Wicked

by Elisabeth Naughton

  Heat rolled through Talisa’s body when she remembered last night. The way he’d taken charge. The fact she’d let him. Their conversation after. And how it had seemed to change something in him—something that had softened him to her. Or, at the very least, given him a reason to stop fighting her.

  Fabric rustled, then sunlight streamed into the room, making Talisa blink. Shifting back in the pillows, she sat up and fixed the sheet around her so she didn’t look like such a lazy bum.

  “Will there be anything else, My Prince?”

  “No,” Zagreus answered, still not looking toward the nymph.

  The nymph glanced at Talisa with pink cheeks.

  One scan of the room in the light and Talisa could only imagine what the female was thinking. Their clothing was scattered across the floor, hers ruined and in tatters. The shelves were in disarray, books and trinkets littering the hardwood. And the high-backed chair they’d both been sitting in when they’d had that little talk was now on its side. She wasn’t even sure when they’d tipped that over.

  Her own cheeks heated. “Thank you, Petra.”

  The nymph’s whole face brightened. With a curtsy and a smile, she said, “You’re welcome, princess.”

  Talisa watched the female cross the room. When the heavy door closed behind her, she turned a frown on Zagreus. “That was a little rude, don’t you think?”

  “Rude was her waking you.”

  Talisa knew she shouldn’t be pleased with that response, but a thrill she couldn’t contain swept through her. Three days ago, he hadn’t given a rip about anyone—himself included—being rude to her. The change in him was so dramatic, she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

  Not wanting to overthink things, she threw the sheet back and tossed her legs over the side of the bed. “That coffee smells amazing. How do you drink yours?”

  “Black,” he said as she crossed the floor toward the tray.

  She shot him a smile over her shoulder. “Same.”

  She poured two steaming cups then stepped back toward the bed. He hadn’t moved from his spot reclined in the pillows. Hadn’t stopped looking at her, either. His intense gaze followed her every movement. And though she still recognized uncertainty in his dark as night eyes, she also saw heat. The same heat she’d seen last night and which was building inside her all over again.

  Kneeling on the bed, she handed him one mug, then sat and sipped her own. “Mm… That’s good.” Twisting around, she set her coffee on the table at her side, then rolled his way, tugged the sheet back up, and perched her elbow in the pillows so she could lean against her hand and look up at him. “Do the nymphs always bring you coffee in bed?”

  “No.” His lips thinned as he sipped the hot brew. “Nysa must have told them you were in here, which is why that one was gawking.”

  Gods, he took grouchy, brooding male to a whole new level. But instead of being irritated by his surly mood, it relaxed her. If there was one thing she knew how to handle, it was a cranky, moody dude.

  She watched him twist away from her to set his mug on the nightstand beside him, then relax back into the pillows. When he was settled, she slid her palm over his abs, loving how he shivered at the slight contact. “I’m sort of surprised you’re still here in this bed with me.”

  “Technically, you’re still in this bed with me. For some reason, I can’t seem to get rid of you.”

  She eased closer, her lips tipping up. “Doesn’t seem like you want to get rid of me so much anymore.”

  “Hm.” He tensed as she brushed her nose against his earlobe. “I’m still deciding on that.”

  Smiling wider, she pressed her lips against the soft skin behind his ear, pushed up and feathered soft kissed across his jaw, then threw a leg over her hips so she was straddling his waist.

  With her hands braced on the pillows at his back, she grinned down at him. “I’ll decide for you. It’s a waste of time to argue with me anyway.”

  She leaned down and kissed him. He didn’t soften under her touch. Didn’t close his eyes and give in. But he didn’t stop her, either. He just rested his hands on her thighs and let her toy with his lips as he continued to watch her with that same hint of skepticism she’d seen since she’d awoken.

  She drew back and narrowed her gaze on his. “You’re thinking something.”

  “I’m thinking you always get your way, don’t you?”

  “Rarely. Which is why I learned to be so damn persistent.”

  She kissed him once more, but this time when he tensed, she knew there was something else going on. “Okay, what? Spill it, already.”

  He stared at her for several seconds, then said, “I might not be forcing you leave, even though we both know it’s still in your best interest—”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “—but before this goes any further, we need to talk about this.” His fingertips grazed her forearm.

  Stomach tight, Talisa pushed back and sat up. But she didn’t move off his lap, and she watched him carefully, unsure how much he knew. Or how much she should share. “I’m not one of them.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never trained with them.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” A familiar bitterness swirled inside her, but she tamped it down. “Because I’m female. And to them that means weak.”

  He stared at her for several moments. She had no idea what he was thinking, couldn’t read him. And she couldn’t help but wonder if he thought she was weak, too—for not standing up to the Argonauts. For hiding here, where they couldn’t find her.

  Was that what she was doing? She couldn’t deny that she liked being in a place where no one knew her. Where there were no preconceived notions of who or what she was supposed to be. And she especially liked that people seemed to want her here. Not because she was linked to the Argonauts. Not because she was part of the royal family. But because she’d earned their respect after she’d helped Zagreus defeat those satyrs.

  None of those were the reason she was staying, though. She was staying because of him. Because they were linked. And because even though it may be sudden and crazy, that link was telling her he needed her.

  “You’re hardly weak,” he finally said. “You single-handedly saved this entire kingdom. If the Argonauts refused to let you join their ranks, I am quite sure your gender was not the reason.”

  His words warmed her. Before she could get lost in the feeling, though, she realized he didn’t know who she really was. Or just how closely she was linked the guardians. “Zagreus, my father is the leader of the Argonauts.”

  “I figured it was something like that.”

  “He’s probably looking for me.”

  “And you don’t want him to find you.”

  “No, it’s not that. He’s actually a really good father. Aside from being stubborn and bullheaded and uncompromising about the Argonauts or wanting me to stay in Argolea.”

  “Hm. Stubborn and bullheaded and uncompromising. Sounds like someone I know.”

  She pursed her lips, recognizing he was making fun. “Just so you know, it’s not that I don’t want him to find me. Yes, I was mad at him before about the Argonaut stuff, but I’m over it. I don’t even want to be part of the stupid Argonauts anymore. I just…”

  “You don’t want him to find me.”

  She looked deep into his eyes. “I don’t want him to find us. He wouldn’t understand this.”

  “Talisa, I’m right here, and I don’t even understand this.”

  Smiling, she leaned down to kiss him once more, happy he wasn’t upset by what she’d shared.

  He stopped her with his hands on her arms. “I’m definitely not an expert on family, but walking away from yours will have consequences. And I’m not talking about consequences for me.”

  She stilled a breath from his lips, her gaze skipping over his features. “What do you mean?”

  “Your parents have to know about the marking on your
hip. If they wouldn’t let you out of your realm, if your father didn’t allow you to serve with the Argonauts, it wasn’t because of your skill or your gender. It was because they knew you were bound. To someone from this world. To someone like me.”

  Conversations she’d had with her parents, their reactions over the years, even the face-off she’d had with her father and the queen just before she’d met Zagreus in that club started to make sense.

  She eased back once more and looked down at him as her pulse quickened with the knowledge that…

  They’d known. Her parents had to have known she was bound to Zagreus. Her mother had the gift of hindsight. She could have easily seen into Talisa’s past lives with one touch. Which meant everything they’d done had been done to prevent Talisa from finding him.

  “They won’t stop looking for you,” Zagreus said in low voice, still holding her gaze.

  “I don’t care.”

  “Don’t you? You barely know me.”

  “I know the parts that matter. Everything else is meaningless.”

  “It’s not meaningless to them. By staying here with me, you’re alienating your family. That never works out well in the long run. I know from experience.”

  He was right. But she didn’t want to think about that too much. At least not yet.

  She leaned down and brushed her lips over his once more. “I’ll make them understand at some point.”

  “I’m not sure you can. And I’m running out of reasons to try to convince you.”

  She smiled, kissed him again, and slid her hand to his nape.

  His fingers grazed her shoulder and slipped down her arm. And against her lips he muttered, “Since you’re hellbent on being a problem for me, there’s one other Argonaut issue we need to deal with before it comes back to bite us in the ass.”

  Her lips froze against his, and a tingle spread down her spine.

  Wide-eyed, she drew back once more and stared at him. “Max? Are you talking about going after Max?”

  “I’m talking about finding out what the satyrs did with him. That’s all. Reconnaissance only. For all we know, he may already be dead.”

  She refused to believe that. “He isn’t. They would have realized his value, as you said.”

  “Hm.” Zagreus’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure. Satyrs aren’t very bright. One thing I do know, though, is if Pandora really is working with the satyrs, and she figures out who he is, shit could get real. Fast.”

  “Then we definitely have to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Smiling because she knew he was doing this for her, not because he cared what happened to Pandora or the satyrs or even Max, she wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips against his once more. “But in a few minutes. First, I need something a little more invigorating than coffee to completely wake me up.”

  His arms slid around her waist as she leaned into him, and he opened to her kiss, groaning when her tongue dipped inside for a wicked, not-nearly-enough kiss.

  “Pure trouble,” he whispered against her lips.

  Her grin widened as he took control of the kiss and rolled her to her back.

  She was trouble. The kind of trouble he needed. And she wasn’t about to let him forget it.

  The click of nails against stone would normally send Hades into a rage, but today the interruption did nothing to diminish his good mood.

  “Orcus,” he called, knowing the four-foot-tall gnomelike troll was dragging his lame leg behind him as he hobbled toward Hades on the cliff overlooking his realm. “Come and see this. It’s my favorite part. When a soul experiences its punishment for the very first time.”

  Orcus’s pointy ears twitched as he stopped next to Hades and looked down at the blackened ground a hundred feet below.

  A soul was tied to a stake, trembling and staring wide-eyed at one of Hades’s henchmen holding a bow at his shoulder. The henchman drew the bowstring back and released a flaming arrow that flew through the air and struck the soul in its thigh. The soul shrieked. As the soul frantically tried to wiggle and put out the flames quickly spreading across its body, the henchman ignited the tip of another arrow, lined it up and released, striking the soul this time in the shoulder.

  Flaming arrow after flaming arrow struck the soul in different places, prolonging its misery. Finally, it burst into flames, and a gut-wrenching howl echoed beneath the swirling red sky.

  “Was it someone we knew, My Lord?”

  “Just another of my brother’s useless whores.” Hades smirked, envisioning the King of the Gods being told one of his precious Sirens had been killed.

  Zeus’d know the female would be sent to the Underworld. That she’d be sentenced to an eternity of life, torture, and death for the crimes she’d committed in the name of Zeus-the-Almighty. To be repeated daily until Hades sucked every bit of energy from her soul. It wasn’t how Hades would have chosen to regenerate his powers, but after his brothers had taken the best parts of the cosmos and left him the Underworld, it was how he’d learned to survive.

  No, not just survive… thrive. With every soul that came to him, with every secret those souls revealed, he grew stronger while his bothers stayed the same. And one day—when he had what he was looking for—they, the whole of Olympus, would all bow to him.

  Feeling better than he had in days, he turned for the cave opening in the blackened rock mountain that led to his tunnels. “Where’s my wife? I’ve a taste for her at the moment.”

  The click of Orcus’s nails echoed at Hades’s back as the troll followed. “I believe My Lord’s queen was heading to the gardens when I left the castle.”

  Hades would never understand his wife’s obsession with growing things. The soil of the Underworld was not meant to spawn life, and she knew that.

  He frowned in the torchlight as the tunnel angled downward, slowing his steps on the dark rocks so Orcus wouldn’t fall too far behind. The troll’s lame leg was a pain in Hades’s ass. He’d a mind to cut it off himself, but the creature was too useful to lose. “Why did you bother coming all the way up here, anyway? I told you I’d be back in a few minutes.”

  “I know, My Lord. But I-I received a message I thought you might want to hear right away.”

  “A message from whom?” Hades rounded a corner into a room with three doorways. He headed for the archway to his right that led back to his castle.

  “From Pandora, My Lord. Via one of my cousins.”

  Hades’s drew to a stop and turned to look down at the pathetic creature hobbling toward him.

  Orcus’s cousins were the kobaloi—gnome-dwarves who dwelt in the mountains of the human realm. They were useful to Hades when needed, so he generally left them alone. Pandora, however, was another matter. He steered clear of her because of her box. As far as Hades was concerned, the female was a conniving slut who just wouldn’t die.

  And he had Zeus to thank for her as well.

  Hades’s good mood slowly slid to the wayside. “Dare I ask what the first bitch wants now?”

  Orcus stopped in front of Hades, his ears twitching as he looked up. “A-an alliance, My Lord.”

  “And just why would I ally myself with the biggest cunt in the cosmos? She’s proven herself to be untrustworthy. Besides which, she has nothing I want.”

  “She…” Orcus tapped the long nails of his fingers together. “She says she’s joined forces with some creatures that might interest you.”

  Hades’s gaze narrowed on the troll. “What creatures?”

  “Satyrs. Specifically, satyrs who were once in the service of the Prince of Darkness.”

  A raging storm swirled inside the god-king of the Underworld at the mention of his only offspring. The one he’d been searching for ever since those good for nothing Fates had released him from their realm.

  Advancing on the troll, he growled, “Where is my son?”

  “I… I do not know, My Lord.” Orcus scrambled back until he hit the rock wall. “I swear. Sh-She didn’t say. P-Pandora’s message only
mentioned the satyrs. But wherever the satyrs are, the Prince of Darkness is not far away.”

  No, he wouldn’t be. The satyrs knew Zagreus was always searching for his nymph, and their obsession with nymphs was legendary. They tracked him to hunt their prey.

  Hades narrowed his eyes on the troll. “What else?”

  “My Lord?”

  “There’s something more you’re not telling me. I know your mind, Orcus. Spit it out.”

  “I…” Orcus glanced warily around the rock room lit only by torchlight. “Th-there was one more thing.” He looked up at Hades. “One thing that might be of use to us.”

  “And that is…?”

  “She said she’s captured an Argonaut.”

  Excitement churned inside Hades. He wanted to see those meddling Argonauts ground to dust almost as much as his fucking brothers. “Which one?”

  “Why, the most valuable one, My Lord. The one they call Maximus.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  As Zagreus watched Talisa climb the steadily rising path ahead, he cursed himself for not being tougher.

  He should have insisted she return to her realm. He should have forced her to go back. Instead, because he was such a fucking pushover, he was staring at her firm ass swaying in the tight black pants she’d worn the first time he’d met her in that club, drooling over a body he never should have touched but clearly couldn’t get enough of.

  She tossed her silky dark hair over her shoulder and carefully maneuvered around broken limbs and jagged rocks on the path that wound through the mountains high above the castle.

  The air was thinner up here, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She was too busy taking in the surroundings—the tall fir and pine trees, the thick underbrush, and to their right and far below, the river running out of the mountains which widened to the lake before narrowing at the falls past the castle.