Surprise rushed over Cynna’s smooth face as she looked at him. “What did you say?”
Zagreus stalked back up the steps and dropped into his chair, slumping against the arm. “Go now. Before I change my mind.”
“The prisoners,” Nick said.
“You don’t have time for any damn prisoners.” Zagreus waved his arm. “Get the hell out before my father arrives.”
Nick grasped Cynna’s hand. “We’ll be back for them.”
Zagreus scowled, propped his elbow on the armrest, and glared toward the far rock wall. “Pretty sure there won’t be anything left to come back to.”
Soft fingers brushing his hand drew his head around. Surprise spread through his chest as he looked up at Cynna, standing a foot away, touching him.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
The ground shook. Rocks broke free from the ceiling and shattered to the ground. Screams rose up in the cavern, and Altair scrambled to free the nymph from her chains, then rushed out of the room with the female in his arms.
“Cynna,” Nick called.
Cynna’s eyes softened with gratitude and an emotion Zagreus couldn’t name. And in that second, as she stared at him, as his chest grew tight, he knew what it felt like to do the right thing.
She rushed toward Nick before Zagreus could stop her. Nick grasped her hand. The two turned to look at him once more, and then they were gone in a pop and sizzle of energy.
“You fucked with me,” Hades growled from the doorway.
Slowly, Zagreus swiveled to look toward his father. But he no longer cared what the hell Hades wanted. All he could focus on was the pulsing warmth in the center of his chest, growing larger by the second.
“I told you what would happen if you betrayed me,” Hades roared.
A sound like rolling thunder boomed through the cavern. Zagreus looked up toward the ceiling. Before he could push out of his chair, the ground opened up, dragging him and everything down into darkness.
Cynna stumbled the second her feet hit solid ground. Dust filled her lungs, and she coughed, trying to clear it away. Blinking several times in the early morning sunlight, she realized she stood on the edge of a giant sinkhole. Water rushed in over the rocks, submerging Zagreus’s lair, sweeping over everything until there was nothing left.
“Holy skata,” she whispered. “If you’d been a few minutes later…”
Nick drew her back from the edge. “I needed everyone in position before we came to get you.”
On the other side of the giant sinkhole, voices drifted to her ears. She glanced across the distance toward several Argonauts and a few Sirens staring at the destruction.
“I wasn’t worried about taking down Zagreus,” Nick said. “But I couldn’t get to you and everyone else at the same time.”
“Oh my gods,” Cynna whispered, looking back at the water. “All those prisoners.”
“Don’t look.” He pulled her into his arms. “We tried. I didn’t know Hades was going to show.”
She closed her eyes and sank into him, relieved and thankful and—
She jerked back and looked up. “Isadora?”
“Fine. Better than fine. Cured.”
“Cured?”
He held out his forearm and showed her his unmarked skin. “I’m not an Argonaut anymore. Which means there’s no more soul mate pull between us.”
“No more soul mate pull. That means—”
“That means I am yours, female. Every part of me. If you still want me.”
“If I still want you?” She grasped his neck and pulled him down to her. “Are you kidding?”
He chuckled, but that laugh turned to a groan when she closed her mouth over his and kissed him.
His hands framed her face, and he tipped her head and kissed her deeper, making every doubt and fear and worry she’d had since the moment he’d left her for Olympus disappear into the ether.
When she was breathless, he drew back and rested his forehead against hers. “Did you really think I wouldn’t come for you?”
Her heart rolled. “I didn’t know if Zeus was going to let you go. Convincing Zagreus to take his army and leave was the only thing I knew to do to help.”
“It was a smart move. Smart and stupid all at the same time. I freaked when I came back and found you gone.”
“I’m sorry for that. But it was no stupider than you challenging Zeus.”
A half smile curled his lips. “Agreed. But it worked. Right now, though, I’m ready for a whole lot less excitement. At least of the cataclysmic variety.”
Cynna brushed her fingers over his sexy jaw. “How does it feel? Being immortal?”
“Pretty much the same.” He fingered a lock of hair near her cheek and smoothed it back near her ear. “Though I’ve heard sex is pretty fucking awesome for a god. And I’m itching to try that out.”
She laughed and lifted her mouth to his once more, but a soft cough drew her back.
She glanced to the right toward the elderly woman wearing diaphanous white, sitting on a rock beside them. Cynna startled, but Nick smoothed his hand down her arm and said, “Relax. It’s just Lachesis.”