A Promise of Fire

by Amanda Bouchet

  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 unsuspecting 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 in a nauseating rush. 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.”

  “Me too.”

  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 into a tight line. 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 launches itself violently into my throat. “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 raps 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 i
t. 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.” 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 clenches 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 in my chest. 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 footsteps from the frost.

  * * *

  Find the lyre before the three-headed beast. No problem. I’ll get right on that.

  My fingers and toes are icy. I rub my hands together, muttering to myself because the sound of a voice, even my own, helps me feel less alone. Kato left me our torch, but it burned out ages ago. After a while of seeing only by the faint light of the two cloaks, I broke down and lit the second one. Since then, I’ve gone up, down, and around, stumbling onto my own path eight times so far. Eight!

  The tunnel I just left has Ariadne’s Thread on its slippery floor three times over. Who was the idiot who thought it would be a good idea to leave me alone in a labyrinth?

  That’s right! Grandpa Zeus.

  He obviously doesn’t know me at all. And for all of Griffin’s and Beta Team’s praying to Athena, she was in on this, too. So were Hades and Poseidon.

  Bloody Gods. They could at least try not to make this so hard. You know, throw me a lyre or something.

  I come to yet another fork in the tunnel and frown, worry a bitter taste on my tongue. There’s a thread to the left. It’s icing over, which means I was already here hours ago.

  Grumbling, I go right, knowing Kato and I will walk every same, useless circle on the way back out again. Worse, we’ll do it in the near pitch-dark. The torch won’t last much longer, and the cloaks, even turned flame-side out, aren’t actually that bright. With my luck, I’ll probably stumble onto the beast just as soon as I’m blind.

  A scraping noise puts a stop to my low muttering. I pause and listen, hearing a scrabbling that sounds a lot like claws on ice.

  Adrenaline dumps into my system. My pulse leaps, and my muscles tense. I try to steady my breathing as I draw my sword, keeping the torch in my left hand. Before, I would have drawn a knife, but I haven’t had much luck with them lately.

  Click. Click. Chuff.

  Great. I have the beast. I do not have the lyre.

  I round a bend, moving as silently as I can. The tunnel brightens by degrees, and a thought kicks my already thundering heart into overdrive. Is the beast guarding the second large cave?

  I’m desperate to see Kato again and to get us both out of here. By the number of times I’ve gotten hungry, I estimate that three days have passed since Atalanta separated us, which means we’ve been in the labyrinth for almost four full days. Kato left me everything we brought with us, and I’ve eaten sparingly, but if we can’t be on our way out of here soon, meals will get truly sparse.

  Being alone, and in the cold and dark, is wreaking havoc on my mind and body. Despite resting and eating at regular intervals, I’m exhausted like never before—weak and even woozy sometimes. I slept twice because my body was telling me to stop in a way I simply couldn’t ignore, but both times I woke up screaming, my raw shouts echoing off the frozen walls, and not feeling rested at all.

  Now, my blood drumming in my ears, I inch toward what can only be described at the moment as not total dark, my sword leading the way. I swear to the Gods, when this is over, I’m never going underground again. It’s horrible, black, quiet, and incredibly lonely. I have no idea what’s happened to Kato—well, some idea—and Griffin and the others must be freezing cold and out of their minds with worry.

  The scratching gets louder. I want to turn around and find another tunnel, but there’s light this way, and a three-headed beast was part of the Gods’ warning. I need to face it, whether I want to or not. Unfortunately, I’m minus one lyre.

  Ariadne’s Thread trails from my wrist, and I wish I could somehow sense Griffin on the other end. What if something’s happened to him? What if I don’t make it out?

  A desperate sort of anxiety clamps down on my chest, making it hard to breathe. I clutch my sword, feeling each ridge of the grip press into my palm. Fear usually makes me mad. I need to get back to that.

  I plaster myself against the icy wall and creep forward just enough to get a look at what comes next. The passageway opens up, but not enough for what I’d call a cavern. It’s a bigger, wider, higher tunnel, with multiple offshoots, some of which are not utterly dark.

  What do those offshoots lead to? The second cavern? The first? At this point, I’m completely turned around. I could be anywhere inside the mountain. Maybe it’s the exit. I could be closer to Griffin than I thought!

  Quietly, I hurry toward the light until I slip on black ice and nearly land on my back. Then I step on something uneven, and my left ankle twists. Ignoring the twinge of pain, I lower the torch to see what my foot just landed on.

  It’s a bone. Old, crunchy, dried-up bone.
r />   Thump! Scrabble.

  I jerk my head up.

  Scrabble. Thump! Thump!

  I whirl, facing the darker tunnels. Something’s coming down one of the passageways, but I don’t know which one.

  Thump! Thump! Chuff.

  The middle! I dive to the right.

  Wrong! The three-headed monster explodes from the right-hand tunnel.

  A shot of pure fear detonates inside me. I drop and roll under a lethally clawed foot. Something razor-sharp slices my thigh, and I hiss in pain as I shove my torch up into the beast’s underbelly. It bellows and skids to a stop.

  I jump to my feet, my injured leg howling in protest, only to drop again when a powerful, clubbed tail whizzes over my head and smashes into the side of the tunnel. Ice shatters, and I duck as a shower of cold, sharp shards splashes over me.

  The beast pivots. One of its huge heads lunges for me, and I spring back, pain pulsing in my thigh. Its jaws snap, and I back away. Six black eyes track me. They’re as dark as the rest of the beast, only with a shiny, liquid gleam.

  “We don’t have to fight.” So saying, I raise my sword.

  The middle head attacks. I shoot to the side and bring my blade down hard on that skull. The impact jars me from teeth to toes.

  In the flickering torchlight, I see a flash of dark horns—long, smooth, and curved low over the beast’s skull. A quick sweep of the torch reveals horns protecting all three heads. They arch back over the heads and bend downward toward the jaws, protecting the vulnerable necks.

  While I’m assessing the situation, the monster brings its clubbed tail around again like a battering ram. There’s just enough room in the tunnel for the maneuver and nowhere for me to go. The cramped quarters work in my favor, though, because the thick, muscular part catches me in the middle while the bony club scrapes a deep furrow along the tunnel wall. I have just enough time to curl inward and throw myself backward to better absorb the impact.