A breath of relief whooshed out of Cynna’s lungs.
They lowered their weapons, but the venom in their eyes said they weren’t happy. They’d tasted blood and wanted more. And yet, the man didn’t even spare them a glance. He continued to look past them, past Zagreus, and focus only on her.
“Son of a fucking bitch,” Zagreus muttered under his breath. He turned away from the ring, his face contorted in anger, and looked toward Cynna. She stiffened, covering any reaction, working for blasé when she felt anything but. “I gave you a simple job. To break him. And you’ve failed.”
Panic slithered in to mix with the fear. But panic, like nausea, was a weakness she wasn’t about to let show. She forced her gaze away from the man below and focused on the devil she’d sold herself to.
Her shoulders tensed, her chin lifted, her back straightening with a strength she pulled from the very center of her being. “He has the blood of Krónos in his veins. His will has proved to be stronger than most.”
Zagreus chewed on the inside of his lip. He was taller than Cynna. Even a few steps below her near the railing, she had to look up at him. To most he was a sex god—tanned, dark, muscular, with a body carved to tempt and a face to seduce. But Cynna knew the cunning devil he was beneath. And being Hades’s son, his appetites, and his quest for power, knew no limits.
“His will must be broken if he’s to come into his god powers. And I need his god powers to best my father and those other fucking gods who think they own this world and the next. If he refuses to cooperate, we’ll just have to find another way.”
Cynna’s eyes narrowed. They’d already tortured the man in every way imaginable. They’d whipped him until he’d bled. Stretched him on racks. Beaten him until he was black and blue and broken. And through it all, she’d watched—even ordered his torture because she had to—while inside she’d only wanted to vomit and run. But every time he’d healed, his superhuman genes repaired every ounce of damage they’d inflicted, much to her surprise—and relief.
They’d brought him to the brink of physical pain, and he’d yet to crack, so she couldn’t imagine what else they could do to him. “Like what?”
A dark, perverse light flared in Zagreus’s eyes. “We’ll use the nymphs.”
Oh shit. She’d been wrong. There was another way to torture him. One she hadn’t even considered.
“If we can’t break him physically,” Zagreus said, “you will break him…sexually.”
He shifted away from her and looked down into the arena. “Take him back to his cell.” Guards stationed at the doors moved in from the shadows and jerked on the man’s arms. “Have him cleaned up, then chain him to the wall. My sweet Cynna has something special planned for him.”
Zagreus turned that sickening smile her way and winked, just once. “Don’t you, agapi?”
Cynna’s gaze strayed from Zagreus’s victorious grin down to Nick, standing taut in the center of the ring, being held at each arm by the guards, his face drenched in sweat, his body in blood, his intense amber gaze never once straying from her face.
Zagreus stepped up next to her and leaned close to her ear. “Break him, Cynna. Use the nymphs to bring him to the brink again and again, no matter how long it takes. Because if you can’t, if you fail me now, you remember what I said would happen, don’t you?”
Cynna’s stomach caved in, and fear—true fear—rolled through her veins. Yeah, she remembered. He’d promised to break her. Mind, body, soul…her will. Until there was nothing left.
Only she’d never be able to hold out. Not like Nick.
Slowly, she nodded. And stared into the scarred face of her victim. Hating—despising—everything she’d agreed to all in the name of revenge.
“Good girl,” Zagreus whispered. “You do this right, agapi, and your reward will be most pleasurable. That, I promise.”
CHAPTER TWO
Nick wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew whatever Zagreus had planned for him next wasn’t going to be good.