TWISTED (Eternal Guardians Book 7) (48 page)

She rose to her toes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his neck. And as he held her close, he knew in the pit of his soul that no matter how horrendous his time in Zagreus’s prison had been, he was thankful for all those months. Because if he hadn’t been there, if he hadn’t suffered, he wouldn’t have realized what he could become. And he never would have found her.
 

“I love you,” she whispered against him. “I’ll love you across the ages. No matter where you go or what you do, I’ll love you always.”

His heart swelled. He tipped her chin up, captured her lips, and kissed her with everything he had in him. “Only you, Cynna. I have only ever loved you. I
will
only love you.”

“Nick,” Skyla said at his back. “We need to go.”

Slowly, Cynna let go of him. But her eyes were red-rimmed and filled with tears when she lowered to her feet. And as Nick stepped back, he took a snapshot of her face and stored it in his mind. Because he knew no matter what happened, if he ever felt out of control or on the edge of insanity, all he had to do was focus on all the love swirling in her eyes at this moment, and he’d be saved.

The way she’d always been able to save him.

C
ynna swiped the tears from her cheeks after Nick and Skyla flashed to Olympus. She had just enough time to pull in one shuddering breath before Orpheus screamed her name.

She grasped her sword and looked up to see three daemons charging right for them, their horns glinting in the moonlight, their fangs dripping something vile.

Orpheus stepped to the side, his weapon in his hand, urgency across his face. “Get the hell out of here. Get to the settlement like Nick wanted.”

Cynna’s mind was a sea of confusing thoughts as Orpheus hollered at the monsters and took off at a run, drawing them away from her. Yes, she needed to save Nick’s people. Needed to do for him what he’d done for her. But as her gaze swept out over the battle, over satyr after satyr and daemon after daemon swinging weapons and clashing with Argonauts, Argoleans, and anyone who was willing to stand up and fight, defeat washed through her.

She was one person. What could one person do in the middle of so much evil?

And then, in a rush, she knew.
 

Her gaze shot up to the hillsides, searching. He had to be close. He always liked to watch. And this—all this misery and death—this was everything he craved.

She spotted Hades on a hilltop high above the city, watching the battle from a cluster of trees, his dark eyes fixated on the bloodletting below, his massive arms crossed over his chest. Her heart rate spiked, and she searched all around him for any sign of Zagreus, but she couldn’t find him.

Panic gnawed at her spine as her gaze shot to the left of the battlefield, to the hills and trees on the opposite side of the small valley. He wasn’t there either. But she knew he had to be close. He had to be—

Her eyes locked on him. Standing behind a tree, half his face shadowed in darkness. Staring directly at her.

“What the hell are you looking for?” Orpheus yelled, slicing his blade through a satyr’s throat. “Get the fuck out of here!”

Cynna swallowed hard. Didn’t move. Terror swept through her, but she beat it back. Because Nick was worth the sacrifice.

Orpheus swiveled around to see what she was staring at, then muttered, “Fuck me.” He whirled back to face her. “Don’t even think about it, Cy—”

Cynna closed her eyes and flashed to the hillside.
 

Zagreus didn’t move a single muscle when she appeared. But he didn’t have to. She felt his fury raging across the distance between them.
 

“So the coward flees, and you finally decide to come back to me,” he sneered.

“Pull your army from this land.”

The muscles around his dead eyes contracted. “And why would I do that? We’re about to win.”

She took a step toward him, her heart pounding, her stomach swirling. “Because if you do, I’ll go back with you. Willingly.”

Interest and desire flared in his eyes, telling her exactly what she’d hoped. He still wanted her. More than he wanted to win this war.

“I won’t run,” she added. “I won’t run ever again.”

He was on her so fast, she didn’t even see him move. His hands closed around her arms, like metal cuffs snapping shut. “You won’t run again, because I
own
you.”

Pain spiraled down her spine, but she drew on every ounce of courage she had left. “You don’t own me. You never did. I was with you because I chose to be. And if you pull your armies from this land and agree not to return, I’ll choose to be with you again. But you’ll never break me. And you’ll never ever own me. Because my will is stronger than yours.”

He stared hard into her eyes. And she knew he was searching for a way to prove to her she was wrong. But she wasn’t. And she wasn’t backing down.

He released her and stepped back, a careless expression crossing his chiseled features. “I can’t stop what’s already begun.”

“Yes, you can.” Cynna stumbled but righted herself before she went down. Lifting her chin, she glared at him. “But know this. If those city walls are breached, this offer is rescinded. I’ll fight to the death and take as many satyrs as I can with me along the way. And you’ll never have me again. You’ll never have what I’m willingly giving you here and now.”

Fury filled his dead eyes, and he advanced on her once more. But she didn’t turn and run. She stood her ground. And hoped like hell this worked.

S
kyla grasped Nick’s arm, stopping him in the massive hallway of Zeus’s temple on Olympus. “Wait. What about Isadora?”

Nick’s mind skipped back to his soul mate in Argolea being ushered into the caves with his people. That pull to her he always felt tugged on something in his chest, but he knew in the center of his soul that Isadora would tell him to do this if she were here. She loved her family, but she was a leader, like him. And though she might not have been able to sleep with him to save herself, she’d be the first to put her life on the line for her country.

“I don’t know. I have to hope that Callia and everyone else were wrong and that she won’t die when this happens. But I do know if I don’t try, everyone dies.”

Skyla’s gaze held his, then she nodded and released his arm. “Good luck.”
 

“Good luck to you.”

They parted ways. She heading to plead with Athena for the Sirens’ help in the battle, he to find Zeus and demand he become a god.

Holy…
fuck
. There was something he never thought he’d want. Ever.

He stopped in front of a set of massive gold double doors with Zeus’s legendary lightning bolt carved into the sleek surface. Drawing one deep breath, he braced his hands against the cool metal, pushed both doors open, and stepped inside a circular room with a marble dome, columns that rose to an elaborately painted ceiling, and gold-plated everything.

A god he instantly recognized as Poseidon lounged on a plush purple sofa with gold trim in the middle of the room, his surfer-blond hair falling in his eyes, his massive body stretched out across the piece of furniture, making it look tiny. Across the room, where he stood with his hands clasped behind his back as he stared out at the view far below, Zeus turned his head.

“Nikomedes,” Zeus said in a low, commanding voice. But then, being the King of the Gods, of course he was commanding. He was the big shit here and everywhere. “I see you brought the traitor with you.”
 

Nick’s spine stiffened at the use of his full given name. “Skyla’s no traitor. She just didn’t want to be part of all this anymore. Free will. Isn’t that why you’re so fascinated with humanity?”

Zeus turned to fully face him. “She left the Sirens and betrayed me.”

“She left for love. You, of all people, should be able to understand that choice. You fall in love every other damn day.”

“Ah, he’s got you there,” Poseidon quipped from the couch.
 

Zeus didn’t respond. Just clenched his jaw, moved to a desk across the room, and leaned back against the white marble surface. “So you want me to unleash your god powers so you can save your people.”

Of course he already knew. He was Zeus, the king of fucking everything.

“Yes,” Nick said.

“Pretty ballsy,” Poseidon muttered. “What’s stopping us from smiting you and just taking those pretty powers?”

Nick glanced to his right toward the god—his brother.

And wow, wasn’t that just totally fucking wicked?

“Because you can’t.” Strength and understanding surged in Nick’s veins. Of course they couldn’t take them. If they could, they’d have tried long ago. Hades and his son had just been too stupid and greedy to accept reality. “I’m as strong as both of you. Maybe more, because what I have came directly from our father. And because I’ve already learned how to control it.”

Poseidon glanced toward Zeus. The two exchanged silent words, then Zeus focused on Nick once more. “It wasn’t the act of becoming a god that killed the soul mates of the three Argonauts I offered immortality. It was their selfish choice for power. That desire tipped the scales away from the balance between the heart and the soul. Everything in our world is about balance, but something tells me you already know that. Your coming here to Olympus for selfless reasons proves your worthiness. We’ll help you unleash your immortality to defeat Hades and Zagreus, but if we do so, you owe us a favor.”

Relief pulsed through Nick, followed by a whisper of apprehension. Any kind of obligation to the King of the Gods couldn’t be good, and his mind instantly shot to Cynna. Mortals weren’t allowed to live on Olympus unless they served in one of Zeus’s armies, like the Sirens. If they forced him to stay here, to somehow join forces with them where he couldn’t be with her…

 
“What kind of favor?” he asked warily.

Zeus glanced toward Poseidon once more. The God of the Sea waggled his brows, then grinned with a sinister turn of his lips.

Zeus looked back at Nick. “There’s someone we’re looking for. A female. One of great interest. You’re going to find her for us.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

N
ick flashed to the middle of the battlefield in Argolea. Strength and power surged in his veins thanks to the little Kumbaya handholding ritual Zeus and Poseidon had made him do on Olympus. There was great power in three, and somehow, forming a trifecta—three sons of Krónos—had been enough to unleash what was hidden inside him. That and, as Zeus explained, the fact he was choosing to unleash it, rather than it being taken.