Bound

Chapter Eighteen

A chill spread down Demetrius’s spine, one born not just of the cool air in the room but of fear.

Behind the drape, Callia spoke quietly with the Misos healer, Lena, and a nurse who’d stayed behind to help with the delivery. Metal clanked against metal as they picked up or put down instruments. The scent of antiseptic cleaners filled the operating room.

He looked down at Isadora and brushed a lock of hair back that had slipped free of the cap on her head. “You did great at the ceremony the other day. I didn’t get a chance to tell you. You had the Council quaking with your speech.”

She tipped her head toward him. A faint smile tugged at her lips, but her eyes were closed. “Thanks. But we both know you exaggerate. The Council has never been intimidated by me.”

“Yeah, they are. You’re stronger than your father, and they know it. They’re afraid of change, and you’re bringing it. I’ll never forget the looks on their faces when you charged into that hall and stopped my execution.”

Her eyes drifted open. Fathomless, chocolate eyes he could look into forever. “I’ll never forget that moment either. Seeing you strung up like that… It was the worst moment of my life.”

His heart took a long, hard roll. “And seeing you was my very best.”

“Oh, Demetrius...”

He wanted to hold her hand, but her arms were strapped down for the surgery, so instead he brushed his fingers against the cap on her head and lowered his forehead to hers. Please don’t take her from me… “There’s more for you to do. Still so many things in Argolea that only you can change.”

A weak smile tugged at her mouth. “You worry too much about me.”

“I always have. That’s nothing new.”

“I’m going to be fine, Demetrius. It’s our baby I’m worried ab—”

Isadora’s body jostled from whatever they were doing behind the curtain, and she sucked in a sudden breath, as if in pain. He tensed, and then, from beyond the drape, a tiny cough echoed, followed by a high-pitched infant scream.

Isadora’s eyes grew wide. She lifted her head but couldn’t move any other part of her body. “Is it…”?

“It’s a girl,” Callia announced, a smile in her voice. “Give us a minute to get her cleaned up.”

“A girl?” Isadora looked toward Demetrius with wide eyes. “Are you sure? Look again. It has to be a boy. I dreamt about it.”

A hundred emotions pummeled Demetrius’s chest but he was too afraid the Fates were about to rip his world out from under him to smile. “Your gift of foresight isn’t reliable when it comes to you, kardia.” Lifting his head, he asked, “Is she okay?”

“She’s perfect,” Callia answered. “Ten fingers, ten toes. A little small, but so is her mom.”

The baby screamed louder, and Callia laughed. “Can you hear that? I’d say she definitely has some Argonaut genes in her.”

Dressed in scrubs, Callia emerged from behind the screen, a smile bright on her face. In her arms, she held a tiny bundle wrapped in a pale blue blanket. “Here you go, Daddy.”

Demetrius pushed to his feet. The rolling chair he’d been sitting on skidded backwards. Callia handed him the bundle. Nerves pinged through his stomach, and his arms shook as he cradled the small package against his chest.

There were two moments in his life he would never forget. The day Isadora had saved his life, and this. The baby stopped screaming, stared up at him with big, gray eyes. And blinked several times.

All these months he’d been afraid, not just for Isadora’s health but for what he’d see in his child’s eyes. Would she be evil, like his mother Atlanta? Would she fight an inner darkness, as he and Nick did on a daily basis? Or would the light from Isadora and her link to the Horae be enough to overpower everything else?

But when he looked into his daughter’s eyes for the first time, he didn’t see darkness. He didn’t see hatred or revenge or the million other things his mother had hoped for in an heir. He saw the future. And he saw love.

Tears pricked his eyes. He smiled, blinked several times to clear his vision, and whispered, “Heaven.”

“Demetrius?”

He swiped at his eyes with his shoulder, turned, and lowered the baby so Isadora could see her. “Say hi to your matéras, sweet baby girl.”

Isadora lifted her head. The baby stared at her, then opened her little mouth wide and yawned.

“Oh my gods,” Isadora whispered. “She’s beautiful.”

Demetrius smiled at the tears filling his mate’s eyes. “She’s not a boy.”

“Are you kidding? Boys are useless. She’s…perfect.”

At Demetrius’s side, Callia laughed. She patted Demetrius’s shoulder and looked down at her sister. “We’re almost done here, Isa. Once we get you stitched up, we’ll let you hold your baby.”

She moved back behind the curtain, and Demetrius sniffled and pushed the blanket down so Isadora could see their daughter’s tiny hands.

“Oh…see?” Isadora blinked back tears. “I told you everything was going to be okay. Didn’t I tell you?”

“You did. I’ll never doubt you again. Gods, I love you so damn much.” He pressed his lips against Isadora’s, then laughed when the baby grunted from being squeezed between them.

He eased back and swiped at the tear sliding down Isadora’s temple. Love flooded his heart—for his wife, for his baby, for everything he’d never expected and now couldn’t live without. “She needs a name, kardia.”

Isadora tipped her head and studied their daughter. “You said heaven when you first saw her. What about…Elysia?”

From Elysium, the Isles of the Blessed, the afterlife where the heroes were said to dwell. He looked down at his daughter’s picture-perfect face and smiled. “Elysia. I like that. It fits. It’s how I feel when I’m with you.”

Isadora’s gaze drifted up, held his and softened. “I love you too. Thank you. Thank you for her.”

He lowered his lips to hers again and kissed her gently, sweetly. The baby yawned again, content now between them.

“Um, Callia…” From behind the curtain, Lena’s voice rang out. “I need you. Her blood pressure’s dropping.”

Demetrius drew back from Isadora. Her face paled. Her eyes grew distant. From behind the screen, Callia’s tense voice said, “Hold on. Let me just—”

Isadora’s eyes drifted closed. A crash echoed, and Lena yelled, “Callia!”

All that relief Demetrius had felt jolted to bone-chilling panic. “Kardia?”

Oh gods…

The door to the operating room pushed open. Voices flooded the space. Zander’s. Lena’s arguing with him to get out. Casey’s as she rushed in to help.

But all Demetrius could focus on was his mate. Lying still as death. Growing paler by the second. He handed the baby to Casey and pulled the cap off Isadora’s head. “Kardia, stay with me. Stay with me!”

“Shit,” Lena muttered. Metal clanked against metal. “Come on, Isadora…”

Nick turned for the grand stairs, his heart a knot beneath his ribs. If he’d had any hope that Isadora might need him, that he could help her if something were wrong, he’d realized his stupidity the second he’d seen her and Demetrius together.

He had to let this go. There was nothing he could do for her. He wasn’t her mate. That wasn’t his baby. She—

A slash of pain raked through his chest. He sucked in a breath and gripped the banister at his side. Darkness rolled through the castle like a black, slinking fog.

He was here. Hades had found a way in. Only he wasn’t here to conquer like the daemons and satyrs outside. He was here to take.

Nick turned, raced back up the steps, and tore down the hall.

He burst through the door into the waiting room of the medical clinic. It was empty. His boots echoed through the corridor as he ran for the operating room. He pushed the door open, then froze.

Isadora lay motionless on the table. A machine beeped slowly behind her head, so slowly even he knew it was ticking down the seconds of her life. At her side stood Demetrius, a heart-stricken expression across his face. Next to him, Casey, looking almost as pale as Isadora, held a bundle of blankets. Zander was kneeling on the floor next to Callia, who—also pale—sat leaning against the wall, a hand over her stomach. And Lena, dressed in scrubs and covered in blood, stood motionless near Isadora’s feet.

No one noticed him. No one moved. No one spoke. Everyone was too busy staring at the seven-foot-tall god dressed all in black in the center of the room.

Hades’s gaze raked the group, then slid over Isadora. “Oh, this is a good day. The half-breed colony and the little queen. I did not expect she’d be mine so soon, but I am not complaining.”

Fury erupted over Demetrius’s face. He moved out from behind the bed and launched himself at Hades. “You won’t touch her!”

Hades lifted a hand. An arc of electricity erupted from his palm, shooting through Demetrius. His body flew back, crashed against medical equipment, and hit the wall. He slumped to the ground in a mess of machinery.

“None of you can stop this,” Hades announced, looking from face to face. “A deal with the King of the Underworld cannot be revoked. In a few seconds, that deal will be fulfilled, and her soul will belong to me.”

At Isadora’s side, Casey’s face paled even more. She held the baby close. Nick’s gaze shot from her to Callia, then back to Isadora.

Isadora had made a deal with Hades to save Casey’s life. One soul for another. But if Isadora died, it wouldn’t just be her life that was forfeit. All three sisters would perish.

The machine near Isadora’s head slowed its beeping even more.

“That’s it, little queen,” Hades encouraged. “Come to me. We’re going to have so much fun together.”

“Kardia…”

Demetrius tried to push up, but Hades blasted him with another jolt of electricity. Nick’s gaze shot to his brother, then back to their soul mate. And everything inside him—all the hope and disappointment and heartache—coalesced in the space that should hold his heart.

“If you spare her, I’ll tell you where the therillium stores are hidden.”

Hades turned, and surprise, followed by confusion, flickered over the god’s face. “You…you’re the leader of the half-breeds.”

He was negotiating with the god of darkness. This could go downhill fast. Nick spread his stance. He wasn’t about to back down. “Spare her, and the therillium is yours.”

“Nick,” Zander breathed in warning.

Nick ignored him. To Hades, he said, “I know you want the invisibility ore. And I know it’s more important to you than her.”

Hades’s gaze narrowed. And in his soulless eyes, Nick could see the god was contemplating.

Yes…take the deal…

“I have such plans for her.” Hades looked over Isadora once again. His gaze lingered. Lust and indecision swirled in his eyes. Abruptly, he turned and fully faced Nick. “Though I am always amenable to a trade.”

The god was going for the ore. “The therillium is—”

“Not just the ore.” Hades’s black stare homed in on Nick. “You. I want you. Not when you die, but now. There will be no trading of souls this time. You come to me freely, here and now, and in exchange I will spare the little queen’s life and relinquish my claim to her soul. That is the deal. Take it or leave it.”

Nick was a pure-blood demigod—the son of Atalanta, a goddess, and a human father he’d never met. As a pure hero, it made sense his soul would be more valuable to Hades than an Argolean, royalty or not, but Nick couldn’t figure out why Hades would want him now. Options, scenarios, possibilities raced through his mind.

He looked back at Isadora’s pale features. And remembered how happy she’d been at the party in Argolea, how she’d smiled and sparkled under those chandelier lights. How much love had been in her eyes when she’d gazed upon his brother.

The empty space around his heart twisted hard. She’d never be his. Not the way he wanted. But he could do something for her his brother couldn’t.

“Fine.” His gaze shot back to Hades. “My life for hers. I agree.”

“Niko,” Demetrius said in a weak voice, trying to push up.

A wide smile broke across Hades’s face. Metal shackles connected by a heavy chain appeared from nowhere and snapped over Nick’s wrists. And a dark gloom pressed down hard on Nick’s chest, sucking the air from his lungs.

A poof of black smoke erupted in the room, and another god appeared. This one Nick knew well.

“We were winning out there,” Zagreus snapped. “You force me to fucking fight, then you summon me from the battle for—”

“I summoned you,” Hades said, “to greet your newest prisoner.”

Zagreus turned to face Nick. Disgust reflected in his eyes. “A demigod? I’m not impressed.”

Hades placed a hand on Zagreus’s shoulder. “Not just a demigod, son. Forget Prometheus’s daughter. Let Zeus and Poseidon fight over her. You’re going to repay your betrayal to me by joining my army. We now have everything we need to harness Krónos’s powers. My father’s bastard son is going to win this war for us.”

Titus awoke with a shiver. His living blanket wasn’t cuddled up to him like she’d been when they’d drifted to sleep.

He rolled to his back and pushed up on the soft moss under the tree where they’d fallen asleep after making love. “Tasa?”

Water gurgled from the nearby stream. The first rays of dawn spread watery light over the forest. Somewhere close, a bird cawed.

He moved to sitting and looked around the sparse trees. Nothing but stumps and branches and tree trunks as far as he could see. Natasa’s clothes were gone.

A whisper of unease rushed through him. He dragged on his shirt, then stood and pulled on his pants. “Tasa?”

Nothing.

Skata. Where the hell had she run off to? He hoped she was just hungry, looking for something to eat. Or maybe she was back at the lake, taking a quick dip to cool down. He headed that direction, searching the area around the lake and stream and the small clearing beyond.

No sign of her.

“Tasa?” he called again.

He stood on the edge of a meadow, tall grasses tickling his hands where they perched on his hips. Turning, he scanned the area. It was warm out here in the sunlight—warmer than he expected. Sweat slid down his back, pooling at the base of his spine beneath his thin shirt. His panic jumped another notch. If he was sweating, Natasa had to be on fire.

“Come on, ligos Vesuvius,” he muttered. “Where in Hades did you go?”

He moved across the meadow. Halfway to the other side, an eagle swooped down in his path. His feet drew to a stop. He watched the eagle soar through the sky, then dip low and land on the branch of a great oak off to his left.

The eagle was the emblem of Zeus. And Zeus had imprisoned Natasa’s father. His heart beat faster.

He turned, some unseen hand drawing him toward the oak instead of the woods on the other side of the meadow he’d plan to search. When he was five feet away, the eagle screeched, its great wings flapped, and it took off into the sky.

Titus wasn’t sure what to do. He was losing it, thinking he was seeing signs in a bird. Just when he was about to turn around and head back the way he’d come, he caught sight of what looked like a bare foot, lying still against the ground through the tall grass.

Foreboding slid down his spine. He parted the grass with his hands, then sucked in a shocked and horrified breath.

“Tasa…?” Oh, shit.

She lay motionless on the ground, her curly red hair fanned out beneath her, her skin pale and dry. He reached for her arm resting on her stomach and placed the back of his hand against her forehead. Her skin was cool, not hot, and the pulse in her wrist was abnormally slow.

“Tasa? Baby, open your eyes and look at me.” She didn’t respond. He pried her eyelids open. Her pupils were dilated.

This wasn’t the element burning her. This was something else. He looked around, trying to figure out what had happened to her. A clump of long-stalked, yellow-and-white flowers rested in her hand.

Shaking, he reached for the flowers. The roots were missing, the stalks broken and ripped. He looked from the flowers to her face and the trail of drool down the side of her mouth.

No. No, no, no...

He dropped the flowers against the ground and reached for her shoulders. “Tasa, dammit!”

Her leg twitched. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Tasa…baby…” He cradled her face, then pushed the hair back from her eyes. “Skata, what did you do?” His voice hitched. “Tell me what you did.”

“For you,” she rasped. “So he can’t…have the element.”

“He who?”

Her eyes fell closed again. Her head sagged to the side. Panic, fear and helplessness coalesced inside Titus. He dragged her into his lap. “I don’t care about the damn element. Don’t you know that? I care about you. Open your eyes, Tasa. Come on, baby…”

Her body fell limp against him.

“Tasa?” He shook her again, but she didn’t respond. Tears blurred his vision. Never before had he thought he’d miss her fever, but this cold chill was worse than anything he could imagine. Pain ripped through his chest, his heart, his very soul. The one thing in the world he’d never wanted was now the only thing he couldn’t live without.

A scream echoed from the sky. Through watery vision he looked up and saw the eagle again. It dove straight for them, swooping low—so close he could have reached out and touched it. The great bird glided through the meadow and landed in a tree on the far side. Then stared at him, as if to say, Follow me.

I believe in signs…

She’d said that to him last night, in the water. When she’d been rambling about the elements and dreaming about him and not waiting. His mind flashed back to the day he’d chased her in Argolea, when he’d climbed the trellis on that castle wall. An eagle had swooped low then too. An eagle he hadn’t remembered until just now.

He wasn’t sure he believed in signs, but if he hadn’t followed that eagle moments ago, he never would have found her. If she hadn’t seen it dive-bomb him on that wall walk, it was possible she might not have come back and saved him.

He didn’t have time to second-guess. Moving on autopilot, he pushed to his feet, lifted her in his arms, and turned toward the eagle. It lurched off the branch, flapping its wings, then screeched again. But it didn’t fly off. It hovered over the ground, as if waiting for him to catch up.

Calypso was somewhere on this island. She was a nymph, immortal, and she had use of magic and spells. If anyone could save Natasa, it would be her. He just hoped like hell this eagle knew where the nymph was hiding and was taking them to her, instead of leading them both to their deaths.