CHAPTER 11

I wake up in a familiar tent. It smells like home. “Selena?”

She leans over me, smiling. Her blonde braid slips forward and brushes my arm. It’s glossy and sleek and so thick it’s the size of a man’s wrist. Her face is flawless. Ageless. She could be thirty, she could be two hundred, and her eyes are the color of a northern lake on a clear, windless day—dark blue and so deep that when I look into them, I sometimes think I’m seeing another world.

She gently brushes the hair back from my face, and I burst into tears.

Selena arches delicate eyebrows a shade darker than her braid. “That’s a first.”

“I missed you.” I hiccup, embarrassed.

“I’m flattered. I didn’t think you cried.”

“I don’t,” I say, swiping at my tears.

She sits back, bringing her thumb and index finger nearly together. “I’m this close to perishing from curiosity.”

I blink, surprised. Selena always seems to know everything, at least before anyone else does. “That would not please Hades.”

She smiles a secret, satisfied smile that makes me wonder what it’s like to be loved by a God, even one who already has a wife.

“The warlord isn’t talking, I think out of a misguided effort to protect you. Information on my end has been scarce lately, so tell me, who is the man that carried you into my circus, roaring for me to save you?” Her grin turns impish. “‘Fix her! Now! Or I swear to the Gods that the Furies will rain death and destruction upon you, and there will be lightning bolts to pay!’”

I gasp. “He didn’t!”

“He did.” Her extraordinary eyes dance with mirth, and I cough up an involuntary smile. It takes a certain dimension of balls to threaten Selena. She can be really scary in a mother-hen-meets-warrior-queen kind of way. The magic around her is palpable, awing, and, frankly, a little disturbing it’s so intense. It’s a good thing their goals converged—protecting me—or Beta Sinta might have been in trouble.

“How long have I been here?” I ask.

“Two days. You had to sleep it off. Me too.”

Selena hardly sleeps unless she does something incredibly taxing. If she needs rest, Hades brings her to the Underworld, although I can’t imagine she does much sleeping there.

Troubled, I ask, “It was that close?”

“Minutes close, and you still need your rest.”

Tiny goose bumps rise on my arms. I’ve always been aware of my own mortality. That doesn’t make almost dying any easier. I cheated death again. Hades must really not want me. He’s probably afraid I’ll cause as much trouble in the Underworld as I will in Thalyria.

I frown, rubbing the chill from my skin. “He hasn’t told you who he is?”

Selena shakes her head.

“Beta Sinta—the new and improved.” I mean to sound sarcastic, but it doesn’t really come out that way.

Something flickers in her eyes, maybe a flash of annoyance. It’s gone so fast I might have imagined it.

“Definitely improved,” she says. “Especially after I got through with him.”

Worry slams through me. “Was he badly hurt?”

“Do you care?”

I hesitate, alarmed by the intensity of my reaction. “I’m…not sure?”

Selena lets out an elegant snort. “You’re not very convincing. And, no, he wasn’t badly hurt. Cuts and slashes. Some blood loss. Nothing irreparable.”

Relief floods me, but the feeling is short-lived. “Did I bleed?”

“Yes, but I burned the tunic and diluted everything else. Nothing traceable was here for more than a few minutes.”

Selena’s never asked who I’m hiding from or why. She protects me regardless. “Thank you.”

She inclines her head so regally I feel like I should kneel, or bow.

“And the others?” I ask.

“The lanky, dark one was weary but fine. Carver, I believe? And the jolly ax-wielder needed his arm fixed, but he wasn’t too damaged otherwise, a bit like your Beta Sinta.”

My heart has a miniature seizure. “He’s not my Beta Sinta.”

She continues like I haven’t spoken. “And the very handsome Kato nearly lost his leg. It took everything I had left in me after finishing with you to save it.”

Kato of the smiling blue eyes and sunny hair. Of Athena. Of wisdom and war. I can’t believe he almost lost a leg.

“They’re all okay, then?” I grin like an idiot. What is wrong with me?

She rises from her chair, fluid and vaguely shimmering. Her grace is legendary. I’m agile and strong, but I’d rather move like sunbeams on water, like Selena.

“In good health and arguing incessantly with Desma and Aetos. Those two are under the impression the Sintans abducted you.”

She’s asking a question. I owe her an answer. “They did. Sort of.”

Her sculpted lips purse. “Help me understand a ‘sort of’ abduction,” Selena says, pouring me a cup of water.

Well, it sounds stupid when you say it like that.

My throat is parched, so I drink before answering. “He’s Beta Sinta. He said he’d have you all arrested if I didn’t come.”

“And you believed him?”

It’s a loaded question coming from Selena. I nod. After nearly a month with him, I also know he would have done it because he felt he had to, not because he wanted to.

“He needs a powerful Magoi to help him and his precious Alpha sister, Egeria.” Egeria is no Alpha. She sounds more like a buttercup. Beta Sinta on the other hand, he’s Alpha material. Fierce on the battlefield, bloody, focused, ruthless…fair?

“Plus, he had a magic rope.”

Selena laughs, and the sound is like wind chimes on a spring breeze. “You? Caught by a magic rope?”

I flush. “Don’t remind me.”

She clears her throat, taming more laughter, and asks, “Will you help him?”

Selena may not know who I am, but I’m certain she knows what I am—the Kingmaker—even if we’ve never discussed it. “My abilities can be valuable in diplomatic situations,” I say carefully.

“He came here to save you. He looked like he cared.”

I shrug, glancing down. “I’m a weapon he doesn’t want to lose.”

“I think there’s more.”

My eyes snap back up. “Don’t infer something that isn’t there. We’re both monsters.”

Her dark-blue gaze flicks over me, unnerving. “Monsters still mate.”

I choke on my own spit and then cough.

A faint smile curves her lips. “Why didn’t you just escape?”

“The rope.” That stupid, infuriating enchanted rope that led me to make a binding vow to stay with Beta Sinta until his—or my, if it comes first—dying day.

She looks incredulous. “You couldn’t find a way out?”

“It was a bloody good rope!”

Sighing, she drops the subject and reaches for my hand. “Of all the monsters chasing you, Cat, you could have been caught by worse.”

I look away from her. Colorful fabrics hang from the domed ceiling of Selena’s tent. I stare at them, thinking she’s right. I don’t usually like to be touched, but I leave my hand where it is. No one has held my hand in years. Except Beta Sinta. But that was different; he was dragging me around.

“Is that your pearl of wisdom for the day?” I ask.

“No, this is. Listen to your heart. You think it’s black. I don’t know everything you’ve been through, but I know enough to understand that your past filled you with hostility and hate. But you still laugh. You still love, and you protect the people you care about. You’re not who you think you are. You’re better, and you’re more.” Her powerful, fathomless gaze holds mine, and a prickly feeling crawls up my nose toward my eyes. “No matter what you think, your heart is still red and beating.” She squeezes my fingers. “Listen to it.”

I nod, resisting the urge to sniff.

As soon as Selena leaves, Desma and Aetos burst into the tent.

“Cat! You’re awake!” Desma falls on top of me, hugging me, the cot—everything. It would hurt if she didn’t weigh less than I do.

Aetos looms over us, huge and blue.

“Don’t you try that,” I warn.

He grins, and I reach up, drawing him down for a quick hug. Happiness bubbles inside me at seeing these two again.

“How are you?” I ask, smiling.

He pats my hand. “Better, now that you’re back.”

My smile falls, landing somewhere near my toes. “I can’t stay.”

“You have to!” Color erupts from Desma. Without thinking, I gather the magic she released. I let part of it go, and it shimmers around the tent, turning the warm air the color of jewels in the sun.

“You’re not leaving with him,” Aetos growls.

I think we all know who him is. “I have to. I gave my binding word.”

“That son of a Cyclops!” Aetos pounds his massive fist down on Selena’s vacated chair. It shatters like a toy made of twigs. “He made you promise before he brought you to Selena.”

I shake my head. “I promised before I got hurt.”

His mouth snaps shut. I’ve left Aetos speechless. Definitely a first.

“Why?” Desma asks.

“There was about to be a battle. I was magically tied up. Actually, I was tied to him. Neither of us could fight like that.”

“So if he untied you, you promised to stay with him?”

I nod, and Desma looks appalled by my stupidity. “You traded one shackle for another, much stronger one.”

“I know,” I say, disgusted. “I had a better chance of escaping the enchanted rope than my own binding word. But we’re alive, right?”

“We?” Desma asks pointedly.

My face heats. “They’re not that bad. And they might be better for the realm.” Unless having a Hoi Polloi Alpha makes Tarva and Fisa rain years of fire and monsters down on us.

“What do they have to do with Sinta?” Aetos asks.

As I explain who the Sintans are, my two best friends turn an interesting shade of yellow. Aetos looks a bit green, actually, given his blue tattoos.

“So, a strapping warlord, who is actually Beta Sinta, takes one look at you and decides he has to have you?” Desma asks.

“Strapping?” Aetos grumbles.

“Not as strapping as you, darling.” Desma smiles sweetly, and Aetos looks mollified, lowering his head to kiss her soundly on the lips.

My jaw goes slack. I’ve been waiting years for this. I go away for a month, and it happens without me? Life is not fair!

I clear my throat, and Desma breaks the kiss, blushing.

“Apparently,” I answer, my eyes bouncing back and forth between the two of them so fast it gives me vertigo.

“But why? Why you?” Desma asks, still pink.

“Because I’m cute and funny?”

They stare at me.

“No, really,” Desma insists. “Why you?”

I sigh. “He needs a Magoi with my skills. He thinks I can be helpful in diplomatic situations. Alliances and treaties. Things like that.”

Aetos chokes on something. “You? Diplomatic?”

“I know!” I throw my hands up. “I guess he thinks insult first and kill after will be good for the realm.”

We all laugh, but it feels forced.

“There’s more to it,” Desma prods.

I shake my head. “He’s Hoi Polloi. He needs Magoi. I’m a soothsayer.”

“You’re more than that.” Aetos doesn’t ask. He states a fact.

When I don’t say anything, Desma asks, “How does Beta Sinta know you’re more than that? Why work so hard to save you when he could just abduct himself another soothsayer?” She frowns, obviously hurt. “You didn’t just tell him whatever else you are, did you?”

“Of course not!” I say hotly. “It was an oracular dream.” I roll my eyes. “Thanks a bunch, Poseidon.”

Silence. It lasts so long I get sleepy. Magical healing saps my energy like nothing else.

“Poseidon?” Aetos eventually echoes.

I yawn. “Because of him, Beta Sinta watched me, put two and two together, and found some old scroll confirming it all.”

Silence again. Then Desma asks, “Will you ever tell us, Cat?”

It’s getting hard to focus. Fatigue turns the multicolored tent into a kaleidoscope. “I don’t know. It’s not what I want to do with my life. It’s what I ran away from.”

Blue lines pull tight around Aetos’s mouth. “But you’ll do it for him?”

I don’t answer, and my eyelids sag.

* * *

I wake up sometime late in the afternoon and then eat like a person three times my size. An embarrassing amount of roast chicken and an entire tray of spice cakes, which I’m guessing Desma left by my bedside, disappear in less than an hour. I feel stronger but stickier than the cakes I just inhaled.

A parade of visitors keeps me from leaving the tent for a bath. Dozens of circus residents pop their heads in to see if I’m awake and to check on me. I get tired again fast, but I’m too happy to see everyone to say so. Tadd and Alyssa bring me a pot of honey from the beehive they carry around with them everywhere the circus goes, and Zosimo and Yannis tell me about the performances I missed while I was gone. Vasili and his wife give me a new knife, clearly under the impression I need more blades.

“In case you lose one in the warlord’s gut,” Vasili says with no expression whatsoever.

Who me? Do I look violent and prone to slaughter?

Finally alone, I get up to tuck the knife into my satchel and discover just how weak I still am. I groan, taking baby steps across the tent. My legs wobble, feeling like dough that’s been rolled out but not baked hard.

Kato, Carver, and Flynn show up just as I’m crawling back onto the cot. Instead of collapsing like I want to, I sit, greeting them with a sour expression. “Didn’t you all die?”

Flynn smiles, his brown eyes alight with humor. “Almost.”

I grimace. “Maybe next time.”

Carver looks more serious. “You didn’t let us die.”

I glance down and pluck at the sheet, uncomfortable with his gratitude. “You didn’t let me die, either.”

“That was mostly Griffin,” he says. “He rode like a bat out of the Underworld to get you here. We showed up with Kato while Selena was finishing with you.”

“Well,” I say, ignoring the warmth spreading through my middle, “Kingmakers only come around every two hundred years or so. When you’ve got one, it’s best to keep her alive.”

Kato shakes his head, giving me a look that says I’m as stubborn as a Cyclops. “It’s not just that. You gave your word. You’re part of Beta Team now. Griffin will keep you alive, or die trying.”

I roll my eyes. “This again?” Beta Sinta wouldn’t die for me. Sacrificing himself would defeat the purpose of, well, everything. He was overconfident outside of Velos, even though I told him to run. He won’t take a risk like that again.

“This always.” Flynn’s tone is reproachful. “What’s more important—”

“—than loyalty?” I finish acerbically.

All three men look at me like I’m a strange creature they have no idea what to do with.

“Griffin will change your mind,” Flynn announces.

I snort. “He could try.”

Suddenly, we’re all laughing, and it’s not at all forced, which makes some part of me feel horribly guilty.

“Thirty to five.” Carver shakes his head, smiling in disbelief. “Too bad no one was betting on those odds.”

The high, cloud-capped peak of Mount Olympus rushes to my mind’s eye. “Maybe the Gods were.”

“And that’s why they intervened?” Kato swirls around the tent, imitating me fighting the Fisans with a venomous fang in each fist. He’s a whirlwind of blond hair, blue eyes, and hard muscle. He’s fast, every movement coiled with strength and power even though I can tell his leg is still bothering him.

“Where’d you learn to swing a fang like that?” he asks, grinning.

I wave a hand in the air. “Here and there.”

“No, really.” Kato sinks into a chair, his color high for such simple exertion. “How’d you do it?”

I arch a superior brow. “Didn’t you hear? I’m amazing.”

“And modest, too.” Flynn snickers.

I grin. “I’ve been taking lessons from His O So Scary, Arrogant Highness.”

Manly laughter fills the tent. I laugh, too, hoping Beta Sinta’s ears are burning.

Sitting next to me, Carver asks, “Most people are scared enough of Griffin. Why aren’t you?”

I motion everyone forward by crooking my finger. They lean in, anticipation on their handsome faces. Performing is an art, and I’ve picked up a few tricks. I make them wait and then whisper, “Because I’m scarier.”

They burst out laughing. They think I’m kidding.

“You’re arrogant and hotheaded,” Flynn says.

“So?”

“Griffin is arrogant and levelheaded. He’ll beat you every time.”

I scowl. He’s also bigger, stronger, and faster. He’s not stupid, either, even if our knowledge backgrounds aren’t the same. Worse, magic bounces off him. I saw it in Velos even though I was too high on euphoria to care.

“Oh my Gods!” I smack my forehead with the palm of my hand. “The Chimera’s Fire wouldn’t have burned him. I am such an idiot.”

No wonder he ate my magic salamander without a twitch of doubt. Selena healed him. I healed him. But harmful magic must simply not work on him.

I frown. I’ve never heard of that.

Carver shakes his head, confirming my thoughts. “But an arrow will still put a hole in him, just like you.”

“That’s how he got into the castle and cut down the Sintan royals? Their magic couldn’t touch him, and he was just plain better than any of them with a sword?”

Carver nods, and my mouth pinches into a disgusted pucker. The realization is hard to swallow. Beta Sinta would best me in a fight, no matter what magic I had stored up.

I blow out a long breath and try to look on the bright side—he can best a lot of my enemies, too.

As if my thoughts conjured him, Beta Sinta pushes the tent flap aside and storms in, eyeing the four of us with a hard glint in his eyes. Seeing him is like a really strange punch in the gut, winding me, but not entirely unpleasant, either.

His chin dips. “I heard you were awake, Talia.”

I mutter a curse that makes Flynn blush.

Kato, Carver, and Flynn leave so fast I practically feel a breeze. So much for having my back. At least they leave the tent flap tied back and the door wide open.

Beta Sinta arches dark eyebrows, looking expectant.

Not wanting to have this conversation sitting down, I stand too quickly, and bright spots streak across my vision.

“I’m awake,” I confirm, although it’s kind of obvious. “So?”

Beta Sinta crosses his arms. “So tell me what’s going on. Talk to me, like you did in Velos.”

“I wasn’t myself,” I say stiffly.

“True. You were fun.”

My face contorts into a scowl of epic proportions. I take an angry step toward him and stumble, completely off balance.

He’s there in an instant, his hands on my waist, the heat of his skin blazing between us. My pulse surges.

“You’re weak.” His tone sharpens. “I thought she fixed you.”

I wiggle away from the hands scorching holes through the sides of my tunic. “You don’t have to sound so mad about it. Selena did what she could.”

He frowns. “Talk to me, Cat. Why Talia? Who were they?”

I shake my head. “I can’t.”

Magnetic gray eyes capture mine. “You can trust me.”

I scoff. “So says the kidnapper.”

He just stares at me like he fully expects me to start talking.

Gods! He’s infuriating! “It’ll be a cold day in the Underworld before I trust you.” Or a moderately cool one. Well, a day with a stiff breeze anyway. Gah!

I back up until my legs bump against my cot, oddly chilled after being so close to him.

“How are you feeling, Talia?”

I glare at him. “That’s not my name.”

“According to the Fisan it is. You know, the one yelling ‘She’s mine!’ with bloody murder in his eyes.”

My heart slams hard against my ribs. “He must have mistaken me for someone else.”

Beta Sinta’s stare turns flat with disbelief. “For days, you told me they were coming for you.”

Oh, right… I shrug.

His eyes flash silver. “Who was he?”

“I don’t know! Fisans are insane. Get used to it.” I grin maniacally, but it fails to have any effect on him.

“The two of you had a chat while the rest of us were fighting to the death. You don’t do that with someone you don’t know.”

Beta Sinta couldn’t have heard what we were saying. There was too much noise and confusion for that. “I always get to know people before I kill them. It’s much more satisfying that way.” There. That sounded sufficiently insane.

His eyebrows slam down. “Don’t make me ask again,” he says, sounding like he’s grinding stones between his teeth.

I turn and fold my blanket, just in case my eye really does twitch when I lie. “My ex-lover. It didn’t end well. He’s been out to kill me ever since.”

Beta Sinta’s hands land on my shoulders, heavy and hot. I jolt and then stiffen. He turns me around, making my head spin. I barely keep my feet from tangling up in each other.

“I thought you were done lying to me.” He drops his arms but stays disturbingly close. “You know when people lie to you. They can’t get away with the smallest falsehood. You, on the other hand, can lie all you want.”

“So?”

“So I can’t protect you if you won’t tell me the truth!” He actually growls at me. Loud. “I want to protect you, Cat.”

I blink. Want. Not need. The word strikes me hard, like a dagger trying to pierce the tight knot of muscle beating far too rapidly in my chest.

My lips part and then press together again. I can’t deal with this. I’m woozy, my stomach feels like lead, and it’s all too much.

A sudden, horrible thought occurs to me. “Can you see me when I’m invisible?”

He shakes his head, seamlessly reining in his temper to answer me. “I only reject magic that harms.”

Thank the Gods! My eyes narrow. “That’s convenient.”

“It is,” he agrees.

“I should’ve let you take the arrow.”

“You should have.” His eyes bore into mine, demanding answers. “Why didn’t you?”

Good question. An evening breeze comes through the open doorway, tossing his longish hair around. His eyes are the color of thunderclouds, both luminous and dark, striking against his sun-bronzed skin. There’s steadiness in them, and my nerves settle. For some reason, the strength and deadliness he keeps so easily leashed make him the most compelling man I’ve ever met. I envy his self-control.

“Temporary insanity.” I shrug. “A moment of complete idiocy. I must have forgotten who you are.”

He looks disappointed, and something tugs inside of me. His eyes stray to the scars on my arms, lingering on the fresh one Selena had to make to keep me alive. “Regardless, don’t ever do something like that again. Now answer the questions, Talia.”

I turn mute on him. I’m good at that.

Beta Sinta waits for what must seem like a reasonable amount of time to him and then grates out, “He hurt you, and you won’t even tell me who he was!”

“Hurt me?” I laugh, the maniacal in it a little too real. My filters snap. Or maybe some deeper part of me does. Secrecy isn’t the only reason I don’t talk about my past. I don’t talk about the things that have happened to me because acknowledging them plunges me into nightmares and sucks the light from the world. “Hurting me is keeping me in a cage for eight months. Not a single change of clothes. Not a bath. Not a pillow. Not a bloody second of privacy. Only enough bread and water to survive, and spitting fire and lies at me just to see me writhe.”

Beta Sinta’s face turns thunderous. “The Fisan did that to you?”

“The Fisan royals!” An edge of hysteria is creeping into my voice. I hear it. I hate it. I can’t do anything about it. “They’re the ones who call me Talia. It was Beta Fisa I killed.” Gamma, actually, but that hardly matters now. “Don’t ever call me that. Ever!”

Big, warm hands rise to my cheeks. Long fingers curl around the nape of my neck, their hold on me light yet firm. He tilts my face up, saying in a low, calming voice, “I won’t. It’s all right. You’re Cat. Just Cat.”

“It’s not all right!” I explode, grabbing his wrists. I don’t know if it’s to hold on to him, or to push him away. I do a little of both. “They won’t rest until I’m theirs again. Or dead.” My legs start to shake, making the rest of me tremble. “They’ll never take me alive. Never!”

A note of frantic conviction hangs in the air between us. It’s thick, like fear.

Beta Sinta makes a soothing sound and slides his fingers into my hair, smoothing them over the back of my head and sending all sorts of misguided sensations spiraling around my body.

Leaning down, he lightly drops his forehead against mine. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

He sounds so sure. I resist the temptation to lean into him, to find shelter in his arms, my internal battle complicated by the knowledge that he wouldn’t push me away. He’s still cradling my head, gently massaging. We’re breathing each other’s air.

Awareness rushes through me. Heat swirls in my veins, and my stomach tumbles wildly. My eyes close, and my hands slip from his wrists. The left one drops, limp. The right one hovers and then presses against his chest. Under it, his heart thumps hard and then beats faster. I open my eyes and stare at my fingers, wondering what they’re doing there, touching him, absorbing his warmth.

“Never promise things you can’t deliver,” I whisper.

“I can try,” he whispers back, and I hate myself because I smile. Tension drains from me, leaving me far too aware of his height and strength, of his subtle scent, and of the fact that this man kissed me.

He lifts his head and strokes my jaw, the touch featherlight despite the power in his hands and the calluses on his fingers. “Tell me about the Fisan royals. The more I know, the better I can defend you.”

“I can defend myself.”

He smiles. It’s lopsided, and more heart-stopping than I care to admit. “Is that how you got caught by a warlord with a magic rope?” he teases.

Scowling, I shove hard against his chest where my hand is still resting.

“Tell me about the Fisans,” he says again, voluntarily stepping back.

I shiver. “Later.” I glance around Selena’s tent. “There are names I don’t want lingering in the air.”

He nods in understanding. “Soon, then.”

I nod back. There’s no escaping it. He’s too damn stubborn.

Watching me, Beta Sinta backs toward the tent opening. I can still feel his fingers on my skin, rough and masculine, and I have to quell the urge to touch where he touched. It’s unsettling. I bite my lip.

“Cat?” There’s enough warmth in his voice to send my heartbeat into dangerous territory.

“Yes?”

“You do a good job of defending yourself.”

I nod. “I’ve been taught well. I’m the favored child.”

“Of Poseidon?”

Not answering, I turn and swirl my fingertips in the basin of water by my bedside, watching the pattern I make form and fade. Yes, well, of him, too.