Ensnared: An Eternal Guardians Novella

by Elisabeth Naughton

  Sure...the fact that I’m not cut out for this job you think I’m destined for, that I have no gifts like every other Argolean in the freakin’ realm, that I’d rather fall asleep and live in my imaginary world with my hunky dream man than exist in this real one...

  “No, matéras.” Again, she worked up that smile that turned her stomach and looked down. “I’m fine. I-I just stayed up too late reading last night.”

  “Hm.” Her mother’s lips thinned. She didn’t seem convinced, but she let go of Kara and stepped back. “You and your books. Sometimes I think you’d rather spend your life in those books than you would here with us.”

  Travel to exotic locations? Meet incredible people? Do something amazing and be the hero instead of the bystander for a change? Absolutely those were things Kara wanted. And none of them were in her future because she was stuck in this castle where her parents claimed she was safe, and where nothing exciting ever happened.

  None of that was worth mentioning to her mother, however. They’d been around this argument multiple times. After her cousin Elysia had been abducted by Zeus’s Sirens and taken to Olympus last year, Kara’s parents had been overly protective. They’d nixed Kara’s plans to move out of the castle and into a place of her own. They no longer let her leave the castle grounds without some kind of chaperone or armed guard. And traveling? That was a pipe dream at this point since she couldn’t remember the last time she’d even been allowed outside the capitol city of Tiyrns’ walls.

  Argolea was supposed to be a place of peace and prosperity for the great heroes’ descendants. A utopia of sorts. More and more lately it felt like a prison to Kara.

  To keep from starting another war she knew she’d never win, she turned for her desk in the reception room and reached for her bag. “Okay, then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to have dinner with us tonight?” her mother called from the other room. “Your father would love to see you. I know he hasn’t been around much lately, what with the increase in patrols the Argonauts are running. But he misses you. And Max will be there.”

  A twinge of guilt tugged at Kara’s chest, slowing her steps. She missed her father too, and she’d love to hang out with her brother Max, but tonight she wasn’t in the mood to be reminded that she was the one person in their family who didn’t have a purpose and who didn’t fit in. She just wanted to crawl in bed, forget about the outside world, and fall asleep.

  And dream of her mystery man again. Push him back down on that chaise... Straddle his hips... Slide her tongue into his mouth while she let him do whatever naughty things he wanted to do to her body.

  “I can’t.” Her face heated all over again, and she quickly tossed the strap of her bag over her shoulder and told herself fantasizing about a hot guy did not make her nuttier than a pecan pie. “I-I’m meeting Talisa for drinks. Tell pampas I miss him too, and I’ll try to come see him tomorrow.”

  “All right.” Disappointment sounded in her mother’s voice from beyond the open doorway. “Say hello to Talisa for us.”

  Kara didn’t answer. Just made a beeline straight for the stairs and didn’t draw a full breath until she was in a different wing of the gigantic castle, several floors up, standing outside her cousin Talisa’s door.

  Please be home...

  She lifted her hand and knocked. For several heartbeats, silence met her ears, then footsteps sounded softly, and the door pulled open to reveal Talisa’s familiar smile.

  “Hey, you.” Dressed in baggy sweats, with her straight dark hair pulled back in a neat tail, Talisa stepped back, allowing Kara to enter her suite of rooms. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight.”

  “I hope I’m not bothering you. I needed an excuse to get out of a family dinner, and, well...”

  “Say no more.” Talisa smirked as she closed the door at Kara’s back. “You want a drink? I was just about to open a bottle of wine.”

  “Wine sounds heavenly.”

  “Well, there is a reason they call it the nectar of the gods.” Talisa’s smile widened as she stepped past Kara. “Come on. You can tell me all about it while we get sloshed.”

  Kara dropped her bag on a chair in the living room and followed Talisa into a small kitchen. Talisa’s suite was similar to Kara’s—a small apartment really. But unlike Kara’s suite, it wasn’t constantly watched, and Talisa was allowed to leave the castle and the city unescorted if she wanted.

  That fact burned more than normal as Kara slid onto a stool at the counter and waited while Talisa popped the top on the wine and poured it into glasses. They were the same age—only a couple of months apart—and like their other cousin Elysia, all three of them were linked through their mothers to the ancient Horae, the goddesses of balance and natural order. But even here, Kara was the outlier.

  Elysia had proved herself capable after being abducted by the Sirens. She’d even been mated with Cerek, an Argonaut, whom everyone knew could protect her if anything bad happened. And Talisa, though single, was an extremely capable natural warrior herself, being the only female ever born with the Argonaut markings. Kara was the only one of the three anyone seemed to worry about. The only one without a gift. The only one locked in this castle like a prisoner.

  “Okay, spill.” Talisa handed the glass of red to Kara and leaned against the granite counter. “You are brooding worse than my father.”

  That tugged a reluctant smirk from Kara as she lifted her wine to her lips. Talisa’s father, Theron, was the leader of the Argonauts and the protector of their realm. He had plenty to brood about on a daily basis. All way more important than what was bothering Kara. “That bad, huh?”

  “Almost. What’s eating at you besides the obvious?”

  “The obvious?”

  “Your mother, your father, that clinic they’ve got you strapped to that I know you just love spending time in.”

  Kara frowned and lowered her wine. “If it’s so obvious, why can’t they tell I hate it?”

  “Because they’re parents. Parents never notice what we want them to.”

  Talisa opened a cupboard and pulled out a bowl, which she filled with pretzels and set between them. “If you hate it so much, why don’t you just tell them?”

  “And do what instead? I’m not qualified for anything else. I have no gifts or skills.”

  “Still nothing on that front?”

  “Not a thing.” Kara reached for a pretzel even though she wasn’t the least bit hungry. “My mother keeps insisting it will happen, but I’m twenty-six. Max came into his powers before he was even ten.”

  “True, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. My mother wasn’t able to access her gift of hindsight until she was at least twenty-seven, after she met my father.”

  “Your mother’s a Misos. Her human half was overpowering her Argolean half. It makes sense it took that long for her. I’m not like her. Everyone born and raised in this realm comes into their gifts long before their twentieth birthdays, and you know that’s true.”

  Talisa frowned. “Everyone’s different, Kara. You have to give it time.”

  Time was all she’d given it. And time wasn’t changing anything. She took a large swig of wine, the sweet red doing nothing to lift her mood.

  “What else is eating at you?” Talisa asked.

  Leave it to her cousin to see through her walls. “I don’t know.” She glanced around the living area, itching for...something. “I just feel...restless lately, like there’s more to life than this. And I’m really tired of being babysat all the time.”

  Talisa chuckled. “So tell them that. You’re a grown woman. You can do whatever you want.”

  Kara swiveled back to face her cousin. Even though Talisa was half a foot taller than her and a thousand times stronger, she still managed to look small and feminine standing in baggy sweats in her kitchen. “The way you’ve told them what you want?”

  Talisa frowned. “We’re not talking about me.”

 
“Have you asked your father again about training with the Argonauts?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s kind of been dealing with a lot lately, in case you haven’t noticed. Hellhounds and conniving gods and injured Argonauts and all that shit. It hasn’t been the right time.”

  “When is the right time?”

  “Not right now.”

  When Kara shot her a look, Talisa sighed and dropped her shoulders. “Gods, we’re pathetic. Neither one of us doing what we really want to be doing, neither one able to stand up to our stupid parents. So much for our links to balance and natural order, huh?”

  Wasn’t that the truth? “The ancient Horae are probably getting a good laugh out of our whining and excuses right about now.”

  “Touché.” Talisa clinked her glass against Kara’s. “At least Elysia’s got it all figured out. She’ll be a kickass queen one day thanks to her time with the Sirens, and she’s got a hot hunky hubby now to help her out. One out of three happy endings isn’t so bad.” She lifted her wine and sipped, but a forlorn expression crossed her violet eyes. One that told Kara Talisa wasn’t nearly as confident as she looked.

  Kara averted her gaze and sipped her wine as well. Yeah, one out of three of them happy and settled wasn’t all that bad. Just as long as you didn’t look at how lonely the other two were.

  “I’ve been waiting for you, fantasía...”

  Out of nowhere, Ryder’s voice filtered through her mind. And she realized her dreams were the one place where she didn’t feel less than, where she wasn’t restless, where she was never lonely. In her dreams, she knew what she wanted and nothing held her back.

  And what she wanted, was him.

  She pushed away from the counter and stood. “I have to go.”

  Talisa’s brow lowered. “But you just got here.”

  “I know. Sorry. I-I just forgot something I have to do.”

  Talisa followed her into the living room where Kara grabbed her bag from the chair. “What could you possibly have to do at this hour?”

  Sleep. She wanted to sleep so she could find Ryder and be that woman she would never be here.

  Kara hugged her cousin quickly. “I’ll catch up with you tomorrow. Thanks for the wine. And the pep talk. It helped.”

  Chapter Three

  If there was one thing Ryder had learned over the years, it was that dreams were ultimately controlled by the sleeper, not by the weaver. As long as his mark was awake in the real world, he had to wait.

  So he’d waited, and planned, and crafted the perfect tropical dreamscape for their next meeting. And when she appeared on the moonlit sandy beach with the gently lapping water against the shore sparkling like a thousand diamonds beneath her bare feet, dressed in nothing but the thin white gown that left very little to his imagination, he was glad he’d waited and planned and woven so intently.

  She really was stunning. Every time he saw her he fought the urge to grab her and never let go, something that was completely out of character for him. He wasn’t sure why he was so drawn to her. It was more than the fact she kept pulling him into her dreams. It was something else. He sensed a kindred spirit in her. One he hadn’t found in anyone else in thousands of years. There was a loneliness to her soul he recognized. A yearning. An emptiness he’d only ever seen in one other person—himself. One he feared they could fill in each other.

  It was that recognition that had made him keep his distance. Happily ever after wasn’t in his future. Reality and dreams—as he’d learned long ago—did not intermix. It was too dangerous. And he’d spent months successfully avoiding her, only to have Zeus send him straight to her now.

  Only now that he was here, some part of him was thankful he no longer had to avoid her. He knew he should go on fighting the attraction but he didn’t want to. She was everything he’d been denying himself. Everything he craved. That connection he’d been missing for so damn long. For tonight, at least, he wanted to indulge in the one temptation he knew he could never truly have.

  “I wondered when you’d return.”

  She turned at the sound of his voice and lifted surprised eyes to his. Violet eyes. Mesmerizing eyes. Eyes that softened and warmed the instant they locked on his. “I was tied up all day with family stuff. This was the soonest I could get here.”

  Damn, he didn’t remember those eyes being quite that brilliant.

  “Thankfully, you’re here now.” He reached for her hand, silky soft skin sliding over his much rougher palm, and drew her toward him. Her lithe body brushed up against his without even the slightest hesitation.

  “Where is here?” she asked, tipping her face up toward his, teasing him with her plump, pink lips beneath the softly swaying palms in the warm breeze.

  “Right where we left off.”

  He lowered his lips to hers with a kiss that sizzled along every one of his nerve endings and taunted his rock-solid self-control. But before he could deepen the kiss and tease her with the promise of a little pleasure, he registered that the water beneath his feet had turned cold, and the warm breeze that had once been ruffling his hair now left a shiver down his spine.

  He drew back, lifted his head, and glanced around the beach, only to gasp at what he saw. No more palm trees, no more powder white sand, no gently lapping waves. The water was now still and black, the shore a mixture of rough sand and small round stones, and there was no more tropical foliage rising from the beach. Instead, steep, rigid mountains stood tall against a starry sky. Mountains covered in pine and fir and spruce and cottonwood.

  “What in all the gods...” Still holding her hands, he turned to the left and looked back behind him, no longer seeing his bare footprints in the soft sand as they’d been moments before. Catching nothing but the dark rocky shoreline as it curved around what looked to be a small bay in a rather large lake.

  “Something wrong?”

  Her sweet voice drew him back around, and he looked down with wide eyes, shocked she didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned. “I...”

  Words faltered on his lips. Had he altered the dream right there mid-kiss? Subconsciously? If so, that was a first for him. He’d spent meticulous hours weaving that dream so the tropical beach was exactly as it had been the last time they’d met. Females always liked warm, tropical beaches. Nine times out of ten their fantasies took place smack dab in the powdery sand with the water rolling over them. He shaped his dreamscapes around their fantasies even if he never understood the fascination of sand himself. Sand had a tendency to get stuck in places he didn’t need it to be stuck. As far as seduction scenes went, he’d much rather have a rustic mountain cabin over a dirty sandy beach any day of the week, but that was never his to choose.

  “Ryder?”

  He blinked, realizing he’d been staring at her for he didn’t know how long. Realizing also that she still didn’t look the slightest bit surprised by their change of scenery. And that she hadn’t once let go of his hands. They were still warm and solid and soft wrapped around his. “You don’t find any of this...odd?”

  “Odd?”

  “Different?”

  Her brow formed the cutest little crease, right between her gemlike eyes. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  Yeah, he wasn’t sure either. Looking up and around, he realized they were still standing on the rocky mountain lakeshore beach he didn’t remember weaving.

  Her fingers tightened around his. “It’s cold out here. Why don’t we go inside and you can tell me what you meant.”

  “Inside?”

  She let go with one hand, stepped past him, and pulled him with her back the way he’d come. Or should have come if he’d ever freakin’ been here before. “To the cabin.” She smiled and pointed toward the lights on the rocky hillside ahead. “I don’t think you brought me all the way out here to freeze, did you?”

  Holy hell. He had no idea what he was doing. Or where in Hades here even was.

  Since she didn’t seem the
slightest bit concerned with their situation, however, he didn’t want to do anything to spook her. So he let her pull him with her down the rocky beach, then up a set of wooden stairs that zigzagged toward a rustic cabin set on a cliff overlooking what was definitely a lake. A big lake, he realized as they climbed higher.

  A light illuminated the front porch. She let go of him long enough to reach for the door handle and push it open. Didn’t even bother to knock—something else he found odd. But then, she thought this was a dream, one her mind had conjured, so it made sense she wouldn’t be worried. He, on the other hand, was freaking the fuck out because he knew how this all worked.

  All mortals dreamt. Dreams originated from the subconscious mind. They were rooted in emotions, the strongest of which were centered on a mortal’s wants and desires. Mortals could easily conjure their own dreams, but once a dream weaver—like him—arrived on the scene, his powers were strong enough to override anything that mortal could create with her subconscious mind. His dreamscapes were designed to override her dreams. Only that clearly wasn’t happening now. And for whatever reason, his powers were failing him.

  Soft, warm firelight filled the room as he stepped in after her. She shivered and closed the door at his back, then quickly crossed the thick white rug laid out over rustic wood floorboards and stopped in front of the giant stone fireplace to warm her hands by the flames already crackling in the hearth.

  A golden glow highlighted her pale skin, the thin cotton nightgown she wore, and made her blonde hair look almost silver in the low light. But instead of being distracted by her sexy silhouette near the flames, he glanced over the rest of the log cabin, hoping it was one from another dreamscape he’d woven. One he’d conveniently forgotten about.

  Deep green curtains were already pulled closed at the windows. Comfortable leather couches and dark wood tables filled the space. A rocking chair in the corner of the room. In the corner was a small U-shaped kitchen, and a shadowed open doorway that looked as if it opened to a bedroom or bathroom or he wasn’t sure what.