“I’m fine. I’m…” She sucked in air. “Everyone has to get back. Zagreus is going to take out the hydra, but he can’t do it with everyone so close.”
Theron’s gaze shot past her, up the hill to where Zagreus was already shooting short bursts of electricity out of his palms at the hydra, zapping different parts of its body to distract it and lure it closer.
“Skata,” her father muttered. Whipping around, he screamed, “Everyone back. Zander! Pull them back!”
A jolt of electricity singed the hydra’s shoulder, and it let out a blood-curdling scream. Then multiple heads swiveled Zagreus’s way on the ridge, bellowed a roar that made the entire valley shake, and charged.
Talisa stumbled as the ground quaked. Her father threw out an arm and captured her, pulling her against him so she wouldn’t fall.
The mighty beast tore right over satyrs in its path, crushing them under the weight of its giant feet, but all Talisa could focus on was the monster charging toward Zagreus, pulling its heads back and opening its mouths, readying to spew fire and flames all over her soul mate.
Every muscle in her body contracted. She heard his voice echoing in her head, telling her he wouldn’t let her down. Felt the torment in her chest from the lookout when she’d sensed he was keeping something from her. And in her soul, she knew nothing but anguish because she realized this was what he had planned. To sacrifice himself to save everyone else.
She wrestled free of her father, took one step, and screamed, “Zagreus!”
An explosion rocked the forest, illuminating every tree and leaf and inch of space with bright white light. The shock wave blasted her off her feet and back into her father. They both slammed into the ground and groaned. Her head smacked against something hard, sending blinding pain across the back of her skull.
Trees snapped like twigs, going down all around them, and those that were left sizzled and burned as the light slowly faded.
Dazed, Talisa slowly sat up and shook her head, cringing at the pain in her back as tiny bits of something soft and wet rained down from above. A piece the size of her ear landed against the bracer on her right arm. Gazing down at it, she realized it had scales.
She looked up quickly, realizing the monster was gone. All around her, silens were slowly pushing themselves up. No more satyrs were rushing into the valley. It was as if the explosion had stopped them.
The Argonauts, including her father, were already on their feet, jamming their blades through any satyrs who’d survived, quickly taking control of the situation. Nick, Orpheus and Demetrius had doused most of the big flames so there was no more threat of a forest fire.
Holy shit, he’d done it.
Talisa’s gaze darted up the hillside, where she’d last seen Zagreus. But he wasn’t there. Panic filled her chest, a new, more intense panic that robbed her of air and sent terror streaking down her spine.
“Zagreus…” Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods, no… She struggled to her feet, stumbled, couldn’t seem to stand. “Zagreus!”
An arm wrapped around her waist, pulled her up, tugging her close to a warm, strong, familiar chest. One that was also littered with tiny wet bits of that hydra. “You called, princess?”
He grinned down at her in the moonlight, his hair wet and covered in gunk, his handsome face dotted with sweat, his onyx eyes just as mischievous and hypnotic as they’d ever been. Her devil, her captor, her hero.
The love of her fucking life.
“Oh my gods…” She threw her arms around his shoulders and squeezed him so tight, he gasped. But she didn’t let up. Didn’t think she ever could. “I thought I lost you. I thought…” She hugged him harder and pressed her face to his throat, breathing him in. “You son of a bitch. Don’t do that to me again.”
His other arm closed around her, holding her just as close. Then in her ear, he whispered, “You can’t lose me, mono mia. No matter what, I’m yours, remember? No one else in the world is crazy enough to want me. ”
In the middle of what could only be described as a nightmare, she smiled. Laughed. Pressed her lips to his throat and kissed him again and again. “I am crazy. Crazy in love with you. And you are so getting punished for that insane stunt.”
He eased back and shot her a smoldering look, one that ignited a fire inside her, one only a wicked god like him could enflame. “Promise?”
“Absolutely.” She grinned wider, pushed to her toes, and pressed her mouth to his.
He groaned, then opened to her kiss, sliding his tongue along hers and filling her mouth with the hot, wet, seductive taste of him she would never get enough of.
And as she drew him in, her heart filled with relief. With hope. With every bit of love she hadn’t even known she could feel.
A blood-curdling scream echoed through the charred forest. One so shrill it sent a shiver straight down Talisa’s spine.
She jerked back from Zagreus’s mouth and twisted to look over her shoulder, across downed and blackened tree trunks in the direction of the stone arch. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” Whatever humor had been in his features faded. He grasped her hand and tugged her with him, heading toward the sound. “Stay close to me, though, just in case.”
She grabbed her blade from the ground and hustled to keep up with his long legs. She knew the others had heard the scream too and were following, but since they were closer, they were the first to crest the rise and reach the small clearing in front of the arch.
The first to see Phineus holding a thrashing female from behind with an arm wrapped around her chest.
“Let me go. Let me go!” she screamed, fighting with everything she had even though her struggling barely made the big Argonaut budge.
“Settle down, witch.” Phin tightened his grip, holding more firmly so she couldn’t kick him in the balls. “I won’t hurt you so long as you cooperate.”
“Zagreus.” Talisa squeezed his arm. “It’s Pandora.”
“Yeah, be careful,” he said in a low voice at her side. “We don’t know what she’s done with her box.”
They moved up slowly, so as not to surprise either of them, but as they stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight, Pandora’s gaze shot their way, her eyes flashing with fury.
“You,” she growled, still wrestling against Phin’s hold, glancing from Talisa to Zagreus and back again.
“Yeah, us,” Zagreus muttered, stopping yards away.
Talisa stilled next to him and gazed at the female who’d tried to kill her. Who’d tried to kill them. She knew she should care about that damn box, but right now only one thing mattered. “Where is he?”
Pandora’s eyes blazed. “Maximus is mine.”
Talisa had said the same thing to Zagreus—that he was hers—but not like this. Never like this. Her words had come from the heart. These reeked of actual possession.
“He’s not yours,” Talisa said. “He’ll never be yours. And your little game here is over. Tell us where he is,” she demanded.
Pandora struggled harder against Phin’s hold, then started wailing like a dying cat. So loud, any satyrs left in the area had to hear it. So loud, she could be calling them back.
“Shut her up,” Zagreus snapped, stepping forward. “Before—”