. She’s as cold and perfect as the ice crystals adorning the cavern.
Thick-lashed, elongated eyes send a shock through me. They mirror mine, glinting with the pure light-green of magic and the north.
She moves forward, her long hair swaying. “The Gods sent you to me that I might be free?”
Free? From what? “Yes!”
Kato gives me a warning squeeze, and I stick an elbow in his ribs.
Atalanta cocks her head in a perfectly savage way, reminding me of a wolf let loose in a field of sheep. “Please Artemis, and you may depart from this.”
Artemis is the Goddess? Heed the Goddess’s needs.
What does that mean?
“We don’t have an offering,” Kato whispers in my ear.
“I know!” I grate back.
Atalanta steps so close to the edge of her perch that the tips of her boots kiss empty air. “We’ll take the warrior to serve as courtier.”
My insides plummet. Is that why the Gods sent Kato in here?
“You can’t have him.” I search frantically for an alternate offering. “You can have a magic cloak.”
Atalanta laughs.
“Fine. Two magic cloaks.”
Kato grunts. I don’t think he wants to give his up.
“I’m not just handing you over!” I snap.
“Your worry can end, for we will not keep your friend.”
I look sharply at the other female. “Then what do you want from him? And for how long?”
She wets her berry-colored lips. Her hands curl at her sides. “Mistress and I, we’ve decided to try…”
Her words trail off, an intense, heated look coming over her face. I know that look. I look at Griffin that way all the time.
Scowling, I wiggle enough to turn around and face Kato. “She looks like a wild animal in heat. I have a good idea of what they have planned for you.”
I smack his arm. “You don’t have to look so happy about it!”
Kato shrugs. “What’s not to like?”
“She shot me!”
“She shot me, too.”
Gah! Men! “Artemis is sworn to virginity. Her…disciple might be, too. You can’t touch them.”
“Heed the Goddess’s needs.” Kato spreads his hands like he can’t help it if Artemis wants a man.
“That’s not a need, it’s a want! She can live without.”
“She’s immortal. That’s a long time to live without.”
“Maybe she is sick of her eternal virginity.” I would be. “But what if you’re wrong and Zeus strikes you down with a God Bolt for deflowering his daughter?”
Kato looks less keen about that. “This is part of what the wizard said. I have to go with her. What happens next…” He frowns. “I’ll figure it out.”
“It’s a test.” I start to panic. I don’t like it. “It’s a test to see if you’ll hold out, if you’ll keep the Goddess pure.”
“If the woman is brave,” Atalanta calls down, “she’ll find her man in the second large cave.”
“What second large cave?” I glance at Kato. “It took us hours just to find this one.”
“She thinks I’m your man,” Kato says, surprised.
“And yet she has no problem dragging you off for an Olympian orgy!”
“Two women is hardly an orgy,” he points out.
I glare.
Kato takes my shoulders and squeezes. “This is why it was me, Cat. Why they said only I could come into the caves with you.”
My eyebrows slam down. “What do you mean?”
“I’m the only one of us who can do this without damaging something. I’m the only one whose heart isn’t engaged.”
“What? Oh…” Griffin loves me. Jocasta is clearly something to Flynn, even if he’s not sure what. And Carver… Obviously Kato knows something about Carver that I don’t.
“There are always consequences,” I say darkly.
He shrugs. “Sometimes more. Sometimes less.”
My mouth flattens. I don’t like this. “Who is Carver pining for?” No wonder he’s been moody and a little solitary lately. Whoever she is, he had to leave her behind. “I can’t be the only one who doesn’t know.”
Kato smiles faintly, something sad edging into his eyes. “A ghost.”
I wince. Oh, Carver.
Kato drops his hands from my arms. “Don’t worry. I’ve been in the back room of a tavern or two. I know what to do.”
I don’t doubt that. “You don’t have to. We’ll find another way.”
“This was written, Cat. You know that as well as I do.” Kato steps away from me. “Find me in the second cave.”
My heart clenches hard. “What if I can’t?”
“You can.”
I grab his wrist. “Have you seen me try to read a map? It’s pathetic, and I don’t say that lightly.”
“You don’t have a map.”
“Well, that’s even worse!”
Atalanta drops from her perch, landing lightly on the balls of her feet despite the impact fracturing the frost in a wide circle all around her. She strides toward us, tall, confident, and poised, possessing an animal’s natural grace. Her arms are loose. Her hips sway. Her hair swoops. Gods, it’s annoying.
I’ve got animal grace. I’ve got plenty. Definitely enough to claw her eyes out.
With a last look at me, Kato steps out from behind the stalagmite.
I jump after him, trying to pull him back. “What about the three-headed beast?”
He rubs the back of his neck, his blue eyes swimming with shadows. “I don’t know, but I don’t think she’ll wait.”
Atalanta’s avid gaze is already bright with lust. She’s practically foaming at the mouth. “Strip!” she commands, not bothering with a rhyme.
My jaw drops. Kato looks rather shocked himself.
“Now?” he asks, for some reason directing the question at me.
I shrug helplessly. “I guess.”
Atalanta slings her bow over one shoulder and then starts rapping her fingernails against her armor. The impatient tip-tapping grates on my nerves. Everything about her grates on my nerves—the rhyming, her agility, the way she caught my knife, and how she intends to use Kato, although he doesn’t seem to mind.
Kato strips, handing each item of clothing to me. He starts shivering almost immediately.
“The temperature won’t exactly enhance my performance,” he mutters.
I take his pants, trying not to glimpse what they used to be covering. “I have a feeling she’ll keep you warm,” I say sourly.
Atalanta claps, apparently delighted with what she sees. I don’t look. I refuse to look.
“The treasure you need, you’ll receive after the deed. As you depart, it will”—she looks Kato up and down with unabashed libidinous craving, her tongue sliding along her lower lip—“warm your manly parts.”
I glare at her. “That does not rhyme!”
She unslings her bow, nocks an arrow, and shoots me. Sort of. If she’d meant to kill me, I’d be dead. I think I lose some hair, though. In any case, Kato is faster than I am. He spins me out of the archer’s path again and deposits me back behind our stalagmite. In the time before he lets me go, my face is buried in his chest. Crisp, golden hair tickles my nose and brushes my lips. His skin is still warm, and smells of man, and frost, and leather. He turns almost as fast, leaving my face against his back. I exhale, and goose bumps spread across his skin.
“I go with you now,” he tells Atalanta, “and you leave her alone. You will not harm her. Ever.”
Atalanta makes no response that I can hear. Maybe she nods. I don’t know. I can’t see around Kato and about a mile of naked back.
He seems satisfied, but then adds, “I’m keeping my boots.”
I can’t help it. I look down. Before I get to his boots, though, my eyes snag on a very fine backside. I’ve only ever seen one naked male bottom. I tilt my head to the side. There’s no real harm in seeing two.
Kato half turns, looking at me over his shoulder. My eyes jerk back up, a ridiculous blush hitting my cheeks like a thunderclap.
“Griffin will kill me for leaving you alone in here,” he says.
“Griffin will kill you for being naked in the same room with me,” I answer.
He grunts. “Believe me, I’d rather be dressed. It’s bloody cold in here.”
“Go, then,” I reluctantly urge. “Atalanta will warm you up.” My tone could curdle milk, and the words almost stick in my throat. It’s hard not to choke on them.
The muscles in Kato’s bare arms ripple as he balls his hands into fists. “There’s still the lyre, and the monster.”
I push on the middle of his back with the flat of my hand. He needs to go before he freezes to death. The warmth is already seeping from his skin. “That’s my part, I guess. You just heed the Goddess’s needs when you see Artemis. Needs,” I remind him. “Not wants.”
“Heed the need,” he echoes, looking less enthusiastic now that he’s freezing cold and actually parting from me.
Kato suddenly turns and grabs my wrist, crushing Ariadne’s Thread into my skin. “Keep the string tied. No matter what, you find your way out.”
Does he really think I’d leave him in here? “I find you, and then we both find our way out.”
He looks ready to argue. He looks ready to turn this whole plan on its ear.
“Go.” I give him the hard look Griffin is always giving me. “Go before I give in to my base feminine curiosity and look at your ‘manly parts.’”
Kato slowly drops my wrist. “I’ve seen you naked. We’d be even.”
“Being even isn’t high on my priority list.”
He grins. Then he sweeps his big hand over the top of my head, turns, and walks away.
There’s a long moment when my heart forgets to beat. Atalanta takes hold of Kato’s arm and drags him toward a shadowy tunnel. As she turns back to me, her long hair sweeps over his bare skin, and I wonder what she’d do if I took out a knife and sawed it all off.
Shoot me, probably. For real.
“Don’t follow us. Go that way.” She points to the third tunnel on the left.
No rhyme this time? I bare my teeth, a horrible pressure building beneath my ribs. I’m terrified of never seeing Kato again.
They enter the dimly lit passageway. Rows of uneven icicles hang from the rounded entrance of the tunnel, making it seem as though they’re disappearing into a monster’s gaping maw. Sharp teeth. Dark gullet. Ready to swallow them whole.
I shudder as they disappear from sight. To keep myself from chasing after them, I fold Kato’s clothes and then tuck his things into our satchel before strapping his leather armor to the outside of the bag. His cloak is too big to fit inside, so I throw it over my shoulders and fasten it at the neck. The heat of my own cloak diminishes as the two fire-wrought garments balance their warmth together.
There’s a cold spot deep in my chest, and nausea plagues my stomach as I walk toward the third tunnel on the left—into my own gaping maw. More than a foot of cloak drags on the ground behind me, sweeping my footprints from the frost.