Holy hell. The queen of Argolea was his fucking soul mate?
Pressure pushed at every inch of her skin, making her lungs feel like they were about to explode. The Fates could not be that unfair. Life could not be that unfair. Of all the people in all the world for her to get involved with, it had to be the soul mate of the one person she hated with every fiber of her being?
She only just held back a pathetic laugh. If the situation weren’t so dire, she’d be rolling on the floor with laughter. But she couldn’t. Because this was her fucking fate.
Somewhere at the back of the room, someone chuckled. Followed by a whispered, “What’s so funny?” and an “I’ll tell you later.”
But Cynna couldn’t turn to see who’d spoken, because Nick’s attention finally shifted her way. And in his irritated amber gaze, she saw exactly what she’d expected. He’d forgotten she was even there. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Cynna’s heart—or what was left of it—felt like it shattered. Right there on the floor. She moved a step away and muttered, “Like hell we will.”
The queen finally lowered her hand from Nick’s chest and looked at her. “Who is this?”
Nick’s jaw clenched, and, oh yeah, he was pissed. Well, so was Cynna. So much so she wanted to slam her fist through a wall. Or someone’s face. Only she couldn’t seem to stop her damn hand from shaking.
“Cynna,” Nick said. “She was with me in Zagreus’s lair.”
“Cynna,” the guy near the desk whispered to the blonde at his side. “Isn’t that…?”
“Shh,” the blonde muttered, cutting him off.
The queen’s assessing gaze slid over Cynna, making the fine hairs along Cynna’s back stand to attention. But not even a flicker of recognition passed through Isadora’s eyes.
Even though she was seething, even though she wanted to do nothing but run, Cynna breathed a little easier. The queen didn’t know who she was. She could get out of this if she kept her cool.
“She’s Argolean,” the queen said. “What was an Argolean female doing with Zagreus?”
Unfortunately, Cynna’s cool went right out the window with that question, and her temper raged back to the forefront. Oh no. They were not going through this again. She wasn’t about to sit back and let a single person—especially the queen of Argolea—make assumptions about her like she wasn’t even in the room.
She straightened her spine and opened her mouth to tell the queen just what she could do with her damn questions when the blonde who’d been standing near the desk stepped forward.
“I can see these guys were acting like cavemen again and didn’t even bother to give you time to get dressed before they dragged you here.” Cynna’s gaze snapped toward the blonde, who had a pleasant expression fixed across her pretty face. “How about you and I go find something for you to wear while they all gossip like schoolgirls?”
The fact Cynna was wearing nothing but Nick’s T-shirt hit her again, but she didn’t care. She didn’t need clothes to put these people in their places. She’d lived with Zagreus, for fuck’s sake. She could hold her own with the queen of Argolea and her stupid merry men. But before she could spout off as much, her brain kicked into gear, and she realized…this could be her way out of this nightmare.
She reined in her temper—even though it took every ounce of willpower she had—swallowed hard, and nodded once.
“Good,” the female said. “I’m Skyla. Come with me.”
Cynna took a step toward the door to follow the blonde, but Nick grasped her arm at the wrist before she could get too far away and drew her back. His amber gaze locked on hers, hard, steady, resolute. “Don’t go far. I’ll come find you in a few minutes. “
Just the fact he was finally looking at her sent that temper right back to bubbling. Two minutes ago, he’d forgotten she even existed.
She wrenched her arm from his grip. “Your fifteen minutes are up.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cynna tried to settle her raging temper as she turned to follow Skyla, only to realize there were more people in the room than she’d thought. Another woman had stepped in after her, one with fire-red hair who’d sidled up next to the guy in the back wearing gloves—the one she was pretty sure had been laughing. And two other males had also joined the fray, both clearly Argonauts and both as crazy handsome as the rest. Where the hell did they find these guys? Studs “R” Us?