Page 30 of Captured

“It’s beautiful, I know.” Alexi stopped beside her, shielding her eyes as the sun glared down on them. “You will see, this is only the beginning. The sunset celebration is truly breathtaking.”

“This is the western coast,” Lauren said. “This is where he thought the plane would have washed up?”

“Yes.” Alexi pointed to a spot where the island stretched into the sea, like the defiant prow of a ship. “The water is relatively shallow there, and there are reefs that are treacherous to navigate. It’s a natural holding spot for anything the sea might wish to share with us. Dimitri used to camp out there when...ah, when he was little. A long time ago. Ironic that now that he’s a grown man, it’s become such a mix of despair and hope for him. Every tide brought new possibilities and ultimately new disappointment.”

Lauren scanned the open water. From this height, she couldn’t see the beach below them, where Dimitri had his villa. She knew without asking, though, that the beach was connected to the distant promontory. How many times had he taken his beach rover out to that lonely spot, casting out for an answer that wouldn’t come? Her heart shifted uncomfortably in her chest. Dimitri wasn’t her problem.

She closed her fingers around Alexi’s phone. Right now, she had plenty of her own problems to solve, and now was as good of a time as any to get started.

“Give me a minute?” she asked Alexi, waving the phone as the other woman nodded, apparently happy to settle onto a boardwalk bench to wait.

Lauren wheeled away, walking fast. Angling herself toward the center of town and the lone cell tower, she looked in eitherdirection, though what she expected to see she didn’t know. No one knew she was here. No one could reasonably guess that she was here.

She hoped that that would stay the case, despite the calls she was making now.

She dialed the number and turned back to face the ocean. Her heart was in her throat as it rang—and rang.

No one picked up. Lauren closed her eyes, knowing she shouldn’t be so grateful. Her sister Maddie could have missed the phone call entirely, or been at one of her interminable practices. The only way to know that she was actually following Lauren’s instructions was to finish out the protocol. She swiped the text icon for the same number, keyed in the three letters. Her phone jumped in her hand less than a minute later.

“Lauren! Where are you? Mom and Dad are so pissed!”

Lauren closed her eyes against the sudden rush of affection. Maddie hadn’t been a planned child, to hear her mother speak. Her father, however, had doted on her from the beginning, in a way he’d never quite seen his way clear to doing for her. Lauren didn’t mind, because Maddie was so much younger than she was—eight years. A lifetime, it seemed, sometimes. Maddie had been a true gift to their family—she was sweet, special. And Lauren would make sure she would always be protected.

“Hey, sweetheart,” she said now, past the lump in her throat. “I’m fine, but I’m going to be out of touch for a few days, okay? I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Where are you? Are you inhiding? Mom said you totally ran away from a party.” The excitement in her sister’s voice made her heart ache. “You’re a renegade. This is so cool.”

“Yeah, it’s real cool,” laughed Lauren. “But keep my secret, okay?”

“Are you kidding? Of course. You better bring me back some awesome stories, though.”

Lauren sighed, looking out over the sparkling Aegean. “I’m working on it.”

They clicked off, and Lauren stared down at her phone, but only gave herself one long breath before she started dialing again.

When they’d talked a few hours earlier, Nicki had been absolutely insistent that Emmaline had to talk with Lauren personally whenever she was not around Dimitri—and she wouldn’t breathe a word of the reason why. That kind of restraint was definitely not like Nicki.

She pushed the call through and heard the connection click, then smiled wide as Emmaline picked up. “Lauren?” her friend asked, a little breathlessly.

“Em!” Lauren stepped beneath the cool shade of a brace of trees, instantly feeling better. Em just had that effect on people. “What’s up? Nicki was acting like you needed to share a state secret with me.”

“I...oh,” Emmaline said, and even with an ocean between them, Lauren could feel her friend’s tension ratchet up. “Crap, I didn’t think about that. Do you think this line is safe?”

Safe for what?Lauren glanced at the phone. “It’s a burner that no one is tracking.” She hoped. “I think we’re fine.”

“Okay, well—I mean, I have to tell you this, Lauren. You need to know. You’re on that island with Dimitri, and—I mean, you need to know.” Emmaline was talking at a speed of an auctioneer, and Lauren had handled enough delicate conversations in her life to know when to just be quiet and let the other person speak. Even as her eyes widened at Emmaline’s next words.

“Oûros isn’t the country we thought it was,” she blurted. “I mean, it is, but it’s so much more than just a cute little kingdom on the sunny side of Greece. It was founded by one of the descendants of Hercules and eventually became border controlfor the gods, keeping them corralled in Olympus and barely ever letting them pass through to earth.”

Lauren blinked. “Border control.”

As if she thought Lauren might tell her to stop, Emmaline rushed on. “There’s a gate, okay? And the royal family—Kristos’s family—are the gatekeepers, and they’ve been keeping the gods on their side of the wall for something like twelve hundred years and it’s a seriously big secret. Seriously, no one knows. But they told me, because...”

As she faltered, Lauren supplied the obvious reason. “Because you’re getting married, and that was something you should know up front.” Her words sounded normal, even sane. Even if there was nothing sane about what Emmaline was saying.

Even as she thought that, though, Lauren found herself turning this new information over in her mind. She knew the fabled history of Oûros, of course. She’d learned the basics of the country when she’d learned the language—the founding by a member of the Heracleidae, the literal hundreds of temples and statues still very much intact. But an actual connection with the real gods of Olympus? Wherein the intrepid royal family was set up as gatekeeper to Earth? Was that possible?

I mean...maybe?It certainly would explain the country’s strength over the centuries—its wealth and safety, and its undeniable beauty. The Oûrois people were some of the healthiest in all of Europe, and the country had never suffered plague, nor war, nor blight…

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