Cynna’s shoulders dropped. “Don’t make me do this now. If you do, we’ll never get to them all.”
They couldn’t get to them all no matter what they did. And Nick needed to know the answer to his question before they moved on. “They weren’t willing participants, were they? That nymph was a prisoner, just like me. She was innocent.”
Cynna’s stilled, but she didn’t remove her hand from the door handle or turn to look at him. “No one here is innocent. Not truly. But yes, everyone is a prisoner. Some are just required to do…more…than others.”
Like her.
His stomach tightened with the reality he’d been right—on both counts—and he dropped his hand and stepped back so she could open the door. He just wasn’t sure what it meant toward her reasons for freeing him or how that changed what he knew of her relationship with Zagreus.
Straightening, she pulled on the handle. The metal clanged, then hinges squeaked. She moved into the cell. Hands damp, he lifted the flashlight and followed, shining the light over the back of the room. A female sat leaning against the wall, her dark hair falling to her waist, her pale blue eyes wide and unfocused.
“We’re here to free you.” Not wanting to think about Cynna and Zagreus right now, Nick stepped past Cynna, wrapped a hand around the female’s thin arm, and hauled her to her feet.
The female’s eyes grew even wider. “You can’t.”
Cynna slid the key in the cuffs at the female’s wrists. “Follow the tunnel to the right. There’s a set of stairs—”
“I know where the stairs are.” The female tugged her arm back and knocked the key free.
“Dammit.” Cynna knelt to pick it up.
“The guards will be here in minutes,” Nick said.
“Then you’d best go before they arrive,” the female answered. She pulled her arm from his hand, stepped back, then sat against the wall once more. “I can’t leave.”
She’d clearly been brainwashed. No one who was thinking clearly would choose this hell over freedom. “Listen, we—”
“No, you listen, son.” She turned those pale blue eyes upward. Eyes filled with a wisdom that sent a familiar warning through Nick’s blood. “It’s safer for everyone if I remain.”
Nick didn’t have a clue what she meant. He opened his mouth to ask, but she cut him off by saying, “You can do one thing for me, though.”
“What?”
“Find Epimetheus. Tell him… Tell him not to come after me. I know he’s been looking.”
Holy shit. Nick’s stomach tightened. This was Pandora. The first human woman created by the gods. The keeper of all the evils of humanity. That darkness inside jerked with delight. He glanced around the cell for a jar or urn or box of some kind, but found nothing but cold, empty stone.
“It’s not here,” Pandora whispered as if reading his mind. “It’s well hidden.”
Voices and footsteps drifted from the hall. Cynna rushed to the door and peeked out, then muttered, “Skata.” She turned back to face the room. “The guards are coming.”
“Go now,” Pandora said, looking up at Nick. “There is no other choice.”
Nick hesitated. If she was the scourge of the world, he couldn’t leave her in Zagreus’s hands. And that dark part of himself, the part linked to Krónos, wanted her with him. Wanted the powers she could unleash.
“You can’t control them,” Pandora said, reading his mind again. “No one can. Not even me. Zagreus has already tried everything to get me to tell him where it is, but I won’t. If you free me, however, I will be attracted to it, and he will follow. And if that happens, the world as you know it will cease to exist.”
“Nick,” Cynna said, drawing a dagger from her back. “We have to go now.”
Nick still hesitated. They were out of time, and they all knew it. And yet, he still struggled with the choice before him. This was power like nothing he’d ever know. This was his chance to wield it without giving in to his father. “I’ll send someone back for you.”
“Don’t,” Pandora whispered as he stepped toward the door. “Humanity is safe so long as I remain here.”
Possibly. Though the vile part of Nick wouldn’t believe that. And the honorable part—the part he struggled to bring to the forefront—knew no one deserved this kind of imprisonment. Not even her.
Tearing his gaze from Pandora, he moved up behind Cynna and peered over her head into the corridor. “How many?”
“Three, I think. They passed and turned down a tunnel to the right. We’re clear. But we don’t have time to free any others.”
No, they didn’t. Not if they wanted to live. And Nick wanted to live. Now more than ever.
He glanced back toward Pandora as Cynna drew the door open. “I’ll find your husband. I’ll tell him.”