She jerked back from his hand and opened her mouth to tear into him, but the spell was still keeping her silent. Realizing that for herself, her eyes flew wide, and fire flared in their violet depths.
Her mouth snapped shut. She made a feeble attempt to yank back farther to free herself, but he held on tighter.
With her gifts bound, she wasn’t strong enough to break his hold, and the moment she realized that, he saw something else creep into her violet eyes. Not just anger and rage, but a hint of fear as she glanced from the hand at her arm to the one hanging at his side.
The one he’d used to torch those daemons.
His jaw clenched at her reaction. He still didn’t release her, but contempt brewed inside him just the same.
Did she honestly think he was going to roast her as he’d roasted those daemons?
Yes, a voice whispered in the back of his mind. Why wouldn’t she think that? All she knows about you is what she learned from the people of her realm. From the Argonauts. From Cynna...
It wasn’t in his nature to offer olive branches, but in this case, he knew he was not going to get what he wanted if she continued to fight him. He waved his hand in front of her face and muttered the magickal words to break the silence spell.
She gasped then glared up at him. “You bast—”
“Careful with your choice of words, or I’ll silence you again.”
Her lips snapped shut. Fire still flared hot and vicious in her eyes, though. A fire that not only challenged him but lit him up and made him feel alive in a way he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Every muscle in his body urged him to step forward, to strip her of those ripped garments and find her mark, to make sure she was who he thought. But there was still enough common sense in his brain to tell him here, in the middle of these woods, where anything could come upon them, was not the time and place for that.
Especially for what he wanted to do to her when he found it.
Drawing in a deep breath, he worked to relax his jaw and softened his grip so he wouldn’t hurt her. “I realize you have no reason to trust me, but if you cooperate, I promise nothing bad will happen to you.”
“You promise?” She stared at him with icy eyes. “You? Excuse me if I don’t jump for joy. Where I come from, a promise from the Prince of Darkness is worth less than a pile of shit.”
His lips thinned. Bloody hell, she had a mouth on her. That too was different from before. Made him wonder if he’d been wrong and she wasn’t who he thought.
But it wouldn’t deter him. And part of him liked her sassiness. Not just because that mouth of hers was sexy as hell, but because he craved intellectual stimulation almost as much as he craved physical contact.
He forced aside all the naughty fantasies forming in his mind about what he could get her to do with that mouth and let the insult—and the mention of his title—pass. “Right now my promise is worth your life. Unless you’d prefer to end up like those daemons back there?”
She didn’t answer, only narrowed her enraged eyes even more.
“I thought not.” Stepping past her, he tugged her through the trees, never once easing his grip. “Come on.”
She stumbled in her heeled boots but quickened her pace to keep up. “What did your satyrs do with my friends?”
“They weren’t my satyrs.”
“Bullshit,” she muttered, tugging back on his hold, obviously testing him. “Everyone knows about your sadistic satyr army.”
“Everyone used to know about my satyr army.” He pulled her around a tree and down a gentle slope. “Any satyrs who were loyal to me were destroyed twenty-eight years ago.”
She was silent for a moment, then said, “They knew you.”
He harrumphed but didn’t answer.
“You knew them, too,” she snapped. “If they’re not loyal to you, then what are they going to do with my friends?”
“Nothing good.”
He drew her down a rocky hillside. Pebbles and debris kicked up under her boots as she shuffled her feet.
“So you just left them there to be tortured by those assholes? You really are a bastard.”
That did it. He jerked her to a stop and rounded on her.
Her eyes widened just before she bumped into him then quickly stepped back.
“For your information, I was planning on bringing your little friends with us. Since I couldn’t grab them without risking you running right into those satyrs’ hands, I had to make a choice. You should be thanking me for saving your life, not bitching that I chose you over them.” He turned and jerked her the rest of the way down the hill.
She grunted as her feet hit the level ground. “I didn’t ask you to save me. And I can take care of myself. I’m not a wimpy female. Unbind my powers, and I’ll show you right here and now.”
He chuckled as he crossed a small clearing, pushed brush and vines aside on the edge of a new forest, and pulled her into the darkness of the trees. “Nice try, female. You’re not going anywhere but where I tell you.”
She tensed at the instant loss of light, obviously scared about where he was taking her.
He tightened his grip and pulled her in front of him so her back was plastered to his chest and he could maneuver her up and down hills and around trees and brush in the darkness. As they moved, her heat seeped into his flesh, and her unique scents of cinnamon, vanilla, and orange blossom filled his head.
Her muscles were tight, her breaths shallow, but when she saw the hint of light ahead, he felt her excitement as if it were his own.
Just wait, female. This is only the beginning...
They emerged from the thick forest and stepped into a dull white light. And as she sucked in a breath and stared wide-eyed at the stone archway, he lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “You’re mine now, mono mia. And this time, I’m never letting you go.”
Max wasn’t sure how long he’d been out.
There had been motorbikes. Lots of them. Whining up an abandoned highway in the dark. Nothing but dots of red in the distance.
He’d been shoved on the back of one bike, behind a rancid smelling satyr he hadn’t wanted to touch let alone look at. His hands had been bound at his front, his torso strapped to the seatback so he couldn’t fall off. The trip was a blur, mostly because whatever energy Zagreus had hit him with wasn’t just messing with his body but with his head. His thoughts and memories were a jumble. And every time he opened his eyes, he saw Talisa.
He saw her standing with Zagreus in the middle of that dance floor with his massive hand wrapped around her arm. Saw the shock and fear in her eyes when she’d realized the god had bound her gifts so she couldn’t fight back. Saw the horror in her violet gaze when the black smoke started to swirl and she’d realized Zagreus was taking her with him.
Max didn’t know where she was. Didn’t know if she was alive or dead. But he knew what Zagreus was capable of. Everyone did. The Prince of Darkness’s reputation for abducting and torturing females was legendary. And Max hadn’t done a damn thing to stop the sadistic god from making Talisa his next victim.
At some point, the satyrs had stopped in the middle of a dark forest and pulled him off the back of the bike. They’d been hiking by the light of the moon for he didn’t know how long—though what he’d been doing couldn’t really be called hiking. Mostly he’d been stumbling and slowing them down, which was just pissing them all off.