A Promise of Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

saliva hissing when they hit the ground. Three low, ominous growls shiver through the dark passageway as I quickly exit the amphitheater. Hades has a thing for Selena, and his watchdog guards her circus instead of the gates to the Underworld. Cerberus will hold the warlord back. Too bad he’ll keep Jason and my berry ice away, too.

CHAPTER 3
    I wish I didn’t have to move on. Thank you for taking me in. “Oikogeneia.”
    I say the word for family out loud as I write it in the ancient language of the Gods, hoping someone in the circus can read it and knows the power and promise it holds. Aetos doesn’t have that kind of schooling. Desma and Selena might, and I trust them to use the magic only if they have to. Aetos would die for me. Desma would die for me. Vasili and Selena might, too, and probably a dozen others. If they call me, there isn’t a threat in the three realms that will keep me from coming back to them.
    Before I came to the circus, there was only one person I wouldn’t have been willing to kill, if it came to that, or let die for me. Now there are more than I have fingers and toes, and it makes me weak.
    Family.
    It irks that a word so contaminated in my mind contains such power. I gave it power and gifted it to my friends. I would kill myself before letting it cross my lips for any of my remaining blood relations.
    My few belongings are packed in the old brown satchel I stole off a sleeping merchant on the Fisan coastal road eight years ago. Some clothes and a pair of old boots, a cloak, three throwing daggers, a few hair ties, a comb, and my stage cosmetics—everything I possess. I strap the circus’s bedroll and blanket to the ties at the bottom of my bag. I don’t think Selena will mind. It’s hardly theft at this point.
    Straightening, I think about my next step. When Poseidon gave me my gifts, he also gave me his obsession. The frigid northern lakes and the Fisan Ocean are both about three weeks out of my reach. As usual, that means settling for a Sintan stream. It’s still water, even if it’s warm. I’ll stop at the creek, somehow get out of my pants, clean up, cool down, and then… I don’t know. Nothing will ever change, no matter where I go. I’ll still live in fear, the black crow of dread circling my head.
    The circus was different. With Selena and Cerberus here, I almost felt safe—safe until that dratted warlord decided to stick his big, hooked nose into my life.
    Growling in frustration, I look around my tent for the last time. No one will see me leave. Where I’m concerned, stealth reaches an entirely new level.
    The warlord’s taken this from me. Home and family mean something to most people. I never understood what it was until Selena took me in, and Aetos and Desma decided I was theirs. They’re mine, too. Leaving them is like cutting off a limb.
    Deep breath in. Long breath out . Cats don’t cry.
    My tent flap snaps open, and the warlord fills the doorway, a mass of shadow and steel.
    I freeze, stunned. Disbelief leaves a sour taste in my mouth. “H-How did you get back here?”
    He steps inside, crosses his arms, and leans casually against the tent post. The torch pops, sending a flicker of firelight over him that illuminates his inky hair and sun-bronzed skin. The wavering glow highlights the hard muscles rippling under his rolled-up sleeves, tapering down to corded forearms, thick wrists, and powerful hands. Hands that could break me in two.
    His teeth flash. Wolfish. Confident. “I have my ways.”
    My mouth falls open, and a shiver scrambles down my spine. I’m rarely at a loss for words.
    “You took my copper and didn’t evaluate my last man.” He nods to his final companion. “Kato. You’re up.”
    The last man ambles forward, casual, followed by Carver and Flynn. They’re all so relaxed. What’s wrong with these people? Don’t they know the world is falling down around my ears?
    The man called Kato stops a few feet from me. I take him in with a glance.