By Jove (32 page)

“Awrch!” she cried in disgust. But, like lightning, an image flashed across her mind’s eye: a man on a beach gripping a strange figure, part lion, part tree trunk, and she knew. She swallowed her horror and gripped the dry scaly skin of the enormous lizard, and would not let go as it squirmed and thrashed its powerful tail. She’d had Theseus and the Minotaur. Now it was Proteus’s turn.

“No—way—” she panted, trying to avoid the creature’s fetid breath and sharp claws tearing at her shirt. “You’re not—going—to make me—let go!”

The lizard hissed loudly, and changed again. The scales under her hands softened and shredded into thick fur. Theo shut her eyes and dug her hands into a dense, musky-smelling pelt, gripped it for dear life, and felt long clawed paws embrace her back, squeezing harder and harder—

“Go on!” she gasped at the bear. “Squeeze the breath out of me! I won’t let go.”

Instead it let go of her, and she screamed in pain. The fur she had clutched so tightly had turned into countless burning needles, driving into her hands, her bare arms, her torso and legs. Her eyes flew open, and she saw that she was hugging an enormous gray-green cactus. She could almost have laughed at the absurd change, if it hadn’t hurt so much.

“That the best you can do?” she said between gritted teeth as hundreds of two inch spikes seemed to burrow into her flesh like tiny skewers. “A few pinpricks?”

The needles vanished. She exhaled in relief as something smooth filled her arms, something smooth but horribly foul-smelling that squirmed and nearly jerked her arms apart. She turned her face aside, screwing her eyes tightly shut to avoid the vicious beak of the great vulture that was trying to break her grip with its powerful wings.

“Go ahead, fly if you can. I’ll still hold on,” she grunted as she fought to keep her arms around the slippery-feathered figure. It shrieked, sending a wave of carrion-tainted breath over her, and then the straining wings ceased pulling at her arms.

A thick streamlined column of muscle took its place, a column with strange rough skin and a thrashing tail and wide fins digging into her arms, a column with a pointed head and a cold merciless eye glaring at her as its jaws seemed to leap out of its mouth toward her face.

Theo very nearly let go that time. One of her older brothers had made her sit and watch all the
Jaws
movies with him just before their family vacation on Nantucket the summer she was ten. She had refused to put so much as a toe in the water for the entire two weeks of their visit. There was something so inherently abhorrent about sharks, so viciously inhuman—

You guessed that one pretty well, didn’t you? But it’s not going to work. I won’t let you get to me
, she thought at it. Speech was impossible just then.

The shark’s skin grated her already lacerated arms but she held on grimly, unable to shout her defiance but equally determined to overcome the fear and repulsion that nearly choked her. She jerked away from the snapping jaws and managed to get one hand over its dorsal fin and yank it back, grunting triumphantly.

All at once the savagely thrashing fish melted in her arms. Again she felt her body sag in anxious relief. She had survived that metamorphosis, had survived all of them. What could possibly be worse than embracing a giant man-eating shark?

“My dear Theodora,” said a voice in her ear. Strong arms encircled her, and a gentle mouth softly kissed her. “My poor dear girl, you’re exhausted.”

…

Theo cried out and again nearly leapt away in shock and horror. Julian stood in her arms, magnificently naked, his turquoise eyes gazing ardently into hers.

“You amaze me, beloved. I underestimated your abilities of resistance. Forgive me for scaring you like that. The shark was dreadful, wasn’t it?” he said, smoothing back her hair.

“No!” Theo moaned, shrinking away from his hand. No, it couldn’t be Julian down here. How could he have—?

“My beautiful Theodora.” He slid her shirt up, stroked her back, dropped a trail of kisses down her jaw and onto the spot on her throat that always made her sigh and writhe when it was kissed. “You cling to me. Is this the end at last? Have you chosen me?” he murmured in her ear, nibbling delicately at her lobe. “Do you long for my arms around you once again, my body in yours making you delirious with pleasure?”

She shuddered. Was this really Julian? Could she let go of him and refute his hateful words? Or was this yet another trick, like the lizard and the shark, but a hundred times worse?

“You look away from me, my dear. Do I disgust you so? Is my love so unwelcome that you would flee me?” He turned her face and covered her mouth with his. “Sweet,” he murmured into her lips. “We belong together, my darling. You know that as well as I do.”

She felt his hand skim over one of her breasts, pausing to cup its weight, then continue down to unbutton her jeans, and she moaned. She was beginning to feel almost physically ill with the struggle. What if he tried to make love to her? She could not—
could not
—let him touch her again. But what if she pushed him away now, let go of him, and found that it wasn’t really Julian? That she had failed the Proteus challenge? Then she would lose Grant altogether.

The scar. She’d seen his scar. It had to be Grant, chained under a terrible enchantment. But what if it weren’t? She slid one hand up his side to feel if it were there.

Julian chuckled. “Ah, are you so eager for me after all?”

No scar. She hastily withdrew her hand and stood statue-like, eyes shut tight, feeling only the trembling deep inside her and Julian’s warm flesh under her hands. Just because there wasn’t a scar didn’t mean that it wasn’t Grant. Would the cactus have had his scar, or the vulture?

“You have to decide, Theodora,” he murmured as his hand slipped into the warm space between her legs. “Mmm, so deliciously wet. Should I continue? I do enjoy hearing you call my name in that breathy moan you use when you’re about to—”

Theo jerked her hips away from his questing fingers but still kept her arms around him.

“Which will it be, darling?” he said, laughing now. “Yield to me, or let me go?”

“Neither!” she snapped. Without pausing to think, she slid first one hand, then the other, to encircle his wrists. “I won’t let you make love to me but I won’t let go. It’s stalemate.”

Julian’s face darkened and he tried to yank his hands from her grasp. Theo set her jaw and held on, remembering how strong he was, how he could pick her up and carry her around like a doll. She’d never be able to keep hanging on.

But she did. Maybe it was her new powers that helped her, for no matter how he tugged and writhed, she was able to hold his wrists. New hope surged in her breast. If she could still hold him like this—if he hadn’t been able to break away from her with Julian’s godly strength—then maybe he wasn’t a god. Maybe he was….

After a few minutes she caught a glimpse of his face. Though he scowled angrily, there was something different about his eyes. The intense turquoise was fading. Though her heart pounded with excitement, she squashed the emotion
. You haven’t won yet. Don’t lose your focus now
. A trickle of sweat ran down her forehead into her eyes.

Now she saw the bright silver of his hair darken, lengthen from Julian’s preppy stockbroker cut to something longer and shaggier, just touching the shoulders. At the same time she could feel something else change, too. She closed her eyes to concentrate; it was the structure of magic that surrounded the figure in her arms. She hadn’t even noticed it was there until it started to fall apart, gossamer threads dissolving into nothingness.

Still she held on, eyes closed, fearful of yet another horrible change, fearful of hoping too much. Julian’s struggles intensified, but so did her resolve
. It’s coming
—
you’re almost there…

With a loud cry, the figure in her arms slumped against her, panting. Theo stood still too, winded as much by the mental strain as the physical, her hands tight on—well, it
felt
like wrists. With a deep shuddering breath, she held the figure away from her and opened her eyes.

Grant stood before her.

His eyes were closed, and his breathing was ragged. She saw his pulse beat frantically in his throat as he swayed slightly, deprived of her support. She pulled him back against her and let go of his wrists to wrap her arms around his naked shivering body. He sagged against her so limply that she wondered if he hadn’t lost consciousness.

“Grant?” she whispered, gently stroking his back and willing herself to stay on the ground. “It’s all right, my love. You’re you again.” A tremor of relief ran through her. They’d won. Everything would be all right. She and Grant could leave this cursed labyrinth and go back up into the sunlight together—

Then Grant’s body stiffened. Slowly, painfully, he stood upright. Theo opened her eyes and looked up into his gray ones, and was chilled by what she saw there. Without a word, he pushed her from him and stumbled away.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Theo stared after him, stunned. “Grant!” she cried, following him. “Please, Grant!”

He did not look round.

She went back and snatched up the cape she had summoned and lost during her struggle with the bear. Or was it the lizard? It was starting to become hazy in her mind as the shock of Grant’s rejection crept over her. She ran after him and managed to slip it over his broad naked shoulders. “You’ll freeze. Here,” she said tentatively.

He stood still, his back to her. She waited for him to shrug it off but he didn’t. “Thank you,” he said in a harsh monotone and pulled it around him.

She sidled past him, trying to face him. “Grant, what is it? What’s wrong?”

He did an about-face and walked back toward the central chamber, keeping his face averted from her. “What do you think is wrong?” he growled.

Theo tried to run ahead, to look into his face, feeling almost dizzy. “I don’t know! All I know is that you’re yourself again, and it’s time for us to get going back up to the real world before Julian wins.”

“Hasn’t he already won?”

She looked at her watch. It still read three. “I don’t know. I have no idea how long I’ve been down here. But if we don’t hurry—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” He swayed again and caught at the wall. She tried to slip a supporting arm around him but he wrenched away from her.

“What is it?” she beseeched him, her throat hot and tight with unshed tears. “Don’t you want—”

“What do
you
want? When I was Julian just then, I already knew exactly what your mouth would feel like under mine. I knew where to kiss you to make you shiver and squirm. I knew the softness of your—” He swallowed. “He showed me his making love with you, made me feel you, hear you, taste you—”

“And did he show you how he had tricked me into it?” she replied angrily. But a sick feeling had risen inside her.

“I could feel your pleasure in him, how much you enjoyed every kiss, every touch,” he countered, his mouth twisting bitterly. “How do I know you care a drop for me? For all I know you and he have concocted this rescue as a charade for your own amusement and as soon as I touch you and say I love you he’ll appear from the woodwork and carry you away and leave me here to rot. Can you imagine what it’s been like to live as a beast? Or what it was like to take those shapes?”

“Grant! Do you really think that I’m capable of such a thing?” she demanded.

“I don’t know what I think,” he muttered, still averting his face. “How can I believe you love me after what I’ve seen and felt?”

How can I believe you love me?
Theo stared up at him and remembered. She had used almost the same words to him once, had listened stonily while he begged for her understanding.

“So we’re even, then,” she said softly. “Once I couldn’t believe in your love. Now you can’t believe in mine.” A thought came to her. “But don’t you remember? Julian wasn’t the only one to come to your mind while you were here. Do you remember me coming in your sleep? I tried to get you to tell me where you were but you couldn’t. So I just held you safe in my arms so you could rest. Don’t you remember?”

“I remember,” he said after a long pause. “But I thought it was a trick of Julian’s to torture me with—with losing you.”

“You didn’t lose me.” She reached up to touch his shoulder, a quick light touch before he could pull away. “Those were true dreams, Grant. They came from the horn gate, not the ivory. You should be able to tell the difference.”

He shuddered and shook his head. “No, I can’t. I’m just a man now. How can I tell which dreams are true and which are false?”

“Grant,” she began, then fell silent. Just as she had been conflicted and confused in March, so was Grant now. Only he didn’t have a week of spring break to think things over. Theo wrapped her arms around herself and tried not to sob aloud. The Minotaur and Proteus had been nothing compared to this.

“Go back, Theo. Go back to Julian,” Grant said in a low voice, his back still to her. “He’s already won. I don’t have anything left to give you.”

“No. I won’t go back without you.” How could she walk the labyrinth alone again, this time without hope? Her words echoed in her mind.
Won’t go back without you go back without you…

“That’s it,” she whispered. “I did the Minotaur and Proteus, but there’s one picture left, isn’t there? These things always happen in threes, in the old stories. I thought that the Orpheus picture was just there to show where you were hidden, but that wasn’t all. This is the third picture and the third challenge. I need to be able to get you out with me.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked dully.

“It’s Orpheus and Eurydice, don’t you see? There were clues to find you in the mosaics in the Great Room—Theseus told me you were in a labyrinth, and Proteus warned me that you would change, though I didn’t understand that one until now. I thought the picture of Orpheus was just telling where the entrance to the labyrinth was, but it’s more than that. I need to walk out of here and trust that you’ll follow me. And you—” She paused and swallowed hard. “You have to trust me enough to follow me. Otherwise, I’ll lose you.”