I smack his arm. “You don’t have to look so happy about it!”
Kato shrugs. “What’s not to like?”
“She shot me!”
“She shot me, too.”
Gah! Men!“Artemis is sworn to virginity. Her…disciple might be, too. You can’t touch them.”
“Heed the Goddess’s needs.” Kato spreads his hands like he can’t help it if Artemis wants a man.
“That’s not a need, it’s a want! She can live without.”
“She’s immortal. That’s a long time to live without.”
“Maybe she is sick of her eternal virginity.”I would be.“But what if you’re wrong and Zeus strikes you down with a God Bolt for deflowering his daughter?”
Kato looks less keen about that. “This is part of what the wizard said. I have to go with her. What happens next…” He frowns. “I’ll figure it out.”
“It’s a test.” I start to panic. I don’t like it. “It’s a test to see if you’ll hold out, if you’ll keep the Goddess pure.”
“If the woman is brave,” Atalanta calls down, “she’ll find her man in the second large cave.”
“What second large cave?” I glance at Kato. “It took us hours just to find this one.”
“She thinks I’m your man,” Kato says, surprised.
“And yet she has no problem dragging you off for an Olympian orgy!”
“Two women is hardly an orgy,” he points out.
I glare.
Kato takes my shoulders and squeezes. “This is why it was me, Cat. Why they said only I could come into the caves with you.”
My eyebrows slam down. “What do you mean?”
“I’m the only one of us who can do this without damaging something. I’m the only one whose heart isn’t engaged.”
“What? Oh…” Griffin loves me. Jocasta is clearly something to Flynn, even if he’s not sure what. And Carver… Obviously Kato knows something about Carver that I don’t.
“There are always consequences,” I say darkly.
He shrugs. “Sometimes more. Sometimes less.”
My mouth flattens. I don’t like this. “Who is Carver pining for?” No wonder he’s been moody and a little solitary lately. Whoever she is, he had to leave her behind. “I can’t be the only one who doesn’t know.”
Kato smiles faintly, something sad edging into his eyes. “A ghost.”
I wince.Oh, Carver.
Kato drops his hands from my arms. “Don’t worry. I’ve been in the back room of a tavern or two. I know what to do.”
I don’t doubt that. “You don’t have to. We’ll find another way.”
“This was written, Cat. You know that as well as I do.” Kato steps away from me. “Find me in the second cave.”
My heart clenches hard. “What if I can’t?”
