The Nymph's Curse: The Collection

by Danica Winters

“If this has anything to do with helping Kaden, I’m willing,” Beau said. “But you need to tell me what’s going on.”

  Ariadne’s stomach churned with nerves. “Okay, but we need to hurry. Before it’s too late.”

  Beau pulled the gown off and threw the mask and gloves in the trash. They followed his lead. Rushing down the hall, they ran to her car.

  Slamming the passenger door shut, Beau looked at her. “What’s going on? Where are we going?”

  She put the key in the ignition, and roared the car to life. Squealing the tires, they rushed out of the parking lot and toward Gournai.

  Beau stared at her. “You need to talk to me, Ariadne.”

  There was no avoiding it any longer. “You know how we were talking last night and I told you I was in a secret group?”

  “Of course, how could I forget? Are you in a mercenary group or something? Are you really the one behind the governor’s shooting?”

  “I had nothing to do with that. Unfortunately, the sisterhood might have. I think Kat’ll stop at nothing to stop people from getting to the Labyrinth and what’s inside.”

  “Is that why you shut down my site? Because I’m close to the Labyrinth?” he said in a choked voice. “I’m close?”

  “Too close. That’s why Kat forced my hand. We had to shut it down.”

  “You tried to stop me from accomplishing my dream because Kat wanted you to?” He looked at her with disgust.

  “Don’t look at me like that. It wasn’t my decision. She’s the leader. For a long time I’ve been just a member — a very low-ranking member.”

  He glared at her. “Who are you?”

  She pointed at Trina in the back seat. “She and I are sisters of sorts. We are Nymphs. We can seduce and bewitch men. A couple of thousand years ago we were struck with a curse from Zeus. Nymphs will never experience lasting true love. If we fall in love, our lovers are fated to die a tragic death.” She glanced in the mirror back at Trina as she drove down the road.

  He sat in stunned silence.

  Say something, she silently begged.

  Beau tapped his fingers on the door. “So if a man falls in love with you, he will die?”

  She gripped the wheel tight, as if she let go she would lose control of her teetering emotions. “That’s what they say. I think that’s what happened between Kaden and Trina.”

  He turned and addressed Trina. “Did Kaden love you?”

  From the rearview mirror, Ariadne watched as Trina nodded. “I love him more than you can know.”

  Beau looked back at Ariadne. “Trust me, I think I can relate.”

  There’s no way he is talking about me. He doesn’t love me. He can’t love me. He won’t love me, not after knowing the disaster love causes. Oh please, no.

  There was a tense silence. “Do you have anything in the car that we could use for weapons?” Beau said, as he opened the glove compartment and shuffled through the miscellaneous papers.

  “What?” Ariadne asked. “Why?”

  “Well, if the Labyrinth is filled with all these worse-than-Hades things, then don’t you think we should at least be prepared?”

  Ariadne turned the car off the highway and back toward the museum. “You’re right, and I think I know something that might be useful. Do you think you can keep a secret?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ariadne had tried to explain it to him that it was unlikely anything was still alive in the Labyrinth, but she wasn’t hard to convince that they needed weapons, which made him worry that there was more than what she had confessed.

  He had to grip the handle of the car as she whipped into the empty parking lot of the museum.

  They made their way into the austere yellowed entrance of the building, down the empty corridors and to the lab she had shown him and Kaden the day they had met. Though he was in the same place he had been, everything was so different and such a disaster.

  She flicked on the lights. The black table stood empty in the center. Walking over to the other side of the room, she dug around on the shelves that were covered with various bins, lights, and knickknacks. She pulled a dusty backpack out and slapped it against her leg.

  “Here,” she said as she handed it to Beau.

  “Thanks.” He opened the bag. A trowel and a few tools were inside.

  The shrill beep of Ariadne’s phone pierced the tense air. Ariadne pulled the phone from her purse and frowned. Her finger hovered over the button to answer.

  “Who is it?” Trina asked.

  “Kat texted.” Ariadne looked up.

  “And?” Beau growled.

  She pushed the button and read the message out loud. “Talked to the priest. Stop what you are doing. Or you will force my hand.”

  The priest must have overheard them talking.

  “What does she mean?” Beau stepped to Ariadne’s side and put his hands on her shoulders. “Are you in danger?”

  Ariadne shoved the phone in her pocket. “I’m tired of her and her power plays. She can’t hold me back any more. For once, I’m going to do what is right instead of being one of her little slaves.”

  There was a strange jerk in his chest. Is it love?

  He looked into her beautiful golden eyes and the tightening in his chest grew more intense. Running his hands over her shoulders, he drew them to her neck and pulled her softly to his lips.

  He shouldn’t, but the heat of her lips melted away the hesitancy — he was in love. This woman in his hands was giving up everything she knew to help him and Kaden. No one had ever been more selfless or giving. The curse loomed over him, but he couldn’t help the feelings that rose within him as their flesh touched.

  His mouth wandered up toward her ear. Should I tell her that I love her?

  As his lips brushed against her ear lobe, she jerked back.

  “We need to hurry. If Kat’s coming after us, we are going to need to get in and out.” Ariadne turned her back to him and walked to the other side of the table.

  Dumbfounded, he stood with his hands up, as if she would come back into them.

  Maybe it is better this way, her not knowing the way I feel. There’s no way she can feel the same way I do. She’s only helping us out of guilt.

  He dropped his hands to his sides as he tried to push aside his feelings. Ariadne was right; they needed to get out of there. Trina stepped next to him and patted his arm.

  From behind the lab table, Ariadne turned to face him with a blank look on her face. She bent over, opened the cabinet under the table and disappeared. “Only nymphs have ever been down here.”

  There was a whir of machinery as they shifted the cupboard upwards. The floor trembled. He walked to Ariadne’s side. “What’s down there?” he asked, as he stared down at the growing black hole in the floor.

  “The temple of Epione. My … ” she looked over at Trina and smiled. “I mean our, Goddess’ shrine.”

  Ariadne stepped down into the blackness and pushed another switch. Fluorescent lights flickered to light and illuminated a steep staircase. He and Trina followed her as she made her way downward.

  He slung the backpack high on his shoulder and walked through a set of marble columns. The cold room had a circle of chairs inside and on the far wall was a painting of a stunning woman with a sacral knot between her breasts and snakes wrapped around her arms. She held a glass stick as she stood in a clear spring. Pale people were sitting around her, looking up. The picture was amazing and was done in the style of early Renaissance painters. Who had painted such an amazing and unknown piece? When he turned to the front of the room, his breath caught in his throat. “Wow.”

  “I know,” Ariadne said, pointing at the massive golden statue. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

  Beau couldn’t take his gaze off the golden idol that rose
all the way to the ceiling. “Your goddess, Epione, is the snake goddess?”

  The effects of just this revelation will be huge in the scientific world. So much history will have to be rewritten. No, I can’t. I can’t tell anyone anything that I see.

  He looked away from the woman with the snakes wrapped around her arms and stared at Ariadne. She walked to the altar and kissed a small ceramic figurine of the snake goddess. “My goddess,” she whispered.

  Trina followed Ariadne’s lead. Bending, she kissed the statue’s feet. “My goddess.”

  Should I follow? Or would that be sacrilegious? Unsure, he walked to the altar and bowed.

  Ariadne smiled and stepped beside him and faced the idol. “Thank you, my goddess, for letting us borrow your relics. May they be blessed by your presence and help us to win the battle.”

  “Here.” Ariadne handed him a dagger.

  He pulled it out of the leather sheath that covered its blade.

  Ariadne sucked in a breath. “Don’t touch the blade, it’s poisoned. It will kill just about anything.”

  He pushed the blade back down into the leather and carefully stuck it under his belt. “Can’t everything be killed?”

  Ariadne and Trina looked knowingly at each other and smiled. “Beau, not everything in this world is like you. There are many creatures that aren’t human. There are many beings that have no compassion and no desires beyond killing.”

  “What do you mean? How do you know?” Beau stared at the mysterious women that stood in front of him.

  Ariadne grabbed a ball of golden wire from the altar and stuffed it in his backpack. “I’ve been alive for thousands of years. I have seen most of what this world has to offer. There is a reason I choose to live in the human world.”

  “You have a choice?” There was so much he didn’t know.

  “I could live in my other form, as some other nymphs do. The Mustangs are known to act that way, but then again they are horses, not snakes like Trina and I.”

  “Excuse me? You’re a snake now? A seducing snake?” This was almost too much to believe.

  “I know it’s a lot, but just trust me. I am trying to help you. And after we’re done helping Kaden, you never have to see me again. You’ll never have to think about what lives outside of your happy human world.”

  I could never forget this place. Or her.

  Ariadne pushed her hair behind her ear and blinked her golden eyes. Does she want me to forget her? How can I?

  She handed Trina a green bottle of wine.

  “What? Are we planning on getting drunk before we go into the Labyrinth?”

  “I wish,” Ariadne said with a laugh. “But we’re going to need every advantage we can get. I don’t know what we’re going to find down there.”

  “Hopefully, we will just walk in and take what we need.” He paused. “What exactly is in the Labyrinth?” He looked over the altar, where bottles, knives, bows, and strange-looking mirrors shone back at him. “Isn’t there something in here that’ll work to cure Kaden?”

  “I’m sorry, Beau, but this is just a temple for the healer. The weapons we have are only those that have been offered to Epione.”

  Beau stepped back. “Your goddess is a healer? Why can’t we just pray to her? If she’s real, wouldn’t she just heal Kaden?”

  “No, Beau,” Ariadne said softly. “We have to go after the staff. Epione cannot heal without it.”

  “Oh. Why isn’t her staff here in the temple?” He felt like a pain in the ass, but there were so many questions that were running through his mind.

  “When we were cursed, it was taken to the Labyrinth to keep it safe and out of the hands of those who would use it to hurt others.” Ariadne bowed to the statue. “Thank you, my goddess.”

  “We need to go.” She strode to the bottom of the steps. “Kaden is waiting.”

  • • •

  Ariadne dabbed sweat from her forehead as she pushed her shovel deep into the soil. They had already gone at least five feet deep behind the limestone column she had pressed her body against before she had shifted the first night. The entrance couldn’t be much further.

  Beau’s cell phone beeped and he pulled it from his pocket and stared at the screen.

  “Is Kaden okay?” Ariadne stepped closer and put her hand on his arm.

  He dropped the phone back in his pocket. “It’s just Vickie, she texted. Said she needed to talk to me about the governor.”

  She dropped her hand.

  “She can wait.”

  Can’t he see what the girl so desperately wants?

  Ariadne tried to push the thoughts from her mind. He had made love to her. He hadn’t told her to expect anything from their lovemaking, but it was fair to assume he wasn’t chasing other women. Wasn’t it?

  Trina shrugged. “I’m gonna go stand guard. With it still being daylight, we’re going to need an eye out here.”

  “Thanks.” Ariadne dipped her head in appreciation. It was nice having someone on their side they could trust.

  Trina climbed up and out of the hole, and the dirt showered down in her wake.

  Beau’s a good man, she thought, downplaying her persistent insecurities. He wouldn’t go for a college student. Would he?

  Stop. I have to stop. I need to focus on the here and now. We need to get in and out and be safe, so we can get back to Kaden. He’s what really matters.

  “Beau, hand me the wine, please?” Ariadne asked.

  He opened the backpack and handed her the green bottle. Pulling the half-extended cork from the bottle’s neck, Ariadne took a drink. The wine tasted of oak and tannins and carried with it the sweetness that came with age.

  “Here.” Ariadne passed the bottle to Beau.

  He took a gulp.

  “Now pour it onto the ground.” She pointed to the place they had been digging. “We need to sacrifice.”

  The red wine splattered on the ground and up onto her legs, where it looked like the splatter of blood. The bottle empty, Beau dropped it with a thump.

  Ariadne grabbed her shovel and threw a heap of dirt backward. She pushed the blade back into the soil, this time missing rock. Retracting the shovel, the ground shifted and fell in clumps into a void, exposing blackness. The scent of dank, stale earth wafted toward her from the hole.

  “I found it! Beau, Trina, I found it!” She dropped the shovel and pulled at the earth exposing more of the cave’s entrance.

  Beau turned and hurried to her side. “Holy shit.” He dropped to his knees. “Holy shit … I never thought I’d see this. I mean, I hoped I’d see this, but holy shit.”

  Trina peered over the edge of the pit. “Yes! Can you see anything?”

  Ariadne smiled up at her. “No, but hopefully the staff isn’t too far in. Maybe we can get in and out, then back to Kaden.”

  When Ariadne looked back at Beau, he was smiling and the sun seemed to shine directly on him, lighting his face. Leaning to him, she kissed his sweat-dampened cheek. She couldn’t explain it, but seeing him glowing beside her made her heart flutter in her chest. The smile on his face, she had done that. She had made him happier than she had ever seen any living man. He looked better than a god.

  “In its day, this place was marvelous. You can’t imagine.” Ariadne motioned toward the columns that stood crumbled on either side of the tunnel. “If you continue your dig, you might get an idea, but there were frescoes and ivory sculptures of the Minotaur standing on each side of the entrance. My father, Minos, had them erected after Theseus killed my half-brother. Right after the rain, when the sun shone down on the wet ivory, it was breathtaking.”

  He took her hand and brought to his lips. The touch of his mouth against her skin made the world blur around her. “Are you telling me the myth is true? Are you the one with the gold
en thread?”

  She blinked, trying to focus. Hopefully he didn’t realize what a fool I had been. Falling for Theseus, and then having him run from me as soon as he was safe. Beau doesn’t need to know my hideous, pitiful past.

  She wanted to look away, but instead she forced herself to look upon him. “I am.”

  “Wow,” he said breathlessly. “I knew you were amazing, but mythical was more than I had imagined. I’m a lucky son of a bitch.”

  She couldn’t stop her smile. “So you don’t think I’m an idiot for falling for horrible men?”

  “Hmmm,” he said playfully. “So you think I’m a horrible man?”

  The warmth from her cheeks multiplied. “I … you … I think you’re great,” she stammered. Did he really think that I have fallen? Have I fallen? No. I can’t, the risk is too high. I can’t do that to him. I can’t expose him to the curse.

  He ran his dirty fingers over her cheek. “You’re pretty great yourself. And I want you to know that I know this took a lot to bring me here. You had to turn your back on your friends. I want you to know that I appreciate it.”

  “You know you can’t tell anyone about this, right?”

  He dropped his hand from her cheek and looked at the hole, then back at her. “This could change so much for me. It could change my future, Kaden’s future. I won’t have to worry about losing my job in Texas or about funding. I could do excavations wherever and whenever I wanted. People would come to me for answers.”

  She dropped the shovel into her lap. “What are you saying?”

  “Nothing. I just — ”

  “Beau, you can’t tell anyone,” she interjected. “If anyone knows about this place, everything will change. Nymphs will be exposed.”

  Did he really consider selling her out? Would he use her to get what he had always wanted? Was he going to be like every man from her past? No, Beau … please, don’t.

  “Let’s just get the staff thing and get back to Kaden,” he growled.

  His evasive answer made her stomach clench. “You can’t tell anyone. Promise me.”

  “Fine.” He reached toward the hole and chipped away at the harsh rock around the entrance.