Amazon Queen

not.

The sun was high and hot, even through the trees. Sweat beaded in my bra, like it had that day so long ago when I'd gone into the woods and found Andres there with Thea.

Tess was with us, but there had been no sign of Andres yet, or the birders.

The hearth-keeper had shot me twice more while I had lain on the bed. The darts had left marks and still stung, but I didn't rub at them or flinch when she lifted the pipe yet again. Thea told me it would help, make everything easier, and I believed her. . or thought I did. . but somewhere deep inside I felt a scream building.

I nurtured that scream, concentrated on it while my feet followed the high priestess's directions.

Our pace was slow and the RV they'd had hidden beneath a pile of brush was far away from Artemis's clearing, barely on Amazon property.

After what felt like hours of drudgery, we arrived.

The obelisk stood tall, proud and regal as always. The sun shone off its glossy sides. I wanted to press my face to it, soak in that heat, use it to feed my secret scream.

But Thea told me to stop while I was still fifteen feet away, still standing in the trees and, damn my obedient feet, they complied.

She held up the knife. 'Give me your hands.'

My arms rose, steady and sure, as if pulled by a string. She slipped the blade beneath my bonds. The bone was cool and smooth against my skin. There was a slight tug and the rope fell to the ground.

I waited, the scream wasn't ready yet, wasn't strong yet. It flitted away, then came back, unsteady, untrustworthy.

Thea murmured something. My head nodded. She smiled and motioned for Tess to follow her.

From where I was standing I could see the entire clearing, the obelisk, the packed dirt beneath it, and the birders who slowly filed into the space. They wore their usual uniforms of Bermuda shorts and pastel tees. They looked like every grandmother you see at the mall.

Thea held up the knife for them to see. 'Today all promises become real.'

The brush to my left rippled. I shifted my eyes, the only part of my body I seemed to have control over, to the side. Jack in his wolverine form poked his head out of the underbrush. He sniffed, then watched me standing there doing nothing. He lifted his lip in a silent snarl. I thought for a second he was going to attack me or rush the circle, I wasn't sure which.

How I was standing. . cooperating. . He knew I had failed, or worse, thought I had been turned.

I stared at him, trying to put words into my eyes, to tell him I wasn't there willingly, but he only pulled his head back and disappeared.

'Zery?' Thea called from the circle.

My legs pulled my feet through the bed of dead leaves and weeds that covered the ground. The tip of my shoe caught on a root. My leg jerked, pulling it free. I staggered forward and into the clearing.

Thea held up her hands. 'Our gift! Who could ask for more?'

Gray, grandmotherly heads nodded. They slipped their hands into each other's until they formed a tight circle around us.

Tess stood behind them. She glanced over her shoulder and licked her lips.

Thea gestured and Tess hurried forward, a bowl of oil in her hands. The priestess dipped her fingers into the liquid and drew an arrow. . a spear. . on my forehead. Then she began to chant.

Her head bowed, she murmured over the blade, speaking words of wisdom and sacrifice, knowledge and power. She asked for things I didn't think possible, channeling my power, the power of my ancestors into the women gathered around us.

Then she raised the blade.

'This gift I give in the name of the greatest of goddesses, in the name of Athena.'

I tried to fight then, tried to remember what Mel had told me, how the art on my arms combined with my own will would protect me. But as I stared down at her work, all I saw were marker lines. . no magic, no faith. . failure.

I stiffened, ready to feel the blade ram through my chest, ready to lose my life, only praying that somehow doing so would save Andres's.

'A gift? For Athena? I don't think so.' Kale stepped into the clearing. In her hand was a sword, and behind her was an army of Amazons-or what appeared to be an army in my defeated state-all the Amazons from the safe camp, the ones I knew and the ones who had arrived since my exile.

I closed my eyes and prayed my thanks. Artemis hadn't deserted me. She hadn't released the power of Mel's magic because I didn't need it. I had my tribe.

One of the birders reached for her pocket. Kale raised her hand, and a knife, previously tucked into another Amazon's belt, flew at the woman's throat. A millimeter from piercing it, the blade froze and quivered, hung in midair.

'Unless you are willing to give your life for her, I wouldn't move.'

The birder didn't and I didn't either, and not only because of Thea's power over me.

Kale was a priestess, and her magic was just like Thea's. The realization stunned me.

She smiled. 'Good job, Zery. You figured me out.' Then she swung the sword overhead. It tumbled end over end, heading toward me.

The birders gasped and ran. The bone knife grasped tight in her hand and her eyes wild, Thea spun.

I gritted my teeth, willed my feet to move, but I was still frozen, trapped under Thea's web.

Her eyes glittering, Thea stepped in front of me. She raised her arm. Words ordering the sword to fall flew from her mouth, but the sword kept coming. She yelled again.

The while her lips were still open, her body arched and a grunt replaced her commands. Skewered by the sword, she stumbled to the side.

Released from whatever spell she'd put on me, I grabbed the weapon and jerked it from her corpse.

I was armed, but so were the Amazons surrounding me. Knives, swords, staffs, nunchakus. . an arsenal of weaponry. . all directed at me.

Kale sighed and strolled forward. At Thea's body, she stopped. 'She really was a pain in the ass. I don't know how you put up with her as long as you did. Of course, your mother might have said the same thing about me.'

'Who are you?' I asked. Inside I knew, but with everything that had happened, with my mind still fuzzy from Thea's control, I needed to hear the words.

'She tried to steal my sacrifice, offer it as her own-before Panathenaea. What a waste that would have been! I was already on my way here when I talked to the two of you on the phone. I could tell she was lying to me, thought she could outsmart me.

'I sneaked into camp to watch her. Saw her kill Kale and two of them.' She nodded toward the birders. 'Then you came along. At first I thought to just kill you too, but then I realized it was a chance for me to learn more, to get the baby and the knife.' She glanced at Thea. 'She had found it, through her network. I should have taken it from her as soon as I knew she had it, but she'd seemed trustworthy, seemed to understand who was in charge. I never dreamed she would try to keep the knife from me or be stupid enough to think sacrificing the baby early would help her overpower me.'

The baby. Andres. I still didn't know where he was, how he was. I held up the sword. 'Where is he?'

She squinted her eyes and glanced up at the sun. 'He'll be here soon.'

I wanted to shove the bloody tip of that sword through her heart more than I had ever wanted anything, but twenty armed Amazons surrounded me. I might succeed in killing Kale. . Padia. . but then what? The others would kill me and Andres would arrive with no one here to protect him.

She tilted her head and studied me. 'That sword must be getting heavy. . '

And suddenly it was; suddenly it weighed more than fifty swords. My bicep burned; I gritted my teeth.

'So, all of you are part of this-you, Thea, Tess?' I spit out the question, hoping she couldn't keep up a conversation and toy with my mind at the same time.

'Don't forget Areto. You didn't really think she was on your side, did you?'

My arm quivered. Areto. . I'd trusted her and she'd betrayed me, again.