Page 21 (1/2)

But clearly, it was meant for us now

I squared my shoulders, snatched it up and headed for Ortrera She was still peacefully resting, oblivious to everything I carefully measured two drops of the vile concoction into the dropper and gently put the her chin closed around the liquid, I waited

Nothing

And then she screas I clapped ed The sound was deafening

After a moment, she stopped and looked at ?"

"I have no idea," I answered "Eris enchanted you so or"

"Of course not," Ortrera answered, sounding indignant "I would never eat so here for just that reason"

"Then I have no idea how she ht noe need to revive your warriors"

Rushing outdoors, I knelt next to each inert warrior and carefully administered the potion

Each wo upith a screech It was unsettling, to say the least After I was finished and the women had come to their senses, I stared at Cadmus and the Amazon queen

"Nohat? Eris has taken Aphrodite And we don’t knohere I almost think that she took Cadmus as a distraction She knew that I would be distracted with trying to get Cadmus to remember me and her true purpose was to separate ht into her hands It was never about Cadmus at all"

"Sister, don’t distress The only ones that Eris can possibly be working for are the Fates,"

Ortrera reminded me "We will head for the absently into Cadmus’ dark eyes It was probably a trap But there wasn’t anything we could do but walk right into it

Ortrera turned to her warriors

"Mount up! We ride now!"

The wo their quivers and bows back onto their backs and I was once again taken aback by their fierceness They were not afraid of anything, come what may I wished I could be the sa in e is not being fearless- it is created by overco your fears That was certainly true in my case and I definitely had a lot of fears to overcome

I climbed behind Ortrera as another warrior rode with Cadain took off into the sky like lightening I held the compass fir into the globe, I saw nothing but white ht in the darkness, but nothing appeared

It seemed that we needed an exact place to focus on for the coht of visions of Zeus’ palace and Olympus but still Aphrodite didn’t appear Curious

I let the coainst Ortrera’s strong, leather-clad back, I closed my eyes, determined to rest for just a bit before we arrived at the Moirae’s doorstep

Sleep, o

Cadmus’ deep, husky voice resounded in my mind and my eyes popped open to stare into his He winked and sh me Whatever happened, it would happen with my soul mate at my side I couldn’t ask for more than that at this point I closed my eyes and let the darkness overtake me I was even more exhausted than I realized

We had only flown for maybe fifteen minutes more before I heard Cadmus call to Ortrera

"Let’s stop Har a fight in the dark Let us stop and regroup and plan our strategy during the daylight hours"

Ortrera nodded and we began our descent to the ground The Pegasus landed so s ended and the walking began The night was so dark that I almost couldn’t see Before I even knew it, Cad me from mine, into the safety and war the contact I was disappointed when he pulled away a minute later But he kept his hand clasped witharea

One of Ortrera’s warriors lit a fire in a circle around us as we conjured up bedding and pillows for sleep Ortrera insisted that Cadmus and I remain in the middle of the circle, protected by her warriors Caded his shoulders He kneas no use to argue with the Amazons They took their roles as warriors very, very seriously Luckily, Cadmus was very secure in his manhood and didn’t seem fazed by the protection of wo else I loved about him He rolled with the punches

I studied hiht fro his olive skin an even e, but in Pasadena, I hadn’t considered hi, he hadn’t seemed the part at all But here in the Spiritlands, with a low-slung wrap around his waist and his chest bare but for the diagonal leather strap of his flask, he see warrior that I kneas He was at home here

I watched as he withdrew his metal flask fro the flask over the flahed as I lay on my blankets I wanted him here with me I wanted to feel his hand within lanced athis flask in a cloth, he rose and strode purposely toward ed next to me, he handed me the wrapped metal bottle