Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8) (35 page)

She reached the lowest level, crossed the massive Alpha seal in the foyer’s marble floor, and soundlessly moved toward the library. Stepping into the dark room surrounded on all sides by two-story bookshelves filled with leather tomes, she let her eyes adjust and searched for Cerek.

“Cerek,” she whispered. It still felt strange to call him that, and she knew it was strange to him as well. Knowing he was having trouble responding to it, she whispered, “Damon.”

Silence met her ears, and inside the library, nothing moved.

Panic rose in her chest. “Cerek!” she hissed again.

“You called?” a voice said over her shoulder.

She whipped around and pressed a hand against her heart. Cerek stood behind her, dressed in a dark shirt and pants, moonlight through the tall arching windows in the library highlighting his tousled hair, dark gaze, and mischievous smile. “You scared me.”

“I’d rather dazzle you.” He pressed a kiss to her lips. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” She closed her hand around his as nerves jumped in her belly. “We have to go down to the tunnels. It’s the easiest way out of the castle unnoticed.”

She stepped past him and pulled him with her, leading him to a set of stairs hidden near the kitchen.

“Did anyone see you leave?” he asked as the door closed behind them and she lit the torch hanging on the wall.

“No. You?”

“No.” He took the torch from her hand as they started down. “Ari and his mate…what’s her name?”

“Daphne.”

“Yeah. Daphne. They left about thirty minutes ago and went back to their house. Or my house, I guess. They’ve been staying there since I left. Or died. Or…whatever.”

Elysia drew to a stop as she stepped off the last stair and turned to look up at him. The air was colder down here, the torch illuminating only a circle of light as he joined her.

“What?” he asked.

“You went there this morning, to your old home. Did it trigger any memories?”

“Not one.”

Torchlight cast shadows over his handsome face. Shadows lurked in his eyes. She squeezed his hand. “We’ll make new memories.”

“We will.” He let go of her hand, wrapped his arm around her waist, and drew her into his heat as he leaned down to kiss her again.

The nerves she’d been feeling skittered away, and as she rose to her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him back, she knew this was the right choice. The only choice. Everything she’d never known she wanted.

Breathless, he drew back and rested his forehead against hers. “As much as I want to stay here and go on kissing you, I think we’ve already kept the priest waiting.”

Reluctantly, she let go and dropped to her heels. “We have. And it’s not a priest, it’s a priestess. Only here, the ancient word for priestess is
hiereia
, so use that when you address her.”

He chuckled as she pulled him with her down a long dark corridor. “See? I learn something new every day because of you.”

“Oh, and she’s not just a
hiereia
. She’s also a witch.”

“Even better. Will this be legal if it’s overseen by a witch?”

“Yes.” She grinned back at him. “Especially because my bloodline is part witch.”

“It is?”

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to turn you into a toad or anything. My father hails from Jason and Medea. He can make spells work, but I’ve never had much luck. Probably because I didn’t ever like to practice.”

“Your father’s an Argonaut
and
a witch,” he muttered. “I knew there was something different about him. Man, I am totally dead when he finds out about this.”

She laughed as they reached a door on the far end of the corridor. “No, you’re not. Once we’re bound, he can’t change it. He’ll have to accept you.”

Relief pulsed through her as she pushed the heavy door open and stepped out into the moonlit forest beyond the castle walls. She drew in a deep breath of freedom and smiled. But Cerek’s hand tugged her back before she could take another step.

“
Emmoní
,” he said, looking down at her, his brows drawn together. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

The full moon cast enough light that they no longer needed the torch. Taking it from his hand, she dropped it on the ground and stomped the flame out with her boot. “Want what?”

He grasped both of her hands, drawing her attention back to him. “Me. Once your father finds out what I did for the gods on Olympus, bound or not, he’s going to try to take you away from me.”

“That won’t happen.”

“Yes, it wi—”

She laced her fingers with his. “Listen to me. That won’t happen, because I choose you, Cerek, Damon…whatever you want me to call you. Your name doesn’t matter to me. Your past doesn’t matter to me. The only thing that matters is that I love you. And I will always choose you.”

“
Emmoní.
” His eyes filled with emotion. And when his mouth met hers and his tongue slipped between her lips, the wicked taste didn’t just set off a burst of desire in her body. It ignited a craving deep in her soul only he could fill.

She closed her eyes as she kissed him back, imagining the small clearing beneath the stars where she’d watched Delia, the high priestess of the coven, perform more than one binding ceremony over the years.

The ground disappeared beneath their feet, and she felt the world tip and sway, but she didn’t stop kissing Cerek.
 

“Whoa.” He pulled back when stones formed beneath their shoes. Wide-eyed, he looked at the trees and mountains rising around the small circle, illuminated and shining like silver in the moonlight. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Only here. Argolean trick. Just don’t try to do it through walls.”

He cast a sexy, half grin down at her, for the first time since they’d arrived in her realm, seeming to relax. The lines were gone from his forehead, his eyes sparkled in the moonlight, and his smile was one of pure delight that absolutely made her heart melt.

“
Paidí
,” Delia, the leader of the coven, said to Elysia’s left. “We were beginning to think you’d changed your mind.”

Elysia let go of Cerek and turned toward the high priestess, dressed in a flowing red robe, her snow-white hair hanging to the middle of her back. “
Hiereia.
” Elysia closed both of her hands around the one Delia offered. “I’m sorry we kept you waiting. Thank you for arranging this.”

Delia nodded. “I’ve heard rumblings of the queen’s plans. As saddened as I was to hear of your father’s agreement in those plans, I understand his rationale. I’m just happy you’ve made your own choice. You must be bound, or Zeus will return. The coven will do anything we can to keep the Sirens at bay.” Delia turned her brilliant blue eyes Cerek’s direction. “Welcome home, Guardian. You don’t remember me, do you?”

“No, I’m sorry.”

Delia’s gaze hovered on Cerek, and as Elysia watched, she had the strange sense the witch knew something about Cerek she wasn’t saying.

“’Tis of little importance.” Delia smiled and looked back at Elysia. “All is prepared here for the
Hieros Gamos
. Juniper will take you to be cleansed so we may begin. Guardian.” She looked back at Cerek. “Follow me.”

Juniper stepped forward from the shadows, a willowy witch with dark hair, dressed in a purple robe similar to Delia’s, and began walking away from the circle. Elysia turned to follow, but Cerek captured her by the wrist.

“Hold on,” he whispered. “Where is the priestess taking me?”

Elysia squeezed his hand for reassurance. “Just to the pools. For a ceremonial bath called a
loutra
. It’s part of the ritual. Trust me. You’re not going to get turned into something unnatural.”

“I’d better not be,” he muttered as he let go of her. “Or you’re gonna be in big trouble.”

“Like the trouble I was in on that Pandoran beach?”

Heat filled his sexy eyes. A heat that ignited a fire deep in Elysia’s core. “Exactly like that.” He kissed her quickly, then moved away with a wicked smile. “On second thought, maybe you’ll be in that kind of trouble again either way.”

She laughed as he disappeared into the darkness. At her back, Juniper said, “This way, Princess.”

She followed Juniper into the trees. Moonlight lit their way. In a matter of minutes, they came to a small pool flanked by rocks and filled with steaming water.

“Everything off. This is for your hair.” The witch handed her a ribbon. “Climb in.”

Elysia wrapped her hair in a knot, then tugged her shirt up and off and let it drop to the ground. As she reached for the snap of her pants, a memory flashed—of her and Cerek in the hot springs on Olympus, of the way he’d kissed her, how hard he’d been beneath the water, and just what she’d wanted him to do to her right there under the stars.

She smiled as she climbed into the pool. Heat surrounded her. Sinking back into the water, she sighed as the scent of heliotrope filled her senses.

Juniper sat on a rock near Elysia’s back, poured some kind of oil into her hands, and began to knead the muscles in Elysia’s shoulders. “I was shocked when Delia told me of your impending binding.”

Yeah, Elysia knew several people were going to be shocked when they heard the news. “Why? Because we haven’t known each other long? When you know who you’re meant to be with, there’s no sense in waiting.”

“Not because of that. Because you’re binding yourself to the Argonaut Cerek. I never expected him to be bound.”

Elysia’s conversation with Titus rolled through her mind. “And why is that?”

“Because of his celibacy. He was the talk of the coven for many years before his disappearance. More than one witch tried to tempt him.”

Elysia’s back tingled. “He’s not gay.”

Juniper chuckled. “I never implied he was. I take it he didn’t tell you about his prophecy?”

Elysia sat up straighter and glanced over her shoulder toward the witch. “What prophecy?”

Juniper lifted Elysia’s left arm out of the water and massaged the heliotrope-scented oil into her skin. “Many moons ago, before Cerek was inducted into the Argonauts, he began seeing one from our coven. Astrid advised the young witch to stay away from him. Astrid, you see, was an oracle. She had the gift of sight, and she prophesied that the sins of Cerek’s forefather would follow him. Do you know the story of Theseus, Cerek’s forefather?”

“No.”

Juniper lowered Elysia’s arm into the water and reached for the other. “Theseus was a great hero, as great, some say, as Heracles himself. Born from the union between Aethra, a human mother, and the sea god, Poseidon, he was strong and accomplished many great feats. He even killed the mighty minotaur.”

Elysia knew her history. As future heir to the throne, she’d been raised on it. “Go on.”

“Theseus’s greatest weakness, however, was lust, and some called him the ‘great abductor of women,’ as he saw females not as gifts to be revered but as objects to be conquered. It was because of this lust that he agreed to join his cousin, Pirithous, on a quest to abduct and bind themselves to two daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen. Pirithous set his eyes on Persephone. After they abducted Helen, they left her with Theseus’s mother and descended into the Underworld to steal Persephone from Hades. But all did not go as planned, for the Underworld is a cruel and demoralizing place. Rise, Princess.”

Elysia pushed to her feet, letting the water hit at her waist. “What does this all have to do with Cerek?”

Juniper rubbed the scented oil down her spine. “Theseus abandoned honor for lust and lost his courage in the Underworld. When, in despair, he sat down on a rock, he was immovably fixed in stone and surrounded by furies. He was trapped in the Underworld for many years, until Heracles eventually rescued him. Astrid, the oracle, foresaw that Cerek would follow in his forefather’s footsteps. She foresaw that lust would cause him to lose his courage. She told Cerek and the young witch what she’d seen. Cerek, as you can imagine, was skeptical. But shortly thereafter, his father, Aristokles, lost his courage when his soul mate was killed. Aristokles left the Argonauts. He disappeared for nearly fifty years. Cerek realized that the cycle was destined to repeat and stepped back from all females. For a warrior, for an Argonaut, courage is the most sacred of virtues.”

The witch lifted her hands from Elysia’s back. “Turn.”

Elysia’s mind was a whirl of thoughts as she turned in the water and the witch began rubbing the oil across her collarbone. Was she cursing Cerek by going through with this binding? Would he lose his honor? His courage? He’d abandoned the gods for her, gone back on his vow to serve them. But that didn’t make him a coward. No, to her it made him extremely honorable. And whether or not he chose to return to the Argonauts, he was still honorable and courageous and the mightiest warrior she’d ever known. Besides which, this—what was happening between them—wasn’t lust. It was stronger, more real. It was meant to be.

“Climb out of the water, Princess, and I’ll oil your legs.”

Dazed, Elysia looked down only to realize the witch had already oiled her breasts and belly. She’d been so distracted by thoughts of Cerek, she hadn’t even noticed.

Climbing out of the pool, Elysia took the wrap Juniper handed her and closed it around her body. As she sat on the rocks and extended one leg, the witch knelt in front of her and rubbed oil across her thigh and down to her toes.