Wicked (Eternal Guardians #9) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,11

your satyrs?”

“Those weren’t my satyrs.”

“Bullshit! What did they do with my friends? If they hurt them, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?”

He jerked her to a stop and rounded on her, towering over her like a... Well, like a pissed off god, which he was. One who could smite her into ruin in a heartbeat.

“Look around you, female. You have no power here. I bound the little gift your goody-goody Fates gave you, and your warrior skills are no match for mine. If I’d wanted to break a few bones back there when I threw you, I could have. I chose not to. But make no mistake. You’re my prisoner now. And that means you’ll say and do exactly what I tell you to say and do, or the courtesy I’ve shown you up until this point will be a thing of the past.”

Courtesy? Abducting her had been a courtesy? Blasting her cousin with that ray of electricity had been a courtesy? Slamming her into the ground was a courtesy?

Belatedly, she realized he’d turned her around before he’d thrown her, and that she’d hit some kind of pile of dead leaves, not the hard-packed earth. She could be in a lot worse pain, but she wasn’t about to start thinking of him as any kind of compassionate individual. She knew too much about him for that, and she wasn’t about to fall for his tricks—at least not now that his glamour had faded.

“I—”

“Shut up.”

He waved his hand in front of her face, and the words instantly dried up on her tongue.

Her eyes widened again. She opened her mouth to yell at him, only no sound came out.

The son of a bitch hadn’t just abducted her and bound her strength, now he’d cast some kind of spell to keep her from making a sound.

Rage colored everything around her red. Then she realized he was looking over her head into the trees, intently listening for something—or someone.

She closed her mouth and tuned into her own senses. Twigs and dried leaves crackled under footsteps. She picked up two—no three—bodies moving quickly toward them. Preceded by a wave of chilled air that told her just what they were.

She reached both bound hands toward Zagreus’s arm and shook her head, trying to tell him to give her a blade or something to defend herself with, but the asshole only muttered, “Stay here,” and shoved her to the ground.

Her butt and legs hit the dry earth. He stepped away from her, back into the trees, then drew to a stop.

Three daemons emerged from the brush, each at least seven feet tall and as muscular as Zagreus. Monsters from the Underworld, commanded by Hades, with the bodies of men, hands full of razorlike claws, teeth something off a shark, their heads a grotesque mix of cat and goat and dog.

“That’s far enough,” Zagreus announced.

The daemon on the left chuckled. “Well, well. The Prince of Darkness. We’ve been looking for you, Zagreus.”

“That’s not a surprise.”

“Daddy dearest wants a few words.”

“That’s not a surprise, either,” Zagreus answered in a bored tone. “Too bad I’m not interested. You boys wandered into the wrong forest.”

A rustle of leaves above was the only sound. All three daemons leveled glowing green eyes on Zagreus. Then the daemon on the left growled low in his throat.

Talisa tensed against the tree, unsure what was going on here. Hades was Zagreus’s father, and though she knew they had a tumultuous relationship, they often worked together. They’d combined forces and invaded Argolea with Zagreus’s satyrs and Hades’s daemons just before she’d been born. The only reason one or both weren’t ruling her world now was because the Argonauts had stopped them.

Zagreus held his arms loosely at his sides. “I suggest you three turn around and leave. And quickly forget you ever saw me.”

No one moved.

Realizing she was holding her breath, Talisa slowly exhaled. The daemon on the left—the one who had growled—shifted his glowing green eyes her way, making her heartbeat kick up even faster.

“What have you got there?” the daemon asked, his eyes narrowing on Talisa, glowing even brighter. “Oh, you dirty devil. Why, she’s one of the—”

Zagreus lifted a hand and blasted the beast with a stream of electricity, just like the electricity he’d hit Max with. The daemon flew backward and slammed into the base of a tree. The other two grabbed blades from their backs and charged.

Talisa scrambled to her feet, but by the time she was upright, it was over. All three daemons were writhing on