Orpheus frowned up at her. “Stop looking at me like I’m going to eat you alive. Have I yet?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean you’re not planning to at some point.”
“Nice comeback, Ghoul Girl. There’s hope for you yet.”
He flopped down into the chair he’d been sitting in before, tapped his long masculine fingers against the armrest. They sat in silence for several minutes, the rhythmic rocking of the train and wheels clanking along the tracks the only sounds. Finally, when she couldn’t stand it anymore, she worked up the courage to ask the one thing she needed to know. “Where are you taking me?”
“Montana.”
“You said that already. Where in Montana?”
“A friend’s place.”
“What friend?”
He scowled up at her. “Does it matter?”
“To me it does. You’ve made me a prisoner.”
His gaze shifted back to the empty bottom bunk. “No, Ghoul Girl, Hades and your precious pop made you a prisoner. I’ve just changed your holding cell.”
Anger welled in Maelea’s chest but she pressed her chin to her knees to keep from antagonizing him. Though it burned, what he said was true. Hades and Zeus had both made her a prisoner in this realm. No one cared for her. No one looked out for her. She was alone in every sense of the word.
“Look,” Orpheus said. “We’re going to be there soon. Things will go a lot smoother if you just tell me right now where that sonofabitch warlock is. Then I can be on my way.”
She knew exactly which warlock he was talking about. And why Orpheus wanted to find him. But she knew if she told him what he wanted to know, he’d be gone and she’d still be held captive. Wherever the hell he planned to leave her. Her anger swelled at the way she was being treated like a prisoner. She lifted her head to tell him to go to hell when she sensed a vibration radiating from deep inside the earth.
For a second, she didn’t move. But when she felt it again, she jumped off the upper berth and rushed to the window. The vibration grew stronger until it shook her very core.
“Stop the train. We have to stop the train!”
“What?” Orpheus pushed to his feet as she rushed past him.
She pulled open the stateroom door, looked right and left. At the far end of the corridor, near the rear door, she spotted the emergency brake box mounted to the wall.
She took two steps. His hand wrapped around her bicep and jerked her to a stop. She whipped around, tugged at her arm. “Let me go!”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“An earthquake’s coming. We have to stop the train.”
Orpheus’s brows drew together. “How do you—?”
“Because I felt it!” she yelled. “Who’s the one person in the bowels of the earth who wants to stop you from reaching your destination?”
Understanding dawned in his eyes. He ducked his head back under the stateroom door, looked to the windows. And she knew he saw exactly what she did—they were coming up on a mountain pass. The valley they’d just traveled through would soon close down into a narrow gap where miles and miles of snow would be easily dislodged from those peaks under the force of a god-induced earthquake and bury not only this train but everything in its path.
“Shit.” He let go of her and sprinted to the end of the car.
She followed, her breaths fast and labored as he searched the box.
“Turn away,” he commanded.
Maelea covered her face and whipped around. Glass shattered at her back. She looked over her shoulder just as he reached inside the broken box and grasped the emergency stop cord.
“Hold on to me!” He gripped a curved metal railing near the door with one hand. With nothing else for her to grasp, she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his massive chest.
No alarm sounded, but the shriek of metal against metal as the brakes were applied was so loud, it rang with the shriek of a thousand Muses screaming. Orpheus wrapped his free arm around her shoulder, held her close. The train jerked violently and threw them around the corridor like jumping beans in a can.
Maelea slammed her eyes shut and screamed but didn’t dare let go. Pain ricocheted through her limbs. When the shaking finally stopped and she opened her eyes, she realized they were on the floor in the corridor, Orpheus’s big body cocooned around her like a protective blanket. The train had completely stopped. She looked up to see he was still holding on to the metal safety bar above.
“Holy shit,” he muttered. “You’d better be right or we’re gonna get our asses thrown off this train.”
Maelea opened her mouth to tell him she was more than right, but stopped short when she heard a rumble that was not the train. Low at first, and growing in intensity with every passing second.
“Fuck me,” Orpheus muttered, climbing to his feet and hauling her with him. He dragged her back into the stateroom. “Grab your coat.” He rushed to the window and pulled up on the red plastic emergency release lever at the bottom of the window.