He exhaled a long breath, pressed his face into her hair, and just held her.
And though she loved this, though she never wanted him to let go, fear slithered through her chest because she sensed—again—that he was holding back.
“Tell me,” she finally whispered, unable to stand it any longer.
He didn’t answer. Just tightened his arms around her and held her even closer.
Silence stretched between them. A silence that caused all the shocks of the last day to tumble through her mind.
His disappearance. Returning with the Argonauts. Her parents’ arrival. Her father not seeming the least bit concerned that she wouldn’t listen and go home. The way Zagreus had looked at her tonight. The way he’d touched her. The regret she’d seen lingering in his eyes when they’d made love that last time, which she’d told herself she’d misread…
Her throat grew thick, her chest tight. Panic pushed in because she knew now that she hadn’t misread him.
“Zagreus…” Her voice shook, but she didn’t care. Whatever he was holding back concerned her, and she deserved to know it, too.
She tried to turn, but he held her tighter, keeping her facing away from him. Then he pressed his forehead against her temple where she couldn’t see his face.
“I need you to do something for me.”
His voice was low. Rough. Filled with so much tortured emotion, it tugged at something deep in her soul.
“If things go bad in this battle,” he said quietly, “if Pandora conjures something we can’t defeat… I need you to promise you’ll open a portal and go home.”
“No.” Shock reverberated through her, and she turned her head as much as she could. “I told you I’m not leaving you, and I’m not.”
“Talisa, I need you to listen to me. I can survive anything. I’m immortal. But I can’t…” His arms tightened once more, and in that same pained voice that threatened to break her, he whispered, “I can’t watch you die. Not this time.”
Her heart raced, because just the fact he was thinking it meant he wasn’t entirely sure they could win this battle, even with the Argonauts.
“Then let’s leave.” She managed to shift in his arms. “Let’s go before they get here. You and me. If we’re not here, she can’t hurt either of us.”
His eyes were filled with so much agony when they met hers, something in her heart felt as if it cracked open wide. “We can’t.”
“Yes, we can.” She pressed her hands against his chest, desperate to convince him. “We just need to get dressed and go—”
“We can’t.” He gripped her hands firmly at his chest. “You know why we can’t.”
His gaze drifted over her shoulder toward the window she’d just been gazing out through. Toward the castle far below.
Her eyes slid closed. The nymphs. The silens. This place that had become a home she’d never expected. He wouldn’t leave them. But she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened when those satyrs had attacked. The choice he’d made.
“I won’t leave you,” she whispered. “I can’t… lose you like that.”
“You won’t.” He wrapped one strong arm around her waist and pulled her against him, holding her tight with a hand at the back of her head. “You won’t lose me like that,” he said into her hair. “I promise. I won’t give up.”
“But—”
“Listen to me, Talisa. I can survive anything so long as I know you’re alive. But if you die… If you die, it will destroy me, and I’ll be lost. The darkness will take me for good, and I’ll be just another weapon for Hades to wield. I can’t—we can’t let that happen. You were right about me. I’m not a monster—not yet at least—but I will be if you die. I’ve done terrible things in my life, hurt people who didn’t deserve it, and I justified my actions because I was in pain. But I don’t want to do those things anymore. I don’t want to be the villain in this story any longer. I want to do the right thing. I want to truly be yours, in every single way.”
“You are mine.” Tears slid down her cheeks as she pushed to her toes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “You’re all mine.” She sniffled and held him closer. “And you aren’t the villain. Do you hear me? You changed all that before you even met me.”
His lips curled against her throat. “Maybe I tried. But I didn’t truly believe I could until you. You think your greatest gift is your strength, but you’re wrong. It’s your compassion. The same compassion you showed me and everyone in this kingdom, and I won’t let anyone take that from this world.”
He tightened his arms around her. “Promise me you’ll leave if things go wrong. Please say you’ll go.”
The words hovered on her lips. Words she knew made sense. But she still felt he was keeping something from her. Something, she suddenly feared, that had the power to tear them apart for good.
He squeezed her tighter. “Promise me.”
Her lungs contracted. But there was so much insistence in his voice, she heard herself squeak, “I… I promise,” before she even realized the words were out.
He relaxed against her, kissed her temple, then her cheek, lifted both hands to her face and tipped her mouth up to his so he could claim her in a toe-curling kiss she felt everywhere.
And as he dragged her back to bed and whispered reassurances while he pulled the blanket from her shoulders then pressed her into the mattress, she closed her arms around him and told herself she could stop whatever he was afraid might happen.
They had the Argonauts. They had Nick. Two gods and the greatest warriors in all of history could defeat anything Pandora could conjure with her silly box.
They had to. Because contrary to what she’d promised, she wasn’t leaving him.
Not now. Not ever.
“Talisa, wake up.”
Talisa startled at the hand shaking her. Gripping the sheet at her chest, she sat up, pushed the hair out of her sleepy eyes, and looked toward Zagreus sitting beside her, already dressed and tugging on his boots. “What’s happened?”
“They’re here.” He rose and crossed to grab her clothes, folded on a small table across the room where she’d left them.
Her gaze darted to the tall arched windows. It was still dark outside, but lights burned all through the village and the castle far below.
Her heart rate shot up. She’d known they were coming, but she hadn’t expected it to be this soon.
Tossing back the covers, she rose and quickly dressed in the garments Zagreus brought her. As she sat on the bed and tugged on her boots, she said, “My weapons are at the castle.”
“We’ll stop there.”
She nodded, rose, and moved to step past him for the stairs, but he caught her arm and drew her to a halt.
His dark eyes were as demanding as she’d ever seen them, and even though he didn’t speak a single word, she knew what he was thinking. Because behind all that insistence she saw fear. The kind of fear someone like him should never feel.
She moved into him and pressed her cheek against his chest, fighting the dread building inside her. As his arms closed around her like steel bands, she whispered, “We’ll be back here together. This isn’t the end. Not for us.”