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 longer. 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.
“Zagreus bound her powers,” Ana announced to the beasts. “She should be easy to subdue. I’m sure she’ll provide hours of entertainment for you boys before you kill her. As much as I’d love to stay and watch, I don’t have time. The prince is waiting.”
She pinned Talisa with those hauntingly translucent blue eyes, her expression smug and victorious, the hair peeking out from beneath her hood no longer blonde but brown. “Thank those meddling Argonauts for your fate, paidí. I warned that guardian what would happen if I was ever set free. He should have listened.”
Talisa had no idea what Ana was rambling about or which guardian she was referencing, but one thing was clear.
The bitch had set her up. And now she was leaving Talisa to die.
Fury gathered inside Talisa. A fury that had nothing to do with Zagreus and colored everything red.
As Ana turned away, Talisa lurched off the ground and hurled herself at the female.
Chapter Eight
It was well after midnight by the time Zagreus made his way into the castle.
He washed the grime from his hands in the empty kitchen, ignoring the rumble in his stomach. Most of the servants had retired for bed already. He knew the kitchen maids had left him food, which his body clearly needed, but he was more concerned with making sure Talisa hadn’t caused any trouble while he’d been gone. Once he was certain she was sound asleep where she was supposed to be, he’d come back and refuel.
He tossed the towel on the counter, turned out of the massive kitchen and into the grand hall dimly lit by a smoldering fire, and headed for the stairs.
He’d left his men in the courtyard with instructions to keep the sentries on high alert tonight. The satyrs they’d tracked all day had roamed their borders but hadn’t actually breached their lands. They were getting bolder, though, clearly looking for a weak spot in Ehrendia’s defenses. Almost as if…
Almost as if someone inside Ehrendia was feeding them information.
That thought revolved in Zagreus’s mind as he made his way up to the highest floor in the castle. Rhen had thought the same. They’d discussed it just before Zagreus had come into the grand hall. Rhen had noted that the satyrs had followed the border too closely all day for their path to be random. And Zagreus agreed.
Those satyrs had known where the borders edged empty land. They’d been searching for a break in Zagreus’s magick. Or they’d known they were being followed and had been leading his sentries away from the castle.
The hair on Zagreus’s nape tingled with that last thought, and his feet came to a stop in the middle of the corridor.
Footsteps pounded close. His gaze shot to the open doorway ahead that led to the narrow, curved staircase up to the tower.
Nysa appeared in the doorway, her eyes wide, her face pale, telling him exactly what he suddenly feared.
“Where is she?” His muscles instantly tightened.
“I don’t know. But Ana’s gone, too. As soon as I realized Ana was missing, I went to check on the princess.”
Motherfucker. He’d known not to trust that nymph. He turned back for the main staircase.