Wicked

by Elisabeth Naughton

  He lowered his face into her hair and held her so tightly, her heart contracted. He still didn’t speak. Just drew in slow, ragged breaths that forced her panic even higher.

  Instinctively, she knew he still wouldn’t tell her what he was hiding. What he had planned. Because he didn’t believe they would ever be back here. At least, not together.

  Pain sliced through her chest. A pain she didn’t understand. “Zagre—”

  “Come on.” He released her and quickly stepped past, grasping her hand as he moved. “We’re out of time.”

  She wanted to pull him back. To force him to talk to her, but he was right. They were out of time.

  All these years, all these lifetimes, everything the Fates had done to push them together… It had all been reduced to this.

  To one battle she wasn’t about to let them lose.

  By the time they reached the castle, the great hall was in full chaos.

  Silens were grabbing armor and weapons from the supply that had been hauled up from the undercroft, then rushing out to the battle. Nymphs were readying bandages and supplies for the wounded that would inevitably be arriving. Others were bringing down cots and setting them up in the grand hall like a hospital wing.

  She spotted Nysa doling out directions, and her mother and aunt helping with the prep work. Her heart pinched with the knowledge they were here because of her. Pinched even harder because she knew they wouldn’t leave for the same reasons she couldn’t leave.

  Zagreus squeezed her hand. “There’s Rhen.”

  They met up with the sileni in the center of the room, where he was strapping on his armor.

  “How many?” Zagreus asked.

  “A thousand. At least. They came in through the northern border. On the far side of the lake.”

  Zagreus glanced down at Talisa, and her stomach clenched. That was where they’d crossed when they’d gone to scout for Max.

  “What about the rest?” Zagreus asked, turning his attention back to Rhen.

  “I don’t know.” Rhen sheathed his blade. “We’ve got battalions at each of the access points, and so far we’re holding them, but if they all attack at the same time…”

  He glanced toward Talisa, his words trailing off.

  She swallowed hard, knowing exactly what he was thinking. If three thousand satyrs hit at once, they were fucked.

  “What about the Argonauts?” Zagreus drew Rhen’s attention. “And my uncle?”

  “They’re already at the stone arch. Waiting for Pandora.”

  They’d all agreed that’s where Pandora would show her face. The site of her last defeat. But Talisa wasn’t so sure. If Pandora slipped through one of the other access points with her box…

  “Talisa! Talisa!”

  Talisa turned at the sound of her name being called and barely had time to drop to her knees before Aia launched herself at her.

  The child closed her arms around Talisa’s shoulders and hung on tight. Easing back just enough so she could meet Talisa’s gaze, she said, “Take me with you.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so, honey.”

  “But I can fight! I’ve been practicing with the blade you gave me!”

  “You gave her a sword?” Zagreus muttered above them.

  Talisa glanced up at him, noticing Rhen had stepped away and was hugging Nysa across the room.

  Looking back at Zagreus, she said, “It was wooden. And I made sure the end wasn’t even pointed.”

  Footsteps sounded, and Talisa glanced past the child toward Aia’s mother, already trying to pry the girl from Talisa’s shoulders.

  “Come on, agkelos,” the nymph said to her daughter. “We have to let them go so we can make our way to the tunnels.”

  “Tunnels?” Talisa pushed to her feet and looked toward Zagreus.

  “There are a series of tunnels beneath the castle that lead out into the mountains. If we can’t hold them, the nymphs will have a chance to escape.”

  Talisa reached for his hand and squeezed, praying the nymphs would be okay. Praying also that Rhen wouldn’t be hurt. Nysa wouldn’t survive losing him.

  Aia’s mother cradled her daughter against her chest, fear evident in her pale features. “Thank you. Thank you for what you’re both doing.”

  Talisa sent the nymph a small smile. It seemed like a lifetime ago she’d walked into this castle for the first time and been jealous of this female. So much had happened since then. So much she did not want to lose.

  We won’t lose. We can’t.

  Zagreus nodded at the nymph, but he didn’t speak. She rushed off with her daughter and disappeared around the corner.

  “Where are your weapons?” Zagreus asked.

  “In your suite.”

  “I’ll get them.”

  He let go of her and headed for the stairs.

  Heart thumping, Talisa made her way across the room toward her mother and aunt.

  “Matéras.”

  Casey straightened where she was laying out sheets on a cot and captured Talisa in a fierce hug. “I didn’t know if I’d see you.”

  “Where’s patéras?”

  “Already out there.”

  Talisa eased back and met her mother’s gaze. Her throat grew tight. And words she didn’t know how to say tumbled through her mind.

  “It’s okay.” Her mother hugged her again. “Go, finish this, and come back. I know you can do it. I’ve always known you could do it.”

  When Talisa let go, her mother swiped at a tear on Talisa’s cheek and smiled. And the conviction she saw in her mother’s familiar violet eyes gave Talisa strength.

  Footsteps sounded at Talisa’s side. She glanced that way as Zagreus stopped with her weapons and the leather armor the nymphs had made for her. “I take it this is yours.”

  “Yeah.”

  He handed her the armor. “Strap it on. We need to go.”

  She made quick work of the chest guard, then the bracers and greaves. As he passed her the blades, her aunt stepped up next to them, a worried look in her eyes.

  “Bring my boy back.” Callia squeezed Talisa’s hand then looked to Zagreus. “Please.”

  They both nodded, then made their way out of the castle.

  It was all surreal. Having her family here. Having them helping. All of them treating Zagreus as… maybe not as one of them, but definitely not their enemy.

  They bypassed the tunnels behind the waterfall and headed for the rocky cliff along the top instead. Where Zagreus had surprised her that first time by wrapping his arms around her and jumping her to the top with his super god-strength.

  Water roared near their feet as he drew her to a stop and turned her to face him. Closing his arm around her waist, he pulled her against him and looked down in the moonlight. “Stay close to me. Pandora will be searching for you.”

  She wrapped her arm around his shoulder, holding him just as tightly as he was holding her. “I will. Just so long as you don’t do anything stupid like last time, dios. I need you. Don’t forget that.”

  Emotions flashed in his eyes just before he crushed her to him. He didn’t kiss her. Only pressed his face into her hair and held her so close, she knew he didn’t want to let go.

  The ground disappeared beneath her feet, and she held on tighter, not wanting to release him, either. But it reformed seconds later under her boots at the bottom of the waterfall, and the shouts and voices and clashing weapons she heard in the forest at her back told her she no longer had a choice.

  “Be smart, mono mia,” he whispered in her ear. “Rely on your instincts more than your strength. They won’t fail you.” He skimmed his lips against her temple, and in an aching voice added, “Neither will I. I promise.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Zagreus’s words echoed in Talisa’s head even as she let those instincts guide her.

  She sliced through the neck of a charging satyr, drew her weapon back when he stumbled, then stabbed him through the chest.

  The beast gurgled what she sus
pected was a growl, then grasped his bloody throat and dropped to the ground with a thud.

  All around her in the forest, the battle raged. Breathing hard, she swiped the sweat out of her eyes and glanced through the moonlit trees.

  Weapons clanked. Argonauts and silens fought satyrs everywhere she looked. The beasts just kept charging out of the darkness. As if there was an unlimited supply. As if Pandora was conjuring more with her freakin’ box.

  He won’t fail me… What did he mean by that?

  What the hell was he planning?

  She scanned the battlefield for Zagreus, frantic to find him. He wasn’t using a weapon—he didn’t need one. But he couldn’t just blast all of the satyrs like he’d done before because there were too many silens and Argonauts who would get caught out here in the melee. Not to mention his electricity-charged hands could engulf the entire forest in flames if he accidentally hit a dry tree or log.

  She kept searching, her anxiety amping with every second. When a satyr charged from her left, she let those instincts guide her and swung out with her blade, catching the beast across the chest. Blood spurted. The satyr tumbled to the ground, but she barely looked.

  She spotted her father swiveling between trees with his weapon, battling four satyrs. Orpheus charging a trio from behind and taking all of them down. Cerek and Titus and Ari and Zander demolishing every satyr around them. Skyla firing arrow after arrow into the beasts from her charmed bow. She even saw Nick, a blade in one hand, throwing the other out and using his telekinetic god-powers to lift the monsters off the ground, slam them into trees, even rip them in half. But she still couldn’t see Zagreus.

  Several growls echoed to her left. She rushed that way, up a small hill, and stopped at the top to look down.

  Zagreus was on the edge of a creek, surrounded by twenty or so satyrs, battling them back with his own powers. Hustling down the embankment, she swung out with her blade, taking down each beast she came to until she was fighting by his side.

  “Here!” She tossed him her extra dagger, then swung around and caught a satyr across the thigh, slicing through his femoral artery. He howled and went down. Shoving a foot into his chest, she pushed him back, then twisted and stabbed another through the abdomen.

  Her legs ached, her arms were sore, and she was covered in blood and other things she didn’t want to think too much about. But as Zagreus stabbed her dagger through the chest of the last satyr and she paused to take in the destruction around them, she realized how lucky they were.

  Satyr bodies littered the ground everywhere. Not just here but on the other side of the hill, too. She could hear the battle continue to rage beyond the small ridge, but they were holding them back. And so far, any injuries to their side were minimal.

  Zagreus stalked toward her like a wolf, all predatory and heaving muscles in the mist, his eyes as dark and dangerous as she’d ever seen them, his focus trained only on her. He held her bloody dagger at his side in one hand. With the other, he grasped her around the nape, pulled her to him, then lowered his head and kissed her hard.

  It was quick. Not nearly close to the smoldering erotic kiss she knew he could plant on her. But it made her melt just the same. Everything about him made her melt, made her ache, made her want.

  He lifted his head, eased back just enough so he could glance over her blood-stained body, but didn’t release her. “Are you hurt? I told you to stay close to me.”

  Gods, he was bossy. And she loved it.

  She dropped the tip of her blade to the forest floor and curled her other hand in his shirt, holding him close. “I’m fine. It’s not my blood. And you’re the one who disappeared over the ridge. Scared the crap out of me.”

  He pulled her against his chest and skimmed his lips over her temple as his watchful eyes scanned the forest around them. “I thought I saw Pandora, but it wasn’t her.”

  “I haven’t seen her. Or Max.”

  “We’ll find them.” He kissed her temple again then released her. “She’s probably watching from a safe distance. That’s what I would do. She could be on the other si—”

  A roar—no, several roars—that had not come from any kind of satyr echoed like a cluster of bombs going off through the forest.

  Talisa’s eyes flew wide, and a new sense of fear shot through her whole body. “What the hell was that?”

  “Nothing good.” Zagreus grasped her hand and pulled her with him as they hustled up the hillside. What they saw at the top made Talisa gasp.

  A hydra. A fucking hydra. Laying waste to anything in its path, good bad or inanimate. All five heads had razor sharp teeth that were snapping, gnashing and vomiting fire, which was already igniting trees and shrubs and grass into fireballs.

  Her mouth fell open in shock as she watched a sileni burst into flames and run screaming into the darkness. Others around the beast dropped as if just the smell had killed them. Orpheus, Demetrius and Nick were already trying to conjure enough magick to douse the fires the hydra was igniting so the entire forest didn’t go up. The rest of the Argonauts, including Talisa’s father, had shifted direction and were now battling the hydra, trying to figure out which head was the lead so they could cut it off and kill the monster. The problem was, every time they cut off the wrong head, two new ones grew back, making the creature even more deadly.

  And the satyrs were still coming. Charging down the hillsides out of the dark, taking advantage of the chaos.

  Oh gods… They were going to lose this battle.

  Zagreus captured her arm before she could race down there herself. “Hold on. Wait. And watch.”

  Her adrenaline was in the out of this world range. She didn’t know what he wanted her to see. But as she watched the hydra’s heads swivel and twist and undulate like snakes in Medusa’s hair, and she noted which heads were new, sprouting from one the Argonauts decapitated, she realized what he was looking for.

  “Holy shit,” she muttered. “It’s that one. The head with the purple scale on the back of its skull.” The one those down below in the fray couldn’t see because they didn’t have their vantage point.

  “I’ll try to hit it from here. Get down there and tell them to get out of the way.”

  She nodded and turned to go, but he captured her again and whipped her back. “Stay out of range of its breath. The gas is poisonous.”

  “I will.” She pulled free of his hold and raced down the hillside, using her blade to cut through any satyrs in her path. At the bottom, she screamed her father’s name and continued to battle satyrs who seemed to be coming stronger and faster than they had before.

  “Talisa!” Her father spotted her and instantly shifted direction, heading her way, fighting through satyrs as well. When he reached her, they were both sweaty and breathing heavy, but he grasped her by the arm and drew her up against him, alarm filling his familiar eyes. “Are you hurt? Where? What happened?”

  “I’m fine. I’m…” She sucked in air. “Everyone has to get back. Zagreus is going to take out the hydra, but he can’t do it with everyone so close.”

  Theron’s gaze shot past her, up the hill to where Zagreus was already shooting short bursts of electricity out of his palms at the hydra, zapping different parts of its body to distract it and lure it closer.

  “Skata,” her father muttered. Whipping around, he screamed, “Everyone back. Zander! Pull them back!”

  A jolt of electricity singed the hydra’s shoulder, and it let out a blood-curdling scream. Then multiple heads swiveled Zagreus’s way on the ridge, bellowed a roar that made the entire valley shake, and charged.

  Talisa stumbled as the ground quaked. Her father threw out an arm and captured her, pulling her against him so she wouldn’t fall.

  The mighty beast tore right over satyrs in its path, crushing them under the weight of its giant feet, but all Talisa could focus on was the monster charging toward Zagreus, pulling its heads back and opening its mouths, readying to spew fire and flames all over her soul mate.

 
Every muscle in her body contracted. She heard his voice echoing in her head, telling her he wouldn’t let her down. Felt the torment in her chest from the lookout when she’d sensed he was keeping something from her. And in her soul, she knew nothing but anguish because she realized this was what he had planned. To sacrifice himself to save everyone else.

  She wrestled free of her father, took one step, and screamed, “Zagreus!”

  An explosion rocked the forest, illuminating every tree and leaf and inch of space with bright white light. The shock wave blasted her off her feet and back into her father. They both slammed into the ground and groaned. Her head smacked against something hard, sending blinding pain across the back of her skull.

  Trees snapped like twigs, going down all around them, and those that were left sizzled and burned as the light slowly faded.

  Dazed, Talisa slowly sat up and shook her head, cringing at the pain in her back as tiny bits of something soft and wet rained down from above. A piece the size of her ear landed against the bracer on her right arm. Gazing down at it, she realized it had scales.

  She looked up quickly, realizing the monster was gone. All around her, silens were slowly pushing themselves up. No more satyrs were rushing into the valley. It was as if the explosion had stopped them.

  The Argonauts, including her father, were already on their feet, jamming their blades through any satyrs who’d survived, quickly taking control of the situation. Nick, Orpheus and Demetrius had doused most of the big flames so there was no more threat of a forest fire.

  Holy shit, he’d done it.

  Talisa’s gaze darted up the hillside, where she’d last seen Zagreus. But he wasn’t there. Panic filled her chest, a new, more intense panic that robbed her of air and sent terror streaking down her spine.

  “Zagreus…” Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods, no… She struggled to her feet, stumbled, couldn’t seem to stand. “Zagreus!”

  An arm wrapped around her waist, pulled her up, tugging her close to a warm, strong, familiar chest. One that was also littered with tiny wet bits of that hydra. “You called, princess?”