As Cynna stepped out from behind the drape, Delia turned from the desk where she sat making notes on Cynna’s chart and smiled Cynna’s way, her white hair catching the light from above. “I hate to point out the obvious, but neither of you are going to be able to keep it secret much longer.”
Frowning, Cynna rubbed a hand over her growing belly and crossed the colorful rug in the small medical clinic Delia ran in the witches’ tent city high in the mountains outside Tiyrns. “Tell me something I don’t already know. In another week or so I expect him to start locking me in the house where no one can see me.”
Delia grinned. “I recall a time not long ago when you didn’t mind being locked anywhere with your mate.”
“I still don’t. But we talked about this before we decided to have this child, and he assured me he’d be reasonable. Ever since I told him I was pregnant, though, he’s turned into a complete nutcase. I’m ready to send him to a funny farm.”
Delia chuckled and pushed to her feet. “That’s a worried male for you. Especially an overprotective one. It makes sense he’s a little stressed, though. Especially knowing who his brothers are.”
Right. Zeus and Hades.
Even though Cynna had been with Nick nearly twenty-eight years, there were days when she forgot her mate was Krónos’s bastard son. That he was a god himself. That he was more powerful than nearly every being in this realm. When they were alone together, when his arms were around her and her cheek was pressed against his chest, he was just Nick. Her sanity. Her reason for living. The only person in the world who’d been able to save her from herself.
“And,” Delia went on, “he has every reason to stay vigilant, especially now that we know Zagreus has been released by the Fates.”
Cynna’s stomach tightened, and she protectively touched her belly again.
Delia, being one of the strongest witches in their land, had sensed the moment Zagreus had been released from his latest imprisonment. Cynna still wasn’t sure why the Fates had let him go, and she told herself he wouldn’t come looking for her, that he had no interest in her anymore, but always in the back of her mind, she worried.
She’d voluntarily spent nearly a year with the Prince of Darkness as his “mistress.” He’d told her numerous times that she was his. That she would never get away from him. Then she’d betrayed him by falling in love with one of his prisoners—Nick—and they’d both escaped Zagreus’s lair together.
Plus, she’d helped Nick come into his god-powers. Her actions had resulted in Hades destroying Zagreus’s home. And the fallout from all of that had been Zagreus being sent to the Underworld for gods only knew what kind of inhuman torture before being imprisonment with the Fates. For twenty-five years.
Nerves prickled her skin. After all that, after Zagreus’d had time to think about her year with him, the minor god had to know Cynna had lied to him. That she’d never been the one he’d been looking for. Yes, twenty-five years was a lifetime to some, but a blink of an eye to an immortal. Now that he was free, he had to be thankful she was no longer a distraction.
Wouldn’t he?
Cynna’s gaze skipped over Delia’s features as fear churned in her chest. The witch was an elder in her community, wise beyond her years, but to those around her she was youthful and beautiful. The only feature that gave away her age was her snow-white hair. “Have you seen something in your visions? In your glass?”
“No. Wherever the Prince of Darkness is hiding, it is beyond my sight.”
Cynna breathed easier. Delia was able to use water and mirrors to search for beings in this world and other realms. If she couldn’t see Zagreus, it meant he wasn’t in Argolea or anywhere close.
“But something stirs inside him,” Delia said, her piercing blue eyes locked on Cynna’s. “I feel it gathering strength, spurring him toward a goal I cannot bring into focus just yet. And it is making him stronger. I told you once that he is more than Hades’s son. You and your mate would be wise to remember that he is more powerful than the Argonauts believe him to be. And that he does not forget. Ever.”
Well… shit.
Icy fingers of dread tiptoed down Cynna’s spine. She placed her other hand protectively on her belly. Where Zagreus was concerned, nothing and no one was ever safe.
The tent flap behind Cynna rustled, and seconds later a witch with light purple hair stuck her head into the clinic. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Delia.” The witch bowed slightly then quickly looked toward Cynna. “You have a visitor. They said it was an emergency.”
The conversation with Delia pushed Cynna’s worry right back to the forefront, and she immediately thought of her mate. But when the witch stepped aside, it wasn’t one of his men from Kyrenia where she and Nick lived who appeared in the doorway. It was Cynna’s niece.
Cynna’s worry quickly shifted to her sister. “Elysia? What’s wrong? What’s happened? Is it Isadora?”
“She’s fine.” Elysia gripped Cynna’s hand. Her face was flushed, her dark hair wind-blown, and her skin was pale, as if she’d just seen a ghost. But her grip was strong. “My mother is fine. She’s with my other aunts. But I need to take you to them.”
“Why?” Cynna asked, brows drawn low. They weren’t Cynna’s family. Casey and Callia were Isadora’s half-sisters on her father’s side, the late king. Cynna was related to Isadora through their mother.
“Because you’re the only one who may be able to tell us where he took her. Or what he plans to do with her.”
“He who?” When Elysia tugged on her hand, Cynna pulled back, staring at her niece in complete bewilderment. “And who did he take?”
“Talisa,” Elysia said, meeting her gaze. “Zagreus has Talisa. He grabbed her and poofed right out of that club in the human realm as if he’d been waiting for her. And he called her mono mia.”
Cynna sucked in a shocked breath.
Fear filled Elysia’s eyes. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
Horrified, Cynna slowly nodded.
She’d been wrong. Zagreus was not coming for her. But this news would ultimately draw her and Nick right back into his path.
“Then Cerek was right,” Elysia said. “You are the only one who can save her now.”
Darkness surrounded Talisa. She blinked several times, only everything was fuzzy in her line of sight, and she couldn’t see more than a dim orange glow from somewhere close.
Groggy, she tried to sit up, but the pounding in her head caused her to lie right back down.
Lifting a hand to her forehead, she cringed when her fingertips passed over a tender lump and slid into her hair.
At some point she’d taken a hard hit to the head, but she was having trouble remembering when that was or who had hit her. And....
Weird. Her hair was loose. She’d had it pulled back from her face before. She was almost sure. Her skin also smelled like…
Lilacs? That was even more bizarre.
Confused, she dropped her hand to her side only to realize she was lying on something soft—a bed—and there was a blanket covering her legs. She lifted her head and blinked several times again to bring the light comforter into view, then the wooden footboard of the bed, and the dark silhouette of—