“Skata.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “You’re, like…three thousand years old.”
“Three thousand one hundred and forty-two years, thanks for reminding me. And I think I look pretty damn good for being that age. You try living through wars and plagues, and we’ll see how you look.”
He stopped and stared at her. “How the hell…? What are you…? What the fuck were you doing at the half-breed colony?”
Her temper flared, and she pursed her lips as she stared at her half-eaten food, wishing she hadn’t traveled down this revelation road. “I wasn’t there by choice. Orpheus came looking for me because he needed…help…finding the Orb. In the process he alerted Hades to my location, which, thank you very much, I’ve kept hidden from him for years. It’s no secret Hades hates me and wouldn’t mind seeing me wiped off the planet.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Orpheus is the one who took me to the half-breed colony. He felt guilty and thought I’d be safe there. But I’m not. No one’s safe, so long as I’m around.”
Her mouth snapped shut. Holy hell. Had she really just told him why she’d left? That was stupid. There was no reason he’d care. All she was doing was making things worse.
Refocus, Maelea.
“That’s why you were sneaking out the night I found you.”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t want to dig herself an even bigger hole.
“Holy shit,” he said again from across the room. “I kidnapped Zeus and Persephone’s daughter. If they find out—”
“They won’t,” she said quickly, jumping on the opportunity. “Not if you let me go tonight.”
He stared at her. Electricity crackled in the air between them. Her pulse beat frantically as she waited. As he considered. As she hoped.
Please, just let me go.
“I can’t do that,” he finally said in a quiet voice.
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t. Not yet at least. I still need you.”
Anger flared inside her. Her muscles bunched, and something in her head screamed, Run, now, he won’t stop you! But then she saw his eyes. Eyes that weren’t as dead as she’d thought all along. Eyes that were filled with…pain. The same sort of pain she lived with every day.
Something in her chest tightened, a reaction she wasn’t prepared for. Something that tugged on her soul and refused to let go.
What had been done to him in the Underworld? Just what had he seen and been subjected to?
Her pulse picked up speed. And for the first time, a place inside her understood at least a little of where he was coming from. They weren’t all that dissimilar, after all. They were both misunderstood, both outcasts in a world neither knew how to navigate. But while she was running from a hurt that had festered for thousands of years, he was running from one that was more recent and likely a hundred times worse.
She swallowed hard. Slowly pushed to her feet. Tried like hell to slow her racing heart. Nothing worked. She still didn’t know what he needed from her, but now that she knew he wasn’t keeping her to use as a pawn against her parents, and that he didn’t plan to rape her, everything seemed different. Whatever he wanted from her, it was more personal. It was unique. It was—the darkness inside her vibrated all over again—it was something only she could give him.
Her pulse pounded. All she could focus on was the male in front of her. The one who had rescued her from kobaloi, who had kept her safe from those daemons, who was now looking at her as if he felt a kinship with her as strongly as she suddenly felt with him.
She stepped close. He drew in a surprised breath, but it didn’t deter her. Heat from his body seeped into her own, giving her strength. How long had it been since she’d found someone who shared her pain, who knew what it was like to be alone, who craved a connection with another person as much as she? Never, she realized. She’d never found anyone like her in all her long years. Until now.
Carefully, because her hands were suddenly shaking, she lifted a finger and traced it across his bicep where a jagged scab ran down his arm.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a thick voice. A sexy voice. One laden with the same desire rushing through her veins.
“This healed fast.” He’d gotten it in the caves, when a kobalos launched itself at him as he was protecting her. She’d seen it bleeding. Had tried to ignore it. Now, couldn’t.
He tensed, and she watched muscles in his stomach tighten. He liked her touch. As much as she’d liked his in the shower. The knowledge sent power skipping through her veins. “Maelea—”
“I never thanked you,” she said, stepping even closer, drawing in a deep whiff of his intoxicating scent. “For saving me. In the tunnels. For keeping me from freezing, for fighting back those kobaloi. You didn’t have to do any of that, but you did.”