Page 65 of Martyr
Artemis shakes her head. “Forget it. Of course you’d go straight to murder.”
She spins on her heel and trots back down the stairs. She passes the dining room, which still has some lingering folks in it, and goes right out the door.
“Artemis, wait?—”
Belatedly, I notice she’s already wearing a coat. Her boots. I snatch mine at the door and shove my feet into them, then grab a jacket and follow her. She’s making a beeline for the car parked under the trees. Because of the natural shelter, there’s only a dusting of snow on it.
I reach her just as she slides into the driver’s seat. The engine starts, and the windshield wipers turn on, clearing her view.
I stand in front of it for a second, then swear and go to the passenger-side door. I fold myself into the small frame with a grunt, staring straight ahead.
When nothing happens, I glance over.
She’s staring at me.
“What?” I growl.
Her eyebrows hike. “Just wondering what possessed you to follow me.”
“You can’t go find Gabriel on your own.” I cross my arms. “I’ve heard he’s insane. And, plus, what if he tries to drug you? All that effort on Isle of Paradise, down the drain.”
She grits her teeth. “Oh, yeah? How long have you been waiting to throw that in my face?”
Ah, hell. I blow out a breath. “That’s not what I meant.”
She twists to face me. “Whatdoyou mean?”
“Gabriel is dangerous. Addiction is no joke. I think…” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You’re strong enough to resist that carrot if he dangles it in front of you. But what if he grabs you and justdoes itwithout waiting? He’s going to be angry about Lyssa. Getting you dependent on him would be a way for him to exert control over a situation in which he currently has no control.”
She blinks at me for a solid ten seconds, then nods briskly. “You’re right. That’s a possibility I hadn’t considered.”
Oh.
She twists the knob on the blowers, cranking the heat, and faces forward again. Her seat belt is already in place, and she puts the car in drive without another word.
“You’ll be backup,” she says. “Just don’t kill him. I worked too hard to rescue him the first time.”
“Wait—” I scoff. “No. Is this arescuemission?”
She hits the gas. “Or an abduction. I haven’t decided yet.”
28ARTEMIS
Saint is coming with me.
Saint willingly got in my car.
Well, notmycar, but the car that I am borrowing without permission from Vittoria. Stealing, in other words. But I’m going to return it, so whatever we classify my usage as is just semantics.
It’s not snowing anymore, and the roads are clearer than I expected. Still, as soon as I turn out of the driveway, I have a hard time not hunching forward and attempting to appear smaller.
“There’s a gun in the glovebox,” I say.
He flinches, then nods and leans forward. He pulls the handgun out and checks that it’s loaded. He doesn’t ask whose it is—at this point, I don’t know that it really matters. Apollo took the opportunity to stash weapons everywhere. There’s probably another one under the driver’s seat, actually.
The real question is: where am I going to find Gabriel?
I drive north toward Olympus. Saint seems to get more restless the closer we get, until we crest the final hill and it comes into view. There’s a wall along the road, with a gate at theentrance. The whole property isn’t fenced—never was—so the gate was more of a stylish thing than anything else.
