“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 into a tight line. 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 launches itself violently into my throat. “What if I can’t?”
“You can.”
I grab his wrist. “Have you seen me try to read a map? It’s pathetic, and I don’t say that lightly.”
“You don’t have a map.”
“Well, that’s even worse!”
Atalanta drops from her perch, landing lightly on the balls of her feet despite the impact fracturing the frost in a wide circle all around her. She strides toward us, tall, confident, and poised, possessing an animal’s natural grace. Her arms are loose. Her hips sway. Her hair swoops. Gods, it’s annoying.
I’ve got animal grace. I’ve got plenty. Definitely enough to claw her eyes out.
With a last look at me, Kato steps out from behind the stalagmite.
I jump after him, trying to pull him back. “What about the three-headed beast?”
He rubs the back of his neck, his blue eyes swimming with shadows. “I don’t know, but I don’t think she’ll wait.”
Atalanta’s avid gaze is already bright with lust. She’s practically foaming at the mouth. “Strip!” she commands, not bothering with a rhyme.
My jaw drops. Kato looks rather shocked himself.
“Now?” he asks, for some reason directing the question at me.
I shrug helplessly. “I guess.”
Atalanta slings her bow over one shoulder and raps her fingernails against her armor. The impatient tip-tapping grates on my nerves. Everything about her grates on my nerves—the rhyming, her agility, the way she caught my knife, and how she intends to use Kato, although he doesn’t seem to mind.
Kato strips, handing each item of clothing to me. He starts shivering almost immediately. “The temperature won’t exactly enhance my performance,” he mutters.
I take his pants, trying not to glimpse what they used to be covering. “I have a feeling she’ll keep you warm,” I say sourly.