TWISTED (Eternal Guardians Book 7) (14 page)

“Wh-what do you want with me now?” the man asked.

He wasn’t strong enough to overpower Cynna. Not even close. But that didn’t ease Nick’s anxiety any. He tightened his hand around the mace, just in case. “Relax, old man. We’re freeing you.”

The cuffs opened from the man’s wrists and clattered against the ground. Cynna pushed to her feet. “Go out the corridor to the right. Steps run up to the surface. Follow them all the way. Don’t look back.”

She turned and swept past Nick without a look.

“Wh-why are you helping me?” the old man asked, slowly pushing to his feet.

Nick didn’t know who the hell the man was or what he’d done to be imprisoned here, but now was not the time to ask. “Because we can.”
 

Nick followed Cynna back down the dark hallway, holding the flashlight up each time they entered a cell while she moved toward the prisoner. They freed six males and eight females, all different ages and races. Most were frail and dirty and dazed, and few gave them any trouble. The majority didn’t even recognize them. But one female did. One recognized Nick instantly, her eyes growing wide when he stepped into her cell. And the minute he flashed his light over her, Nick knew her as well.

The dark-haired nymph. The one who’d brought him to the brink of sexual frustration only days ago. Except now she looked nothing like she had then. Her hair was stringy and matted, dirt covered her skin, dried blood was smeared across her arms and calves, and her face was bruised and swollen along one whole side.

Someone had beaten the hell out of her after she’d left him. Someone he was sure was a satyr.

Anger ripped through Nick. A dark, rolling, menacing anger.

“Go out the corridor to the right,” Cynna said, freeing the nymph’s cuffs. “There’s a—”

“Thank you.” The moment the nymph was free, she bolted from the floor and threw her arms around Nick’s waist, holding on tight. “Thank you,” she repeated. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t leave me here.”

Nick held his arms out wide, unsure what to do. He looked toward Cynna for help. Pushing to her feet, Cynna scowled the nymph’s way and perched a hand on her hip.

“Okay, you’re free.” Nick reached around and pried the nymph’s hands from his back. She was surprisingly strong for being so small and injured. “Listen, before the guards arrive.”

The nymph tipped her head back and looked up, her eyes wide and filled with gratitude. “I’ll do anything. Anything you want. Just keep me with you.”

“Enough with the begging already.” Cynna grasped the nymph by the back of the dress and pried her away from Nick.
 

The nymph glanced toward Cynna, then back at Nick. Confusion clouded her eyes. She obviously recognized Cynna too. Before she could get the question out, Cynna said, “We’ve got more prisoners to free. Go now, before we change our minds.”

The nymph cast Nick one last longing look, then rushed past him out into the hall.

When she was gone, Cynna clenched her jaw and moved toward the door, muttering, “Clingy nymphs.”

Nick turned and followed. “Where’s the other one?”

“I don’t know.”

Cynna obviously knew who he meant, but that answer wasn’t good enough for Nick. They moved out into the dimly lit corridor, and another moan echoed down the hall, causing the darkness inside to surge all over again.

“Is she alive?” he asked.

Cynna slid the key in another lock. “I don’t know.”

“But you know what happened to both of them.”

She turned the key. “Once they left me, their fates were out of my hands.”

Nick braced a hand on the door above her head before she could pull it open. “But you know what happened to them,” he repeated.

Cynna’s shoulders dropped. “Don’t make me do this now. If you do, we’ll never get to them all.”

They couldn’t get to them all no matter what they did. And Nick needed to know the answer to his question before they moved on. “They weren’t willing participants, were they? That nymph was a prisoner, just like me. She was innocent.”

Cynna’s stilled, but she didn’t remove her hand from the door handle or turn to look at him. “No one here is innocent. Not truly. But yes, everyone is a prisoner. Some are just required to do…more…than others.”

Like her.

His stomach tightened with the reality he’d been right—on both counts—and he dropped his hand and stepped back so she could open the door. He just wasn’t sure what it meant toward her reasons for freeing him or how that changed what he knew of her relationship with Zagreus.

Straightening, she pulled on the handle. The metal clanged, then hinges squeaked. She moved into the cell. Hands damp, he lifted the flashlight and followed, shining the light over the back of the room. A female sat leaning against the wall, her dark hair falling to her waist, her pale blue eyes wide and unfocused.

“We’re here to free you.” Not wanting to think about Cynna and Zagreus right now, Nick stepped past Cynna, wrapped a hand around the female’s thin arm, and hauled her to her feet.

The female’s eyes grew even wider. “You can’t.”

Cynna slid the key in the cuffs at the female’s wrists. “Follow the tunnel to the right. There’s a set of stairs—”

“I know where the stairs are.” The female tugged her arm back and knocked the key free.
 

“Dammit.” Cynna knelt to pick it up.

“The guards will be here in minutes,” Nick said.

“Then you’d best go before they arrive,” the female answered. She pulled her arm from his hand, stepped back, then sat against the wall once more. “I can’t leave.”

She’d clearly been brainwashed. No one who was thinking clearly would choose this hell over freedom. “Listen, we—”

“No, you listen, son.” She turned those pale blue eyes upward. Eyes filled with a wisdom that sent a familiar warning through Nick’s blood. “It’s safer for everyone if I remain.”

Nick didn’t have a clue what she meant. He opened his mouth to ask, but she cut him off by saying, “You can do one thing for me, though.”

“What?”

“Find Epimetheus. Tell him… Tell him not to come after me. I know he’s been looking.”

Holy shit
. Nick’s stomach tightened. This was Pandora. The first human woman created by the gods. The keeper of all the evils of humanity. That darkness inside jerked with delight. He glanced around the cell for a jar or urn or box of some kind, but found nothing but cold, empty stone.

“It’s not here,” Pandora whispered as if reading his mind. “It’s well hidden.”

Voices and footsteps drifted from the hall. Cynna rushed to the door and peeked out, then muttered, “
Skata
.” She turned back to face the room. “The guards are coming.”

“Go now,” Pandora said, looking up at Nick. “There is no other choice.”

Nick hesitated. If she was the scourge of the world, he couldn’t leave her in Zagreus’s hands. And that dark part of himself, the part linked to Krónos, wanted her with him. Wanted the powers she could unleash.
 

“You can’t control them,” Pandora said, reading his mind again. “No one can. Not even me. Zagreus has already tried everything to get me to tell him where it is, but I won’t. If you free me, however, I will be attracted to it, and he will follow. And if that happens, the world as you know it will cease to exist.”

“Nick,” Cynna said, drawing a dagger from her back. “We have to go
now
.”

Nick still hesitated. They were out of time, and they all knew it. And yet, he still struggled with the choice before him. This was power like nothing he’d ever know. This was his chance to wield it without giving in to his father. “I’ll send someone back for you.”

“Don’t,” Pandora whispered as he stepped toward the door. “Humanity is safe so long as I remain here.”

Possibly. Though the vile part of Nick wouldn’t believe that. And the honorable part—the part he struggled to bring to the forefront—knew no one deserved this kind of imprisonment. Not even her.

Tearing his gaze from Pandora, he moved up behind Cynna and peered over her head into the corridor. “How many?”

“Three, I think. They passed and turned down a tunnel to the right. We’re clear. But we don’t have time to free any others.”

No, they didn’t. Not if they wanted to live. And Nick wanted to live. Now more than ever.

He glanced back toward Pandora as Cynna drew the door open. “I’ll find your husband. I’ll tell him.”

“He’s not my husband, Guardian.”

Considering what Nick knew of the gods’ unions, he had no idea what she meant, but that one word—
guardian
—overrode his curiosity as he followed Cynna back into the dimly lit corridor. The female had obviously seen the ancient Greek text on his arms. But he wasn’t a guardian. And just the fact he’d toyed with the idea of taking her regardless of her warnings proved he didn’t deserve to be one either.

They moved back down the corridor in silence. Cell doors on each side were once again closed, hiding the fact their prisoners were now gone. The only open door sat at the far end of the hall. The door that led to freedom.

Cynna released a breath as they drew close. “Finally.”

Yeah, finally. But Nick wasn’t able to share in her relief. Because he was suddenly wondering if there could ever be any kind of freedom for someone like him. Or if he was just trading one kind of prison for another.

Cynna moved for the open door. Just as she reached the threshold, a satyr stepped in her path. One Nick recognized as in charge down here in the dungeons. One holding a blade as long as his arm.

Adrenaline flooded Nick’s body. He reached around for the parazonium strapped to his back.

“Going somewhere, Mistress?” the satyr growled. Behind him, two more satyrs moved into position. “Now where’s the fun in that?”

CHAPTER NINE

C
ynna gasped and dropped back a step. Lykos’s eyes glowed red with fury as he moved close, malice twisting his face. She’d seen the satyr pissed but knew this was something altogether different. Hand shaking, she reached back for the weapon strapped to her back.

“Oh, you’re not going to need that, Mistress.” Lykos arced out with his arm before Cynna could grasp her blade. The back of his hand connected with her cheek, knocking her back and down.

A sharp shot of pain rushed across her face. She grunted and fell into Nick. Strong arms closed around her, breaking her fall. But he didn’t pull her up like she expected. Instead, he laid her on the ground, hissed, “Stay down,” then stepped over her.
 

“You want to play now, human?” Lykos snarled. “Okay, we’ll play.”

Cynna’s ears were ringing. She gave her head a swift shake and looked up. Nick was crouched down in a fighting stance, the blade held loosely in his hand, waiting for the attack. “Play is all I think you know how to do, satyr.”

Nick swung out with the blade, slicing into Lykos’s arm. Blood welled, and the beast jerked back.

The two satyrs behind Lykos growled and charged. But Lykos stopped them by lifting his arm and barking, “He’s mine.”

Fury suffused Lykos’s face as he took a step to his right. “I’m going to enjoy slicing you into bits, human. And when I’m done, I’ll give that bitch everything she deserves.”
 

Cynna braced her hands on the ground and scooted back, her gaze never leaving Lykos’s face. The satyr focused on Nick, but the two behind him were staring straight at her. Sizing her up. Waiting for her to join in the fight.

She glanced toward the open door and the stairs that led up to the surface. If she made a run for it, they’d follow. She wouldn’t get far. Her gaze darted back to Nick, moving to his right as Lykos began to circle around him. She’d seen him hold his own against two, three, even four satyrs, but none of the ones Zagreus had tossed into the ring with Nick were Lykos. There was a reason he was Zagreus’s number two. Because he was a ruthless son of a bitch and the strongest satyr in this hellhole.

She couldn’t run. No matter how much she wanted to get away. She hadn’t freed Nick so he could die here.

 
Lykos charged. Nick ducked under the satyr’s arm and slammed his elbow into Lykos’s back. Lykos cried out and whipped around. Blade met blade. Grunts and the sounds of fists slamming bone resonated in the corridor. Cynna pushed to her feet, her hands inching up the cold stone wall. She glanced past Nick and Lykos, toward the two satyrs beyond. They were both still staring at her. And the one on the left was salivating.