Wicked (Eternal Guardians #9) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,147

been wrong about everything.

Persephone smiled and gently brushed her fingers over his cheek. “Do me a favor.”

“Anything.”

“Find your sister Maelea. She’s in Argolea. Tell her… Tell her I’m sorry for nearly ruining things between her and her mate.”

“Her mate?”

“He’s an Argonaut. One you’ve probably already met. I certainly wouldn’t have picked him for her, but then I wouldn’t have picked your female for you, either.”

He smirked, knowing she was trying to make this normal when they both knew it was anything but. “The Argonauts aren’t too fond of me.”

“Something tells me they don’t mind you so much anymore.”

His expression sobered when he looked back into her dark eyes. “Will you be all right?”

“Yes. I made my choice just as you did. I chose Hades and this life, and I would not change it even if I could. I love him. You might never understand that love, but then it’s not your place to understand it. All you need to know is that this is the life I was always destined for. It’s the one I want.”

He nodded, knowing she meant it. Knowing also that by choosing to stay with Hades, their relationship would likely be severed from here on out.

“Ziggy?” Lachesis called, using the nickname she and the other Fates had given him during those twenty-five years he’d spent in their realm. “Are you ready?”

Once upon a time, that nickname had infuriated him. Now it reminded him that anything was possible. Even a miracle.

Kissing his mother’s cheek, he squeezed her hands and whispered, “Thank you.”

He let go and stepped back. The grey fields began to fade around him, but his gaze stayed locked on his mother. And his last image of her wasn’t in the wheat. It was of her standing tall and proud on the dark rocky cliff across the field, with the hot wind ruffling her hair and long black dress beneath the swirling red sky.

Forever the formidable Queen of the Dead.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Brilliant color surrounded Zagreus as he opened his eyes. Color he recognized.

Turning a slow circle, he looked over the courtyard of the castle. The Ehrendian castle he’d never expected to see again.

Evening was just settling over the kingdom. Lights flicked on, shimmering across the cobblestones, the tables and chairs set up for some kind of party, in lanterns lining the village main street, and reflecting off the water in the lake down the hill. Flower garlands were strung all across the courtyard—spring flowers in bursts of pastel colors. And the air was warm and balmy, telling him he’d been trapped in the Underworld longer than he’d realized—at least six months.

Nymphs scurried around, preparing for some kind of feast, but they weren’t the nymphs he remembered. None wore their traditional short white gowns. Some were decked out in colorful dresses, others in stylish capris and skirts, and all of them—even the silens helping—looked relaxed and carefree in a way he could never have predicted.

Several of the nymphs even looked like they’d gotten fat. Which was weird because nymphs were otherworldly and blessed with perfect figures.

Too focused on getting to Talisa to wonder what was going on with the nymphs, he looked down at Lachesis floating above the stones at his side. “Why did you bring me here? I thought you were taking me to Talisa.”

“Oh, Ziggy.” Lachesis smirked. “You didn’t think a warrior as strong as Talisa would be content sitting in Argolea, twiddling her thumbs while someone else protected her people, did you?”

“Her people?”

Lachesis turned her glowing blue eyes his direction. “You are Dionysus, a prince of the light. The maenads are your devoted followers. And she is your mate, a princess of—”

“Of my life,” he finishes for the Fate, growing more excited by the second as he looked around and spotted Talisa’s father across the courtyard, speaking with—wow—Nick and two of the Argonauts.

“Is that why they’re here? To keep her protected from Hades?”

“No. Hades doesn’t know where she is. And the Argonauts are here because she agreed to let them use Ehrendia as a base in the human realm while they search for Maximus, Pandora’s box, and the last element.”

Of course she had. Because it was the right thing to do. She always knew the right thing to do.

He glanced down at Lachesis again, confusion drawing his brows together. “How does Hades not know? He was right outside the border of this kingdom. And after I left, the magick I used to protect the border—”

“Vanished with you. Yes, that’s true. But Nick and your mages