Starcrossed (Starcrossed 1)

string, Ajax would be waiting for her on the other side of the river.

She still had a ways to go and a lot of work to do before she could

allow that to happen. First, she needed a city.

Daphne started reading the postmarks on the topmost letters on

Castor?s desk, but a quick glance told her that what she was looking

for wasn?t there. She knew Tantalus?s handwriting like she knew

her own, and she didn?t see it anywhere. Then she realized that although

Castor was the smartest and the bravest of the Delos clan,

he would be the last person Tantalus would contact. She went over

to the other side of the library and began another search in another

desk.

She saw a safe under the other desk, put her hand on the spin

dial and hoped that it wasn?t designed by a Scion. After a few moments

on her knees listening for the click inside the tumbler, her

search was abruptly ended. She felt the hot, thick jab of a needle

invading the vein in her neck. She gasped, recognizing the drug

cocktail she used on other Scions. She dimly remembered that

when she had subdued Helen, she had left a spare syringe in her

bag, loaded and ready, just in case. In seconds, her field of vision

shrank to nothing.

When she woke, Daphne could feel that her hands had been

shackled with something metallic. As she blearily tried to focus her

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eyes she saw that she was on a dark beach. She heard the jingling

of chains as she moved her hands closer to her face, and saw that

her wrists had been cuffed. There were deep vertical slashes on

both her forearms that were still leaking fast-pumping blood even

as they healed. She was thirsty from the blood loss, but she ignored

that and summoned a bolt.

The cuffs heated up until they glowed so bright Daphne had to