Heart (15 page)

I knew we were out of options. There wasn’t
anywhere to go and there wasn’t anyone here to save us. Ryder and I
were well and truly caught.

I wondered how far away Nix was… how much
time I had before I had to face him. I couldn’t stomach the idea of
being trapped with him again… of being enslaved.

I would rather die.

And I didn’t mean that in the dramatic sense
of the phrase. Oh, no. The idea of living out the rest of my life
chained to Nix and all of his nefarious scheming was so absolutely
abhorrent to me that I would have chosen death every day of the
week over living that out. I couldn’t do it.

I wouldn’t do it.

I supposed that was why when Ryder started
tugging on my skirt that I started paying attention.

“Get ready to run,” he mumbled under his
breath.

I wanted to ask him where he expected me to
run to, but I didn’t get the chance.

Ares and Hades had slowly moved together.
They weren’t standing exactly side by side, but they were close
enough for Ryder to hit them both. The energy in his palm brewed
with intensity. I felt the energy in the air prickle my skin and
the otherworldly nature of the power pulse in the air around
us.

I braced myself a moment before he released
his supernatural power on the doubting gods. The energy spun from
his hands in a shower of light and electricity.

I heard men shout as Ryder’s power rained
down on them, but I didn’t stick around to watch the damage. I
turned to the right and started sprinting as fast as my flip-flops
sliding across polished tile would let me.

Ryder’s body was at my back, his palm
pressing into the small of my back and his quick footsteps right
behind mine. We skirted along the baggage check-ins, knocking over
line markers and anything else in our way.

Just as I felt pressure build behind us, like
either Hades or Ares had released a power of their own, Ryder
guided me to a sharp left and we ducked out of the way just in
time.

With more open space in front of us, we took
off running as fast as we could. Ryder was in Toms, so his running
was much easier than mine. I slid all over the place. Eventually I
ditched my cheap shoes.

I kicked them off, letting my bare feet slap
against the cold tile. I heard a commotion behind us and I knew
that the gods and their giants had caught up to us.

My breathing wheezed in my chest. What would
I do if they caught us? How long would I give myself to fight?

This was the end of the line. I could feel
it.

We had nowhere else to go.

Security showed up in front of us. They
flooded the airport like a SWAT team. I reared back, afraid they
would shoot us.

Ryder spun around and I went with him. Giants
behind us, human security in front of us. We were in an airport
without tickets and Ryder’s Bronco was trapped back in long term
parking.

“What do we do?” I panted quietly. Security
started shouting at us to raise our hands and lie down face first
on the ground. “Ryder!”

“Hermes,” Ryder answered quickly. Only it
wasn’t a response to my question. It was a call for help.

Nothing happened.

My voice was a choked plea,
“
Hermes
.”

He appeared in front of us as quickly as I
said his name. His mouth was twisted into a smug grin until he took
in our position. “Oh,” he mumbled. He stepped between Ryder and me
and put his arms around our shoulders while airport security tried
to reconcile the man that had just appeared in front of them from
thin air. Hermes turned to Ares and Hades and the cocky smile
reappeared on his face. “Brothers,” he gloated as a greeting.

Chapter Twelve

“Messenger!” Hades shouted at him. “We will
see you soon, little brother. You cannot keep us out.”

“Race you there,” Hermes laughed.

Hades’ face contorted with rage just before
he disappeared. Or really, I disappeared. Hermes had moved us. One
second we stood in the middle of a very volatile situation in the
middle of the Kansas City airport; the next my bare feet were
buried in warm sand and a Mediterranean breeze tickled my naked
arms. I blinked up at a bright sun and cloudless sky. I could hear
ocean waves crash against a rocky coastline and seagulls call to
each other overhead.

Clearly we were not on a mountain. But maybe
Mount Olympus was metaphorical?

I shrugged out of Hermes’ hold and turned to
face him. “This is not Olympus.”

“Oh? And you’ve been to Olympus before?”
Hermes taunted.

“This is a beach!” I countered.

“I thought you liked the beach,” he tossed
back.

“I love the beach. Do you want to find out
how much?” I started walking backwards toward the sound of the
water rushing against rock and wet beach only to watch Hermes throw
up a frantic hand to stop me.

“You’ve made your point. Enough.”

I raised an eyebrow and wondered how much
damage I could cause in this much water. Looking out at the
glistening surface of the body of water that stretched out from
several yards away to the horizon, I felt the natural surge of
power in my blood that came from the close proximity. I’d felt the
same rush every morning on the island. I would wake to a thrumming
in my veins and a quickened pulse.

You’re home
, my blood would sing.

This is where you belong
, my heart
would beat.

I trusted my reaction to the water about as
much as I trusted Nix.

After all, the Siren’s call came from women
who were once half bird and killed men so they could feast on their
dead carcasses. I mean… for real. I did not need that in my
life.

I thought back to the man I’d killed from
basically wet cement back in Omaha. If that had been enough to take
a life, what could I do with my feet in an ocean?

Kill an entire ship of sailors?

Obviously.

Kill a god?

Maybe.

Possibly.

“Where are we, Hermes?” Ryder called from a
few feet away. He did not look impressed either.

Hermes took a step toward Ryder and gave him
an assessing look. “I’ve wondered something,” Hermes started. “Are
you the same Orpheus? Or is the prophecy referring to a new man
with Orpheus like powers?”

“I’m not Orpheus,” Ryder said confidently. “I
know that you all think I am. But I’ve done my research. Orpheus
was definitely bad ass, but I’m me. One hundred percent. I’m not
some reincarnated Greek myth or a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled.
I’m mortal. I’m human. And I’m here to get Ivy somewhere safe.”

I was as unconvinced as Hermes. “But you knew
about all of that stuff with Hades and I thought-”

Ryder shook his head and stepped toward me.
“I’ve been reading up on the guy. I thought it might throw them
off. That’s all.”

“We’re here to see Della,” Hermes interrupted
suddenly. “She has much to tell us.” He turned around and started
trudging through thick, golden sand in his once-polished black
loafers. The man needed to wear more sensible shoes if he was going
to keep popping up on beaches.

Ryder sidled up next to me. He seemed
surprisingly unfazed by the craziness of the last twenty-four
hours. “Who’s Della?” he asked.

“The Oracle of Delphi. She’s like the
opposite of the Fates.”

“Right,” Ryder hummed. “Nix isn’t going to
know to find us here?”

I rubbed at the back of my neck and ignored
the unease blossoming in my core. “I have a feeling Nix doesn’t
have to chase us anymore. If he knows we’re going to Olympus, can’t
he just meet us there?”

“They don’t have a restraining order on him
yet?” Ryder asked dryly.

I wished. “I don’t think that’s how it
works.”

“Of course not.”

We walked beneath shady palm trees as we made
our way inland. My feet were mostly pillowed on rich, warm sand,
but every once in a while I would step on a seashell and
practically die. God, who knew they could be so painful! I missed
my flip flops.

Sweat had started to bead along my hairline
when a pavilion came into view. Golden linen billowed in the
breeze, stretched out over thick poles stuck into the sand. The
thickest pole stood in the middle of a tiled floor. The tiles were
in a mosaic design, alternating a rich blue with creamy white. And
overhead, the gilded pieces of fabric tented in the shape of a
pinwheel. Each separate piece was tied to a pole and flapped lazily
in the slow breeze.

Fires differentiating in size were spaced out
along the perimeter in a perfect circle. Near the center pole stood
a smooth stone slab raised up by two oval stones. If I had to
guess, I would say it was some kind of altar. Mortars and pestles
were spread out on the flat surface, along with what looked like
brightly colored paints globbed right onto the stone. Finishing out
the odd display were exotic flowers in the same colors as the
paints. Vivid purples, oranges, yellows, blues and reds lay in
careless heaps, dripping over the rough edge and littering the
ground.

There was a scent in the air that was both
familiar and foreign. I couldn’t place it, but I felt like I should
have recognized it. My nose tickled with memory while my brain
argued that I had never smelled anything so exotic before.

I immediately loved the scent and for that
reason I hated it.

I didn’t trusts gods or their oracles and I
knew better than to blindly trust anything that had to do with
them.

I glanced over at Ryder, worried that he
would be lulled into some kind of trance, but he seemed just as
leery as I did.

“He’s immune to all of us,” the gentle voice
of the Oracle of Delphi explained as if reading my thoughts.

I turned around to face her. Once again, I
was hit with the sensation that this woman was intensely beautiful.
There was something about her features that were so unnaturally
exquisite, I knew I would never see another being like her again in
my life.

And yet, I couldn’t remember which of her
features stood out or why I thought she was so uniquely lovely. The
only thing I could remember about her was her eyes. It was the only
feature that I could remember clearly. Her startling sapphire eyes
seemed to see straight through me to all of the hidden places I
worked so hard to keep secret. They held my gaze with an unwavering
focus that unnerved me and yet calmed my frayed nerves at the same
time.

“What is that smell?” I asked cautiously.
Ryder might be immune to everything, but that didn’t mean I
was.

“The herbs I use for my visions. It’s nothing
to be nervous about,” she explained.

Yeah, right.

“What are we doing here?” Ryder asked. He
reached out and slid his hand over my shoulder blades before
dropping it to my waist and pulling me next to him. Possessive.
Dominant. Protective. I felt each of Ryder’s emotions as if they
were my own. He wasn’t giving me anything of himself in this move,
but he was proving to the Greeks here that he would continue to
protect me, that he would not let them touch me without his
permission.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Okay, that was a lie. I loved that he felt
compelled to stand up for me. I loved that I wasn’t completely
alone in this. After a year of truly being isolated and a lifetime
of loneliness, having a partner stand beside me that would fight
all of these battles with me was unquestionably one of the greatest
feelings on the planet.

But I was also confused. I had strong
feelings for Ryder that had not lessened one bit during our time
apart. In fact, I swore they had grown with a veracity that scared
me. But I had left this man. I had abandoned him when he needed me
most and treated him with disrespect I was embarrassed of. I didn’t
deserve his affection. Not after everything I had done to him.

Not after I had forced him out of my life and
out of my heart.

In fact, he’d spent an entire year thinking
about how much he wanted nothing to do with me. How could I stand
next to him, with his arm so tightly around my waist, and breathe
through this guilt? How could I hope for a future with him, when he
would never want anything to do with me after this? How could I let
him touch me and still protect my heart from the inevitable
destruction I knew he would bring when this was over?

Assuming that this ended in a way that wasn’t
with my death. Or his. Or my complete enslavement to Nix and his
nefarious plans.

I felt Hermes’ unwavering gaze on us as he
watched Ryder’s affection. I couldn’t read his take on it
though.

I couldn’t tell what Della thought of it
either, because whenever I looked at her I could only see her
startling blue eyes and they were always trained so wholly on
mine.

“Business,” she murmured. “Let’s get down to
business.” She moved and I felt, more than saw, the gesture to move
to a sitting area that had simply appeared out of thin air.

Or at least I thought it had. I hadn’t
remembered seeing it there a second ago, but everything in this
place seemed to happen with a confusing twist and my memories had a
blurry edge to them. I wondered if I would even remember this place
when I left it or if like Della’s indiscernible features, they
would simply fade into a murky haze.

Ryder kept his hand on the center of my back
as we moved to a cluster of chaise lounges draped with silky
coverings and buried in small pillows. Each piece of furniture had
been so lavishly decorated they looked awkward with it. I had to
shove several pillows out of the way to find room for my bum. And
when I sat down, I perched rigidly at the edge so I wouldn’t be
forced to lie down.

Neither Della nor Hermes felt the same
awkwardness. They both relaxed onto their settees as if that were
the only way to sit. Ryder and I shared a look and I nearly
laughed. I half-expected servant girls to rush over with platters
full of grapes.