They reached the end of the room. Skyla set her utensils on the high counter after Maelea. “Sure you do. You’re different since you’ve been here. In a good way. Dare I say it? More human.”
Maelea steeled her nerves as she faced the blond Siren. Most days she liked Skyla. Skyla had become more than an unexpected ally, she’d become a friend, and she made Orpheus happy, which gave Maelea at least a little bit of hope that there was happiness out there—not for her, but at least for others. But the Siren was too perceptive. And right now Maelea didn’t need anyone probing into her intentions. If Orpheus got one whiff she was planning to run, he’d do everything he could to stop her. It was way past time Orpheus stopped feeling responsible for her. He had plenty of other things to worry about—most importantly, his brother.
“I’m not human, Skyla. We both know that. If I’ve changed, it’s only because I’m working hard to fit in. That is what you and Orpheus asked me to do, isn’t it? Fit in? And stop being such a…what was it Orpheus called me? A ghoul?”
A slow smile crept across Skyla’s face. “He’s such a smartass.”
Yeah, well, he was also right. Hades had cursed her to walk this world alone for all eternity, and that’s exactly what she’d done, not only for her safety, but for the safety of those around her. And the fact that she was willingly going back to that now, after experiencing life at the colony, depressed her more than she liked.
“Look,” she said, desperate to get away from Skyla before she gave anything away, “I promised some of the children I’d read them a few stories in the library before bed. Are we done here?”
Skyla’s face softened, but those knowing eyes of hers didn’t lessen in intensity. “There you go, being all involved again.”
Involved. There was a word Maelea had never expected anyone to use to describe her. The colony was the first place she’d felt safe enough to risk getting involved. Only now she knew her safety was in jeopardy. The continual hellhound sightings in the Pacific Northwest told her that Hades had not given up searching for her. That he’d never stop hunting her.
As that depressing thought sank in, Maelea turned for the hallway. But before she reached the threshold, her chest constricted as if a heavy weight had been dropped on top of her.
“What’s wrong?” Skyla asked, her hand brushing Maelea’s long-sleeved shirt.
“I…I felt something weird come into the castle. Something dark. Something…evil.”
Concern morphed to alarm in Skyla’s eyes. Skyla knew Maelea could sense energy shifts on the planet—a gift of being caught between two worlds. Just as Skyla opened her mouth to answer, the cell in her pocket hummed.
She pulled the phone from her jeans, lifted it to her ear. “Orpheus, thank gods…Where are—? No, Maelea and I are—” Her face paled. “Oh shit. I’ll be right there.”
“What happened?” Maelea asked as Skyla stuffed the phone back in her pocket.
“Something bad,” Skyla answered, crossing the gleaming hallway floor toward the elevator. “It’s Gryphon.”
Maelea stopped with Skyla at the elevator, watched as the Siren frantically pushed the call button. “Is he hurt?”
“No. Worse.” Skyla looked up at the wood-paneled doors. “Where the hell is that damn car? In Zimbabwe?”
“What could be worse than being hurt? He’s not dead, is he?” Why the thought of his death disturbed her, she didn’t know. She didn’t even know the guardian. Hadn’t once talked to him in the months they’d both been here.
“No,” Skyla answered, a frown cutting across her mouth. “But he might be soon, if Nick gets a hold of him.” Her voice lowered so no one else could hear them. “Orpheus said he mutilated an entire horde of daemons. And then he wouldn’t stop. Titus and Nick are both getting stitched up in the medical clinic as we speak.”
Maelea’s eyes grew wide. “What happened?”
“According to Orpheus, Gryphon attacked them.”
Chapter Two
“I don’t care what you think he’s gonna do, I care about what the hell he did do.”
Nick’s booming voice echoed off the walls as Maelea followed Skyla down the hall in the medical clinic on the second floor of the castle.
“Nick, shit.” Orpheus’s voice now. Frustrated. “You know he didn’t intend to hurt you or Titus.”
“Tell that to Titus,” Nick said. “Or no, wait, you can’t, because he’s in frickin’ surgery.”
Skyla rounded the corner, but Maelea pulled up short. Shit. What was she doing here? This didn’t concern her. In a matter of hours, she’d have nothing more to do with these people. The best thing for her would be to turn right around and head back upstairs.