To her father, he said, “Make sure she stays there.”
Theron nodded, brought his fingers together, and opened the portal with a pop and sizzle of energy that illuminated the trees around them.
Talisa screamed his name one more time, but her father pulled her into the portal before she could get out anything else. Then it closed, leaving behind nothing but a rush of energy that sizzled over his skin and the darkness.
A familiar darkness that had been waiting for him all his life.
He drew a deep breath that did nothing to ease the anguish inside, then turned and stared into the night where thousands of glowing green daemon eyes were interspersed amongst the fallen and charred tree trunks with blood-red hellhound eyes. And behind them, in a swirl of black smoke that seemed to shove the night aside, his father, stalking toward them like a colossus nightmare straight out of the Underworld.
He knew Nick was standing not far away. He didn’t need to look. He could feel his power as if it were his own. The last time they’d been in a battle together, Nick had focused his energy on the darkness and destroyed every one of Hades’s daemons. Tonight, that wouldn’t be enough.
“Are you ready?” Zagreus asked, not turning.
“I’m ready,” Nick responded.
So was Zagreus. Finally.
He moved forward, away from Nick, the Argonauts, and what was left of his silens. At his back, he felt the energy sizzle as Nick formed the shield between Zagreus and Ehrendia. There were still daemons and hellhounds behind the shield, but the screams and howls told him the Argonauts were already killing those that had gotten through.
Hades’s smoke swirled in the distance. Growls and snarls echoed in the dark. Zagreus ignored it all and focused on conjuring the hologram around his neck. The image of the Orb he knew his father could not resist. Then, knowing Ehrendia was safe, he lifted his hands and used his gifts to torch every daemon and hellhound he could see.
The howls and horrific screams echoed through the demolished forest as their bodies burst into flames. When the distance between Zagreus and his father was clear, he reached into his shirt and pulled out the Orb. “You want this? Call off what’s left of your army, daddy dearest, and come and take it. Just you and me.”
The growl that echoed through the forest was one of malevolence. Of terror. Of ultimate evil.
“You think you can negotiate with me? You think you can defeat me?” Hades advanced on him like a malicious shadow. “You’re more worthless than I thought.”
A vicious hand swept out of the darkness to grasp the Orb from Zagreus’s neck, but Hades’s fingers passed through air, causing the image of the Orb to flicker then reform.
“Not worthless,” Zagreus answered as Hades’s eyes flew wide. “Not yet, anyway.”
“That was stupid.” Fury darkened Hades’s features. He lifted his hand toward Nick and the others. A stream of fire shot from his fingertips, but Nick’s shield was too strong to penetrate.
“Not stupid, either,” Zagreus mumbled. “When it comes to you, I’ve finally wised up.”
A roar that shook the forest echoed from Hades’s chest like a shock wave, taking down any trees around them that had been left standing. Then he turned his infuriated red eyes on Zagreus and captured him at the neck with one meaty hand. “You are no son of mine. No one betrays me and gets away with it. If you thought you’d suffered before, you have no idea what true pain is.”
Zagreus gasped, reached up to pry his father’s fingers loose, but the hold was too tight.
With one last glare toward Nick and the others, Hades’s muttered, “Their time will come.” Then to Zagreus, he said, “You’re my prisoner now, boy. And this time, I’m never letting you go.”
In a swirl of black smoke that choked Zagreus’s lungs, he poofed them out of that forest and straight into hell.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“There’s still no sign of him,” Phineus said as he stood in front of the queen’s desk in the Argolean castle. “There’s no sign of any of them.”
From her spot on the far side of the room, looking out the tall cathedral windows at the Olympic Ocean rolling over the beach far below, Talisa listened as the Argonauts gave the queen the daily rundown on their search for Max.
A week had gone by. A week since that horrible battle in the forest outside Ehrendia when she’d lost everything.
Once they’d all returned to Argolea, Nick had relayed what had happened after Talisa and her father had left. Zagreus knowing Hades was coming. The plan he’d hatched with her father and the Argonauts to protect her, the Orb, and Ehrendia. And the moment he’d sacrificed himself to the Underworld, knowing full-well that this time Hades would never let him go.
Heartbreak tore through her. The kind of heartbreak that runs soul deep, sucking up every ounce of thought and strength and passion inside a person until they’re left empty and utterly alone. Even when they’re surrounded by dozens of people.
“The fortress was abandoned,” Titus said at Phin’s side. “The place was a total ghost town. The satyrs bugged out right after the battle, or they knew they wouldn’t be going back there when it was over.”
Talisa swallowed hard and stared down at the beach. Her money was on the latter. The satyrs might be simple creatures but their race had survived thousands of years for a reason. And Max was smart. If he was leading them, as they all suspected, he would have had an escape plan. He wasn’t just a strong and powerful warrior, he had an amazing strategic mind.
She wasn’t sure if it was a comfort or a burden that her father and the queen had included her in all the updates since she’d been home, as if she’d always been an integral part of the guardians. She knew she’d proven herself a capable warrior to the Argonauts, but somewhere along the way she’d lost the desire to be one of them. She’d lost the desire for everything since she’d been home.
Her eyes slid closed on another jab of misery. Gods, she hurt. Everywhere. So much that just getting out of bed was a feat she wouldn’t be able to manage much longer. And standing here, listening to updates on the search for Max when all she cared about was where Zagreus was and what was happening to him, wasn’t helping. Especially when she was surrounded by the Argonauts.
“And what of Pandora’s box?” the queen asked where she stood in front of her desk, leaning back against the old wood as she listened to the update.
“No sign of that, either,” Ari answered on Phin’s other side. “We turned the place upside down. Max has to have it with him. The only thing we did find was a funeral pyre several miles away in the woods.”
A funeral pyre for Pandora. The realization distracted Talisa from her heartbreak. For a moment, at least.
Pandora had been mortal. That blade Rhen had thrown had killed her almost instantly. And her death had driven Max into a rage even his forefather Achilles couldn’t rival.
Talisa’s mind skipped back to the last time she’d seen Max—his features twisted with fury and vengeance just before he’d flashed out of that forest. Something no Argonaut could do on Earth, except him. He hadn’t been the Max she’d known and looked up to all her life. He’d been a shadow of himself. One hellbent on destruction. Filled with wrath and powers most gods couldn’t even harness. He’d been… As dark as the evil that dwells in the Underworld.