“Elena,” I called to my closest sister, motioning for her to hang behind the larger group of warriors.

“What is it?” Elena reluctantly slowed her pace. She always wanted to be the first to spar with the other maidens.

“I need to talk with you about something important,” I whispered.

“What’s more important than sparring with our sisters?” She was genuinely perplexed.

“Well, I, um.” I didn’t quite know how to break it to my sister. “I’m leaving.”

“Hunting on your own?” Elena shrugged. “That’s fine. Just be back in time for the dagger competition. Lynxia’s been bragging how she will best you with steel and bow.”

I itched to teach Lynxia a lesson but had more pressing issues at hand. “No, I mean I’m leaving the Forgotten Forest…with a male. His name’s Farrow.”

“What?” Elena stopped in her tracks and looked at me as if I’d just said I was pregnant with Zeus’s three-headed baby. “You can’t.” Elena searched my face. “It’s forbidden to warrior maidens. You know that. What’s this all about?”

I dreaded telling Elena the next part, especially since I’d kept it from her for weeks. “Umm, about that maiden part…”

Elena’s eyes widened with alarm. “You didn’t. You couldn’t have. No one can touch us unless we allow it. Artemis has commanded it so. What happened?”

“I allowed it.” I blushed. I’d met Farrow in the forest almost a month ago. He’d thrilled me with his gorgeous smile and affable nature. And we were in love.

I’d been meeting him clandestinely for weeks. He’d told me about life beyond the slopes of Olympus. I only had fleeting memories of my time on earth, but Farrow made it seem like the place to be, especially since I’d be there with him. He was everything I wanted—strong and proud and true.

Elena’s face went from dumbfounded to resolved in under five seconds. She grabbed my elbow hard. “You must not speak of this. If Artemis were to find out—”

“She won’t do anything, I’ve already planned what to say to Artemis: ‘This is my soon-to-be-husband, Farrow. We would like your blessing to marry and free leave for me to come and go from the slopes of Olympus. That way I could still be in your service and be with the man I love.’”

“You have lost your mind.” Elena looked like she wanted to slap me or scream, the telltale birthmark on her neck beginning to turn pink. She began nervously twirling an arrow around in her hand. “That won’t work, Lilah. You know how she feels about coupling.” She said the word as if it were “leprosy.” “And the fact that you’ve gone and done it. She’ll smite you.”

“No, it’ll be okay.” I kept my tone calm. Elena just didn’t understand. This was true love. Farrow and I were forever. “I’m going to meet him now and bring him straight to the goddess.”

Elena did a double take, the birthmark on her neck now an angry red. “You can’t lead a male to Artemis’s sanctum. She will kill you both as swiftly as one of your arrows!”

I heard the truth in Elena’s words, but I was determined to get Artemis to accept Farrow as my mate. Surely, Artemis would give me a chance to explain before smiting us with godly wrath? Surely.

“Go on to sparring. I’ll be along with Farrow in a bit.” I tried to keep my words strong, but my confidence was slowly dissolving under Elena’s crushing gaze.

She squeezed my shoulders. “No, you will not. You are coming to sparring with me and forgetting all about this Farrow. And you are never telling anyone you’ve been with a male. You understand?”

I shrugged out of her grip. “I love him, Elena.”

An exasperated cry bubbled up from Elena’s throat. “You can’t love him. You don’t even know him! And warrior maidens don’t fall in love! It’s impossible. We are pledged to Artemis.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Well, I’m pledging myself to Farrow.”

A crack of thunder sounded overhead, startling us both. Elena looked to the sky, as if expecting a lightning bolt to hit me directly, but nothing happened.

“Coincidence?” I asked, looking to the deepening blue above.

“There’s no such thing.” Elena eyed the sky warily. “But if you are going to do this, I’m going with you. I want to meet the male who you are intent on throwing your whole life away for.”

“He’s worth it.”

“Lead the way, thou knower of the man flesh.” Elena kept her tone sarcastic, but I could sense her apprehension. “And tell me about the whole coupling thing as we walk.”

After making our way through the forest and a lesson on relations between males and females that had Elena exclaiming, “And you liked that? Seriously?” we finally arrived at the clearing where Farrow would be waiting.

My heart expanded at the thought of his warm smile and welcome touches. He was so thoughtful; always bringing me flowers he’d picked on his way to meet me. He told me so many things about earth and the Underworld that I couldn’t wait to go there with him. In those few short weeks, Farrow had become my world. I was his sweetheart. Just the thought of him whispering endearments in my ear made me so happy I felt like I would burst. I tried to describe all this to Elena, but it was met with gagging sounds and outright derision. But I would not be deterred. Once Elena met Farrow, she would understand.

Maneuvering through the undergrowth, with Elena right behind, I stepped into the clearing. After a few seconds passed and my eyes adjusted to the blinding sun, I let out a strangled cry at what I saw. Farrow was atop a wood nymph from behind, pumping into her, his muscles straining with the effort. His hands were placed on her hips, leveraging his shaft into her as deeply as he could go. Ignorant of his surroundings, he continued on until finally he moaned, “Oh, sweetheart,” as he came into the thrashing nymph, who was likewise enjoying herself.

Elena wrapped an arm around my waist to keep me from falling. My knees had buckled at the sight.

Farrow had collapsed onto the nymph’s back, worn out from his exertion, but he looked up when he sensed the warriors’ presence. He rose and stabbed his legs into his pants, saying, “Lilah, it’s not what you think. Renna here—”

“It’s Erwain,” the out-of-breath nymph interjected.

“Right. Erwain just lost her way in the forest, and I was showing her how to get out.”

“Right.” Elena pointed. “Showing her with your man thingy?”

“Who’s your friend?” Farrow’s eyes devoured Elena’s golden locks and slim build. His demeanor had changed to that smooth self-assurance I’d come to expect from him. And that’s when it dawned on me. I’d been played, to use the common parlance. I’d gone up against a master player and had no idea. Not a clue.

All those times he’d told me how much he cared about me. It all meant nothing. I meant nothing to him. I had been so foolish, so very, very gullible. And I’d let him have me, given him my virginity based on his lies. The pain of his betrayal seared through my chest, marking me forever. But his duplicity would not go unpunished.

I focused my powers and drew my bow from thin air. It was a boon from the goddess herself to the best of her archers, a resplendent recurve crafted by Hephaestus and enchanted to appear at my will. A quiver to match materialized at my back. Now, nocking an arrow and aiming it at Farrow’s heart, I was determined to shatter it as he had mine.

Elena reached out a hand to stay my shot. “Lilah, let him go.”

“I can’t.” Tears blurred my vision.

“Sweetheart, I—”

“Silence!” Elena’s voice thundered through the air, shocking Farrow into compliance.

More softly, Elena pleaded with me. “You must let him go. If you kill him, the goddess will know what you’ve done. He must leave here.”

The tears rolled down my cheeks as my bow began to tremble. I lowered it hesitantly, knowing Elena spoke true.

“He’ll never stray into these woods again.” Elena turned to look at him. “If you do, I’ll gut you like the mongrel you are.”

For emphasis, the air around Elena began to shimmer, revealing her power. She was a witch from ancient times—long before I was recruited into Artemis’s service. Her power was legendary throughout Olympus and the Underworld. As far as I knew, no one tangled with Elena and lived. In the wars for supremacy among the gods, she was Artemis’s first warrior and tactician, given a place of honor among all her sisters. Demigods had fallen before her, never to return to the pinnacle of Olympus and damned to spend eternity in Hades. One look at the vengeance in Elena’s gaze had Farrow morphing into the wolf and crashing into the underbrush away from them, tail between his legs.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks. I refused to cry. I was a warrior. One of Artemis’s chosen. I would not shed tears for the wolf, even though I felt as if my body would melt into the ground with hurt. I quivered my arrow and let the bow return to the shimmering ether. My shame burned me like a brand, and I feared Elena would never look upon me the same way.

“Sister mine.” Elena wrapped me in a warm embrace.

She held me as I mourned the love I’d lost. One I’d never really had to begin with, as I now knew. In that moment, I steeled myself against ever falling for the love of a male again. They were two-faced cowards who could never know the depth of feeling I had for my sisters or Artemis. The goddess was right when she told me that males were beneath the notice of the warrior maidens. They were, and I would crush any male who sought to woo me. I could never be won. Never be sullied by the unclean hands of a male again.

After giving Elena a squeeze, I parted from her. “Shall we return to the sparring match?” It went unsaid that we would never speak of this day in the clearing again. Elena would never betray my confidence.

I would remain here in service to Artemis for the rest of my life, enjoying days and nights of hunting and warring with my sisters.

But the goddess had other plans.