A Beautiful Evil (16 page)

My throat thickened until it was hard to swallow. This was what awaited me. This was what would happen if I refused to end my own life. I’d turn into something that did . . . this, to innocent people.

“Come on. Let’s scout a path around the lake. It shouldn’t take us long to get to the temple. Twenty, thirty minutes, maybe,” Sebastian said, and I was glad for the change in direction.

With the lake butting up to the mountain on one side, our path was chosen for us. We went to the right instead, forging through the woods. The deeper we went, the more thick the vines. They covered the treetops, their long, thin roots hanging down like streamers. If the place had a name, it’d be the Forest of a Thousand Ropes.

After the forest of ropes, the woods became thick and eventually so dense and crowded with undergrowth that I fell behind. Thorns grabbed at my clothes and hands. Branches smacked my face and arms and tangled in my hair. I lost count of how many times I was poked, scratched, or stuck. Or how many curses went through my head or hissed out my mouth.

It was either distract myself or completely lose it. I caught up with Sebastian and tossed out a question that had been brewing ever since my face-to-face meeting with Gabriel and his friends in study hall. “So what’s with you and Anne Hawthorne?”

Not one of my smoother moments. More of a jarring, bumbling blurt. I was looking down, watching my step, when Sebastian stopped. I ran straight into his back.

He tossed a curious gaze over his shoulder and kept moving. “Where’d that come from?”

“Uh, from the way she was looking at you. I am a girl. I can tell history when I see it.” I shoved a loose wisp of hair from my face with an annoyed swipe.

“We went out a few times.”

I waited for more, walking several feet before finally realizing he wasn’t going to elaborate. I rolled my eyes and then glared at his back.

“What’s your idea of a few times?” I pressed.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It was last year. Didn’t work out.”

“Why di—” I tripped, recovering before I fell. I groaned in frustration. The urge to pull out my blade and start hacking at the forest was so strong, but I didn’t want to dull the blade.

“Look,” Henri said in front of us. Random patches of dim firelight from the temple slashed through the thinning woods. “We’re getting close. We should go silent from here.”

The path began to narrow the closer we got, and I saw sky through the trees to my right where the woods dropped off into nothing. Who knew how far up on the mountain we were—pretty high, if I had to guess.

Finally the woods gave way to a narrow stretch of jagged rocks that curved around to the lawn. The rocks were tall enough that we found cover easily. “Let’s stop and rest here,” Sebastian suggested.

I slumped to the ground behind a gray rock and dug in my pack for a drink.

“I’m gonna do some aerial recon,” Henri announced after a few minutes. “Be back soon.”

“Be careful,” Sebastian told him. “We don’t know what things fly in these skies.”

Henri nodded, climbed over the rocks, and then disappeared. I waited, knowing he’d appear in the sky above. Goose bumps spread up my arms as he shot upward like a shadowy dart.

“Pretty cool, right?” Sebastian’s head tipped to the sky.

Way cooler than turning into a snake-headed monster
, I thought. “If I wasn’t afraid of heights, sure. How does he do that, exactly? Where do his clothes go?”

Sebastian laughed, taking a spot across from me and stretching his legs out in front of him. “It’s not only a physical thing—otherwise it’d take hours for his body to break down and re-form into a bird. It’s magic, Ari,” he said with a shrug. “Henri was born into a family of fliers.”

“Your father said demigods and shape-shifters are often one and the same.”

He drank deeply from his water bottle, his Adam’s apple bobbing in a weirdly attractive way. He finished and then swiped a hand across his mouth. “There’s probably a god
way
back in Henri’s family tree. A lot of shifters have no clue who they’re descended from. Over time things get lost or forgotten.” He studied me. “Why did you ask me about Anne?”

My heart stuttered, not expecting the change in subject. I unwrapped my granola bar slowly. “I don’t know.” I took a bite, giving myself time to think through my answer.

This whole boy/girl thing didn’t exactly come naturally to me, but I’d seen my share of relationships and the crazy mind games that a lot of people played. “Honestly, if there’s something left between you two, I guess I’d rather know up front. I mean, you and I . . . there’s no promises or anything, and that’s cool, but I’m not into the whole triangle thing, so . . .”

Maybe coyness
was
better
, I thought as my face turned hot. At least then I could’ve avoided feeling like an idiot laying everything on the table like that.

“I’m not into games or playing the field either,” he said quietly, eyes thoughtful. “When we make it through this, I want to see where things lead.” He cleared his throat. “With you, if you want.”

My stomach went weightless. Our gazes stayed locked, and while I answered him in my head, it seemed to take forever to get the words out of my mouth. “I’d like that,” I finally managed, breaking eye contact.

When I chanced a second look at him, the corners of his eyes crinkled. I felt a lopsided grin begin to grow and was about to laugh when Henri returned.

He climbed around the rock and went for his bag as he sat on the ground. “The temple is massive.” He tipped his head back and drank. “Lots of servants and guards. Seven buildings besides the temple, but none of them look like they’re being used as a prison. There’s some kind of party going on in the garden. It leads right into the temple, so I say we wait a few hours until everyone is passed out and then we move in for a closer look.”

“How’s the path from here?” Sebastian asked.

“There’s a long wall running from these rocks up the edge of the lawn to the temple. It separates the garden from a drop-off. We’re on the side of a mountain. There’s nothing but a rocky cliff on the other side of the wall.”

I polished off my granola bar and then positioned my backpack to use as a pillow. “Okay, so we wait. Might as well get some rest. From the sound of it, it’s going to be a long night.”

We settled in to the distant sounds of voices, laughter, and music.

“T
IME TO MOVE
.” S
EBASTIAN NUDGED ME.

I sat up, instantly awake. I’d fallen asleep, which surprised me given the circumstances. My hip and shoulder ached from the hard, rocky bed, and my muscles protested as I stood.

The air was cooler, and the night sky was bright with stars. Everything was quiet, almost peaceful. I slung my bag over my shoulder and made sure my weapons were secure.

We climbed over and around the rocks until we came to the shoreline of the lake. A stone wall rose out of the rocks, trailing up the lawn toward the temple and providing a barrier against the cliff on the other side.

“Stay close to the wall,” I whispered as we moved over the grass and passed the white marble gazebo that overlooked the lake.

The sweet fragrance of flowers hung in the air. Cherry and apple trees filled with pink and white blossoms dotted the lawn. A soft breeze sent petals floating through the air like snowflakes.

My heart rate increased the closer we came to the massive temple. Even though it was late, the fires still burned in the pool-size urns.

Zeus’s temple rose at least four stories high, maybe five at the peak, and was breathtaking. Colossal. And intimidating as hell. Only the crackling of the large fires split the silence, occasionally sending sparks into the air.

As we neared the long open side of the temple Henri handed his backpack to Sebastian and his shotgun to me. I slung it over my shoulder as he shifted into the hawk and flew to one of the columns to act as lookout.

“It’s too quiet,” I whispered to Sebastian, my back pressed flat against the stone wall. We were in shadow, but if anyone looked hard enough, they’d spot us. “Don’t you think?”

Just as he was about to respond, a couple stumbled drunkenly from the temple and into the garden. They tripped and fell into the grass, laughing. The guy rolled on top of the woman, murmured words into her hair, and then kissed her.

Shit. We wouldn’t get by them unnoticed.

I nudged Sebastian, mouthing,
Now what?

Sebastian straightened his shoulders. His focus zeroed in on the couple and his jaw clenched. He separated himself from the wall and walked straight out into the open like he belonged there. It took a lot of nerve to do that. I held my breath as he stopped by the couple’s shoulders. They looked up as he knelt down. He spoke in a low, friendly, soothing tone. The man spoke back and then resumed kissing his lady. Sebastian continued to the entrance, pressing himself flat against the stone and then ducking his head inside for a look.

He waved me over. I hesitated a second before drawing on my courage and darting out into the open.

I was halfway to Sebastian when an arrow thunked into the ground six inches from my foot. Shock rooted me to the spot. I caught Sebastian’s widening gaze and glanced from him to Henri and then to the direction the arrow had originated from.

No, no, no!

For a moment we stayed frozen, so stunned that none of us knew what to do.

Sebastian’s eyes took on a feral light. His head turned slowly in the direction of the archer as he let the packs slide off his shoulders. A sudden, oppressive charge filled the air. Could it be from Sebastian? Oh, shit. It had to be, because he looked like a predator about to attack.

I took a step back from the arrow, unsure of what was happening. I’d never felt anything like this from him.

The archer was in the shadows near the corner of the temple. And I knew from her silhouette that it was Menai, the archer who had sat next to me at Athena’s table. She’d been so uncaring and nonchalant about my father’s torture.

And for that I was going to make her hurt.

I grabbed the grip of my gun as I saw her string another arrow. Henri took flight. The bow lifted and Menai aimed at me. Sebastian charged into my line of sight before I could fire—shit! I released the pressure on the trigger as Henri picked off the arrow before it found a target and flew it out over the wall, releasing it.

Sebastian slammed into Menai. I ran, the backpack and shotgun sliding off my shoulder and to the ground. I leaped over the oblivious couple on the ground. The force of Sebastian’s impact sent him and Menai tumbling from the edge of the garden and into the main courtyard at the front of the temple.

Even as I ran, my pulse thundering in my ears, I knew we were screwed. I slid to a stop in the courtyard. Half the space was already ringed with Athena’s minions. All the same, all watching the fight, waiting . . .

A tumbling blur shot past me, so fast and so close that my hair moved in the wind. Sebastian and the archer slammed into the wide steps that led into the temple. Marble cracked. They rolled again and she was up, stringing her bow with super natural speed and firing it before I could even release the scream building in my throat. The arrow sank into Sebastian’s shoulder as he leaped to his feet, a ball of blue light already forming in his hands.

The light burst and dissipated as soon as the arrow hit him. He sat down, stunned.

I launched myself at Menai, taking her to the ground. A surprised shriek flew from her as we hit the dirt and rolled. In a flash of inhuman speed she was out from under me, had flipped me over, and was sitting on top of my chest with one of her arrows clenched in her hands, holding it above my jugular. Her hand shook with anger.

I struggled to move, but she wouldn’t budge. “No one attacks me. Twice. And lives.” She apparently hadn’t forgotten about the fork I’d shoved into her hand.

A click sounded. Henri stood in his human form, chest heaving, with his shotgun to her head. “This shotgun shell has about four hundred pellets inside. You might be immortal, but I doubt you’d fully recover from that blasting through your skull.”

She came back with what sounded like a string of curses in Greek.

Sebastian hissed in pain, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “What are you?”

“I am . . .” She struggled with indecision, probably about whether to try and shove the arrow into my throat or dodge the shotgun. “Faster than you.”

“Oh, bravo, Menai!” Athena called from the steps of the massive temple. “You almost had all three of them.” Athena swept down the steps looking gorgeous in a flowing white gown and loose hair.

Henri’s mouth dropped open.

Menai released me as Athena approached. I rolled to my side and crawled to Sebastian. “Sebastian . . .”

His skin had gone pale and sallow, and blood was already darkening his shirt. His hand gripped the arrow shaft. It trembled. “Need to get this out,” he rasped, then clenched his lips into a tight line.

“Here, allow me.” Athena stopped on the steps next to us, reached down, and jerked the arrow from his shoulder at a painful angle. Sebastian screamed. Blood bloomed faster over his shirt.

“What do I do? Tell me what to do.” I stumbled over my words as Athena sauntered over to Henri, closed his mouth for him with a finger under his chin, grabbed the barrel of his shotgun, flipped it in her hand, and fired it into his stomach.

“Henri!” Oh God. Henri. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.

He grabbed his gut, his expression one of astonished horror, before he crumpled to the ground. Athena motioned for her guards. “Dump him over the cliff.”

“NO!”

She spun, holding out a hand to stop me. I was unable to move forward. “You’re full of surprises, Aristanae. You must tell me how you made it into my realm. Once you’ve had some time in my prison.”

“I’
LL HEAL,
A
RI
,” S
EBASTIAN MUTTERED AS
I
HELPED HIM TO
his feet. “Warlock vampire, remember? Christ, Henri . . .”