Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter
Twenty-One
Theo
He wanted her. That’s what he should have said.
But after opening the door only for her to so quickly shut it, he froze. She didn’t seem interested in talking about it. So as they drove up to the Temple of Poseidon he decided any discussion about what was going on between them would have to wait for another day.
He’d been to the temple before. He’d been many times, actually. And each time was as intriguing as the last. Though this would be the first time that he’d be staying after it closed.
The sun had started to set, casting an orange-yellow glow over the entire sea. They walked up to the ticket booth, and the man sitting at the desk leaned out the window to give Andreas a hug.
Seriously. He knew everyone.
“Go on and head in,” the man said. “I’ll be around shortly to tell people that they need to leave. But you can stay when I do that. Wait to cross any of the ropes until everyone else is gone, though. I don’t want to get fired.”
“Of course,” Andreas said.
They walked up the path toward the temple.
There were still many visitors, all hoping to catch sunset at the temple.
A must-see for any Greek tourist. A must-see for Theo, as well.
In all his many visits to Greece, Theo tried to make a sunset stop at the Temple of Poseidon a habit.
And on more than one occasion when he made this stop, he thought about Dani while he did so, wondering what she was doing, where she was, what it would be like if she were there with him.
Never in his life would he have imagined that she would finally be here with him in this very spot.
He didn’t know what they’d be looking for. He’d skimmed through Andreas’s diary, but he hadn’t found any more clues. They’d have to hunt for it.
They scoured the temple. Looking at the stones from the public side of the ropes.
Checking to see if there were any markings or other differentiations that would tell them that there was something there.
They walked across all the grounds. Inspecting each spot in case there was something that they’d missed. But there was nothing.
Theo started to worry. They needed these people to leave so they could cross the ropes and look around the marble temple.
Eventually, the sun had set, and the remaining visitors made their way to the exit. Once the coast was clear, they turned on their flashlights and broke past the barrier.
“Let’s split up. Everyone take a side, and I’ll take the top,” Theo instructed. “Take your time. Look for anything out of the ordinary.”
Slowly, they walked the length of the temple, shining their lights on the stone.
As Dani, Christos, and Andreas each took an edge of the temple, Theo scoured the platform on top inch by inch.
He poked and prodded the stones, searching for trap doors or stones out of place.
The wind picked up, casting a chilly breeze over the site.
But after an hour…two hours…three…the likelihood that the site would prove fruitful was starting to fade.
What was he thinking? Dani had been right. They’d had a chance to leave, and they should have taken it. But there he was, dreaming of fairy tales and myths, all the things that his parents had told him to let go of. It was time to grow up.
He’d been writing these stories for so long that he started to think that maybe, maybe those stories could be real. Maybe that could be his life, the Indiana Jones type. The hero. Saving the damsel in distress from bad guys. Searching for lost treasures. Confirming myths were actual realities.
It sounded pretty childish when he thought about it.
The worst part about it was that he had chastised Dani earlier because she hadn’t left when she had the opportunity to do so.
Yet there he was putting both of their lives at risk.
Sure, he may have meant it when he said that he didn’t want to put her at risk anymore, but actions spoke louder than words.
The truth of the matter was that he wasn’t Indiana Jones. And this wasn’t a fun search for lost treasure. This was dangerous.
God, what Dani must think of him right now.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Dani asked.
Shit, where did she come from? “What do you mean?”
“You look worried. You walked off and have been pacing in the same spot for the last fifteen minutes.”
Theo looked up at his surroundings, not having realized that he’d stepped away from the temple.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Obviously,” she said, playfully rolling her eyes. “Thinking about what?”
“That maybe you were right,” he said. “I was being stupid.” He kicked a rock at his feet.
“Hey, don’t do that,” she said, placing her hands on his shoulders and forcing him to look at her. “We both thought something might be here. And don’t you go trying to steal credit. I’m the one who suggested Poseidon’s temple, remember?” She flashed him an unfairly endearing smile.
“I know, I just wanted to do something really cool for once. Show everyone that myths and fairy tales aren’t dead.”
“You mean, show your parents.”
“I suppose them, too. But, I don’t know, it was cool thinking there might actually be the eye of the Minotaur buried somewhere on this site.”
“Well, we don’t know yet that it isn’t.”
He tilted his head and gave her a skeptical look. “We’ve been here for hours.”
“We’re also searching in the dark. Come on, read me the entry from Papantonis’s journal again.”
They walked over to his bag, and he pulled out his notebook where he’d transcribed the letters, flipping through the pages until he found the right one. Andreas and Christos joined them as he looked.
“Here it is,” he said. “ ‘We’ve reached the gateway to the sea with the eye of the Minotaur, it no longer being safe in its original burial place. Its power grows restless and must be released from confinement. Now its true potential will be realized, and it will be free.
“ ‘From here, we will travel back to my home. There, below where Helios rises in the east, I will put the eye to rest, accessible only to those who recognize its power. Despite his quarrels, Poseidon himself could not have picked a better place for this beast to spend eternity. It is here that the eye will sleep and blend into the dirt itself, watching over the land of my ancestors and bringing strength and fertility to my people.’ ”
“Hmm…” Dani murmured, folding her arms and pacing. The moonlight cast a glow across her skin. Theo loved when she made this face, her deep-in-thought face.
“So we’re here because this is near Papantonis’s birthplace and the reference to Poseidon,” she said, tapping her finger on her chin. “But we must be missing something. What about the reference to Helios? Who is Helios—like the sun?”
“Basically. He’s the god of the sun.”
“Well, that’s weird, because doesn’t the sun rise in the east everywhere? What about this place would be unique to that?”
“Do you think it could have something to do with where the sun rises and where the light hits the temple?”
“Possibly? It would mean we’d have to come back in the morning.”
“Unless we have his birthplace wrong.”
“But then what about Poseidon?”
He opened his mouth to say something about the possible birthplace when suddenly he was blinded by a bright white light. The four of them shielded their eyes as a dark figure moved toward them.
“What the…?” he said, taking Dani’s hand and pulling her back from the figure. But when they turned around to run, there were more figures in hooded black cloaks, closing in on them.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Christos said. “What have you gotten us into, Andreas?”
“Me?” Andreas said, putting his hand to his chest.
Theo’s heart pounded as Dani clung to his arm. The four of them were ushered up the stairs to the top of the temple while the cloaked figures surrounded them, shining lights on them from all directions.
“Who are you?” Dani called out with a shaky voice.
“Τα Παιδι? του Μιν?ταυρου.”
The Minotaur’s Children.
* * *
The next hour was a blur. The four of them crammed into a van without windows with two cloaked figures guarding the door. Despite a barrage of demands and questions from Christos and Andreas, the figures didn’t speak. Theo didn’t even bother trying to get answers. His only focus was on Dani.
He wrapped one arm around her, and with his other hand he held her hands. He could feel her trembling, though she kept a stony face. He wanted to tell her it would be okay, but being ushered into a windowless van didn’t exactly instill confidence.
Finally, the van stopped, and the engine turned off. Theo’s heart pounded, but he tried to stay strong for Dani. When the doors finally opened, the cloaked figures ushered them out. And there, right in front of them, was one of the grandest estates he’d ever seen in all of Greece.
All four of them lined up in a row, staring at the house, a modern multilevel estate spanning what felt like the length of an entire football field.
The building was all clean lines and angles, something he’d picture in a Sotheby’s International luxury real estate magazine.
The large windows at the entrance allowed them to see through the center of the house to a view of the sea.
They were perched somewhere high above the Aegean, but Theo couldn’t quite place it.
If he had to guess, they were somewhere between Poseidon’s temple and Athens.
“I wonder who lives here,” Christos said.
“Something tells me we’re about to find out,” Theo said.
One of the cloaked figures led the way, taking them through a maze of rooms and winding their way downstairs until they finally came to a large set of double doors with an emblem of the eye and the μ. They all looked at one another, unsure of what lay before them on the other side.
Theo was both frightened and fascinated as one of the cloaked figures pushed open the doors in the center and motioned for them to enter.