Unchained: An Eternal Guardians Novella (5 page)

Nothing moved inside. No light, no sound came from within its walls. The gazebo was as eerily quiet as the air. He listened, didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary with his heightened senses, but knew not to drop his guard. Magic could cloak danger just as magic could create an alternate reality. Moving silently up the gazebo’s steps, he stood at the threshold and peered into the dark room.

The chaise, the pillows, the dozens of candles—now dark—were just as he’d left them yesterday after Keia had disappeared. He stepped into the gazebo and looked over each item, searching for something—anything to explain the warning echoing in his head. Still, nothing stood out.

His heart rate slowed. And little by little the tingles across his spine lessened. It had just been a dream. Brought on by hallucinations, not enough sleep, and impending madness. His years of isolation were taking a toll on him. He turned to leave, was at the point of believing he’d made the whole thing up—even Keia—when he spotted a pool of blood on the floor to his right.

He kicked a pillow away, crouched near the puddle, and slowly touched the edge of the blood.

Electricity shot into his arm, across his chest, and up his neck. Blinding pain radiated outward from the left side of his throat, knocking him off his feet to slam against the ground.

He gasped and quickly swiped his bloody fingers against his pant leg. The pain slowly lessened until it was nothing but a twinge in his flesh.

Reality and fantasy intermingled in his mind until he didn’t know which was which. And in the distance he heard Keia’s voice calling to him.

“Find me, Titos. Find me before it’s too late...”

* * * *

By daybreak, Circe’s strength had returned enough so she could conjure her magic. She wasn’t a hundred percent yet, but she couldn’t wait until her body completely healed. Zeus had made it clear the shade could return at any moment. She needed to step up her plan with Prometheus if she had any hope of breaking free from this prison.

She placed the length of chain Zeus had given her in the cauldron, held her hands over the bowl, and summoned her spell. The chain was her link to Prometheus. It had been a part of him so long it still possessed part of his lifeblood. With it, she could find him wherever he was in the cosmos. And with it she could make herself ethereal and lure him to her.

The rock walls around her faded, revealing stone columns and the sound of leaves rustling in the early morning breeze, birds chirping in the forest, and water rushing over the falls. The scents of moss and wood filled her senses as she turned, confused why the spell had brought her to the gazebo already. She wasn’t supposed to start out here. She was supposed to start with Prometheus and tempt him to follow her to th—

The thought halted when she caught sight of him, lying on his side on the chaise, his hands tucked up near his face, his eyes closed, and his chest rising and falling with his deep breaths. Something beneath her ribs tightened at the sight of him. Something other than lust. Fast asleep, his long dark lashes feathering the skin beneath his eyes, he looked more innocent than godly, more angelic than dangerous. And for a fleeting moment she pictured him chained to that rock in the blistering sun, unable to move, unable to do anything but wait for the giant eagle to swoop down and rip out his liver only to come back and do it all again the next day.

He’d only escaped that living hell because of the Argonauts. Because his daughter’s mate had rescued him so Prometheus could save her life. Zeus had been pissed when Prometheus was freed. Circe remembered all too well how he’d marched into her cave and ordered her to bring Prometheus back. It had taken her several hours to convince the king of the gods that her witchcraft didn’t work that way. Luckily—for her—Zeus had finally abandoned that order, but she knew he was waiting for the moment when he could make Prometheus suffer. Zeus’s memory was long. When someone bested him, he never forgot. And Prometheus had bested him more than any other.

Was Zeus planning something she didn’t know? Was he using her as bait? Circe was well aware that the king of the gods wanted the water element more than anything else, but he also always had an agenda. Was Prometheus at risk because of her?

His eyes fluttered open and held on hers. And that tightness beneath her ribs rolled and swirled as he stared at her as if seeing her for the very first time.

He pushed up on his hand, dropped his legs over the edge of the chaise, and blinked several times. Sunlight slanted through the arches to highlight his hair and the dark scruff across his jaw, making him even more handsome than yesterday. He was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt that pulled across his chest, and when he moved she caught the flex of muscle in his arms. Suddenly, she couldn’t help but wonder what his carved shoulders and toned body looked like under all that fabric.

“Keia,” he said in a voice still thick with sleep. “You’re here.”

“I’m here,” she repeated, growing hotter with every passing second. She moved toward him. Pain echoed across her neck and shoulder, but she bit back the wince so he wouldn’t see. Lowering herself to the chaise, she sat beside him, close, but not too close. Not yet anyway.

He turned to face her, confusion darkening his eyes. “I was looking for you.”

Her plan was working. A coy smile twisted her lips as she brushed a hand down the bodice of her green dress, the one she’d conjured to match her eyes and make them appear even darker. “I like that you were looking for me. I came here to find you as well.”

“I saw it in the night. Blood. And pain.”

Circe’s smile faded, and a tingle of apprehension shot down her spine.

“You were scared,” he went on. “I tried to help you. But when I reached you, you grasped my wrists like chains, and a voice that was not yours fell from your lips as you pulled me over a great cliff.”

Circe’s heart beat hard and fast, killing whatever arousal she’d felt earlier. “Who’s voice did you hear?”

“Zeus’s.”

Circe’s fingers shook as she pushed to her feet, crossed to the edge of the room and stared out at the water rushing toward the falls. Zeus’s voice. How could he have heard Zeus’s voice?

Fabric rustled at her back. “What’s going on? You said you were trapped. Who has trapped you and why?”

Her mind spun. She couldn’t come right out and tell him. Not yet, anyway. He was on the verge of becoming obsessed with her, but he wasn’t there yet, and if she revealed too much too soon, she risked losing him altogether.

She had to play this strategically. Had to be smart. Fixing an amused smile on her face, she turned his way. “It sounds like a dream.”

“It was a dream. But it was also real. The blood was real, right here on the floor of this gazebo.”

He held out his arm, and Circe’s gaze followed until she spotted the dark stain on the wood floor. Her breath caught.

“I touched it,” he said in a low voice. “I felt it.”

Her gaze darted to his features, and in his eyes she saw truth. Through her blood he’d felt her pain and suffering.

He stepped toward her, eyes dark and very focused. “Tell me what’s going on here.”

“I...” Words faltered on her tongue. She didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how any of this was possible. Her two worlds were not supposed to converge. Magic kept them apart. “It wasn’t my blood,” she lied. “Some kind of animal must have wandered in and—”

His big hands closed around her biceps. “Zeus is involved with whatever’s going on with you, isn’t he?”

“I don’t... I can’t... There are rules.”

“Fuck his rules. What does he want from you?”

“He wants...”
Don’t tell him the truth
. “He wants to punish me.”

“Why?”

“Because...”
Think, dammit!
“Because I helped someone.”

That wasn’t a lie. She had helped someone. When the princess of Argolea had snuck into Olympus and come to Circe in her cave a few months ago, Circe had helped the female find an Argonaut Zeus had imprisoned. Zeus had been pissed when he’d discovered how Circe had betrayed him. Was still pissed. And Circe knew that was part of the reason Zeus was stepping up his pressure on her now to find the water element. But she couldn’t tell Prometheus that because his daughter was mated to an Argonaut. If Prometheus was at all privy to what the Argonauts were up to, telling him that would give away who she was, and he might turn away from her for good.

“Someone Zeus was using so he could gain more power,” she went on, figuring that was a safe explanation. “I didn’t want to help Zeus but I had no choice. He’s the king of the gods. When one is in his service, one cannot just say no. I might not age because of my powers, but I’m not immortal like the gods. If Zeus wanted to kill me, he could.”

Prometheus’s shoulders relaxed, but he didn’t let go of her arms, and she liked his hands on her. Liked the warmth of his skin against hers and the way he made her feel small. “The gods can’t take life. That goes against the natural order.”

She frowned. “They can dictate it though. He keeps me isolated from others. I’m allowed to use my magic—which is how I found you—but that is the extent of my freedom.”

She wanted to add that her freedom was limited by what Zeus allowed her to do. She could watch anyone through her mirrors, but she couldn’t contact friends or family—not that she had any anymore—without an object linked to their lifeblood. But, of course, she couldn’t tell Prometheus that either because then he would know Zeus was aware she was contacting him now, and he’d grow suspicious.

Gods, her life was one major lie after another. Frustration bubbled through her. Frustration and anger and...helplessness.

“Why did you find me?”

Warmth crept up her neck and into her cheeks, distracting her from thoughts of Zeus, from frustration over her imprisonment. Part of what she was about to say was a lie, but truth also lingered in her words. A truth she wanted him to hear. “Because you captivated me. You survived thousands of years of torture at the hands of your enemy, and you didn’t just survive it, you came out whole and sane on the other side. I needed to see for myself that was possible.”

Unease passed over his features as he let go of her arms, and she tried to fight the disappointment the loss of his touch caused but couldn’t mask it completely. “I’m not whole. And I’m not anywhere close to sane.”

Panic pinched something in her chest. A panic that came from the reality that he honestly believed what he was saying. She moved closer. “Yes, you are. And you’re a hero. As much a hero as any of those Argonauts in the capital city far below us.”

He scoffed.

“It’s true.” And this time there was no lie in her words. “I watched, from my mirror, when you helped the Argonauts twenty-some years ago. I saw how you risked yourself to save your daughter. You were willing to face Zeus, to do anything to save her, even knowing you might be chained again, all because you believed what you were doing was right. I want to be like that.” She shrugged, thinking back over the hundreds—no, thousands—of things she’d done in her lifetime for no one’s gain but her own. “I wanted to know what that felt like. For once.”

His gaze narrowed and held on hers, and as he studied her, she felt as if he were looking all the way inside her, right to the edge of her soul. “How did you end up with Zeus?”

Truth was a bitter pill to swallow, but she didn’t want to lie anymore. This, at least, she needed to be honest about. “A long time ago, Zeus made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. To amplify my abilities so I would become the strongest witch in all the realms. I took it, thinking my powers would grow. But what I didn’t know then was that the king of the gods was playing me. The offer came with a catch. My powers did grow, but only in the cave where I’m confined. By the time I realized what he’d done, it was too late. I was trapped.”

“So you exist in that cave—”

“No longer doing what I want, only what he commands. And over the last thousand years I’ve come to realize that what he wants is ultimate power. Much as I did, only the difference is he has no conscience about the things he orders me to do, and I’ve developed one. Power means nothing if it’s used for evil instead of good.”

He stared at her a long beat before saying, “I’ve often felt the same, which is why I rarely use my powers unless a situation is dire.”

“I know.” That too was true. She’d learned a lot from watching him. Learned what she should be. She moved closer still, until his heat and heady scent of pine and something citrusy surrounded her. “I was not always a good witch, Titos. But I want to be one. I hope you believe that.”

His gaze skipped over her features. “I’m not sure what to believe when it comes to you. You’re doing something to me. Something I don’t understand.”

Her heart beat faster. It was exactly what she needed to hear to put her plan in motion, but that wasn’t why her stomach was tingling and heat was suddenly rushing low in her belly. No, this excitement came from knowing he felt the same things she did. “You’re doing something to me, too. Something I like far too much.”

Her fingers drifted to his forearm, barely grazing the dark hairs and the strong muscles beneath his skin. And when she saw the way his eyes darkened and his breaths picked up speed, that warmth slid down between her legs to send tingles all across her sex.

“You’re the only thing I have to look forward to, Titos,” she whispered, running her fingertips up his arm to his thick, muscular biceps. “I know it’s not fair to you, but I think about you all the time. Even when I shouldn’t.”

“You do?”

She nodded. “Do you think about me?”

“Far too much.”

Her lips curled. And her fingers continued to trace a lazy pattern against his scintillating flesh. She moved closer, until only a whisper of breath separated their bodies and heat was all she felt. “Do you think...? I mean, I know it’s probably bold of me, but would you mind if I kissed you again? It’s been ages since I felt—”

He moved so fast she barely saw him. One minute he was staring at her with lust-filled eyes that she knew had to mirror her own, and the next his mouth was on hers, making her breath catch, making her body tremble, and her heart race like the wind.