The lake formed a natural valley, carved out long ago by glaciers, but the path turned away from the lake, through a gap in the soaring rocks that led deeper into the mountain.
He watched her tense as the light dimmed, as they moved between the rocks and the trees thinned out, leaving gnarled trunks and limbs void of leaves. Knew she recognized the narrow canyon for what it was—a dangerous place to be ambushed. But because they were still within the boundary of Ehrendia, he wasn’t worried that would happen. He was hoping she’d notice something else, though. Something he’d decided to share with her even though he knew he shouldn’t.
Her steps slowed near a break in the rocks to her right. Most would think it a cave not worth exploring, but she turned right toward it as if she sensed it was more.
His stomach tightened as she pressed a hand against the rocks and ducked under the natural arch. She didn’t look back at him, but he didn’t need her to. He felt her excitement and followed, wanting to see her reaction when she realized what she’d found.
A narrow corridor curved to the right, then the left. The walls were uneven stone she had to feel her way along in the dark. But the passageway quickly opened to a vast room, this time not natural, but rather man or being-made.
Talisa stopped several feet inside the room and looked around. “Wow.”
Zagreus moved out of the tunnel behind her, knowing what she was seeing—the same thing he’d seen the first time he’d found this place. Smooth walls carved from granite. A cobblestone floor. Tall pillars holding up the arched, gothic ceiling. And on the far side of the vast space, a wide staircase that filled the room with light from above, flanked on both sides by twin marble statues.
“What is this place?” Talisa asked.
“What do you think it is?”
She glanced his way, one corner of her lips curling at the challenge, then headed toward the staircase. In the middle of the room, she looked down as she stepped over the seal in the floor, the one that was faded from time but still showcased the wine chalice surrounded by ivy and grape leaves.
Her bootsteps echoed through the space. She paused briefly to study the naked female statues on each side of the stairs. But her attention darted back to the light above, and she moved past the statues and up the steps. Toward the sound coming from that light.
She stopped the second she reached the upper level, and as Zagreus moved up at her side and his eyes took in the wide, round room—this one also gothic in style with a domed ceiling and five archways that looked out over the lake far below, he knew she’d already figured it out.
“Wow,” she said again, staring out at the view. “It’s a lookout.”
“An ancient lookout, built when Ehrendia was first settled by the maenads.” He watched as she crossed the space to the arch on her right and looked up at the waterfall that poured from a cliff high above and dropped down into the lake far below.
“The waterfall is close. It should be louder.”
“The walls are soundproof.”
She moved to the middle archway and glanced down. “You can see the castle from here. The village, even the waterfall at the end of the lake.”
“You can see the whole of Ehrendia from here. That’s why it was built.”
She glanced from one arched opening to the next. “It should be colder this high up. There’s no glass in these windows. But I don’t even feel a breeze.”
“Some kind of ancient magic protects it. Keeps it insulated against the weather.”
She turned and looked around the space. At the smooth floor. Over the carvings in the rock walls—the same grapes and ivy and vines that were etched into columns back at the castle. Then finally to the pile of blankets on the far side of the room. The stack of books. And the lantern.
Her gaze slowly slid back to his. But this time there was a knowing glint in her eyes. One that told him she’d figured out this was a lot more than a lookout.
“Thank you for showing me this,” she said softly.
“I didn’t show you. You found it.”
“Regardless. I think it’s perfect.”
He wasn’t sure about that. It was quiet, though. Something he appreciated when the chaos in the castle got to be too much. “Most of the time it’s empty and dark.”
“Perhaps. At night. When the moon sets. ” Her sweet lips tipped up, and she stepped toward him. “But the rest of the time it’s filled with light. Just like you.”
His chest warmed as she inched closer. He tried to figure out what she was doing to him. And why he was reacting to her in a way he never had before. Failed just like every other time he’d tried to figure it out.
“You are so different,” he said softly, not even realizing he’d spoken aloud.
She stopped mere inches away. Sunlight from the open archways spilled over her, bathing her in light. A light he was pretty sure came from her, not the sun.
“It makes sense that I’m different, doesn’t it?” Her violet gaze skipped over his features. “Because everything’s different this time. Including you.”
His heart picked up speed, beating hard and fast against his ribs. He’d brought her here just to share something nice with her—to say thank you for everything she’d done for the kingdom. He hadn’t intended for the conversation to take this turn. But now that it had, he wasn’t sure he wanted to stop it. Didn’t even know if he could.
“Talisa, the past has a way of repeating itself, especially through me.”
She tipped her head and held his gaze. And every moment she stared at him, his skin grew hotter, almost as if the light surrounding her was seeping into him.
“The past is not your destiny, Zagreus.”
“It always was before.”
“Well, it’s not this time.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I feel it.”
When he frowned, she reached for his hand and wrapped her fingers around his.
Her touch was like fire all along his skin. But when she placed his palm against her chest, something ignited inside him. Something hot. Something that seemed to come to life, right in the center of his soul.
“Because I feel it,” she said again. “Right here. In the same place I know you feel it. It’s how I knew to help you with those satyrs. It’s why I stayed after you were injured. It’s the same feeling telling me now that my being here with you in this time and place is not the result of a random accident.”
He wanted to believe her, but history said otherwise. “You’re only here because I was looking for you.”
A tiny smile curled her lips. “And I was looking for you, too. As you pointed out to me before I even realized it.”
That thing inside his chest grew bigger. Stronger. He swallowed hard. “If you feel anything, it’s because someone’s manipulating you into feeling it.”
“No god or Fate or otherworldly being can make me feel this. Only you.” Still holding his palm against her chest, she placed her other hand over his heart. Until his pulse raced beneath her touch. “And I don’t mean the Zagreus you were before. I mean the Zagreus you are right now. The one who saved me. The one who sacrificed himself for me. The one who is not the monster everyone believes him to be.”
The things she was saying, the way she was looking at him… It was almost too much. Too intense. Too honest. He didn’t see things the way she did, wasn’t sure he ever would, and he had no experience with these kind of emotions—the kind pinging around inside, sucking up all the air until he was sure he couldn’t breathe.
“How can I be sure the past is not your destiny?” she whispered, moving closer. “Because I’m your destiny, Zagreus. Not the me I was before. Not the me from your memories. But the me I am right now, standing here in the light, choosing you. I feel it. The same way I feel you. All you have to do is step out of the darkness and let yourself feel it, too.”
He didn’t know if that was possible. All he knew was that he was drawn toward her like a moth to a flame. And
he was tired of acting as if he wasn’t.
Lifting his hands to her face, he gazed deep into her hypnotic violet eyes that were familiar and new all at the same time, then lowered his head and kissed her.
She sighed and drew him into her mouth. And as he tasted the sincerity and sweetness in her kiss, he tried to convince himself she was right. That this time really was different. That they were different. And that they’d broken the cycle, just as she’d said.
Then he prayed at some point he’d believe it. And that believing wouldn’t cost her everything.
As Talisa knelt behind a large boulder on the edge of the cliff and looked toward the satyr fortress two-hundred or so feet below in the mountains, all that contentment she’d felt with Zagreus in his lookout shifted to worry and fear.
A familiar worry and fear edged with duty she couldn’t ignore.
They’d hiked for several more hours, crossing the river that fed into the lake, then up the hills on the other side and into a thick forest. On the far side, Zagreus pointed out the archway created by two great firs, indicating a northern access point to the kingdom of Ehrendia.
She never would have seen it if she’d been by herself. His magickal border around Ehrendia kept the kingdom well protected. But it wasn’t impenetrable, as she’d learned the night he’d been injured.
And impenetrable was something that was very much on her mind as she stared at the satyr fortress in the fading afternoon light.
The fortress itself was a giant stone monstrosity with very few windows that sat on the edge of another cliff overlooking a narrow canyon. From Talisa’s vantage point, it appeared dark and depressing, but that wasn’t what worried her.
No, what sent that fear sliding down her spine were the satyrs—so many she couldn’t count—on the flat bluff between their hiding spot and the fortress, holding spears and axes and blades as they sparred, clearly gearing up for a war.
“Holy gods,” she whispered as she watched the satyrs practicing combat moves, swords and blades swinging and clanking in the cool breeze. “There are so many.”
“More than I knew,” Zagreus said quietly at her side.
“Are they all yours?” She glanced his way, but he didn’t meet her gaze. Just stared down at the activity with a dark and unreadable expression.
“No. I don’t recognize many. Satyrs are like wolves. They live in small pack-like groups called sects, with one definite alpha. And sects don’t generally socialize with each other. Not like this. Something’s drawn them together here.”
“You mean someone. Do you think it’s Pandora?” They’d talked some about Pandora on their hike out here, but he hadn’t given Talisa many details. She knew Pandora was powerful so long as she had her box, and technically she was ageless, but as the first woman ever created, she was still human. And that meant mortal.
“I don’t know.” Zagreus’s eyes narrowed on something far below. “Look.”
Talisa glanced back down toward the training field. The door on this side of the fortress had opened. She squinted to see better. A female in a long black gown with curly dark hair falling to the middle of her back stepped into the daylight.
Talisa tensed. “Pandora.”
“Yeah, but she’s not alone.”
Pandora reached back for someone. A hand appeared—long fingers, wide palm—a masculine hand. Then a body—a human body.
No, not human, Talisa realized as the male stepped into the daylight as well, the sun glinting off his blond hair. Argolean.
“Max,” she whispered.
Talisa shifted around the boulder where she was hiding so she could get a better look. The last time she’d seen Max, he’d been injured, barely moving on the floor of that club. But he didn’t appear injured now. He was as tall and muscular as he’d ever been. And wearing those dark boots, pants, and shirt beneath that black leather duster falling off his broad shoulders, he looked as formidable and dangerous as any of the Argonauts.
He stilled three steps into the sunlight, then abruptly turned and looked up in their direction.
Talisa gasped.
Zagreus jerked her back against him behind the boulder so she was completely hidden. In her ear, he whispered, “Not a sound.”
Her heart raced as she tried not to move, but her pulse was so loud in her ears she was afraid it would give them away.
Could Max sense her? Could he sense Zagreus and his powers?
Long seconds passed that felt like minutes. Finally, Zagreus’s hold on her loosened. But against her ear, he growled, “Stay out of sight.”
She nodded, knowing giving them away would not help Max. Swallowing hard, she peeked out from behind the boulder once more, then caught her breath all over again.
Pandora slid her hand over Max’s cheek, drawing his attention away from the cliff where Talisa and Zagreus were hidden. Instead of jerking back from her touch or pulling away as he should do, Max smiled, dragged Pandora close, and kissed her passionately.
Talisa blinked once. Then again, sure she was seeing things. But nope, they were still swapping spit, and Pandora’s claws were firmly sunk into any part of Max she could reach.
They finally broke apart. Moving away from Pandora, who was still grinning like the conniving bitch she was, Max headed toward the closest circle of satyrs, where two warriors sparred in the center.
“Who do you think you’re going to be fighting,” Max shouted, pushing his way into the circle. He jerked the blade from the closest satyr. “Fucking fairies?”
“The silens aren’t fighters,” the dejected satyr snarled. “They’re pussies who spend their days fucking maenad nymphs.”
“Nice imagery, there.” Max shoved a hand into the satyr’s chest, knocking him toward the circle. “Move back.”
The satyr growled but didn’t even try to retaliate. Just stepped to the edge of the circle and folded his arms over his chest as he stared at Max, twirling the blade in his hand.
The other satyr in the center of the ring—the one who’d been sparring with the dejected satyr—went still and stared at Max as if he was unsure what Max would do next.
Max ignored him and glanced around the circle. “You all think the silens are going to be easy to take down?”
Heads nodded. “Yesses” and “Of courses” echoed in the air.
“Those pussies can’t fight for shit!” a satyr from the circle called out. “And as soon as they tuck tail and run, the maenads are gonna get a taste of real satyr cock. We’ll show them bitches what a real fucking is!”
Whoops and hollers rose up in the breeze.
“I’d like to fuck my way through the maenads,” another satyr yelled.
“You’ll get your chance soon enough,” another responded.
Laughter echoed from the group.
Max glared from one face to the other. “You’re all dumbfucks.”
Voices quieted. Eyes widened. One by one each of the satyrs stilled and stared Max’s way.
“Yeah, you heard me right.” Max turned a slow circle and looked from one beast to another. “Those silens have been with Zagreus for how many years now?”
“Three,” Pandora called from outside of the circle.
“Three.” Max didn’t look at Pandora, simply nodded as his gaze drifted over the satyrs. “I guarantee the silens are no longer docile.”
“Not anymore,” Pandora mumbled.
“After three years under the direction of the Prince of Darkness,” Max called out, “they’re now highly trained warriors who will strike”— he swung the blade in his hand to his right and sliced off the left arm of the satyr still standing in the middle of the circle before the beast even saw him move—“fast and accurately.”
Blood squirted, but the satyr didn’t have time to defend himself or even scream. Max’s blade whirred through the air, slicing off the other arm.
“And you dumbshits”—with one last twist of his weapon, Max decapitated the satyr, sending its head rolling across the hard ground—"won�
��t even have time to react.”
Talisa gasped and jerked back. Her butt hit the rocks. Zagreus quickly pulled her out of view behind the boulder and slapped a hand over her mouth.
Still too shocked by what she’d seen, she didn’t fight his hold.
That wasn’t something the Argonauts had taught Max to do. That wasn’t something the Max she knew, the one who was devoted to duty and honor, would ever do. She’d always known Max was a fierce warrior, but that… There’d been no provocation. No threat. No reason other than that he could.
“Fuck me,” Zagreus mumbled above her as he continued to look through a gap in the rocks.
She had no idea what he was seeing, wasn’t sure she wanted to look. Her pulse pounded in her ears all over again, drowning out all other sound as she tried to come up with a reason for what Max had just done.
Zagreus pushed her over onto her hands and knees and roughly whispered, “Crawl. Back into the trees. Quickly. And stay quiet.”
She moved as fast as she good, trying to make as little noise as possible. When the brush near the cliff transitioned to trees that hid their bodies, she pushed to her feet and ran, ducking under limbs and jumping over downed logs and rocks in her way. She didn’t slow until after she crossed the meadow and reached the arching firs, several miles away from the cliff where they’d been hidden.
Breathing heavily, she leaned forward and perched her hands on her knees as she sucked back air. Zagreus joined her seconds later, but he didn’t stop to catch his breath.
Gasping her by the arm, he dragged her toward the natural archway. “Come on. You can rest on the other side.”
He held up his hand as he drew close to the arch, muttered magickal words in that ancient language she didn’t understand, then stepped under the archway as it popped and sizzled.
Once they were on the other side and she could no longer see the meadow she’d just run through, she dropped to her hands and knees, drew in a large breath, then flopped over to sit.
“Holy gods,” she breathed. “How many do you think there were?”
“I don’t know.” Zagreus perched his hands on his hips, not even looking winded as he glanced around the forest. “Three thousand, at least. Probably more inside we couldn’t see.”
Wicked Page 25