Her steps slowed near a break in the rocks to her right. Most would think it a cave not worth exploring, but she turned right toward it as if she sensed it was more.
His stomach tightened as she pressed a hand against the rocks and ducked under the natural arch. She didn’t look back at him, but he didn’t need her to. He felt her excitement and followed, wanting to see her reaction when she realized what she’d found.
A narrow corridor curved to the right, then the left. The walls were uneven stone she had to feel her way along in the dark. But the passageway quickly opened to a vast room, this time not natural, but rather man or being-made.
Talisa stopped several feet inside the room and looked around. “Wow.”
Zagreus moved out of the tunnel behind her, knowing what she was seeing—the same thing he’d seen the first time he’d found this place. Smooth walls carved from granite. A cobblestone floor. Tall pillars holding up the arched, gothic ceiling. And on the far side of the vast space, a wide staircase that filled the room with light from above, flanked on both sides by twin marble statues.
“What is this place?” Talisa asked.
“What do you think it is?”
She glanced his way, one corner of her lips curling at the challenge, then headed toward the staircase. In the middle of the room, she looked down as she stepped over the seal in the floor, the one that was faded from time but still showcased the wine chalice surrounded by ivy and grape leaves.
Her bootsteps echoed through the space. She paused briefly to study the naked female statues on each side of the stairs. But her attention darted back to the light above, and she moved past the statues and up the steps. Toward the sound coming from that light.
She stopped the second she reached the upper level, and as Zagreus moved up at her side and his eyes took in the wide, round room—this one also gothic in style with a domed ceiling and five archways that looked out over the lake far below, he knew she’d already figured it out.
“Wow,” she said again, staring out at the view. “It’s a lookout.”
“An ancient lookout, built when Ehrendia was first settled by the maenads.” He watched as she crossed the space to the arch on her right and looked up at the waterfall that poured from a cliff high above and dropped down into the lake far below.
“The waterfall is close. It should be louder.”
“The walls are soundproof.”
She moved to the middle archway and glanced down. “You can see the castle from here. The village, even the waterfall at the end of the lake.”
“You can see the whole of Ehrendia from here. That’s why it was built.”
She glanced from one arched opening to the next. “It should be colder this high up. There’s no glass in these windows. But I don’t even feel a breeze.”
“Some kind of ancient magic protects it. Keeps it insulated against the weather.”
She turned and looked around the space. At the smooth floor. Over the carvings in the rock walls—the same grapes and ivy and vines that were etched into columns back at the castle. Then finally to the pile of blankets on the far side of the room. The stack of books. And the lantern.
Her gaze slowly slid back to his. But this time there was a knowing glint in her eyes. One that told him she’d figured out this was a lot more than a lookout.
“Thank you for showing me this,” she said softly.
“I didn’t show you. You found it.”
“Regardless. I think it’s perfect.”
He wasn’t sure about that. It was quiet, though. Something he appreciated when the chaos in the castle got to be too much. “Most of the time it’s empty and dark.”
“Perhaps. At night. When the moon sets. ” Her sweet lips tipped up, and she stepped toward him. “But the rest of the time it’s filled with light. Just like you.”
His chest warmed as she inched closer. He tried to figure out what she was doing to him. And why he was reacting to her in a way he never had before. Failed just like every other time he’d tried to figure it out.
“You are so different,” he said softly, not even realizing he’d spoken aloud.
She stopped mere inches away. Sunlight from the open archways spilled over her, bathing her in light. A light he was pretty sure came from her, not the sun.
“It makes sense that I’m different, doesn’t it?” Her violet gaze skipped over his features. “Because everything’s different this time. Including you.”
His heart picked up speed, beating hard and fast against his ribs. He’d brought her here just to share something nice with her—to say thank you for everything she’d done for the kingdom. He hadn’t intended for the conversation to take this turn. But now that it had, he wasn’t sure he wanted to stop it. Didn’t even know if he could.
“Talisa, the past has a way of repeating itself, especially through me.”
She tipped her head and held his gaze. And every moment she stared at him, his skin grew hotter, almost as if the light surrounding her was seeping into him.
“The past is not your destiny, Zagreus.”
“It always was before.”
“Well, it’s not this time.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I feel it.”
When he frowned, she reached for his hand and wrapped her fingers around his.
Her touch was like fire all along his skin. But when she placed his palm against her chest, something ignited inside him. Something hot. Something that seemed to come to life, right in the center of his soul.
“Because I feel it,” she said again. “Right here. In the same place I know you feel it. It’s how I knew to help you with those satyrs. It’s why I stayed after you were injured. It’s the same feeling telling me now that my being here with you in this time and place is not the result of a random accident.”
He wanted to believe her, but history said otherwise. “You’re only here because I was looking for you.”
A tiny smile curled her lips. “And I was looking for you, too. As you pointed out to me before I even realized it.”
That thing inside his chest grew bigger. Stronger. He swallowed hard. “If you feel anything, it’s because someone’s manipulating you into feeling it.”
“No god or Fate or otherworldly being can make me feel this. Only you.” Still holding his palm against her chest, she placed her other hand over his heart. Until his pulse raced beneath her touch. “And I don’t mean the Zagreus you were before. I mean the Zagreus you are right now. The one who saved me. The one who sacrificed himself for me. The one who is not the monster everyone believes him to be.”
The things she was saying, the way she was looking at him… It was almost too much. Too intense. Too honest. He didn’t see things the way she did, wasn’t sure he ever would, and he had no experience with these kind of emotions—the kind pinging around inside, sucking up all the air until he was sure he couldn’t breathe.
“How can I be sure the past is not your destiny?” she whispered, moving closer. “Because I’m your destiny, Zagreus. Not the me I was before. Not the me from your memories. But the me I am right now, standing here in the light, choosing you. I feel it. The same way I feel you. All you have to do is step out of the darkness and let yourself feel it, too.”