They left the house and continued along the path they’d been following, which led up a steep hill. The climb was difficult in their debilitated state, but as they reached the top, they saw a Greek temple in the distance, its white marble pillars gleaming against the rich green of the surrounding hillside. Panting and exhausted, they helped each other across the glade and up its marble steps. There, on the altar, lay their prize, a massive golden book engraved with the same ornate peacock they’d observed on the doors.
Alena swayed on her feet and caught herself on Orpheus’s arm. “Do you feel that?”
He nodded. “Power. Pure, unadulterated power.”
The grimoire was as long as the full length of her arm with a width as wide as her shoulders and a thickness at least a cubit deep. It looked to Alena to be both ancient and brand-new. “How will we even carry it? It’s monstrous.”
She approached it cautiously, scanning the altar for any source of danger. It couldn’t be as easy as just taking it. Despite the fear and foreboding flooding her senses, she forced her aching legs to move her toward the grimoire.
“Alena, look!” Orpheus pointed to her right.
The gold doors they’d come through had sprouted from the earth beside them.
“This is it then,” she said, reaching for the book. “The end of the path. Let’s take it and return home.”
“No!” Orpheus yelled as energy crackled in her ears. He lunged for her. “Don’t touch it!”
Chapter Ten
Orpheus stopped Alena just in time, hands gripping her wrist from behind her, his heart hammering against her back. “When you reached for it, lightning formed in the air around you like a cloud.” He shook his head and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “It’s protected with strong magic.”
“Of course it is.” Alena’s voice cracked through dry, parched lips. “Cleopatra wants vengeance. She wouldn’t want this grimoire if it weren’t ultimately powerful. The gods aren’t going to just let us take it.”
“No.”
“But Orpheus, we have to try.” She rotated in his arms to face him. “Look at us. We can hardly stand. If we don’t seize the grimoire now and go through those doors, we are as good as dead.”
Orpheus scowled. If anyone was going to touch the thing, it had to be him. He refused to put her in any more danger. He was sure now that he loved her. If they survived this test, hewouldmarry her, even if he had to carry the pigheaded woman home over his shoulder. And if this grimoire was cursed, he would do his best to save Alena from it. If one of them had to risk death, it was going to be him.
Rubbing a hand across his mouth, Orpheus tried to think through his growing hunger and weakness. He licked his cracking lips. “If we knew the nature of the magic protecting it, we could use either logic or magic to defeat it.”
“Yes.” Alena rubbed her temples. “But in order to learn the nature of the ward, one of us would have to trigger it.” She squatted to retrieve a rock from the ground near her feet and hurled it at the book, but the stone skimmed harmlessly across the cover.
“At least now we know the wards are sophisticated enough to identify an actual threat.”
“What now?” Alena asked, looking up at him with terrified eyes.
Gods, she was beautiful. He stroked her hair back from her face and kissed her firmly on the lips. “Here’s what will happen. I’m going to try to take the grimoire. After you see what happens to me, you will know the nature of the ward and will find a way through it.”
“No! You can’t. It could kill you.”
“You’re a healer, Alena. Whatever happens to me, you can fix. Bring me back like you did the goat.”
“Please. Please don’t make me. I wouldn’t be able to bear it. What if I don’t have the right herbs?”
He gave her a solemn smile. “Then you will go on. You’ll find a way to go back, and you will live a happy life without me.”
“No. No. You can’t do this, Orpheus.” She tugged at his arm, pleading with him.
“Why not?” Beautiful, tender Alena never failed to do the right thing. He’d wronged her once. Didn’t she understand that this time he must put her first?
“Because… because I love you, you fool.” Oh, how those words fell bittersweet on his ears.
“And because I love you, I can’t bear to see you in this place a moment more. I’m going to get that book. You take the grimoire back to Cleopatra.” Before she could protest further, he pushed her aside and leaped toward the altar, reaching for the grimoire.
Lightning formed in a circle around him, the air so charged with power that all the hair on his body stood on end. But he never reached the book. He hung, frozen in the air, the sharp tip of a glowing blade pointed at his heart. A blinding light shaped in the silhouette of a woman appeared between him and the book.
“Gods!” Orpheus cursed and found he was able to move to shield his eyes from the light. His feet came to rest on the slab of stone in front of the altar.
