A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)(129)

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 in my chest. 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 footsteps from the frost.

*

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 because the sound of a voice, even my own, helps me feel less alone. Kato left me our torch, but 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 a stop to my low muttering. I pause and listen, hearing a scrabbling that sounds a lot like claws on ice.

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

Being alone, and in the cold and dark, is 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.

Now, 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 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 clamps down on my chest, making it hard to breathe. I clutch my sword, feeling each ridge of the grip press into my palm. Fear usually makes me mad. I need to get back to that.