Moon Borne (Halcyon Romance Series Book 1) (17 page)

“How can you speak such things? Do you not fear their wrath?” The shock in her parted lips was far too genuine.

“Nay, I don’t. I’ve been punished by them in every way. There is nothing else they can seize from me. I’m a man who’s lost everything, Kyme. Believe me, the gods sense that’s the most dangerous kind.”

She pursed her lips. “Who abducted her and why?”

“I know not who took her from me, only that I was too weak to stop them.” He hung his head in shame and a wry laugh escaped him. “I prayed to Ares every day to permit me the
morphos
. To make me into the warrior I am today.” He lifted an eyebrow at her. “The bastard declared, ‘Someday, my son, you will be a great warrior. A hero without equal. But you are not ready yet.’”

“Why not?” Her brows drew together.

Arsenius shrugged. “That’s what I asked him as well. He said, ‘If all you have known is strength, you will never fathom weakness. Without this understanding, you cannot defeat your enemy.’”

He scoffed. “I had no idea then just how weak he intended to make me. Our lives are but a game to them. They set up their pieces on the chessboard, then sit back and watch us destroy each other. What honor is there in that, I ask you? None. When they stole my sister—”

Every muscle in his body tensed. He’d hoped to tell Kyme his story without too much emotion clouding it, but his fury was impossible to hide. He unclenched his fists and grimaced. This was why it was better for Thereus to tell her.

“Though my sister was innocent, he wouldn’t do it. Ares refused to give me the means to save her. That, Kyme, is why I hate the gods.”

***

Kyme ached for Arsenius’s suffering. And for his sister’s. Though few women belonged to their race, Amazons considered all females to be their sisters, and they would fight to defend any woman.

Perhaps the Fates were steering her path in a different direction. Together with Arsenius, they could discover where Lena was and save her from any cruel fate she might be suffering. If her aid also eased Arsenius’s pain, it would be worth every effort.

As he bared his past, her curiosity grew. She craved to learn every small detail about this enigmatic male. “Is Lena why you became a slaver?”

“Aye. After I freed myself, I had nowhere to go. My life in the aristocracy was dead. My estate and wealth gone. Besides, in order to locate her, I had to be on the inside. Despite the backbiting, it is a tightly knit world. Slavers won’t offer client names to anyone who isn’t legitimate. I began as crew on board a pyrate ship and worked my way up. It didn’t take me long to establish myself…”

Rising on her knees, she pressed her palm against his chest, above his heart and finished his sentence. “As a mercenary. You are not like the other slavers, Arsenius.”

He removed her hand, his brows furrowing. “I
am
a slaver, Kyme. Do not forget that. I would do, and have done, whatever is necessary to find her.”

She didn’t doubt he’d committed horrendous acts, but she didn’t believe he was the cruel person he claimed. “Have you encountered any sign of her?”

“No.” The pain in that word was so tangible, she longed to enclose it in a bottle and hurl it into the depths of the ocean where it wouldn’t hurt him anymore.

“I’ve developed contacts in every port on the Middle Sea and beyond. Searched every brothel, questioned every slaver I’ve encountered. The reason in me states there are thousands of slaves, most of whom will forever remain nameless. Those whose families are not contacted for ransom…” His shoulders deflated. “Still, sometimes I hope. My sister was a rare beauty, the kind of woman who would draw attention. People would remember her. Except, no one does.”

He rolled his massive shoulders and for the first time, Kyme detected weariness in his voice.

“I have no idea what to conclude and that’s what truly kills me. The uncertainty.” His fists clenched and the anger returned to his eyes. “I would rather she be dead than suffer what I have.”

How hard this must be for him.
She’d lost many sisters in battle. They had died the glorious deaths of warriors and were remembered with honor. But to never learn whether the one she loved was alive or dead, or how they had passed? How terrible his enslavement must have been that he wished Lena dead to spare her from such torment.

Her heart fortified, Kyme tilted his face toward hers and stared into those grey depths. “Arsenius, though I have never met your sister, she is one of mine, whom I am sworn to protect. I vow to you I will aid you in your cause. We will not stop until we have discovered her.”

Hope replaced the anguish in his drawn brows, until his eyes darkened with something deeper. A yearning she dared not name.

A romantic attachment to this male was not only unwise, it was forbidden. No, this was a mission, the same as any other. Emotions were far more lethal than any enemy. Cloud one’s judgment with them and one might as well stab a dagger through one’s own heart.

He shook his head. “Why? Why would you do this? I have been more than cruel to you.”

“Not in the past few hours.” She winked to lighten his mood, but hardness continued to mask his features.

“Will you at least tell me what is at stake?”

“What do you mean?” She fingered the hem of the sheet, hedging.

“I am neither blind nor a fool. I’ve experienced how the gods work. What has Artemis given you in exchange for your chastity?”

She froze. Though he’d revealed so much of his past to her, she wasn’t certain about reciprocating. She’d never told an outsider. Well, except right before she killed them. If she shared a little, she might not have to tell him everything.

“I was thirteen the day my fate was determined.” As she spoke the words, her mind flashed to that fateful day.

Her godmother drew her aside, the warmth of her hand on Kyme’s shoulder bolstering her confidence. “This day will be the most important of your life, my daughter. Today, you will either join our ranks or be cast out forever.”

Kyme scanned her comrades and her heart filled with confidence. None of the other initiates had the fire she did. Nor the talent. She had been preparing for this moment since her birth. She spent hours every day training, mastering knives, the axe, the bow. Daggers were her favorite. Small, like her, yet so very deadly.

Their commander gave the war cry, and the five girls raced into the woods. The first part of the initiation was provision. Since Amazons didn’t belong to, and rarely interacted with, any traditional societies, it was paramount for every member to carry her weight. Their task was to hunt an animal and bring the kill back to their village.

A deer was an admirable kill for an individual. The carcass often weighed upward of two hundred pounds. For a girl who weighed half that, carrying the meat home was a strenuous task. Not to mention, a fresh kill would attract predators.

She wasn’t going to return with a deer, even though she was capable of the feat. No, she had something far more impressive in mind. The distinction between predator and prey was a curious thing. While her sisters tracked rabbit and deer, she would hunt the ones stalking them.

Kyme perched high in a tree and stilled until she was no more than a marble statue, then waited. The mother wolf didn’t sense her.

She leapt from her perch onto the wolf’s back. The wolf didn’t have a chance to slice those deep claws into Kyme’s vulnerable flesh before Kyme’s dagger severed hers. In one fluid slash, she slit the wolf’s throat.

As the animal gave up its life force, she issued a prayer to Artemis to speed the animal’s spirit on its journey. She cleaned her weapon on the dewy grass and constructed a sled to carry the carcass. The village was two miles north, across rough terrain, and the dead wolf weighed nearly one hundred pounds. She ought to remove only the wolf’s head, as her village wouldn’t eat its meat, but she sought the pelt, and the pride of delivering the entire animal herself.

Hours later, the exhaustion weighing down her body was worth every look of envy and shout of praise. Her godmother tilted her head. “Daughter, why did you not kill a rabbit?”

Kyme straightened her shoulders. “The others would bring meat. I wanted to do more, to protect them while they hunted. A wolf pack will eat our livestock and the other animals we hunt. It might also attack our camp and harm the young. Protection was what I wished to give my sisters.”

Her godmother’s lips curved in satisfaction.

Chapter 16

“What was the second part of your initiation?” Arsenius reclined, clasping his hands behind his head.

“The marking.” Kyme tensed as she pointed to the brand above her right breast. The memory of that fateful eve flashed in her mind. The dress. The symposium. His revelation.
A slave.
How much their situation had changed. And how little.

His gaze heated as he followed her hand. “You haven’t answered my question.” He raised his stare from her breast to level with hers.

She scowled. He wasn’t going to relent. After reminiscing about her past and her sisters, she was having a hard time reconciling what they’d done together with her obligations.

How well did she even know Arsenius? What if she told him about her gift and he decided to keep her instead of selling her? He had no notion of how powerful she was, how easily she could kill him. If she revealed herself to him and he chose to betray her, that was exactly what she would have to do.

“I can’t tell you.” A simple refusal, and less for him to argue against.

His eyes hardened as his nostrils flared. “Why not? Are you sworn not to?”

She sighed and told him the truth this time. “No, I’m not.”

“Then why, Kyme?”

True, he didn’t discuss the sordid details of his past with anyone, no more than she did. Her refusal to reciprocate must hurt him.
Good.
That she ached too meant this game of seduction had gone too far. She crossed her arms, bracing to strike another blow. “No matter what happens in this bed, Arsenius, I am not yours. You do not own me, you cannot command me. I will aid you in the recovery of your sister, but afterward we will part ways.” Her nails dug into the flesh of her arms. “And never see each other again.”

***

Kyme’s words cut through him like the lash of a whip, but Arsenius refused to flinch. He was such a fool. She’d cried out his name as he’d pleasured her but that did not change who they were.

Her tender eyes and soft seduction were but the trickery of a woman extracting information. Had she been one of his crew, he would have used her skills in precisely such a manner. He had no excuse for having been drawn in by her kindness. For being a foolish sap, dreaming of a future, a family. For a brief instant, he’d actually believed Kyme might be his redemption.

His heart hardened. He wouldn’t make that mistake twice.

She was right. No future stretched out before the two of them. To ease the pang inside his chest, he told himself it was because he would never risk her loving him. Nor would the gods ever permit it. He was cursed.

“You’re right.” Ice dripped from his voice. “I thank you for your aid in locating my sister.” He shuffled out of the bed and dressed. At the door, he paused. “We should reach Krete soon. Will you join the hunt for the minotaur?” She inclined her head. “Good. Dress and join us at the meeting room.”

Before he went below deck, Arsenius checked on the helm. “How long?”

“You can see her there yerself, Capt’n.” The pilot pointed into the distance. Sure enough, every few minutes the mist parted and revealed the isle.

“Nicely done, Castor.” He clapped the man on the shoulder and ventured below. Thereus awaited him and, although the centaur probably picked up on his foul mood, he kept his mouth shut. Smart horse.

“Captain, I suggest we bring Venn.”

Arsenius tensed. The Wind Borne’s telepathic abilities always made him uneasy.

“You fight cannon fire with cannon fire, right?” Thereus grinned. Damn, but the words were enough. Who knew how powerful the minotaur’s mind tricks would be? Venn, considered formidable amongst his kind, was only on board this ship at the request of Thereus. Arsenius agreed, as he always did, trusting the centaur’s judgment above all else.

They reviewed their plans. As the boatswain joined them, he pitched in with lists of supplies. Weapons, food, rope, water, sleeping furs, whatever they would require for the approximate two days they’d be on the island. Demetrius and two others joined them. Kyme slipped in as well.

As much as possible, Arsenius avoided glimpsing her. He wasn’t the type to baby his wounds, but rubbing salt in them—which happened every time he perused her—was a torment he’d rather live without. Their assignment would be a nice distraction. The list of creatures he hadn’t captured was short. A minotaur graced the top.

This mission was a class five. The last class five he’d captured was a chimera—a vicious beast with the body and head of a lion, a goat’s head rising out of its back, and the tail of a serpent. He’d lost six men. Had narrowly missed having his leg burnt to a crisp. Needless to say, the payment had been astronomical and his men forgot about the loss of their comrades in the face of so much gold.