“Wise choice, centaur,” the minotaur chortled and vanished from his view.
Demoleon crossed through the passageways, but didn’t encounter Enyo. That was for the best. Her mind had been made fragile and he had to relinquish her for her own security.
He stormed through the tunnel he’d first created and, once free, shifted into his dragon form to fly straight to his siblings. Arriving at his destination, he landed lightly in the meadow.
“Demoleon?” a deep timbre bellowed.
He spun toward the voice. “Rhoetus?” The male rushed him and they embraced, his brother slapping him on the back. “Am I glad to see you. Where’s this centaur army, heh?” Demoleon scanned about the vast chamber, but while he spotted male and female warriors, he didn’t detect any of their foreign kin. However, there was a new grove of cherry trees in their midst. Interesting.
“Not here, I’m afraid.” Rhoetus’s mismatched blue and green eyes clouded in dismay. “Oh, but there is someone who needs you. Demoleon, you must make haste and venture at once to the land of the Hyperboreans. Lycus requires your aid.”
“Of course, but I must speak with you about something else of extreme importance.”
“Nay, not now.” Waving, Rhoetus ushered him away. “Tend to Lycus first.”
He frowned but nodded and shot off into the air, traversing the great lands to the north where the cold bite of the wind froze his scales. A dark spot rose into view across the horizon and he headed toward it. There. His brother rested on the snowy ground.
Demoleon landed in a blaze of glorious flames, but Lycus didn’t even glance in his direction. Brothers.
“Truly? Is that it?” he droned. “I spent a lot of time plotting my entrance, you know.”
* * *
Enyo paced the chamber where her sisters rested in their prison. For three days, she’d done nothing but pace. “He’s the one who’s gone mad, you know.” She snorted. “You’re right here. Where you’ve always been.”
Precisely, Sephoe boasted. I’ve heard tale of centaurs, that they often become crazed. I wouldn’t be surprised if your Demoleon is one of them, her sister added.
“Well, he’s gone now. He departed without a word.” She fisted her hands, claws cutting into her palms. So much for vows of eternal devotion. He’d deserted her at their first disagreement. Well, first since they’d declared a truce. Those other times when they’d tried to kill each other didn’t count.
She sank to the ground, wrapping her arms about her knees.
Enyo… a familiar rasp crossed her ears, a voice she hadn’t heard in a century. It’s time.
She jolted upright and stared at Asterion. What are you doing here?
“It’s time for us to come to a truce, little harpy. Bring the sword to me, and in exchange, I shall free your sisters.”
She narrowed her eyes. If she did this, Demoleon wouldn’t be able to take the sword and use it to vanquish the minotaurs and save his people.
If she didn’t, her sisters would remain imprisoned here forever.
Damn, but she hated this choice.
My family or his.
“Don’t allow thoughts of the centaur to sway you. He’s retreated to his people and he’ll never venture here again.”
“How do you know this?”
“I spoke with him. He bade me wish you farewell.”
Her heart clinched. Demoleon hadn’t told her that. Even worse, he’d abandoned her. Without hesitation, without speaking farewell? The bastard.
Right. He didn’t deserve her affection or the sword. Let his people try to seize victory without it. They would only fail.
He should have known better than to cross a harpy.
Still… “I’ve tried to free the sword, but I can’t.”
Asterion flashed a grin at her. “Try once more. I’m certain this time you shall find success.”
Enyo launched to her feet. “Very well. You shall have the sword, if I can retrieve it.”
After retrieving a sheath from the stockpile in her chamber, she stormed through the tunnels, winding toward the sword’s chamber. Curse the centaur. How could he do this to me? Tears stung her eyes but she refused to permit them to fall.
To admit she’d cared for him. Fallen for him. Far deeper than she’d ever promised herself she would.
Her sisters were all she had now. Their future together was the only one on her horizon. Visions of building a home with Demoleon alongside his centaur kin smashed from her mind. A pathetic fantasy anyway. His people might accept her presence, but they would never count one of her kind among them.
She never had a home to lose.
Enyo marched to the sword and wrapped both her hands around the hilt. Gritting her teeth, she gave one forceful, fateful tug.
Chapter 8
Demoleon watched his brothers with their mates, dancing in the meadow. Cyane and Theron. Arctus with Kleoptoleme. Airla in Lycus’s arms. The pure contentment and satisfaction emanating from them only made him scowl deeper into the flames of the fire he sat near. After he’d rescued Lycus and his mate from the frozen land, he hadn’t intended to return home. Instead, he’d flown endlessly for a few days, before finally arriving at the conclusion that there was nowhere else for him.
On the opposite side of the pit, Rhoetus rubbed his hands together and nodded grimly. “I feel the same. The one I loved is ashamed to be called my mate. I’ve lost her forever.”
Rhoetus had disclosed the details of his disappointing journey to Thessaly. How nothing they had been taught had proven true. How he’d retreated in disgrace.
“What a pair we make, eh?” His brother cast him a rueful smile. “At least, I’m glad not to be alone in my misery.” He winked. “We can go mad together.”
Demoleon didn’t bear any bonding symbol to Enyo, his left arm was free of a marking, and only occasionally panged. Rhoetus was in much poorer shape. “Nay, you’ll succumb first and abandon me to witness the horrors of what will soon be my fate.”
Rhoetus barked a laugh and rubbed his left arm, then winced. “Sounds about right.”
“In truth, I know not what to make of all you’ve told me. If the minotaurs plan to attack Minos, we’re better off accepting their deal. Look at our army.” He pointed to the dancing pairs. “Husbands and wives. Bonded males and their mates. Children soon to be born. How can we ask them to fight?”
“How, indeed.” Demoleon snorted into the fire.
“No one knows how many of them there are. A dozen. A hundred. A thousand? Does it even matter when one is battling a minotaur? If what you’ve revealed is true, and this Asterion trapped your mate inside her mind, what chance do we have?”
The reminder of Enyo’s fate made him swallow in bitterness. Although, when faced with their bleak future, he might not mind having an imaginary one play out inside his dreams instead. One where Enyo was his.
“We could still possess the sword. Enyo did confirm its power, and how greatly the minotaurs fear it.”
“A weapon you can’t wield,” Rhoetus droned. “Pray tell how that will aid us?”
“Enyo could help us, if we convinced her of the truth.”
“Would you do that? Take her family from her, forever?”
“Nay, I can’t bring myself to do it.” He skimmed his fingers along his scarred cheek. “I know how much suffering it would cause her and I can’t bear to see her broken. Asterion knew exactly how to manipulate me. I never stood a chance.”
“Then there’s only one question we must ask. Do you think the minotaur would harm your mate?”
Demoleon angled his head. “What do you mean? He gave me his word we would be safe from him if we stepped aside.”
Rhoetus’s mismatched eyes flashed as he glared at him through the flames of the fire. “Aye, but brother, do you trust him? Or did he entrap you in the same way as he did her?”
* * *
Enyo yanked the sword free. The metal sang in her hands, power and strength flowing through her. A century
, she’d not been able to wield this blade. Except when Demoleon had shared its power with her. Why it came to her hands now was a complete mystery. No matter. She shrugged. Asterion was right. It was finally time to end this. To break free of her sisters’ imprisonment.
To be a family once more. The friendly smiles of her sisters flashed in her mind. How desperately she longed to be with them.
After placing the sword in the sheath strapped across her back, she crawled through the tunnel to exit the mountain, spread her wings, and leapt into the air. Flapping hard, she headed east, toward Asterion’s lair, following his directions.
She swooped and landed, folding her wings behind her. A cave entrance stretched before her, leading into foreboding depths. Steeling her shoulders, she pressed forward, the darkness surrounding her. Where was he? She squinted into the black cavern, her footsteps echoing as she shuffled forward.
Torchlight flickered ahead. She halted inside a small antechamber and spotted her captor.
“This is where they’ve kept you all these years.” Enyo perched one hand on her hip and tilted her head. “Awfully damp and restrictive, if you ask me.” She dusted one finger along the rock wall. “Moist, too.” Scrunching her nose, she wiped her wet finger on her wing.
“Have you brought it?” Asterion emerged from the shadows, his beastly figure no less intimidating in real life than in her mind. She fought back a shudder. Once, she’d considered this male the epitome of magnificence.
Now, he couldn’t be more repulsive.
How a hundred years in prison changed one’s perspective.
She gripped the hilt behind her back. Oh, how she’d love to slash its blade across his neck, but Asterion hadn’t given her any choice. Without freeing her sisters first, she couldn’t kill him. They’d be forever doomed.
“Yes.” She unsheathed the blade.
Asterion’s eyes gleamed and he curled his lip at the sword, muttering curses in a minotaur tongue she didn’t speak. His gaze burning into the sword, he pressed forward, one clawed hand extending for it.
“Ah, ah.” She tsked and tapped the edge of the sword on the ground. “Free my sisters first.”
Asterion’s stare flicked to hers, those crimson beads flaming. A sinister tilt of his wide mouth revealed thick ivory fangs. “You have my word, they are already freed.”
Hope and relief fluttered through her chest. “I wish to see them.”
“Aye, but that’s not possible. I can’t leave this place.” His broad jaw tightened. “If you will, we may wait for their arrival.”
She inclined her head. “Yes, let’s do that.”
Asterion offered his hand. “Come and dine with me, Enyo, and we shall reunite once more, as friends. Hmm?”
She eyed his hand, the thorny black claws tipping his fingers, and frowned. Would her sisters ever forgive her? This past century, they’d insisted she wait and secure a way to free them. Afterward, they’d seek revenge on the minotaur together. This felt like a betrayal.
They were freed, and that was what mattered, wasn’t it?
She bit her lip in indecision, but finally came to rest on the only choice she could make.
Enyo slipped her hand into Asterion’s and followed him into the darkness.
* * *
Demoleon scoured the tunnels of Mount Ida, but Enyo was nowhere to be found. He sniffed the air and couldn’t scent her, except for there. The tunnel leading to the outside. Where would she have gone? Off to thieve more goods?
He scratched his jaw. Nay, she had plenty here. In the past few hours he’d been searching, she hadn’t returned. He’d scanned the chamber supposedly containing her sisters, but detected nothing.
That bastard minotaur had trapped Enyo inside her mind, in more ways than the illusion of her imprisoned sisters. Enyo had thwarted him in stealing the sword and he’d countered by ensuring she wouldn’t ever be able to use it against him. Somehow, he had Enyo convinced that she couldn’t free the sword on her own. Demoleon would bet his life’s blood that she’d been able to wield that weapon this entire time. Indeed, when they’d freed it together, their combined strength had overcome the trick of persuasion that had stopped her every other time.
The game had almost been too easy.
Game… All games came to an end, did they not? He halted, an eerie prickling climbing up his spine. What if Enyo had returned to him? With the sword?
He raced through the tunnel to the one chamber he hadn’t inspected yet, and sure enough, as he staggered inside, the boulder housing the blade was empty.
Oh, Enyo, what have you done?
His insides churned and he stormed through the tunnels to the outside, his nostrils flaring as he traced her scent.
Off, to the east. After performing the morphos into his dragon shape, he launched into the air and beat his wings, flying in the direction she’d gone. Finally, her trail ended at a cave entrance. Demoleon landed and studied the cavern, unease clawing through him. How easy it had been for the minotaur to trap Enyo’s mind. What if the beast should imprison him, too? Before he rescued Enyo?
Or, dear gods, what if he’d already ended her?
Right. He clenched his fists and strode inside. No time to waste, no fears to burden him. He’d faced minotaurs before and survived.
He bloody well would again today.
Demoleon followed Enyo’s scent down into the depths of the mountainside, winding through narrow corridors, until light flickered ahead. Employing his centaur stealth, he crept forward, his hooves making not a sound on the stone floor. Inside the chamber, two figures were seated at a long table. At one end, a female. Enyo, dressed in a gown of gold silk. At the other, the minotaur.
A bloody dress. What in Hades? Even more puzzling, she dined with her captor, her tormentor? Sudden jealousy spilled into his gut. They’d once been lovers. What if…
Faint music floated through the air and the minotaur offered his hand to Enyo. “Dance with me, little harpy.”
Ugh, he was going to be sick. Demoleon glowered at the pair. Enyo rose and strolled straight into the minotaur’s arms. He spun her around the chamber, gliding elegantly, the skirt of her gown billowing about their legs. As he twirled her in his arms, he lowered his head to hers and claimed her lips.
Demoleon exploded, charging forward, and rammed straight into the vile mate-thief. Snarling, he punched his fists into the male’s head, landing them everywhere that he could make contact.
This filthy male had dared to touch his mate.
Demoleon was going to kill him for it.
* * *
Enyo leapt backward as a roaring beast charged into the chamber, pummeling his fists into the air. She squinted. Demoleon? Blinking, she gawked at the male. What was he doing?
“Forgive me, Enyo,” Asterion snickered. “I couldn’t resist.”
“Resist what?” She whirled toward him, her mind spinning. “What are you doing to him?”
“He came here with notions of rescuing you, my dear. Naturally, I had to let him live out his fantasy.”
Oh gods. Asterion was inside Demoleon’s mind, showing him a vision very different from the truth. The bastard.
She brandished the sword toward Asterion’s throat. “Release his mind, now.”
Asterion clucked. “If I do that, he may become rather confused indeed. The mind is a fragile thing, Enyo.”
She knit her brows, contemplating, but Demoleon flopped around on the ground, seeming to take a beating from his imaginary foe. What if he should suffer a deathly wound? “His mind is strong enough. Let him go.”
Asterion shrugged. “Fine.” He waved his hand.
Demoleon heaved on the floor, then tossed his head about, confusion clouding his molten gaze. “What in Hades? Enyo? What happened to your gown?” He targeted his stare on her, launching to his feet.
“I’m afraid whatever you experienced never happened. It was a trick of the mind.” She scowled at Asterion. “He’s released you now and this is the truth.”
>
Demoleon scrubbed his hands across his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why does my bloody jaw ache like someone clobbered it?”
“The mind is powerful,” Asterion mocked. “Though not strong enough to keep me out.”
Enyo scoffed and poised the tip closer to the minotaur. “You’re not going to do that again. Or you’ll never get this sword from me.”
“Nay, Enyo, you can’t hand it to him. It’s our only chance,” Demoleon pleaded.
She softened. “I fear we never had one. Asterion is willing to trade my sisters for the sword. It’s a deal I must make.”
Pity crossed his expression, his gentle focus resting on her. “Sweetling, you must trust what I told you before. Your sisters aren’t here. The minotaur has lied to you, has trapped you in your own mind just as he did to me.”
She swallowed hard, fighting against that declaration. “No, that makes no sense. Why trap me for a century, only to agree to this bargain now?”
Huffing, Demoleon crossed his arms. “Because, don’t you see? You weren’t keeping the sword from him, you were guarding it for him. Preventing anyone from taking the blade and using it against his kind. You were naught but his sentinel, protecting the sword from his enemies, until he found a use for it. Until the time came when others might rise up against him. The centaurs.”
Everything Demoleon professed sounded possible, but to place her faith in him meant relinquishing hope of ever being reunited with her sisters, and she simply couldn’t. “No, no, I can’t. I need my sisters.”
Asterion advanced, a smug quirk cutting across his beastly features. “Tread carefully, centaur, or you will destroy her.”
* * *
The agony of what Demoleon had to do settled across his shoulders. There was no other choice. “Nay, it won’t destroy her.” He regarded Enyo, his strong, fierce, unyielding female. It would require more than a minotaur’s cruel games to break her. “She’ll have me, and together, we’ll be a family. She’ll never be alone.”
Fire's Mark (Lords of Krete Book 4) Page 6
