Sucking in another panting breath, he went under again. His light lanced through the water, touching on the smooth walls as he moved around the cavern. Each time he submerged, Polly held her breath. The light dimmed as he swam farther from her, making her summon another orb. She cast it toward the center of the cavern. Between the expenditure of her power to create light, and holding her breath for extended lengths, she started to feel dizzy.
The light paused as he stopped to examine something. Polly leaned forward. Had he discovered a way out? He surfaced on the opposite side of the cave, drew a breath and instantly went back under. Playing his light over an outcropping of rock, he reached forward. After a second, he kicked up, laughing as he broke through.
He held one arm aloft; the other below the surface darted beams of light through the water. A string of pearls dangled between his fingers. “Fucking buried treasure. Selfish son of a bitch. There must be a dozen chests down there. But no obvious exits.”
Polly motioned him back to her side. “His silent partner is the god of greed. Argos always has been a dumb bastard. He hides treasure all over the world.” She smiled through her chattering teeth. “It’s always a pleasure to report the story when one is found. It really fouls his mood.”
Ian did the breaststroke back toward her. “I bet.” With a powerful kick, he jumped out of the water and onto the rocky ledge. He draped the pearls around her neck, the stones were chilly, instantly sucking residual heat from her skin.
After he angled the flashlight toward the dome, she extinguished the energy orb. The cavern went dark, with the exception of the sparkling reflections off the water.
With a rapid shake of his head, Ian splashed droplets of water away, like a retriever. Sitting this close, she was in the fallout zone. She blinked the moisture away from her eyes with grim determination.
Time to face the facts of their dire situation. “Ian, we might never get out of here.”
Scooting closer until their thighs brushed, he grabbed her hand and pulled it toward his lap. “We aren’t giving up. Can’t never accomplished anything.”
The fact that he was correct didn’t ease her frustration, or the trepidation rising up her neck like yeasty dough. “My…our only hope at this point is that my producer runs the Argran monopoly story.”
“Will she?”
“I filed it, but I didn’t have time to do a voice-over or schedule camera time with Bill. The report is strong, but…” Were her words emphatic enough to cause Mary to assign it to another reporter to finish the story? Would exposing Argran save the world’s mortal inhabitants?
Ian squeezed her fingers. “What will they do when they discover you’re missing?”
“Don’t know.” She drew a knee toward her chest and rested her chin on it. Ian released her hand, but wound an arm around her raised thigh. His touch was like magic, building warmth within, banishing the bone-chilling cold of the cavern. “Mary might suspect the worst and release the story with the added note of my mysterious disappearance. That’ll boost ratings. She’ll definitely call the police.”
“Did you contact any authorities with the information?”
“Sybil was going to email a colleague with one of the three letters.”
“Three letters?” Ian rested his forehead against her temple.
“Like the FBI or the FTC.”
“Gotcha.”
Polly tried to link to Mars again, imagining a canon firing her plea for help through the solid rock of the ceiling. Rose lights burst overhead, raining sparks down into the water. The embers of her nudge bubbled on the surface, and then sizzled as they extinguished.
“How long have we been here?” Polly asked.
“Less than an hour, but more than enough time for Cronin to put the formula into production at the coastal factory in Liberia. Absolutely the wrong spot to manufacture the compound.”
His statement tweaked her curiosity “Why?”
“The atmospheric conditions. It’s super humid at that plant. We discovered this morning that the chemicals are unstable in moist conditions. Depending on wind conditions, when they mix the first batch the vapor cloud alone could decimate the population within a fifty-mile radius.”
Polly’s head connected with a sharp edge of rock, jabbing pain through her scalp. “Can your techs stop them?”
“I’m sure they’ve already been escorted off Eos’s campus. They could call the Environmental Protection Agency. But if the EPA doesn’t have a connection in Liberia, it won’t matter.”
“Seems we are well and truly screwed.” Polly brushed bits of crumbling shale into the pool, the plopping sound filling the silence. “Before I transform into a goddessdamned magpie, I want to tell you how sorry I am that you got dragged into this. It might have been better if we’d stayed friends. Seems like my lovers are destined toward ill fates.”
He grasped her chin, forcing her gaze to his face. “Shut up.”
“I mean it, Ian. I am so sorry.”
“We aren’t completely doomed yet.”
“It’s best if we face facts. We have no idea where in the world we are. The longer we are here, the harder it will be to track us through the Hollow. Our energy signatures fade with each passing moment.”
“So they could find us.” His smile half asked for a positive response.
She’d fallen in love with an optimist. Bursting his bubble would hurt her more than him. “Well unless you figure out a way to contact someone who can rescue us, even the trace through the Hollow can’t happen.”
He shifted his glance toward the ceiling, where faint outlines from her recent attempt remained visible. The rosy grid pattern pulsed weakly as she tried again.
“If it glows that color, they’ve only warded against you, right?”
She shrugged. “It’s a safe assumption.”
“And no one but you and Sybil knows about the gift she gave me?”
As she caught his meaning hope flickered in her chest. Tempering the optimism with realism, she nodded. “No one but us. You want to give it a go?”
“Damn straight. Will it work through layers of rock?”
“Try picturing some kind of projectile piercing steel. Fling it as hard as you possibly can.”
“Maybe a wrecking ball. With a teeny-bopper singer sitting on it.”
Polly snorted and laid a hand on his forearm. “That would be overkill. You just need to sneak a message through the grid. Not smash it to smithereens.”
“Gotcha. Here goes.” He panted a couple of rapid breaths in and out.
“Wait! Sitting this close as you blast away will not be fun.” Polly scooted away from him and covered her ears. She smiled. “Now go.”
“Yo! Sybil!” Polly cringed as his voice boomed in her head, ricocheting around her skull. Silvery sparks bled across the rosy grid as his nudge slammed against it. A hole the size of a tree trunk opened and a bolt of light raced beyond it.
“Mother goddess, Ian. We have to work on your control.”
“Hey, I wanted to make sure she hears me.”
The hole in the grid remained open, much to Polly’s relief. Pierus had no idea Ian had been given special privileges. The god wasn’t so godlike now.
“Where the Hades are you?” Sybil’s words were gentler on Polly’s senses.
Ian looked at her, raising one brow in a cocksure manner. “It worked.”
Polly circled her hands impatiently. “Well, answer her.”
“Don’t know.”
The woman’s sibilant breath told of her frustration. “Not what I wanted to hear. Have you seen Polly? She just disappeared off the grid. We’re a lot worried.”
“She’s with me.” Ian’s smile faded. “Apate banished us to an underwater cavern. Polly says the place is warded so she can’t communicate. They didn’t count on me.”
“Stand by.”
The link went silent. Ian’s jaw gaped open. “She put me on hold?”
“Probably letting Mars and Zeus know.” She pu
rsed her lips, drawing them between her teeth. “If they know I’ve disappeared, then Mars planted his own failsafe. Sneaky devil.”
“I’m back. Mars wants a location. We’ll come and get you.”
Exasperation overtook her patience. She beat her fist on the rocky shelf, ignoring the sharp pain in her knuckles. “We can’t fucking tell them that. We don’t fucking know. If we fucking knew where we were, maybe we’d be fucking out of here already. Tell them to run a goddessdamned trace through the Hollow. Incompetent asses.”
Ian wrapped his fingers around her hand. He pulled it to his lips and kissed the injured area as he replied to Sybil. “Polly says we don’t have a clue. She mentioned running a trace through the Hollow. Would it help to know where we vanished from?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what she said.” Sybil’s laughter crackled in Polly’s head. “A departure spot would be helpful.”
Ian relayed the location. Comfort eased through Polly as he continued to stroke his thumb tenderly over her abraded knuckles.
“We’re shifting now. The trace will take a few minutes.”
Amusement tinted Ian’s thoughts as he responded. “We’ll be right here.”
Watching the grid overhead, Polly prayed it would hold open long enough for Mars and Sybil to reach them. “I’m going to demand a promotion for her the second we’re rescued. The woman’s proactive gift saved our butts.”
“Oh, now you’re going to tone down the language.” Ian cupped a hand over his heart and pulsed it, like he was trying to hold it in place. “It’s kind of sexy when you talk dirty like that. And, oh, you’re absolutely stunning when you’re angry. I’m probably going to have to provoke you frequently just so pissed-off Polly can visit.”
She shot him a glance to let him know she wasn’t amused. “You’re an ass.”
“But I’m your ass.” He closed the gap between them, and leaned in to nuzzle her neck. He slipped his hand under her butt, giving it a good squeeze. “And this ass here is mine.”
As his warm lips trailed along the tendon, agitation disappeared. She wrapped her hand around his neck, spearing her fingers through his damp blond locks. If she had to spend eternity in this stupid cave, she was glad to have him with her.
“Incoming.” Sybil’s voice grew in strength along the mental link.
A most welcome weight settled around Polly. Ian’s chest rose and he tugged his earlobes and worked his jaws.
The ceiling erupted in a glow of cobalt, the vibrant light shattering the rosy grid pattern. Electricity crackled along the lines, disintegrating the supernatural prison bars. The water sizzled and steamed where remnants fell.
A vast blue sphere dropped through the wide hole. It stopped just shy of the water line and hovered in the center of the cavern. The mist thickened enough to allow Polly to see Sybil, Mars, and six burly men wearing Olympus security uniforms.
“Anyone want to go for a ride?” Sybil quipped.
Mars glared at her. The mist skimmed the surface of the water as it moved in their direction. Uncrossing his arms, Mars extended them and reached from within to grasp their hands. He jerked them from their perch and into the deep blue mist. “Quickly now. Pierus will be here soon.”
Just as Polly found footing inside the sphere, oily black mist seethed into the spot where they’d been sitting. The screech of a magpie and Pierus’s bellow of rage reverberated off the walls of the cavern, followed quickly by a loud crack as the ceiling split.
Shale and rocks careened off the protective bubble. Ian flinched. The security guards formed a tight knot around them.
Mars extended his hands once again, preparing to close the misty curtain around them all and shift them out.
Pierus’s scream rent the very oxygen around them. “You haven’t won yet!”
Greed beat her wings around the god’s head, making his overgrown hair fly in his eyes.
Ian gasped. “Holy shit! Is that a human head on that bird?”
Greed must have begun her molt when Apate had tossed them into the cavern. It freaked Polly out a little as well, seeing golden hair sprouting in a tuft from the black feathers. It reminded her of the helmets Roman centurions used to wear.
Mars scowled at Ian, but directed his words toward the fuming god in front of them. “This challenge will end with your defeat, Pierus. We’ll be back for your wretched daughter,” Mars intoned, angling a finger at Greed. A burst of energy arced from his fingertip, hitting the magpie squarely in the breast. A faint bluish light glowed at the spot the bolt had landed.
Calm smugness replaced the rage on Pierus’s face. “The challenge will end when I take over Olympus upon Zeus’s death.”
As his words sunk in, Polly’s heart skipped a beat, then another. Pierus planned to kill her father.
Over her dead body.
Chapter 22
Polly didn’t think the Hollow had ever felt as cold, empty, or endless as the return trip to Olympus. The only thing keeping her from breaking down completely was the warmth of Ian’s arms wrapped tightly around her mist form. The gesture might have been the only thing keeping her worry and fear for her dad at bay. He’d never been ill a day in all their lifetimes.
If this was the kind of dread and grief her parents felt every time she and her sisters completed a lifecycle…she didn’t even know how to finish the thought.
Around her, the security guards didn’t relax their vigilance. Their auras flashed intensely. Had they been in solid form, their posture would have been rigid and watchful. A fact which served to ratchet up her worry to threat level five, as high as it had gone after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Earlier that year, she’d ended her dormancy period with a low grade anxiety she couldn’t shed, a fear that mortals had become harder and harder to influence and inspire.
She endured that same anxiety now.
The guards dispersed the second they shifted into the security department conference room. Mars hovered them above the ground, gently easing them back into the mortal plane.
“You should have shifted me to my dad. I need to go to him.” Polly gathered her energy for a return to the Hollow.
“Wait.” Mars stopped her. He pointed to Ian. “Your mortal is looking stunned. You don’t want to move him through the ether again so quickly.”
Ian’s face was chalky, but he had an overlarge grin on his face, like a kid who’s just received a much longed-for birthday present. He widened his eyes. “Don’t let me stop you. That ride was much smoother than the way we tumbled around when Apate blasted us away.”
Guilt blew up her spine. She’d dragged this adorable man through so much shit today. And he still smiled like it was the best day of his life.
“Ian—” Polly halted when he squeezed her fingers.
“It’s okay. Except for being locked in a supernatural prison, and losing my job, and the fact that Cronin—Apate, will fool people into believing it’s me signing the approval paperwork, the day has been killer. Well, except for seeing a human head on that fucking bird. That was weird.”
Polly almost laughed. If Greed’s partial molt was the thing Ian considered the freakiest occurrence, it was proof he’d processed all the immortal shit he’d been thrown today. He’d clearly embraced the magic. As a scientist, was that the what if he needed to answer? Now, she had to get through the challenge, check in with Zeus and find a way to convince him not to erase Ian’s memory when she won. A precedent had been set with Jax and Thomas. She hoped it would work to her advantage.
Staring at the front of his still damp shirt, she laid her hand on Ian’s chest. His heart thrummed steadily beneath her palms. “I’m so sorry for everything we…I’ve put you through. For everything we still have to face.”
Color seeped back into his face and the dimple creasing his cheek deepened. He tucked a knuckle under her chin and lifted, raising her gaze to his. “I’d love to say all in a day’s work, but it really was novel. My life will be a most excellent adventure with you in it.”
Her heart melted. Even after all of the day’s events, he still wanted to be in her life.
“Yeah, yeah. Can we get back to business here?” Sybil chided.
“Partisan, you are in a terrible hurry, considering you are about to be disciplined.” Mars’s voice crackled with temper. “You overstepped your pay grade by endowing a mortal with the gift of a link.”
Sybil crossed her arms, her chin tilted up defiantly. “Hey, my little present saved their shit today.”
“Now you’re being insubordinate.” Mars wagged his finger in her face. “Do not dig the hole surrounding you any deeper.”
Polly stopped Sybil’s reply with a nudge shaped like a padlock sealing the woman’s mouth. Sybil fell silent and Polly addressed her godfather. “Mars, it seems Sybil did her job. She kept me safe. Isn’t that her prime responsibility?”
Mars huffed out a breath but said nothing.
Polly continued. “She didn’t do anything different than you did.”
“What did I do?” The god arched an eyebrow.
“You knew I disappeared. How are you tracking me?”
He lifted one shoulder. “Pierus has demonstrated a penchant for kidnapping you and your sisters. Zeus and I agreed we needed a way to keep you girls safe. We charmed your aura to make it easier to track your location.”
She didn’t know whether to be tickled they could do that, or ticked off that they didn’t trust in her ability. “You can do that?”
“I am the god of war. I can do anything I wish.”
Maybe, but that didn’t mean he should basically put GPS tracking on her. “But I went off the grid and you couldn’t find me even with the trail.”
“A little tweaking might be in order,” Mars admitted gruffly.
“If Sybil hadn’t acted proactively, if she hadn’t gifted Ian with the ability to communicate, a tiny little gift, we’d still be missing.” Her voice rang with the sweet sound of victory. “Greed might have won.”
Sybil nodded vigorously. “Damn straight.”
Greed: Goddess of Delphi (Goddesses of Delphi Book 3) Page 19
