Wicked (Eternal Guardians #9) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,22

the nymphs were pretty, but whose race she couldn’t quite identify.

Nymphs were solely female. They consorted with satyrs and gods, but these males weren’t either. They looked like males of her world. Like humans. Only she instinctively knew they were neither.

Zagreus pulled her past a massive stone hearth crackling with a roaring fire, where a nymph was seated in a high-backed chair on the lap of one of those unidentified males, nibbling on his ear while he stroked the curve at her hip. He groaned at whatever she was doing then dropped his hand from her hip to the hem of her short gauzy dress, slowly pushing it up.

Talisa’s eyes widened when she realized they were about to get it on right here in the middle of the room, in front of everyone. Unable to look away, she kept watching.

And slammed into Zagreus’s back, the side of her face cracking against his spine where he’d stopped.

He turned and glared down at her. She stumbled back and rubbed her sore cheek. Shaking his head, he shot a hard look past her, toward the padded chair where the two—whatever they were—had been making out. But he didn’t acknowledge them. Just turned back to the three nymphs at his front and said, “Where is An—?”

“Theós!”

A small voice from across the room drew Talisa’s attention. Still rubbing her sore cheek, she glanced to her right, where a petite female—a child, she realized—sprinted across the stone floor and threw herself against Zagreus’s legs.

“Theós, Oh, Theós! I missed you!” The girl, no more than eight Talisa guessed, brimmed with excitement as she looked up at Zagreus, her curly blonde hair a wild tangle around her face. “I knew you’d come back.” She turned and glanced toward the redheaded nymph who’d been clawing at Zagreus only moments ago. “Didn’t I tell you, he’d come back, matéras?”

Matéras? Talisa’s eyes widened as she glanced from the nymph to the child and back to Zagreus, the pain in her cheek and the two lovers at her back suddenly forgotten.

Theós was an ancient word that meant “my god”—not a surprise the child was using it, considering he was a god. But matéras meant mother.

Zagreus reached down to pry the child from his legs, a look of irritation on his face.

The redhead frowned. “Yes, you did.” She reached for the child’s arms. “Aia, let go of him.”

Talisa sucked in a breath, expecting Zagreus to backhand the girl across the room. Only he didn’t. He gently untangled her from his legs.

“No. I don’t wanna.” The girl hung on tighter, fighting her mother’s attempts to pull her back. “I want Theós.”

“Aia.” The redhead grasped both of the girl’s arms and pulled, “I said let go.”

“He missed me, though!” Still hanging on for dear life, the girl looked up at Zagreus with hero-worship in her light green eyes. “Did you bring me a present?”

“Not if you’re not going to listen.” Zagreus managed to free the child from his leg, never once loosening his grip on Talisa.

“I listen, I listen!” The girl quickly stepped back. “Can I see now? Can I see?”

Zagreus straightened and shot her a look Talisa couldn’t see.

The redheaded nymph only let go of the girl, rolled her eyes, and muttered, “I warned you about this.”

Talisa blinked, looking from face to face again because she had absolutely no clue what was going on here.

“Please?” The child looked to her mother then back at Zagreus expectantly. “I listen. I promise.”

Zagreus was silent for several seconds then finally said, “Go get Ana and a maid and send them to meet me in the Ivy Spire. Then, when you’ve finished the chores I know your mother gave you, I’ll consider it.”

“Oh, yay!” The little girl jumped up and down and clapped her hands. “I can’t wait!” Like a bolt of lightning, she rushed across the floor and disappeared through an archway on the far side of the room.

The redhead looked after the girl then sighed and glanced back at Zagreus with eyes that screamed of some kind of intimacy. “That was a bad idea. You know you’re creating a monster.”

Zagreus stepped past her, tugging Talisa with him. “Just make sure she gets me what I need.”

“Of course, Theós. Anything for you.” The nymph shot Talisa a predatory grin as she curtsied then turned to follow the child.

Talisa’s back tightened as Zagreus pulled her in the opposite direction. Oh yeah, the two were definitely intimate. No one else in this place had called him Theós. Was the

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