Fuck. Reality carved a hole in the center of Nick’s chest. His people couldn’t stay in this land, not if the Council was looking for a reason to wipe them out. He needed to find them a new colony in the human realm. Someplace Hades and Zagreus didn’t know about. Someplace where they could be safe.
Just the thought of starting over, of being the leader he’d grown so tired of being, pressed even more weight against his shoulders and chest. He felt boxed in, desperate for air, and that dark energy was humming even louder. Whispering…if he just let go, if he let it consume him, he’d no longer care about a race that had never done anything for him besides pull him in so many different directions he wanted to scream.
“You should go out there.” Orpheus leaned back in his chair. “Look around. It would be a real morale booster for your people to see your face. It’s been hard on them since you left.”
More of that heavy, soul-crushing guilt rushed in, pushing out the last of Nick’s good mood. This was the life he’d agreed to. Doing for others and never having anything for himself. And while once he’d thought that was enough, that leading the Misos was his way of getting back at the Council for everything they’d done to him, he knew now it wasn’t. He wanted more out of life than this. Needed someone to keep him motivated, strong…happy.
Cynna.
His skin warmed at just the thought of her. At the one person in his life who didn’t take, but gave.
He pushed back from the table and nodded toward the griddle, where Cerek was pulling off the last of the pancakes. “I’ll take a plate of those with me.”
Orpheus’s chair skidded across the tile floor as he stood. “Does that mean you’ll go out to the settlement?”
“Yeah,” Nick said, hating that he was agreeing, knowing he had no other choice. “But first I’m gonna take Cynna some breakfast.”
Cerek set a plate of pancakes, syrup, butter, and silverware on a tray and handed it to Nick. “You want coffee?”
“Do the gods like wine? Yeah. Put that shit on here too.”
Cerek chuckled and grabbed two cups from the cupboard.
“About the female,” Orpheus started.
“Don’t.” Nick didn’t bother to look Orpheus’s way. “She’s not your concern.”
Orpheus drew in a breath. “I was just gonna say…I didn’t realize you were into the whole whips-and-chains thing. Considering who she used to work for, though, I’m guessing you are now.”
Shit. Orpheus knew about Cynna’s relationship with Zagreus. But then, Nick shouldn’t be surprised. Before joining the Argonauts, Orpheus had spent plenty of time in the human realm dabbling in the dark and depraved himself.
Nick fought back that switch of dark energy. “She’s no threat to you or anyone else.”
“I sure the hell hope not,” Orpheus muttered while Cerek crossed and set two steaming cups of coffee on Nick’s tray. “Because if she is, that’s gonna fuck things up royally. Not just for you, but for everyone in this damn place. Do yourself a favor, Niko. Ask her about her parents. You might learn something of interest.”
Orpheus left before Nick could ask what the hell he meant. But Nick’s mind was already swirling with the reality that he didn’t know all that much about Cynna other than what she’d told him about her parents being killed. In fact, he knew very little about her. And suddenly her relationship with Delia, the witch, seemed of great importance.
He carried the tray back up to their room and closed the door at his back. Cynna was just stepping out of the bathroom when he entered, wearing a long black skirt that fell all the way to her bare feet, a white shirt that accentuated her breasts and made her skin look even darker, and a fitted denim jacket he itched to pull from her toned, sexy shoulders.
That darkness slowly receded as he took in every inch of her—the curves at her hips, the swell of her breasts, her dark hair pulled back from her face and tied in a neat tail, and the little silver drops that hung from her earlobes, catching the light as she moved. And just the sight of her created enough room in his chest so he could breathe again.
She looked down at herself. “That Siren chick brought me more clothes while you were out. She must think I have that girly-girl look about me, because all she left was this skirt.”
Nick remembered Cynna parading around Zagreus’s tunnels in that skimpy little leather miniskirt and those sexy stiletto boots. And while he’d liked that look a lot, he had to admit, he liked this girl-next-door one too. “It works for me.”
She frowned. “I’d be happier in the jeans I wore yesterday, but some maid came in and took them to the laundry before I realized I was going to be left with this.” She eyed the tray in his hand. “What is that?”
“Breakfast.” Already feeling better, he set the tray on the table near the window and motioned her over. “Pancakes.”
Her dark eyes brimmed with cautiousness as she crossed the floor and slowly lowered herself to the chair opposite him. “You cooked?”