Nysa trailed behind him as he hustled back down the steps. “The sentries have been watching her all day. If she tried to leave, they would have stopped her. Even if Ana was with her, they wouldn’t have let—”
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, suddenly realizing his mistake.
“What?” Nysa asked at his side where he’d stopped on the stairs.
“Ana knows enough magick to get Talisa past the guards without drawing attention.” Because he’d taught her spells. Not a camouflaging spell, per se, but the nymph was smart. She could have easily looked that one up for herself. She had access to his chambers, knew which books lining his shelves delved into magick. She also knew sleeping spells to knock the guards out if need be. Belatedly, he realized none had been guarding the tower staircase where he’d left them.
“Oh shit,” Nysa muttered.
Zagreus turned to Nysa, who’s eyes were now wide with fear. “When was the last time anyone saw Talisa or the nymph?”
Nysa’s gaze skipped around the dimly lit stairwell. “Ana was in the grand hall thirty minutes or so ago. I saw her by the fire before the others retired for bed. Talisa went up to the tower sometime after eleven.”
Thirty minutes. They couldn’t have gotten far in thirty minutes.
“Find Rhen,” he instructed. “Have him gather a search party. I want teams scouring both inside and outside the castle.”
“Yes, My Prince.”
As she hustled down the steps, Zagreus drew a deep breath, closed his eyes, and centered himself.
He could find Talisa. This was why he’d made her drink his blood. So their life forces would be connected. He just had to focus. Their souls might already be bound, but physically they were joined now. He simply had to relax, to search for that part of himself that was with her. To let it draw him to—
His eyes shot open when he recognized her location. And his adrenaline surged as he realized just how close he was to losing her.
Again.
He flashed to the stone arch. The second he opened his eyes, he spotted Talisa and Ana rolling across the hard ground. Both of their bodies were covered in dirt, their muscles tense, hands clawing and feet kicking.
He didn’t know who had started this fight or what was really going on, but he’d left instruction Talisa was not to be harmed, and the nymph had clearly defied him.
“Ana, stop!”
The females both jerked at the sound of his voice. Ana shoved off Talisa and stumbled to her feet. Breathing heavily, she whipped Zagreus’s way, but the instant his eyes met hers, he knew something was off. Something about her was off.
Something he was just now seeing because she was beyond the border of Ehrendia.
“Motherfucker,” he muttered, staring at her light blue eyes and familiar—very familiar—face. “You.”
Ana’s hair stuck out all over her head but it was no longer blonde. It was dark. Dust and dirt covered her face and hands and the cloak hanging off her shoulders as her icy gaze narrowed on Zagreus, but he knew that face. Would always know that face. He just couldn’t believe he’d been so blind that he hadn’t seen through her glamour and recognized it sooner.
Talisa slowly pushed to her feet. Her chest rose and fell with her quick breaths. Rocks and twigs were stuck to her wild hair and torn skirt. She brushed her dirty palms against the fabric but didn’t take her eyes off Ana. And Zagreus didn’t reach for her because he didn’t trust Ana, either. Especially when he didn’t yet know what kind of weapons the female was hiding.
“Ana,” he said as calmly as he could even though all he really wanted to do was wrap his hands around her neck and squeeze. “Let’s go back inside the kingdom where it’s safe and—”
“Fuck you, Zagreus.” She pulled something metal and shiny from her cloak and hurled it toward Talisa.
Zagreus lurched in front of Talisa, knocking her out of the way. The blade sank deep into his side, cutting through flesh and into bone, sending blinding pain all through his torso.
Talisa grunted as she hit the hard earth. Zagreus cringed against the searing pain and tried to roll off her. Footsteps pounded at his back, growing steadily lighter until they faded in the dark forest.
Talisa scrambled out from under him and shifted to her knees. “Oh my gods, that’s my dagger. She had my dagger.”
Grinding his teeth, Zagreus moved so he was sitting in the dirt and reached for the handle sticking out of his side.
“No, don’t—”
“Fucking”—he yanked the blade free, wincing at the pain radiating through his side with the motion—“first bitch.” Blood gushed from the wound, staining his shirt, but within seconds the flow slowed as the wound knit back together, a benefit of being immortal. “Hephaestus never should have created her for Zeus. I don’t know how the hell she found me, but I should have seen through her glamour.”
“Who?”
He dropped the blade on the ground and fought from groaning as he pushed to his feet. Wrapping a hand around Talisa’s arm, he pulled her up next to him. “Pandora.”
Talisa’s eyes flew wide. “That was Pandora? The first woman ever created?”
“Unfortunately. A scheming, conniving, evil bitch who is more dangerous than all the gods put together.”
“What was she doing here?”
“Who knows. Probably trying to fuck me over. She was one of my prisoners years ago before my lair was demolished.” He gripped her arms at the elbows, his gaze scanning her body for injuries. “Did she hurt you?”
“No, but—”
“Good.” He closed one hand over hers and turned to pull her after him toward the stone arch. “We need to get back inside the kingdom’s borders.”
“Zagreus, wait.” Talisa tugged back on his arm. When he looked over his shoulder, she blinked up at him in the moonlight with familiar yet very focused eyes. Eyes that put him on instant alert and made him turn her way. “She wasn’t alone. She brought—”
Growls echoed in the dark trees behind Talisa, cutting off her words. So many growls, her familiar violet eyes grew wide once more.
Zagreus stilled and looked over her head toward the fifty or so satyrs emerging from the forest around them, muscles hulking, weapons ready, murder glinting in their soulless eyes.
Holy fuck.
Options, possibilities, scenarios raced through his mind.
They were too close to the satyrs to try to make a break for it under the archway. If Talisa already knew the beasts were here, it meant those satyrs had been waiting for Ana and had seen them passthrough that gate. Satyrs were simple creatures who fixated on one thing at a time. Unless they got what they wanted, they’d attack until they broke through the barrier and found a way in. And it was also possible Ana had already given them the spell to access Ehrendia when the stone arch was unguarded.
That left grabbing Talisa and teleporting their way out of this mess, except… Outside the camouflaged borders he’d erected with his magick, that would create an energy surge his father or any of the other gods could detect. If, that is, the gods were searching for him.
Which… yeah. Double fuck. He knew they were. His father was always searching for him. And thanks to his recent visit to Olympus, now Zeus and Zeus’s motherfucking miserable Sirens were hunting him, too.