Her hands shook again as she flipped off the water, but this time not from arousal. This time true fear quaked in her muscles as she turned to face Zagreus.
He leaned against the doorway to her bedroom, his body relaxed, his arms crossed over his chest. But his eyes… They blazed with a fury she knew he was about to unleash.
She swallowed hard as he pushed away from the wall, as he ambled toward her, all coiled muscle and simmering power she knew could grind her into dust, and stopped directly in front of her. He leaned down, close to her ear, the heat of his body making her skin twitch, and drew in a deep whiff. “You smell of my uncle.”
Her eyes slid closed at the sound of his snarled words, and her heart pounded hard in her chest. She’d let herself forget that very small fact. As Krónos’s bastard son, that made Nick Hades’s half brother and Zagreus’s uncle. And even though Nick had yet to unleash those powers his father had hidden inside him, when he did, Nick would one day be more powerful than Zagreus, a reality the god at her front never forgot.
“You wound me, agapi.”
Skata, this was it. He was going to kill her. Right here. Right now. He was not a god who gave second chances, but surprisingly… She didn’t want one.
The knowledge caused her pulse to slow, pushed the cold outward from the center of her chest. Yeah, she might die, but she didn’t care anymore. Because at least she’d done one selfless thing in this hellhole. When Nick had thanked her the other night, she’d known she hadn’t deserved it, but tonight… Tonight she’d given him a tiny piece of pleasure in the middle of an endless misery while she’d taken nothing for herself. And for that she could be proud. Proud because even if she spent all eternity in the fire of Hades’s hell paying for all the awful things she’d done in life, at least she’d go knowing her soul wasn’t completely black. Not like Zagreus’s.
Slowly, she lifted her gaze to his. The god was close. Mere inches away. And the rage building inside him… She could see it in his eyes, in his taut muscles, in the lines on his perfectly sculpted face. She wasn’t stupid enough to egg him on, but she wasn’t backing down either. Not anymore.
“Yes,” she said in a voice she knew shook even though she tried to stop it. “I did.”
His face turned red. His jaw hardened until it was as rigid as stone. She braced herself for his wrath, but it didn’t come. Instead, he stepped back, his hands in fists at his sides, his muscles straining as if he were fighting to hold something back. Not looking away from her eyes, he called, “Guards?”
Shuffling sounded in the other room. Cynna’s gaze jumped past Zagreus to the hulking satyrs rushing by him, one of whom she recognized as Lykos.
“I’ve been waiting for this,” Lykos growled.
Panic spread through every inch of Cynna’s body. She shifted, tried to move to the side, but the two beasts caught her by the arms before she could get away.
Zagreus stepped into her bedroom. The satyrs dragged her kicking and struggling through the doorway. Zagreus nodded toward the bed. “There.”
“No.” No, no, no, no, no… She thrashed, tried to fight against them, but their grips were too strong. She’d been wrong. He wasn’t going to kill her. Not yet, at least. He was going to let Lykos and the other satyr have their way with her first. She’d seen what Lykos could do to a female. She’d never survive it. She didn’t want to survive it. She struggled, kicked out, tried to nail him in the balls but missed.
“On her back,” Zagreus ordered.
The satyrs maneuvered her like a rag doll. Cynna tried to fight, but they were too strong. One pinned her arms above her head; the other wrenched down on her legs. The bed dipped, and she sensed Zagreus move in close, felt his big hand tug her pants down at the hip. Winced as something sharp stabbed into her flesh.
A burn ripped through her muscle and spread through her leg and belly. She screamed, tried to kick out, but her muscles were growing lax, her limbs heavy. Whatever he’d injected into her was immobilizing her within seconds.
“Shh, agapi. That’s it. Let it work. You know you deserve this.”
Tears pooled in Cynna’s eyes. She tried to roll to her side but couldn’t. This was how Nick felt. What it was like to know misery was coming, powerless to stop it. She did deserve this. But not because she’d defied Zagreus. She deserved it because she hadn’t defied him sooner.
“That’s better.” Zagreus’s hands landed against her bare belly, tracing a slow circle where her tank had ridden up. She could feel it. Could feel Lykos’s hands gripping her wrists and the other satyr petting her legs. Her stomach rolled, and sickness threatened. She could feel everything, but she couldn’t react.
“Get it,” Zagreus said to Lykos. Then, “No, in her arm.”