"My name is Kat Agrotera."
It was his turn to scoff. "Agrotera, huh?" He grabbed the netting over her chest and pulled her up so that they were eye to eye.
"Nice try, Artemis. Agrotera means 'huntress'. Did you think I'd forget it was one of the names your followers applied to you? "
She struggled against his hold. "It's also the epitaph that's used by Artemis's kori-that would be me, you moron."
He laughed in her face. "You're one of Artemis's servants? How stupid do you think me? You fooled me once, but not twice."
Kat let out a long breath as frustration consumed her. She actually had the powers to break out of the netting. But if she did that, she'd give him a really big tip on how much power she had and who she really was. That was knowledge a creature like this didn't need to have.
No, it was better to make him think she was powerless and without consequence. "Believe it or not, I am."
He released her to fall back on the sofa before he gave her a repugnant glare. "Uh-huh. Artemis would never allow a kori near her who was her height. Nor one who had her eye color. She's too vain for that. You're too vain."
"If you want to be technical, I'm taller than she is. Didn't you remember that part?" Sin hesitated. Honestly, he couldn't recall Artemis's exact height-it'd been too long since he'd last seen her. All he remembered was that she'd been over six feet tall. "I stand by what I said. Artemis would never allow a kori in her temple taller than her."
"News flash: She's mellowed with age."
Yeah, right. "Sure you have... just like me."
The woman leaned her head back and let out an irritated growl. "Look, you seem to have issues I don't want to even begin to know about. Let me go and we'll both forget this ever happened. If you don't, you're going to be real sorry."
He scoffed. "Not this time, Artemis. You're the one who's going to regret this. I want my powers back that you stole from me. You tricked my ass and then you stripped everything from me except my life, and you damn near took that."
Kat went rigid as his words pricked a deeply buried memory inside her. But it was fuzzy and fleeting, and she couldn't get a good handle on it, so she defaulted to what she remembered of the event.
"You were going to kill Artemis. She said you hated her... that you'd broken into her temple and tried to rape her and-" The words stopped as she realized the lie Artemis had told. How could a god from another pantheon have gotten into Artemis's temple on Olympus without an invitation? It was something that hadn't dawned on Kat back then. She'd been too young and too afraid that he would hurt or kill Artemis.
Back then, many of the gods had been at war with one another and those who policed them had been on hiatus. There had been many threats made against Artemis and several close calls.
But one thing would have been impossible. An outside god couldn't enter the domain of another without invitation.
Oh gods, it was another half-truth...
He screwed his face up at her. "What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?"
"No " Kat said as a wave of guilt consumed her. "I'm not Artemis. Let me go."
"Not until I have my powers back."
This was getting annoying... "And for the last time, I can't give you what I don't have "
"Then you're going to stay in that net until eternity comes to pass."
She growled at him, "Well, that's really intelligent, isn't it? What are you going to do? Put drinks on me or just use me as a conversation piece whenever friends come over? And let's not even think about what's going to happen when I need to use the restroom, shall we? I hope you have a standing order at Sofa Express."
Sin wasn't sure if he should be entertained or appalled by her outburst. He had to give her credit, though, she certainly had a way with imagery. "Well aren't you a wealth of sarcasm?"
"Oh, just wait. I haven't even started." She winced as she jostled her arm and pain must have shot through her shoulder.
Sin felt a prick of conscience over that and he hated himself for it. Let her suffer. What was it to him? Yet the part of himself that he despised most-the part that was still compassionate-begged him to help her.
But she was right. Her staying in that netting wasn't going to do either one of them any good. "Look, Artemis, or, assuming this isn't another of your lies and tricks, Kat, I have to have my powers back. It's imperative."
"Sure it is. You just want them back so that you can kill Artemis and take revenge on her"
"I'm not going to lie and say that's not true. It is. I want her dead in a way unimaginable. But I have bigger problems right now. And you just met one of them on that backstreet in New York."