Wicked

by Elisabeth Naughton

  “Sit on the bed,” the nymph instructed.

  The gown was regal and eye-stopping, and as Talisa sat and watched as the nymph reached for a pair of gold lace-up sandals to slip on Talisa’s feet, she realized it was unlike any she’d seen on any other female in this castle.

  It wasn’t made for a commoner. It was made for a queen. Or a princess.

  “I see everything, and this, princess, is your new normal.”

  Zagreus’s words from earlier echoed in her head. And as they did, her heart kickstarted, beating a hard, fast, bruising rhythm.

  “There.” Ana pushed upright, a look of disgust on her face. “You’re finished. The prince expects you to dine with him tonight. If you know what’s best, you’ll acquiesce and join him. As long as you don’t do anything between now and then to draw his ire, I’ll help you escape.”

  Talisa’s gaze shot up, and the panic threatening to take hold came to a stuttering stop. “Escape?”

  “Tonight, after everyone is asleep, I will return and show you to the secret tunnels.”

  Of course there were secret tunnels in this place. Even in Argolea, there were hidden passageways in and out of the castle.

  Ana turned for the door. “Stay within the castle walls today. The sentries have been told to watch you.”

  The nymph yanked the heavy wood door open, but Talisa jerked to her feet. “Why are you helping me?”

  Ana hesitated with one hand on the rustic handle. “Because you are a distraction the prince does not need. The sooner you are gone, the better for all of us.”

  She left the door open in her wake, descending the stairs into darkness until only silence remained.

  Talisa’s heart continued to pump hard and fast as she turned a slow circle and tried to make sense of what had just happened. Not only here in this room now, but last night, yesterday, and every moment since she’d walked into that club and stepped into Zagreus’s path.

  And as she did, she heard Zagreus’s voice again. A voice and words that now wouldn’t leave her head.

  “Your being here is not a coincidence. It’s destiny. Running won’t save you. Not from what’s inside you, and never from me.”

  Talisa paced the length of her tower room. Outside, darkness pressed against the cathedral windows overlooking the water, and a chill spread down her spine.

  She wasn’t sure what time it was, only that it was late—close to midnight, at least. She’d spent the day exploring the castle and grounds but hadn’t found a single way to escape on her own. As Ana had said, the guards had watched her every movement.

  The nymphs she’d encountered working in the castle had been courteous and pleasant. None engaged her in conversation, though. And everyone she passed—nymph and sileni—had stared at her as if she had a second head.

  That made sense since she stuck out like a sore thumb in this expensive gown. She stopped pacing and frowned down at the thing, still unable to understand why she was wearing it or why Zagreus had left it, specifically, for her.

  You know why he left it…

  “Princess…”

  She raked a shaky hand through her hair, letting the long locks fall against her shoulders, refusing to think about that word too much. Or why he continued to call her by it.

  Then she remembered her dream.

  Him, naked in that sunken marble bath, his muscular body damp and glistening as he stroked himself.

  Her skin grew hot. Tingly. He’d called her princess in that dream, too. He’d also called her mono mia…

  Her pulse turned to a roar in her ears. Stepping to the windows, she looked out into the darkness, toward the torchlight far below in the courtyard, searching for movement. She was too high to see anything more than shadows, but she sensed more than knew that Zagreus had yet to return from wherever he’d gone with his sentries this morning.

  He’d never summoned her to join him for dinner. Instead, someone had brought dinner to her room. After she’d eaten, when she’d been restlessly walking through the castle corridors, she’d heard a few of the nymphs whispering about him. About how the prince and his sentries had left to head off some kind of attack. About the fact they’d yet to return.

  She didn’t know what they were up to or why they hadn’t come back. But she couldn’t stop wondering if Zagreus had been telling her the truth.

  Did he really have no affiliation with the satyrs anymore?

  That still didn’t explain why he was protecting these nymphs, though.

  “Do you know how Zagreus came to be here?” Nysa’s words from this morning echoed in Talisa’s mind. “…out of nowhere, Zagreus arrived. He’d been searching for someone.”

  The marking on Talisa’s hip warmed, sending tendrils of heat all through her body. The Alpha marking all Argoleans were born with, though hers was dramatically different from any other she’d seen.

  She’d always known she was different. Her parents had said her weird Alpha marking was somehow related to her Argonaut markings. But now…

  “Mono mia…”

  She pictured Zagreus in that bath again, pleasuring himself, speaking to her. Heat flooded her veins, leaving her achy and hot—everywhere.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs outside her room. Whipping toward the open door, she held her breath and waited for the immortal she’d just been thinking of to appear before her eyes.

  Ana stepped into the room instead, wearing a dark cloak that draped all the way to the floor, the hood pulled up over her head. In her hands, she held a second cloak.

  “Are you ready?” the nymph asked.

  For a moment, confusion clouded Talisa’s mind. Then she remembered their conversation only hours ago.

  The secret passageways. Her chance to escape.

  Freedom. Argolea. Home...

  Talisa’s adrenaline spiked. All she had to do was say yes. To follow the nymph. But if she did, she’d never get answers to the questions now swirling inside her. She’d never understand the weird tightness in her chest she’d felt at that club—that she was still feeling every time she saw or even thought of Zagreus.

  Ana stepped forward and swept the second cloak over Talisa’s shoulders, latching it closed with a silver leaf at Talisa’s throat. Pulling the hood up over Talisa’s head, she said, “Make no sound. My magick will only last so long as we are within the borders of Ehrendia.”

  Talisa opened her mouth to ask what the nymph meant by magick, then Ana held both hands in front of Talisa and muttered words in an ancient language. Seconds later, Talisa realized the cloak had disappeared. She looked down only to realize she had disappeared, too. Her legs, her arms, her whole body. Every part of her was invisible.

  “How did you—?”

  “Absolute silence. If you make a single sound, my focus will break, and you’ll give us away. And if that happens, we’ll both be thrown in the dungeon.”

  Ana pushed Talisa toward the door.

  Heart thundering, Talisa carefully moved down the narrow staircase and into the castle corridors. With Ana at her back, forcing her forward, she had nowhere else to go. But that didn’t stop her from scanning each nook and doorway and behind every column in the quiet castle for Zagreus. It didn’t stop her from searching for some sign that screamed she shouldn’t leave. That she needed to stay.

  Stay? That’s insanity at this point. He’s the Prince of Darkness. Hades’s fucking son. The villain of every story…

  She swallowed hard as they reached the empty grand hall, dimly lit by a dying fire in the great stone hearth.

  Of course Zagreus was a villain. She’d heard the stories, had read the history books. He was always the villain. Except…

  He hadn’t been acting like a villain. Not once since she’d met him. Yes, he’d abducted her. Yes, he’d locked her in a tower. But he hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t demanded anything from her. He hadn’t even touched her.

  In fact, the more she thought of it… Even back in that club, when he’d blasted Max with that stream of energy,
he hadn’t been the first to attack. He’d only hit Max after Max had drawn his blade and charged.

  A new thought whipped through her mind. One that made her chest grow so tight, she gasped.

  He hadn’t known who Max was in that moment. He’d been protecting himself in that club. He’d been protecting her.

  Ana pushed her into another corridor off the grand hall and down a new narrow staircase, this one also dimly lit.

  Head spinning, Talisa moved as if on autopilot, her hands against the walls on both sides for stability, her mind trying to make sense of the memories and thoughts bombarding her from every side.

  She wasn’t ready to start thinking of Zagreus in any way as heroic, but… Something didn’t add up here. Something about her being with him in this time and place didn’t make sense.

  They reached the lowest level of the castle. The ground was dirt. The walls some kind of ancient stone. The scents of earth and mold were strong down here, and darkness pressed in from every side. A shiver raced down Talisa’s spine. She brushed a hand against her arm on instinct just as Ana lit a torch at her back.

  The flame flared to life, spreading a warm glow over the corridor, giving Talisa her first look at her surroundings.

  Her stomach pitched. Doors made of rusted bars fronted each cell. There wasn’t enough light to see inside the cells, but no sound echoed through the space.

  Stories Talisa had heard about Zagreus’s lair in the Yucatan filled her mind. He’d had cells there, too, but these seemed empty. And this dungeon was old. Older than just a few years, which was when Nysa had said he’d arrived in Ehrendia.

  Ana pushed her down the dungeon corridor. Thankful she wasn’t being shoved into any of those cells, Talisa let her. The passageway turned to the right, then Ana stopped near a heavy steel door, one that was aged and dirty and blended into the stones. One that looked nothing like any other doors in the castle.

  “What is this?” Talisa asked.

  “What you said you wanted.”

  Ana drew a key from her pocket and slid it into the rusted lock. Metal scraped, then the lock clicked. The nymph pushed the heavy contraption open, revealing a dark, silent tunnel, this one made not of stacked stone but of rough, carved rock.

  “Come.” Ana dropped the key back into her pocket, stepped into the tunnel, and motioned for Talisa to follow. “Don’t dawdle now. We’re almost there.”

  Talisa’s heart pounded hard as she looked into the tunnel after Ana. She wasn’t sure what she wanted. Everything in her head was jumbled. The only thing she knew for certain was that something about this felt off. Ana had made it more than clear she didn’t like Talisa. The nymph volunteering to help her now could very well be a trap.

  Dammit, if Zagreus hadn’t taken her dagger, she cou—

  Ana reached back, grasped Talisa’s cloak, and yanked.

  The nymph was stronger than she looked, and she jerked Talisa off her feet, forcing her to stumble forward into the tunnel.

  The heavy door clanked shut at her back. Talisa managed to throw out a hand against the rough rock wall so she didn’t fall. Shuffling her feet in the stupid sandals, she found her footing on the uneven stones.

  Ana released her. Holding up her free hand in front of Talisa’s face, she muttered some kind of spell that made Talisa’s body reappear again.

  “Now, keep up. We don’t have much time.” The nymph turned and headed down the tunnel, taking the light with her as she rounded a corner.

  Darkness descended, and Talisa’s senses went on high alert. One quick check of the door at her back told her it was locked. She didn’t particularly want to follow Ana at this point, but she didn’t want to get trapped in these tunnels without light. It was cold down here, colder than in that dungeon, and if she got lost in this maze of rock and darkness, freedom wouldn’t be her only concern. Dying of hypothermia would quickly shoot to the top of that list.

  “Come on!” Ana called from somewhere ahead.

  Talisa felt her way along the uneven rock walls, using them as a guide as she followed Ana’s voice. At the corner, she spotted the nymph’s torchlight, relieved she hadn’t left her.

  The passageway was narrow, only wide enough for one person at a time. In several places, Talisa had to duck to keep from smacking her head on the rocks above. They seemed to be going down, but Talisa couldn’t be sure, and every time Ana rounded a corner, the walls grew dark and hard to see once again, disorienting Talisa even more.

  Her heart raced. The scents of mildew and dirt were even stronger here. Talisa wanted to ask how much farther but kept quiet, just in case anyone else was in these tunnels. Then she heard the sound. Faint at first but growing stronger with every step.

  Rushing water. Like from a waterfall.

  Ana had rounded another corner ahead, taking the torchlight with her. Feeling her way along the stone walls, Talisa hustled to catch up. But when fresh air rushed over her cheeks and she spotted the white light ahead, she knew her senses hadn’t been playing tricks on her.

  The tunnel opened to a wide, rocky ledge, and directly ahead, cascading water fell from above, illuminated by moonlight somewhere beyond.

  Water droplets sprayed into Talisa’s face. She blinked and stared at the water, realizing they were behind the waterfall she’d seen with Zagreus when he’d first brought her to Ehrendia.

  “There’s no time to sightsee,” Ana shouted to be heard over the roar of the falls. “We’re almost to the border. Keep up.”

  Talisa spotted Ana to her left, still holding the burning torch, standing on a narrow rock path that ran behind the waterfall and down along the cliff face.

  “Quickly.” Ana motioned her to follow then rushed down the path.

  Talisa’s adrenaline surged, that feeling something about this wasn’t right hitting her hard all over again.

  Why was the nymph suddenly helping her? Why hadn’t any guards been stationed at the passages and doorways when she and Ana had left the tower? The sentries had been watching Talisa all freakin’ day as she’d wandered around the castle, on Zagreus’s orders. And where was Zagreus anyway?

  Carefully, Talisa followed the rocky path behind the waterfall, her mind spinning with a million questions. When she reached the bottom, Ana was waiting for her in the moonlight on the edge of the wide pool, the torch already extinguished, a nervous look in her eyes that pushed Talisa’s suspicions even higher.

  “We have to hurry, before anyone at the castle realizes you’re gone.” Ana turned, heading past the pool and up a hill, toward the same stone arch Zagreus had brought Talisa through on their trek to Ehrendia.

  As Ana passed under the arch, Talisa pushed the hood off her head and moved into the forest after the nymph. “You said I was a distraction the prince didn’t need. What did you mean by that?”

  “Exactly what you think I meant.” Ana maneuvered around tree roots and up a small incline. “You’re a problem for the prince.”

  “What kind of problem?”

  “The kind of problem that keeps him from his destiny.”

  “And what destiny is that?” Talisa asked, pushing her sandals into the soft soil as she followed the nymph up another hill.

  “The kind of destiny that does not concern an inferior creature such as you.”

  Inferior creature? That did it.

  Talisa grasped Ana by the shoulder at the top of the hill, stopping the nymph’s momentum and spinning her around so they were face to face. “You’re not helping me. You’re up to something. Something Zagreus would not approve of. What are you after?”

  Ana’s eyes flew wide. “I am after what I am owed.”

  She surged toward Talisa, forcing Talisa back a step, a malice Talisa did not anticipate spilling into the nymph’s features, making her look anything but docile.

  “You have no idea who I am,” Ana snarled. “What I’ve been through. What I am willing to do. You are nothing more than a minor inconvenience, one I will not allow to distract my prince a moment long
er. Those nymphs back there are pathetic, and when he realizes that he is going to take his rightful place back where he belongs, at the head of a satyr army I amassed for him while he was in prison. And when he does, he will remember what he is capable of. What he has been working for all these years. He will remember his destiny.”

  Talisa stared at the nymph, shocked by the transformation. Ana had never been submissive like other nymphs, but something had changed in her the last few seconds. An energy, a vibe, an aura that made Talisa wonder if the nymph was really a nymph after all or if she’d been using some kind of glamour the whole time she’d been in Ehrendia.

  “And you…” A snarl turned Ana’s lip as she forced Talisa back another step. A snarl that—oh shit—made her eyes flash to an icy blue that nearly glowed. “You will cease to exist. Just as you ceased to exist every other time you’ve returned from the dead and tried to turn him.”

  Returned from the dead…?

  She was just about to ask what the hell the nymph meant by that when Ana drew something out of the pocket of her cloak and tossed it into Talisa’s face.

  Talisa sputtered and stumbled, some kind of powder burning her eyes. Gasping, she tried to wipe it away, then a foot connected with her stomach and shoved hard.

  Talisa sailed backward and tumbled down the small hill with a grunt. Rocks dug into the backs of her legs and the palms of her hands, sending pain spiraling through her body.

  “She’s all yours,” Ana said somewhere close.

  Low, menacing growls echoed in the trees. Growls that caused Talisa’s every thought and movement to come to a whirring stop.

  Growls Talisa had heard once before. In that club, after Zagreus had hit Max with that blast of energy.

  Through blurry vision, she stared at the pack of satyrs emerging from the dark forest.