string, Ajax would be waiting for her on the other side of the river.
She still had a ways to go and a lot of work to do before she could
allow that to happen. First, she needed a city.
Daphne started reading the postmarks on the topmost letters on
Castor?s desk, but a quick glance told her that what she was looking
for wasn?t there. She knew Tantalus?s handwriting like she knew
her own, and she didn?t see it anywhere. Then she realized that although
Castor was the smartest and the bravest of the Delos clan,
he would be the last person Tantalus would contact. She went over
to the other side of the library and began another search in another
desk.
She saw a safe under the other desk, put her hand on the spin
dial and hoped that it wasn?t designed by a Scion. After a few moments
on her knees listening for the click inside the tumbler, her
search was abruptly ended. She felt the hot, thick jab of a needle
invading the vein in her neck. She gasped, recognizing the drug
cocktail she used on other Scions. She dimly remembered that
when she had subdued Helen, she had left a spare syringe in her
bag, loaded and ready, just in case. In seconds, her field of vision
shrank to nothing.
When she woke, Daphne could feel that her hands had been
shackled with something metallic. As she blearily tried to focus her
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eyes she saw that she was on a dark beach. She heard the jingling
of chains as she moved her hands closer to her face, and saw that
her wrists had been cuffed. There were deep vertical slashes on
both her forearms that were still leaking fast-pumping blood even
as they healed. She was thirsty from the blood loss, but she ignored
that and summoned a bolt.
The cuffs heated up until they glowed so bright Daphne had to