Ascension Read Online Free PDF Page A

her black eyes on Kyana. Kyana kept her head high, her gaze on the Fate.
    “She doesn’t bother us,” Atropos said. “She is easily forgotten.”
    If only . Ryker had been trying to forget Kyana for ten years and had failed miserably. She was like a permanent imprint in his mind, a ghostly loop that played over and over again, unwilling to go into the light.
    As though silently saying that Atropos was just as easily dismissed, Kyana ignored her and spoke to the one goddess Ryker had ever heard her address in a respectful tone.
    “Why did you call for me, Artemis?”
    Artemis’s gaze drifted between Ryker and Kyana. This was about to get very good for Ryker, and very upsetting for Kyana. He wished he had popcorn for the show.
    “We need to talk about the key you’ve been sent after.”
    “The Fates told me what I was after. I’ll find it.”
    Ryker almost chuckled at the certainty in her voice. Sure, Kyana was known for her ability to find people others had given up on, but the object she was being sent after possessed no pheromones. She’d never find it alone.
    The goddess lifted a satchel from her shoulder and dug through it. She pulled out a wooden box and opened it, the old hinges creaking like a century-old coffin. Inside, on a bed of royal purple velvet, lay a golden pentagram she’d already shown Ryker.
    “Does this look familiar?” Artemis asked Kyana, trailing a slender finger over the etched center of the gold.
    Ryker watched to see Kyana’s reaction. As he expected, disappointment darkened her brown eyes to almost black. Proof, as if he’d needed it, that his warning to Artemis was true—that Kyana was after glory, which made her very dangerous on this mission.
    The only thing that kept Ryker from making the ultimatum that he’d work with a different tracer or Artemis could find someone else to do his job was the fact that it would rub Kyana raw knowing she had no choice but to work with him. He’d like to see her try to avoid him now.
    “Is that the key?”
    Artemis smiled. “It’s the sister key.” She carefully set the box on the altar. “This is the first time Zeus has allowed it to leave his possession, but given our dire need, I convinced him you would benefit from seeing it. Wise to know exactly what you’re looking for before looking.”
    Kyana visibly perked up and stepped closer to the altar. “What does this one open?”
    “Olympus. It’s how we’ve kept it locked to outsiders all these years.”
    “If everyone knew there was a key to Beyond, why didn’t anyone look for one Below?”
    As Kyana bent to examine the key, Ryker tried not to allow his gaze to fall to the nicely shaped ass smoothed out with black leather, but his eyes were defiant. Kyana’s pale arms hung at her side, and he knew if he reached out and touched them, they’d be like ice beneath his fingers. Once, he’d offered her his warmth, and she’d taken it eagerly. But it hadn’t been enough for her. She’d taken his refusal to have sex with her personally, and the battle lines between them had been clearly drawn.
    He wasn’t stupid. He knew why the pull to her was so strong. She was half Lychen, and that half of her needed to mate for life. He’d gravitated to that need immediately, felt right away that he was meant to be that mate for her. But Kyana was also half Vampyre, and that half kept him at a distance. While Lychen mated for life, Vampyre were ridiculously polyamorous. He knew which half Kyana had embraced, but if he’d taken her as she’d wanted him to, he would never have found satisfaction again with another.
    Shaking himself out of his stupor, he squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled. This was never going to work. Ares should find someone else to work the sentinel post alongside Kyana. If Ryker remained on the job, he’d be insane before it was over.
    Kyana leaned against the far wall of the cave, trying to take in everything Artemis was saying, but so much of what was being told was