"I don't. But I think I know someone who does." Fang opened the door wider to show him a flickering image of Sam.
A dagger of relief plunged so deep into him that it actually made his eyes water. Before he could think better of it, he was on his feet and across the room. His heart hammering, he went to pull Sam into his arms only to learn that his hands passed right through her body.
What the hell?
She smiled at him. "I'm not exactly corporeal."
Fear exploded inside him. "Are you dead?"
"No," she and Fang said simultaneously.
Sam indicated Fang with her thumb. "Amaranda and Fang combined their powers so that I could help you do this."
Dev scowled. "Help how?"
"You're French. You know nothing about Greece. Meanwhile, I'm a walking encyclopedia on the subject."
"Fang's Greek."
Fang shook his head in denial. "My last name's Greek, but I was born in medieval England. Believe me, I know very little about Greece."
"As I said," Sam's tone was firm, "I can help you both."
Yeah, if he was willing to risk it. But he wasn't. "I have to do this alone."
Fang stepped forward. "No, you don't."
Dev cut him off. "Look, dude, the only thing that scares me more than Thorn is my sister. Trust me, anything happens to you and she's going to sugarcoat my boys and eat them for breakfast." He locked gazes with Sam. "And I can't risk you."
"Why?"
"Because you're not the only one who has issues with people dying around them."
She let out an aggravated sigh. "Well, it's kind of hard to die when things go right through me. Unlike you."
She had a point. But he still wasn't ready to give in. "Thorn's clue wasn't about Greece. It was about Paris. That's where I was born and it's my territory."
She scoffed. "Don't be silly, Dev. There's more to the clue than what Thorn said. Nothing is ever that overt. Not when dealing with beings like him."
"How about this? I refuse to let you go."
She gave him no quarter. "What you say against this doesn't matter. The die is cast. I'm here and as Thorn said, the clock's ticking. So you either deal with me or you're going to waste so much time that we're both sunk."
Fang scratched the back of his neck as if their argument made him uneasy. "Damn, Dev, don't you know anything about women? You leave her behind and she'll only find another way to follow you and probably get hurt doing it. She goes with us, at least you have a chance to protect her and you can definitely watch over her."
He clenched his teeth, wanting to choke both of them, but Fang was correct. Sam's obstinacy knew no boundaries. "All right. You said you know where we're supposed to go?"
"Yes. Hades."
Dev lifted one brow. "The Greek god of the Underworld?"
She nodded. "In plain sight on the banks of the Champs-Elysees--that's French for the Elysian Fields"--Duh, he knew that. He'd just temporarily forgotten it.--"which is in the Underworld, also known as Hades. The Underworld has five rivers running through it. I assume one of them has the banks where the girdle is kept."
That did make more sense than what he'd been thinking and if it was in the Underworld, there would most likely be a freak whirlwind and other hazards. "What about the rest of the riddle?"
"They must be clues we'll find once we're there. But you'll need me to translate them."
Dev snorted. Yeah, 'cause he was too illiterate to figure it out.