She stepped forward, desperate to get away from him.
“I didn’t sleep with her.”
She stopped, sure she had to have imagined those words.
“I couldn’t,” he said softly. “Because my heart belongs to you.”
Cynna’s pulse sped up until it was a whir in her ears, and wide-eyed, she turned to face him.
“I love you, Cynna.” He moved toward her. “Not because the gods say I should. Not because some curse tells me to. I love you because I choose to.”
He stopped inches away, and her stomach tightened, her head felt light. She was too afraid to speak, too afraid any kind of sound would wake her and prove this was a dream and not reality.
His fingers brushed the hair away from her temple. “And because you’re the only person in my life who’s never wanted anything from me except me.”
“I…” She swallowed hard. This wasn’t a dream. He was standing here. Looking down at her in the moonlight like she was…everything. Her skin grew hot. “What about Isadora?”
Sadness crept into his amber eyes, and he trailed his finger down her cheek until she trembled. “I don’t know. I can’t change the soul mate pull. I’ll always feel the need to help her if I can. But being with her like that is not the answer.”
He lifted his other hand to her face, cradling her jaw in his big palms. And his eyes grew so soft and dreamy as he gazed down at her, her heart burst to life in her chest. “You’re my answer, though. To every struggle, every heartache, every question I was too afraid to ask. You’ve drawn me back from the edge so many times, not because you have some magical quality but because you understand me. No one, not in two hundred years, has ever cared for me the way you do. Because of you, I know I can fight the darkness inside and win. All I have to do is think of you, and I’m free.”
He shifted closer until his body brushed hers, and his heat seeped into her skin, making her ache, not with loss this time, but with…hope. “I want to be that same answer for you. I know your life has been filled with pain and darkness, but I can be your balance the way you’ve been mine. If it takes my whole life, Cynna, through all of eternity, I promise to be that and more for you.”
Tears burned. Tears she couldn’t hold back. She closed her eyes as the first droplet slid down her cheek. “You big jerk. You already are.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, and she held her breath. Then sighed as his lips brushed hers and she drew him into her mouth.
She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve him after all the bad shit she’d done in her life, but she wanted him. He might have thought she’d saved him from a bitter darkness, but the truth was, he’d saved her. Because without him, she’d have become a hard, empty shell of a person. She’d have become someone just like Zagreus.
“Nick…”
He tipped his head, kissed her deeper, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the warmth and protection of his body. And as she returned his kiss with every ounce of passion inside her, she opened the last bit of her heart to him.
Her head grew light. Her skin tingled. She felt as if his kisses were shaking the ground. And then her knees wobbled, and she drew back from his mouth and realized they weren’t standing in the field behind the ruins of her parents’ old house. They were in a bedroom. One with pale blue walls, a queen-size bed covered with a gray-and-white-checked quilt, and a small window that looked out over a dark street.
“Where…?” She glanced around and recognized the symbol hanging over the bed. The crescent moon tipped on its side with three droplets falling beneath it. The witch’s symbol for blessing. Her gaze shot back to his face. “We’re in Delia’s house. You flashed me through walls.”
A sexy, powerful grin curled his lips, pulling on the scar across his cheek. “I’m telling you, these gifts are coming in mighty handy.”
He leaned close, brushed his tempting mouth over hers again, and pushed the lightweight jacket from her shoulders, then dropped it on the floor. “But right now I don’t want to use them. I want to unwrap you like the gift that you are.”
She sucked in a breath as he drew back, as his fingers found the hem of her T-shirt and lifted it above her head. His eyes raked over the swell of her breasts, and her nipples tightened when she saw the desire in his features. He licked his lips and leaned down to kiss her again.
She pushed the jacket from his shoulder as he walked her backward toward the bed, every part of her aching for his touch. He laved his tongue over hers and flipped the clasp on her bra free, then tugged it from her arm and tossed it behind him.
The backs of her legs hit the mattress, but he caught her around the waist before she fell, then lowered her to the bed, never once breaking their kiss, never once letting her go.
She’d never wanted anyone to protect her. Never thought she’d needed it. But with Nick, she felt safe. Cherished. And even in his darkest hour, she knew in the depths of her heart that he’d never hurt her.
She reached for his shirt as he climbed over her. He eased back long enough for her to pull the soft cotton free of his body. Then his mouth was on hers once more, the muscles in his back rippling beneath her fingers as he kissed her again and again, as she opened her legs and he pressed her into the mattress.
“Mm, Cynna.” His hand slid up her side to cup her breast and brush his thumb over her nipple. “I’m lost without you.”
Her fingers found his waistband, and she reached between them, unbuttoning his jeans. “Then don’t ever be without me.”
He groaned into her mouth as she slipped her hand into his pants and closed her fingers around his length. He was hard, hot, already pulsing in her grip. And as he licked into her mouth and pressed into her hand, she stroked him, loving the way he trembled against her, loving that she did this to him, that she was the one who could make him weak.
He drew back from her before she was ready to let him go, crawled back off the bed, and stripped her of her own pants. Heart pounding, she pressed up on her elbows and watched as his gaze skipped across her naked flesh, as his features darkened, as he licked his lips again, then lowered to his knees and tugged her hips to the edge of the bed.
“This is what I want,” he whispered.
Anticipation and heat swirled inside her as he pushed her legs apart, as he leaned close. And then he licked the swollen flesh between her legs, and she was gone.
Pleasure rushed down her spine. She dropped her head back as that pleasure trickled through her body, groaned when he did it again and again, sending her spinning toward a release only he could make her reach. He knew exactly where to touch her with his tongue, with his fingers, knew just when to suckle to make her cry out and when to back off to heighten her arousal. Sweat slicked her skin. She fisted the quilt at her sides. Lifted to meet his wicked tongue as he pushed her closer toward oblivion. And when he finally let her go, the ecstasy was like nothing she’d ever known, so completely soul shattering, she knew nothing else but him.
He kissed his way up her body and captured her mouth before she had a chance to catch her breath. But she didn’t care, because his frantic tongue dancing across hers reignited her need, her lust, her desire. Groaning, she scrambled to free him from his jeans. He kicked them off and climbed between her legs.
“I’m not going to make love to you,” he whispered. “I’m not going to fuck you.” The head of his cock slid into her slick heat, sending pleasure arcing down her spine. “I’m going to own you, Cynna. Mind, body, soul. The way you own me.”
Her body trembled. Zagreus had wanted that—to own her. But it was nothing like this. That had been dark and controlling and one-sided. This was light and love and a mutual need to belong. To each other.
Every inch of her skin tingled. Desire roared in her veins at the sound of his husky words, from the heated, intense expression on his focused, handsome face. It was all she could do to hold still. “Nick—”
He lowered his mouth to hers and pushed forward until the tip of his cock
pressed a fraction of an inch inside her. “You’re mine,” he whispered against her lips. “The only one I want. The only female I’ve ever loved.”
He drove deep, drew back then shoved in again, moving faster with every thrust. She groaned at the delicious friction, hooked one leg around his hip, and lifted to meet every plunge, every thrust, every press and glide and retreat. Gods, she needed him. Needed this. Was desperate for more. Desperate for him. Desperate to be his everything.
He was right. Her life had been nothing but darkness and despair up until this point, but no more.
“I am yours,” she whispered.
His thrusts grew harder. Faster. Longer. As if her words excited him even more. And his arousal ignited her own, pushing her right back to the peak. She held on tighter. Clenched all around him, lifted her mouth to his, and whispered, “Only yours.”
He groaned, his whole body contracted with his release, and the second his orgasm slammed into him, so did hers, twisting them down together until he was all that mattered. Until she knew he was the lone bright light dragging her back to the person she was meant to be.
He fell against her, and she wrapped her arms around him, kissed his cheek, his temple, sifted her fingers into his hair and held him close for as long as she could. Her heart pounded hard as the bliss settled, and a warm happiness encircled her heart in the silence. One that brought a smile to her lips. One she’d never experienced before. Because this—he—was everything she’d never been strong enough to hope for.
But even as that happiness spread through her veins, a tiny voice whispered this was too good to be true. That love, for someone like her, would never last. And though she fought it, something in the center of her chest grew deathly afraid the voice might be right.
He pushed up on his elbow and looked down at her, his brows drawing together in concern. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Thankful that he couldn’t read her mind, she swallowed back the fear and told herself that tonight she wouldn’t worry about the future. Tonight all that mattered was this. Him. Them. This moment. Everything else could wait.
She lifted her lips back to his. “Just kiss me again.”
A slow, sexy smile curled his mouth as he rolled to his back, pulling her on top of all his muscular heat. “Mm, baby.” He tangled his hand in her hair and tugged her down toward his tantalizing mouth. “That is never something you have to ask for twice.”
She held her breath and kissed him. And for the first time in she couldn’t remember how long, she prayed.
She prayed that he was right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Isadora stood in the dark closet in the run-down apartment on the outskirts of Tiyrns and lowered the hood of her cloak. Looking up the long metal rungs of the ladder toward the trapdoor above, she drew a steadying breath. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to climb, but she wasn’t going back to the castle. Not yet, at least.
She’d known exactly where Demetrius would go. Knew his thoughts and what he was feeling better than he did. As she pulled herself up the ladder, she wondered how he was able to get his big body through this small space. How he’d done it for so many years when he’d chosen to live in this tiny place instead of in the luxury each Argonaut deserved.
She wasn’t letting him revert back to this. Not to thinking he didn’t matter. Because he did. More than anyone else in this world or the next.
Breathless, she reached the top and pressed her hand against the door. Metal hinges creaked. The muscles in her arms burned. But before she even pushed the door up two inches, it swung back, and strong male hands gripped her, pulling her up to the wood decking of the octagonal room, then tugged her into a sea of strength and heat.
“Kardia.” Demetrius dragged her so close, he was all she felt. “What the hell are you doing here? Are you crazy?”
“Yes,” she said against him, holding on and not letting go. “Crazy for you.”
He released a long breath above her head, but didn’t seem to want to let go of her either, and for that she was glad. So very glad. “How in the name of the gods did you get out of the castle unnoticed?”
“Orpheus’s invisibility cloak.”
“Damn daemon,” he muttered. “I’m gonna burn that thing.”
“No, you won’t. I won’t let you.” She hugged him tighter, digging her fingertips into the muscles of his back. “I looked everywhere for you.”
He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t stay. I would have come back. I just—”
“I didn’t do it.”
He stilled against her. “You didn’t?”
She shook her head and beat back the tears that wanted to fall. “I couldn’t. I don’t want anyone but you.”
His arms tightened around her with the strength of a vise, and he lifted her feet from the floor, turning his face into her neck as he held her to him. “Stupid female,” he whispered against her. “So, so stupid…”
Those tears spilled over. She couldn’t stop them. She sifted her fingers into his hair. “We’ll have to find another way, because I can’t be with anyone else. I would rather die than do that to us. I love you. Just you. Always.”
His mouth found hers. And she clung to him as he kissed her, knowing that this, their love, was stronger than any soul mate bond. His strength would keep her alive. It had to.
“Love me, Demetrius,” she said against his mouth. “Love me right now.”
He pulled her toward a pile of blankets on the far side of the small room and lowered them to the floor, tugging her on top of all his strong, delicious heat. After swiping the cloak from her shoulders, he slid his fingers up under her sweater, lifted his mouth back to hers, and whispered, “Ah, kardia. I already do. I’ll love you forever. No matter what.”
Cynna lay in bed, staring up at the dark ceiling, unable to sleep. Again.
She glanced down at Nick softly dozing against her, his head pillowed on her chest, his legs intertwined with hers in the sheets, his arms wrapped around her, holding her close. Love blossomed all through her heart as she ran her fingers through his silky hair, but it didn’t ease her worry or stop that niggling voice in the back of her head.
Sighing, she looked back up at the ceiling. The voice was right. Even if Nick didn’t wise up to reality and leave her on his own, there were still a hundred reasons why they just wouldn’t work in the long run. The biggest of which, that voice whispered, was Zagreus.
A shudder ran through her as her mind drifted to the Prince of Darkness. He was still out there. Probably pissed that she’d left. And though she wanted to believe they’d escaped from his prison on their own, she knew if he hadn’t wanted them to go, they’d still be locked in that hellhole. Which meant he was biding his time, waiting for…something.
Disjointed memories swam through her head. She tried to pull them into view. Couldn’t quite make them connect. She remembered being in her room in the caves. Remembered someone holding her down. Remembered Zagreus’s menacing voice echoing in her ears.
“You’re going to make him fall for you. And when he finally turns his back on that useless hero honor and chooses you, then we’ll have what we want. Then I’ll come and reclaim you both.”
That shudder turned to icy fingers rushing down her spine. She’d been so focused on Isadora and what was happening with Nick and his soul mate these last few days, she’d ignored the biggest threat of all.
She glanced down at Nick again, her heart racing. And remembered Zander’s words earlier in the queen’s office.
“Have you ever seen what happens to an Argonaut when his soul mate dies?”
Yes, she had seen it. She’d seen Ari. The former Argonaut was completely broken. Nick was strong enough to fight the darkness but not a shattered soul. What would happen to him if Isadora died? What would he do?
In a firestorm of understanding, Zagreus’s plan made sense. The reason he’d let them go. The reason he hadn’t come after them yet. The reason he’d made her drink his blood tha
t night in her room.
A new, more crucial urgency pushed at her from every direction. Slowly, so she didn’t wake Nick, she climbed out from under him, dropped to the floor, and found her clothes. Tiptoeing out into the hall, she pulled them on while her fingers shook with both fear and dread.
She didn’t bother with her jacket, just rushed downstairs and out onto Delia’s porch before it was too late. Picturing the castle, she closed her eyes and flashed to the front gates.
The guards let her pass with hardly a look, something she was grateful for now. She raced into the castle, then stopped in the massive foyer. It was past midnight. Everyone was likely asleep. But this couldn’t wait until morning. Gripping the banister, she skipped stairs and raced for the upper floors.
She sprinted down the long corridor toward the queen’s suite, then slammed on her brakes and jerked back when she heard voices in the same sitting area where she’d encountered Isadora and her daughter.
Her chest rose and fell as she stepped under the archway and peered inside. Demetrius sat back in the corner of a plush couch with one leg on each side of Isadora. She lay back against his chest cradling Elysia and feeding her a bottle. The baby cooed and tried to grab the bottle. Isadora laughed. Demetrius closed his eyes and pressed his lips against the queen’s temple, holding her close and breathing deep.
Happy. They were happy. A family unit. The way Cynna’s parents had once been with her. And she was about to destroy them for all eternity.
“Cynna?” Isadora looked up. “Is everything okay?”
Cynna swallowed the lump in her throat. Guilt washed through her. For a sister she’d always hated. And for a moment, she considered turning around, going back to Nick. But she couldn’t. Because this was too important.
She stepped into the room. “You have to do it. You can’t let Nick talk you out of it.”
Demetrius stiffened, but Isadora only frowned. “Nick and I both decided that is not something either of us is willing to do. That solution is off the table, permanently.”