Ascension (9 page)

A fist connected with her jaw, pulling her back into the fight. The force of the blow nearly brought her to her knees. She staggered backward, tumbled to the ground, and rolled back onto her feet.

“We don’t have two bloody minutes!”

Kyana felt something at her back. She spun, dagger raised. Haven held up her hand. “I’ve got your back. Together we can buy him a little time.”

It was good in theory, but Kyana doubted the two of them could buy Ryker more than a few seconds. They were outnumbered and overpowered. She’d never fought anything so fast or strong before. What the hell were these things?

She didn’t have the time to ponder the question before the next wave rushed them. She sliced and stabbed and punched, but still they came. She risked a glance at Ryker, silently pleading with him to hurry. His gaze caught hers. His lips moved in a blur as he spoke his spell.

Haven’s scream of pain pulled Kyana’s attention back to the fight. “You piece of garbage,” Haven shouted, slicing the throat of the demon who’d had the nerve to strike her.

Kyana tried to move them closer to Ryker, but the circle was closing in.

“Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go,” Haven pleaded.

As Kyana retreated, something grabbed her hair and yanked her back a few feet toward the trees. Thick, rubbery wings cocooned her chest, creeping up her throat to squeeze with enough force to snap her neck. She kicked out, struggling against the pressure, but it was like being trapped in a spider’s web. She was being lowered to the ground. If she didn’t act fast, she was going to become dinner.

She thrust her dagger between the webbing covering her eyes and sliced through the latexlike flesh. The thing howled and released her, splattering Kyana with black blood and sending her stumbling into Haven.

“It’s done. Run to me and hold on tight!”

Kyana grabbed Haven’s arm, took three running steps, and dove at Ryker. One of the winged things grabbed Kyana’s ankle. She wrapped her arms around Ryker’s waist and held on for dear life. In a flash of blinding light and ancient words, they left the island behind.

She squeezed her eyes tight and prayed the rush wouldn’t affect his targeting. She wanted to be back in the familiar and wanted to get there in one piece.

They landed with a thud. Every bone in her body groaned in protest at the impact of butt on stone. Kyana hung on to Ryker, waiting for him to say the words to free her from the blindness he’d cast to protect them during porting.

“
Libero
,” Ryker mumbled, releasing them and letting his hands fall to his sides. His voice was strained, and Kyana reached out and pressed her hand to his back. He was shaking, trembling, his breath no smoother than it had been when they’d been surrounded on the island. “Gods, what
were
those things?”

A low growl spurred Kyana’s eyes to snap open. The face that stared back at her wasn’t Ryker’s or Haven’s. It was inhuman and milky white and drooling down her imaginary tank top.

Chapter Ten

S
omething between fascination and sheer terror held Kyana captive. She’d never seen a creature like the one kneeling over her now, and was certainly glad she hadn’t gotten a good look when she’d been fighting them. She wasn’t sure she would have been as quick on her feet. Pure evil glistened in the creature’s near-white eyes. It wasn’t until she heard Ryker’s gasp for breath, felt his body seize, that she reacted. Drawing back her fist, she punched the thing in the face. It slumped over unconscious, pinning her to the ground.

She kicked her legs free of its weight, grabbed Ryker by the arm, and dragged him to the other side of what appeared to be a cave. Ryker must have been in agony during the port, because they’d obviously gone off-course. This wasn’t the Fates’ cave or any other place Below that she recognized.

She grabbed Haven’s hand, pulling her to her feet and over to Ryker’s side. Kyana knelt beside him. The color was coming back to his face and his breathing had eased.

Relief flooded her.

He sat up, resting against the wall. “What happened?”

Kyana sat next to him and eyed their guest. “We made a friend.”

“Friend?”

Haven pointed to where the creature lay. “What is that thing?”

Hell if Kyana knew.

“Evil,” Ryker finally answered.

Leathery skin clung to its body, wrapping around what looked like nothing more than a deformed skeleton, and at the same time barely seemed to cover its vitals. Rubbery wings, much like a bat’s, jutted from its back. She swallowed the bile that rose in her throat at the sight of those wings, remembering the putrid smell of them wrapped around her face.

“Yeah, well that doesn’t tell us
what
it is,” Haven pointed out, her gaze shifting to take in their surroundings. “Or where we are.”

“We’re Below. I think.”

“You think?” Kyana shoved her hair out of her face. “We have a fourth member of our party that I don’t particularly want to travel with any longer. We need more than an
I think.
”

“Considering the circumstances we were in, be glad I got you here with all your fingers.” His gaze fell to her chest. “And all your other body parts.”

“That’s the least of our concerns,” Haven said, putting an end to the brewing fight. “We’re stuck in a cave with that thing, with no way to restrain it for twenty-four hours.”

“I can fix that.” Kyana stood and searched for her dagger, cursing when she couldn’t locate it. She’d been using it when they’d ported. With a sigh of irritation, she asked Haven, “You still have my other dagger?”

Haven still gripped the borrowed weapon. Kyana took it and walked cautiously to the creature’s side. “Don’t look. This could get gross.”

She raised her dagger, pressed her foot to the beast’s belly, and bent forward to sever its head.

“No!” Ryker’s shout threw Kyana off-balance. Her weight shifted forward and she found herself nose to, well, hole-in-the-face with the foul-smelling creature.

“No?” She rolled off the creature, but didn’t move too far away. “No
what
?”

“Don’t kill it. We’ll find a way to keep it submissive and away from me, but alive. It might be the only link we have to what happened on that island and where that key might have gone.”

Oh. Right. She supposed this was what Artie had meant when she’d been afraid Kyana might go off half-cocked. Disappointment curdled in her belly as she walked away, trying to scrub any stench from her face that might have rubbed off on her.

“Oh no. I vote for killing it!” Haven said, her eyes dancing with something resembling lunacy. “Seriously.”

Her shrill voice had chills slithering down Kyana’s spine. In an effort to calm Haven, Kyana smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Beating it senseless every time it moves will keep me entertained until we can get out of here. And look on the bright side—”

“There’s a bright side?”

Kyana grinned. “Not really. Just wanted to make you feel better.”

“Very funny. How can you joke when we don’t even know where the heck we are?”

Ryker rested his hand on Haven’s shoulder. “We’re Below.”

His reassuring tone didn’t have its usual effect. “How can you possibly know that?”

He tried to smile, but to Kyana it looked more like a pain-filled grimace. “I can sense we’re home. As soon as I can function I’ll get us out of here.”

“And what about that?” Kyana jabbed her thumb toward the unconscious psychopath.

Ryker looked at Kyana. “I can’t be near that thing. I’ll have to lead from a distance.”

Great. Kyana grinned at Haven. “Looks like it’s up to the two of us to haul its nasty, smelly ass out of here.”

T
hey’d barely managed to tote their captive the length of a football field through the dark tunnel system when Ryker stopped and held up his hand. Kyana didn’t need an explanation. She could also hear what had stopped their progress. Footsteps. A lot of them.

The low moans and cries that had accompanied them seemed to stop long enough to listen, as well. She didn’t know where they were, but those cries sounded very much like those of the lost souls beneath the River Styx. She dropped the creature she’d privately nicknamed Icky and joined Ryker, peering over his shoulder to stare down the long hall, watching and waiting to see whom the footsteps belonged to.

“Who is it?” Haven asked, stretching onto her toes to peer over Kyana’s shoulder.

As the familiar scent of ambrosia and ginger curled around Kyana’s nose, she smiled. “Artie. Damn, she’s good.”

Sure enough, a moment later, a trio of women came into view, led by Artemis and her three enormous hounds, Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest.

“What happened, Kyana?” Artie called out, gliding down the hall with her quiver strapped to her back, sword tethered to her hip. She made no noise, unlike the sorry Nymphs beside her whose footsteps were far too bold for their dainty stature.

“Ryker threw us off-course!” Haven volunteered, looking far more chipper than she had for the last hour.

Kyana shot her friend a glare. “He was in a lot of pain.”

Artemis scowled. Her gaze traveled over Kyana and disapproval marred her beautiful face. “The Oracles saw his death. I was a second away from making Ares port me to you when he sensed your return.” At the doorway now, Artie eyed Ryker. “Are you injured?”

“Not injured.” He was still pale, still not breathing normally, but at least he didn’t look like he was having a stroke anymore. “Just . . . I don’t know.”

Artemis followed his gaze and landed it squarely on their sleeping, gurgling captive behind them. When she moved closer to inspect Icky, she seized her throat and stumbled backward, clutching at the wall.

“Abomination,” she gasped, backing from the room.

When Kyana turned and found the goddess on her knees, panic set in. She’d
never
seen Artemis show an ounce of fear before. Whatever their captive was, it was evil enough to bring a goddess to her knees.
That
was why it had affected Ryker and not Haven or Kyana. He was half god.

What kind of unholy hell were they dealing with?

She helped Artemis to her feet, suddenly wishing she hadn’t listened to Ryker and had murdered the blasted thing. “It came back with us. A slew of them attacked when we were trying to get off the island.”

“And you let it live?” She shot a glance at Ryker. “Get out here, you fool. You will die if you remain close to it.”

She lightly nudged Haven out of Ryker’s way so he could safely step farther down the hall. They had to find a way to get the creature somewhere else, someplace they could question it or . . . do nasty little experiments to it. Maybe impregnate it or probe it or whatever aliens did to humans.

“We didn’t kill Icky because we thought he might be useful in figuring out what happened to the key,” she said.

“Icky?” Haven asked.

Kyana pointed to the nasty creature. “Have to call him
something
.”

“Does it speak?” Artemis asked.

“No, but it gurgles. A lot. And makes this horrible little squealing noise like a pig.”

Artemis’s amber eyes narrowed. “And yet, you wish to question it.”

“Hey.” Haven unwisely pointed a finger at the goddess. “When I wanted to join the Order, Lachesis performed that Jedi mind trick thing on me to see if I was honest, to read my intentions. Why can’t she do that?”

A confused look contorted Artie’s face. “Jedi mind trick?”

“Don’t ask,” Kyana said. “But Haven’s right. I’ve seen Lachesis question people without actual questions. Couldn’t she do the same here?”

“When Lachesis reads people, she is reading the souls placed in those bodies. Not their minds or hearts. She knows those souls because she’s been nurturing them since Clotho found them homes.”

“Okay, then, let her read this fuc—this thing’s soul.”

A dark brown eyebrow rose in a comical fashion as Artemis gave Kyana her first glimpse of a goddess eye roll. “Kyana, that thing doesn’t
have
a soul. It’s what makes it impossible for me to be near it.”

“Evil. Like I said.” Ryker turned to look at the white beast and shuddered. Kyana couldn’t help but do the same.

“Come,” Artemis said, turning and gesturing for her Nymphs to fall into line. “Let’s get him safely put away before he harms another of us. And Kyana . . .” Artemis turned and once again, her gaze scanned Kyana’s frame. “Put on some clothes.”

Kyana felt her chin hit the floor. “But . . . how can you—”

“I’m a goddess. I can see through most Illusion Charms.” She nodded at Haven. “Nice work, by the way.”

Haven grinned. Kyana’s ears began to ring as her eyes fell to Ryker. “Wh-what about demigods?”

Artemis shrugged. “I’m not one. You’d have to ask him.” She jutted her chin toward Ryker, and Kyana’s chest squeezed painfully as his face lit up and a wicked grin painted his too-happy lips.

“I hate you,” she said, and made a mad dash for her bag and the clothes inside.