Wicked (Eternal Guardians #9) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,133

back told her she no longer had a choice.

“Be smart, mono mia,” he whispered in her ear. “Rely on your instincts more than your strength. They won’t fail you.” He skimmed his lips against her temple, and in an aching voice added, “Neither will I. I promise.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Zagreus’s words echoed in Talisa’s head even as she let those instincts guide her.

She sliced through the neck of a charging satyr, drew her weapon back when he stumbled, then stabbed him through the chest.

The beast gurgled what she suspected was a growl, then grasped his bloody throat and dropped to the ground with a thud.

All around her in the forest, the battle raged. Breathing hard, she swiped the sweat out of her eyes and glanced through the moonlit trees.

Weapons clanked. Argonauts and silens fought satyrs everywhere she looked. The beasts just kept charging out of the darkness. As if there was an unlimited supply. As if Pandora was conjuring more with her freakin’ box.

He won’t fail me… What did he mean by that?

What the hell was he planning?

She scanned the battlefield for Zagreus, frantic to find him. He wasn’t using a weapon—he didn’t need one. But he couldn’t just blast all of the satyrs like he’d done before because there were too many silens and Argonauts who would get caught out here in the melee. Not to mention his electricity-charged hands could engulf the entire forest in flames if he accidentally hit a dry tree or log.

She kept searching, her anxiety amping with every second. When a satyr charged from her left, she let those instincts guide her and swung out with her blade, catching the beast across the chest. Blood spurted. The satyr tumbled to the ground, but she barely looked.

She spotted her father swiveling between trees with his weapon, battling four satyrs. Orpheus charging a trio from behind and taking all of them down. Cerek and Titus and Ari and Zander demolishing every satyr around them. Skyla firing arrow after arrow into the beasts from her charmed bow. She even saw Nick, a blade in one hand, throwing the other out and using his telekinetic god-powers to lift the monsters off the ground, slam them into trees, even rip them in half. But she still couldn’t see Zagreus.

Several growls echoed to her left. She rushed that way, up a small hill, and stopped at the top to look down.

Zagreus was on the edge of a creek, surrounded by twenty or so satyrs, battling them back with his own powers. Hustling down the embankment, she swung out with her blade, taking down each beast she came to until she was fighting by his side.

“Here!” She tossed him her extra dagger, then swung around and caught a satyr across the thigh, slicing through his femoral artery. He howled and went down. Shoving a foot into his chest, she pushed him back, then twisted and stabbed another through the abdomen.

Her legs ached, her arms were sore, and she was covered in blood and other things she didn’t want to think too much about. But as Zagreus stabbed her dagger through the chest of the last satyr and she paused to take in the destruction around them, she realized how lucky they were.

Satyr bodies littered the ground everywhere. Not just here but on the other side of the hill, too. She could hear the battle continue to rage beyond the small ridge, but they were holding them back. And so far, any injuries to their side were minimal.

Zagreus stalked toward her like a wolf, all predatory and heaving muscles in the mist, his eyes as dark and dangerous as she’d ever seen them, his focus trained only on her. He held her bloody dagger at his side in one hand. With the other, he grasped her around the nape, pulled her to him, then lowered his head and kissed her hard.

It was quick. Not nearly close to the smoldering erotic kiss she knew he could plant on her. But it made her melt just the same. Everything about him made her melt, made her ache, made her want.

He lifted his head, eased back just enough so he could glance over her blood-stained body, but didn’t release her. “Are you hurt? I told you to stay close to me.”

Gods, he was bossy. And she loved it.

She dropped the tip of her blade to the forest floor and curled her other hand in his shirt, holding him close. “I’m fine. It’s not my blood. And you’re