“Skyla?”
She ignored her name being called from around the fire. Stepped past fallen trees and boulders that had been dislodged from the ground. Moved through the dark and into the woods, searching. And finally spotted him…a good twenty-five yards from the others, hidden from view behind an outcropping of rock, his hands extended in the direction of the still-buried cars, his eyes closed, the earth element shining in his palm like a falling star.
Her breath caught as she watched him harness the magic of the element with something seated deep inside him. Something she was sure not even Zeus knew he possessed. The ground shook again. A rumble echoed. Shouts grew to her right, and she looked that way to see another group of men run to yet another railcar that had risen to the surface of the snow.
Suddenly, how she and Katie had been saved made sense.
Her gaze shot back to Orpheus. Only he was no longer focused on what he’d been doing. He was staring right at her. And his eyes were no longer the familiar gray she knew so well. They glowed a blinding green that lit up the night.
***
Orpheus had gotten used to people being afraid of him. Most of the time he relished it. But the stark shot of fear in Skyla’s eyes as she stared at him across the snow hit him dead center in the chest in a way that not only knocked him for a loop, it pissed him off. Especially after he’d just saved her life.
He pocketed the earth element, stalked toward her, and tried to ignore the fact some small part of him cared what she thought. As he worked to calm the daemon inside, he realized he should be glad he was having such trouble. It meant his daemon was back. And judging from what he’d spotted in the woods behind Skyla, he knew he’d need that daemon sooner rather than later.
Confident his eyes had returned to their normal color, he stopped in front of her, gave her a quick once-over. She’d found a coat at least, but he didn’t miss the bandage near her right temple and the purple and black bruise bleeding out from beneath it. Yeah, she was alive, but if she hadn’t run from him in the corridor of their railcar in the first place, she wouldn’t have been trapped in that avalanche. Wouldn’t have that wound now. Wouldn’t be looking more shell-shocked than confident as she stared up at him.
Guilt was another thing he’d gotten used to over the years. But he pushed it down as he’d learned to do and looked past her to the humans beyond. “Where’s Maelea?”
“I…I haven’t seen her. I thought you knew where she was.”
“She sensed the earthquake before it hit. I was able to get her off the train and away from danger. I left her on the tracks with a group of humans before going back.” To find you.
When she didn’t answer, only continued to stare at him as if he had three heads, he gripped her arm at the elbow, turned her toward the others, and started walking. “We have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“A hellhound problem.”
Skyla scanned the forest. “Where?”
“About a hundred yards past the last railcar, down the tracks. I counted at least three.”
“They travel in packs of five.”
“I know.”
The fifty or so humans who’d survived the avalanche were about to meet a death they couldn’t even imagine. Bloodbath wasn’t a term Orpheus used lightly, but that’s exactly what would happen if he didn’t do something to stop it.
They reached the last railcar. The wheels were dislodged from the tracks but the car still stood upright. Darkness loomed beyond the wreckage, towering trees and mountains, a mixture of inky darkness and shadows eerily lit by the moon high above. And far off in the distance, a red glow that flickered and disappeared.
“Are you up for a little hunting?” he asked, still looking out at the snow-covered trees.
“Get me to my armor and I’m with you. What about Maelea?”
At least the Siren sounded normal again. He headed around the end of the last car, then back up the other side, where they had a modicum of privacy. “Let’s hope she wasn’t stupid enough to run off by herself.”
They reached their sleeping car, which was still upright too. The cars on both sides had separated, the door of the car behind butted up against their stateroom window—the one he’d pulled open so he and Maelea could escape. He planted a foot on the mangled car at his side for leverage as he climbed up and dropped into their wrecked stateroom.