"Hmm..." Cassandra said as she thought about that.
"Who else was freed?" Wulf asked.
"Zarek of Moesia."
Wulf's jaw went slack as Chris looked at Kat as if she'd sprouted a new head.
Chris snorted. "Now I know you're full of it, Kat. Zarek is marked for death. There's no way."
Kat looked over at him. "Yeah, well, he didn't die and ended up going free instead. Artemis has threatened everyone's head if she loses another Hunter."
Those words weren't comforting to Cassandra. She could only imagine how much less so they were for Wulf.
"I never thought I'd see the day when they would set Zarek free," Wulf said under his breath. "He's so psychotic they've had him under exile for almost as long as I've been a Dark-Hunter."
Cassandra took a deep breath at that. It didn't seem right that someone like this Zarek could be free while Wulf was cursed the way he was.
"I wonder what Nick'll be doing for a Dark-Hunter now that Talon's free," Chris said as he grabbed the canister of Pringles from Kat. "I can't imagine he'd ever serve Valerius."
"No doubt," Wulf said. He explained to Cassandra that Valerius was the grandson of the man who had ruined Kyrian's family and crucified the Greek general. Since Nick was Kyrian's former Squire and a personal friend, Nick would never serve the man whose family had done that to Kyrian.
Wulf, Kat, and Chris continued to discuss the Dark-Hunters, while Cassandra thought over what she'd learned tonight.
"Could I free you?" Cassandra asked Wulf.
A strange look darkened his eyes. "No. Unlike the other Dark-Hunters, I don't have an out-clause."
"Why?"
Wulf let out a tired breath as he spun the wheel for his turn. "I was tricked into serving Artemis. Everyone else volunteered."
"Tricked how?"
"That was you?" Kat interrupted before Wulf could answer her question.
Cassandra turned toward Kat. "You know about it?"
"Well, yeah, there was a big brouhaha at the time it happened. Artemis is still steamed that Morginne beat her out. The goddess doesn't like anyone getting the better of her and most especially not when it's a mortal she owns."
"How did she do it?" Cassandra asked.
Kat took the Pringles back from Chris before he could polish them off. That boy liked to eat. They had yet to figure out how he managed to stay so skinny eating the way he did.
Grousing, he got up and headed to the kitchen, no doubt to get more snacks.
Kat set the canister down by her leg. "Morginne made a pact with the Norse god Loki. He used a thistle from the Norns that is said to be able to let someone swap places with someone else for a day."
Wulf frowned at her words. "Then how did they make it last?"
"Loki's blood. The Norse gods have some weird rules and he wanted Morginne for himself, so he swapped her soul for yours in order to keep her. Artemis didn't feel like going to war with him to get Morginne back. She figured you would be a better Hunter anyway."
Wulf's eyes narrowed.
Kat gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm. "If it makes you feel any better, he's still torturing Morginne for it and with him she has no out-clause either. Even if she did, Artemis would kill her. The only reason she hasn't is because Loki still protects her."
"It doesn't make me feel any better."
"No. I guess it wouldn't."
Stryker paced the floor of the dimly lit banquet hall, wanting blood. For three weeks now they hadn't been able to find a trace of Wulf or Cassandra.
They couldn't even get to her father to help draw her out.
Damn it all.
He had his son Urian working on it now, but it seemed useless.
"How hard can it be to find where a Dark-Hunter lives?"
"They are crafty, kyrios," Zolan said, using the respectful Atlantean term for "lord."
Zolan was his third in command and one of Stryker's most trusted soldiers. He'd been promoted through the Spathi ranks for his ability to murder ruthlessly and show no mercy to anyone. He'd reached the coveted "general" status more than ten thousand years ago.
Like Stryker, he chose to dye his hair black and wore the Spathi symbol of a yellow sun with a dragon in its center-the emblem of the Destroyer.
"If they weren't," Zolan continued, "we'd be able to track and kill them through our servants while they slept."
Stryker turned on Zolan with a glare so malevolent that the Daimon shrank away from him. Only his son held enough courage to not flinch from his anger. Urian's bravery knew no equal.
The demon Xedrix appeared before him in the hall. Unlike the Daimons, Xedrix didn't bow or acknowledge Stryker's elevated stature in their world. Most of the time, Xedrix treated him as more of a servant than a master. It was something that angered Stryker even more.
No doubt the demon thought his place in the Destroyer's esteem was enough to protect him, but Stryker knew the truth. His mother loved him absolutely.
"Her Benevolent Grace wishes a word with you," the demon said in a low, even tone.
Benevolent Grace. Every time Stryker heard that title, he wanted to laugh, but knew better. His mother didn't really have a sense of humor.
He pushed himself up from his throne and willed himself into her private chambers.
His mother stood over a pool where water flowed backward up a glittering pipe from this world into the human realm. There was a fine rainbow mist and vapors around the water. It was here the goddess could scry so that she knew what was happening on earth.
"She is pregnant," the goddess announced without turning around.
Stryker knew the "she" that the goddess referred to was Cassandra.
"How can that be?"
The goddess lifted her hands and drew a circle in the air. Water from the pool formed like a crystal ball. Even though nothing but air held it, it swirled about until it held an image of the woman they both wanted dead. There was nothing in the ball to give him any indication of how to find Cassandra.