expected.
“We will,” she managed, her throat thick, wanting him to know it was okay. That finally, after all this time, everything they’d done to each other was in the past. “And thank you.”
He nodded once, then frowned. “She”—he cleared his throat—"Talisa will be back as soon as I can convince her to stop being so damn stubborn.”
Cynna chuckled and smoothed her hand over her belly. “Yeah, good luck there. That girl is exactly like her father, the bullheaded leader of the Argonauts. ”
His scowl deepened. “Wonderful.”
In a puff of black smoke, he disappeared as if he’d never even been there.
Cynna stared at the fading smoke in her kitchen, amazed that had just happened.
Zagreus, the Prince of Darkness, wasn’t quite so dark after all. And he was head over heels in love with a mortal.
A wry smile curled her lips. Honestly, she couldn’t think of a better match for him than the spunky, tough-as-nails warrior-female. Talisa could hold her own and put any male in his place—even a god.
Her mind skipped from Talisa to the Argonauts and how they would react when they learned the news. Then it jumped to Max.
Smile fading, she rushed for the stairs to wake her mate.
Chapter Eighteen
Zagreus flashed to the same forest where he’d taken Talisa after leaving that club. He still had a hike ahead of him, and he was anxious to get back to the castle and check on her, but he wasn’t stupid enough to open a portal anywhere near Ehrendia, just in case anyone was paying attention.
He moved through the darkness, the only sounds those of leaves rustling in the slight breeze, bat wings fluttering high above, and his bootsteps crunching needles and twigs along the forest floor. The familiar scents of moss and pine surrounded him, fir and Aspen rising to the stars, their trunks and limbs lit only by a smattering of moonlight. He didn’t see or smell or hear any of it, though. His mind was still too fixed on his conversation with Cynna. On her words, which he now couldn’t stop replaying.
She was right. Revenge was why she’d come to him. And revenge was why he’d let her stay, even though he’d known she wasn’t his mono mia. He’d been blind to everything but that singular goal, and he’d known he could use her to get exactly what he’d wanted.
They had been distractions for each other—twisted, cruel, toxic distractions. But somewhere along the way, in the years since he’d let her go, he’d lost his thirst for vengeance.
He wasn’t sure if it was because of the time he’d spent in Ehrendia, living among the nymphs and silens. Didn’t know if it had anything to do with the years he’d been trapped with the Fates. He only knew that he wasn’t the same god he’d been twenty-eight years ago. And the more he thought about it, the more he was starting to believe he was here in this moment now with Talisa because Cynna’s transformation back then had opened his eyes to something more.
To something greater than revenge.
To something a thousand times more meaningful than power and supremacy.
His steps came to a halt when he thought of Cynna again. He could only imagine what the female and her mate—his uncle and former prisoner—would say if he admitted he had them to thank for setting him on this path. Not just the one that had led him to Talisa, but the path that made him think he might actually be worthy of another chance.
The image of Talisa asleep in his bed filled his mind. Her silky hair falling around her face. Her smooth skin catching the moonlight through the windows. The way she’d curled into him last night, her warm breath heating his flesh where her cheek rested against his chest as she drifted to sleep. And her soft fingers, hovering over his heart…
A heart that was now beating hard and fast with the need to see her and touch her and prove to her just how much he wanted that chance.
Urgency brought his head up. Pushed his feet forward. The stone arch was only a handful of miles awa—
“Going somewhere, son?” Hades stepped out from behind a tree, directly in Zagreus’s path.
Zagreus skidded to a stop, but there was no time to react. The god-king of the Underworld threw his arm out and squeezed his fingers together as if grasping an invisible object.
Zagreus’s arms instantly slapped against the sides of his body, and the air rushed out of his