“She’s not kidding.” Sunlight glints off Griffin’s windblown hair. Thick black stubble darkens his jaw. He flashes me a smile that brings out the slight hook in his nose, and something tightens in my belly.
I turn back to Panotii and scratch under his jaw. “You’re in charge here.” His enormous ears flick my way. “You keep the others in line.”
Panotii nods. I swear to the Gods, my horse nods.
Brown Horse raises his head and pins me with a gimlet stare.
I roll my eyes. “Fine. You can help. You’re both in charge.”
Apparently satisfied, Griffin’s horse goes back to grazing, shearing the grass around him with neat, organized efficiency. Griffin and Brown Horse were made for each other.
Panotii shoves his nose into my shoulder, knocking me back a step. Taking a handful of his chestnut mane, I stretch up on my toes to whisper into one of his donkey ears. “Seriously, you’re in charge. I’ll bet you can even rhyme.”
Carver and Kato chuckle as they walk past.
Griffin bands his arms around my waist from behind, surprising me. “I heard that.” He hauls me back against his chest and buries his face in the crook of my neck with a warning growl.
I laugh, a heady burst of awareness racing through me. He nuzzles that spot below my ear, giving it a lingering kiss and then a soft little nip. Hot shivers cascade from my nape to the small of my back, pooling at the base of my spine.
“We’re never alone anymore.” I hear the huskiness in my voice as I press against him and lift my arms, curving my hands around his neck. “I haven’t seen you naked since Kitros. Haven’t felt your skin on mine.”
He groans. I feel him hardening behind me. “I miss that. I miss being inside you.”
Desire spills swirling warmth through my middle. The pleasurable feeling moves lower, tightening. “I love the way you touch and kiss me everywhere and then again. As if you can’t get enough.”
“Can’teverget enough.” Sheltered from view by Panotii at our front, Griffin skates his hands up my rib cage until his thumbs tease the undersides of my breasts. He draws rough knuckles along the curves, and toe-curling tingles radiate from his touch. Muscles heat and clench in my core. Under my cloak, Griffin palms both breasts. When my nipples stiffen, he gently rolls them between his fingertips, and I stop breathing. I want to tear off my tunic so he can touch bare skin.
“You’re torturing me,” I murmur.
He tugs, and a jolt of sensation arcs straight to the space between my legs. “Then we’re even, because I’m torturing myself.”
His whiskers rasp my neck, sending a wash of goose bumps down my body. The delicious chills heat me up until I’m simmering with need. Before he can drive us both even crazier, I turn and slip my arms around his waist. The accelerated beat of his heart drums beneath my ear. Sometimes, I want to be so close to Griffin that I think only crawling inside him will satisfy me. I don’t understand that—this overwhelming need to be one.
I grip him hard. “I love you. I need you. It’s a constant ache.”
Griffin buries his hand in my hair, holding my head against his chest. His other arm circles my back. The evidence of his desire is thick and hard against my belly. “I know,kardia mou. I feel it, too.”
A heavy longing settles in my bones. I tilt my face up, he lowers his, and the searing kiss that follows leaves me feeling claimed all over again.
“There it is. The northeast needle.” My breathing is ragged from another endless trudge through thigh-deep snow. I point to an intimidating peak, the last of the icy spires before the Deskathi Mountains finally taper off into the long, twisting valley leading to the Phthian Gap.
Even with my underdeveloped sense of direction, we would have been hard pressed to get lost. The mountain range practically grew out of the far shore of the Frozen Lake, and all we had to do was follow it northeast, sticking to the cols and valleys, and watching the peaks around us grow taller and spinier with each passing day. With the way this direction tugs on my magic, I could probably have done it blindfolded. The farther we venture onto the Ice Plains, the more I’m aware of the magical compass inside of me, and the needle only seems to point one way—toward Olympus.
A gust of wind lifts fresh powder from the slope beside us and sends it swirling through the air. The sun reflects off the frosty particles, turning them into a whirling cyclone of glittering gold. Squinting against the dazzling brightness, I pull my cloak more firmly around my head and neck to block the biting cold.
I glance at Griffin. He and the others are holding up well in the harsh climate, or at least they’re not complaining. Thank the Gods for Hades’s cloaks.
Well, thank Hades, really.
Griffin scrapes a cold-reddened hand over his thickly bearded jaw, cursing softly as he takes in the sheer mountain face. His gaze narrows on the shadowed entrance to the high-up caves. “How in the name of Zeus are we supposed to get up there?”
I grin, giddiness sweeping through me to have gotten this far with so little trouble. The few skirmishes we’ve had with magical creatures ended quickly and in our favor, and the weather, while frigid, has been free of storms. “There’s a path, of course.”
Silvery eyes meet mine. “I see no path.”
“It’s there. Thanos told me.”
“And how didheknow?” A low, particular growl edges into Griffin’s voice whenever I talk about Thanos. I may come across as overenthusiastic in my admiration, at least for Griffin’s taste.
