Breath of Fire

by Amanda Bouchet

  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 clenches hard. “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 then starts rapping 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 it. 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.” My tone could curdle milk, and 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 balls 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 beneath my ribs. 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 footprints from the frost.

  CHAPTER 18

  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 just to hear the sound of a voice. 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. A few days of being utterly on my own have validated one thing about me that hardly needed proving: I hate being alone.

  Solitude, cold, and darkness are 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.

  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. He also left me our torch, bu
t 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 an abrupt stop to my low mumbling. I pause and listen, hearing a scrabbling that sounds a lot like claws on ice.

  Adrenaline dumps into my system. My pulse roars, and my muscles tense. I try to steady my breathing as I silently 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 quietly 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.

  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 sound 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 constricts my throat, making it hard to breathe. I clutch my sword, feeling each ridge of the grip press into my palm. Fear usually makes me angry. 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? The top of the needle? 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 bone. Old, crunchy, dried-up bone.

  Thump! Scrabble.

  I jerk my head up.

  Scrabble. Thump! Thump!

  I whirl to face 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 of 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 then 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 skulls. Like a ram’s horns, they spiral back around to protect the vulnerable necks.

  Massive. Three heads. Too many teeth. Horns like helmets. Uh-oh.

  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.

  I fly through the air and land sprawled on my back, the wind knocked out of me. I slide what feels like a mile down the slippery tunnel before the top of my skull cracks against the wall. Bright lights explode behind my eyes. Pain rips through my head as momentum carries me around in a hard arc, and the rest of my body slams into the icy barrier.

  For a second, there’s nothing. No air. No light. No sound. Then I suck in a huge breath, and my stunned body jolts back to me. Groaning, I roll to my knees. Pain grips my head. Everything spins. I touch the sorest spot and feel the start of a huge knot, warm and wet.

  I tighten my other hand around a familiar hilt. Somehow, I held on to my sword. The torch lies far down the tunnel, dimly illuminating the advancing monster from behind. I blink, trying to chase away the dizziness, but my head throbs, and the pounding ache doesn’t stop there. I can’t focus on the beast, but I know it’s coming for me, hulking, huge, and snarling snorts and growls that remind me of Cerberus.

  Hades left me his guard dog for eight years, and I needed him a grand total of once. The Hound of the Underworld would come in really handy right now, and yet he’s nowhere to be found. I’ll never understand the Gods’ sense of humor, or irony, or whatever it is.

  Real fear, the kind I recognize like an old enemy, takes root inside of me. I’m so completely outmatched right now that there’s a good chance I’m going to die.

  I slide backward on my hands and knees, still trying to clear my vision. A growl reverberates around the tunnel, and then the beast catapults forward. Straightening, I grip my sword with both hands and swing in a wide, wild arc, somehow keeping it at bay. Every bruise and abused bone aches as I swing again, gaining myself the time to get to my feet.

  Dizzy, I stagger and almost fall into one of the beast’s mouths. Gasping, I stumble back as another head grabs for me at the same time. The two fang-filled faces collide with a thump. The beast roars, and the competing heads snarl at each other, growling and biting.

  I spin and run. Pain streaks through my head, and suddenly up is down. I lose my balance and hit the ground with a full-body smack, my chin bouncing off the ice. Stunned, I roll onto my back only to find all three of the monster’s heads looming over me.

  Instinct makes me swing with
all my might. I hit horns again, and my sword flies from my grasp. My frozen fingers bark in pain, and I pull them back, clutching them against my chest as my sword clatters away.

  Oh Gods! I can’t stay here. I have to get up.

  Desperation and panic give me a burst of strength. I flip over and pop up running. I skid on the ice and careen off the side of the tunnel, using it like a frozen springboard. Sharp teeth snap behind me.

  The beast charges, its claws scraping on the ice. Despite the risk to my balance, I dart a look over my shoulder. It’s gaining on me.

  Light sparks in my head, radiating out from the throbbing pulse point at the top of my skull. Gritting my teeth, I twist and throw two knives. It’s too dark to see what happens, but the ping and clang as I face forward again tell me they didn’t stick.

  I sprint for the fractionally brighter end of the tunnel, my head pounding like my blood. Hot breath slams into the back of my neck as I jump, breaking an icicle off the mouth of the passageway.

  I turn in the air and land facing the beast, already swinging the icicle with a vicious upward thrust. Just before the frozen dagger connects with the soft underside of one jaw, another head swoops in and snatches the weapon from my hand. There’s a crunch. It ate my icicle!

  I sway on my feet. All three heads lunge at once, and I leap back, turning to flee.

  A horrifying, empty feeling rushes up through me. I gasp, flailing. It takes only a split second to realize there’s nothing under my feet.

  Fear punches me in the gut. My stomach flies up into my mouth, and my terrified shriek almost drowns out the sound of Kato frantically shouting my name from across an immense, dark hole.

  CHAPTER 19

  I drop. I’ve done the unthinkably stupid and stepped off a cliff. I can still hear Kato’s panicked bellow, and it’s almost as heartbreaking as knowing I’m going to die.

  My life flashes before my eyes. I don’t like a lot of what I see. But there’s Eleni. And Desma, Aetos, Vasili, and Selena. There’s Beta Team. And Griffin.

  My heart explodes at the thought of Griffin. My scream turns raw. Cold wind buffets me. The two cloaks flap above my head, their buckles digging into my chin. Their glow does nothing to pierce the vast darkness. Below me, everything is black.