Loud footfalls echoed from the hall, but Isadora was too wrapped up in her neurosis to turn and look.
A hand on her shoulder dragged her around. “Isa? Are you okay?”
Isadora forced down the foreboding threatening to overwhelm her. “Fine. I’m fine. Did you find anyone else?”
Callia shifted to the side so the crowd could move past. “No one. It looks like we’ve got everyone.” Her brows drew together. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re pale.”
No, she wasn’t okay. She was freaking the hell out. Pain and death were not things she wanted to contemplate right now, especially with regard to her baby. She looked past her sister and spotted Demetrius heading her way.
Her heart took a hard, slow tumble. His hair was messed, his features set and tense, but his eyes warmed just a touch when they met hers from across the room. And though she wanted nothing more than to remain mad at him, she couldn’t. She needed him. Now more than ever. And, dammit, she understood what he’d been trying to do even if she didn’t agree with it.
That didn’t mean she was going to let him totally off the hook, though.
He stopped in front of her, searching her features, she knew, for a clue as to her mood. And this close, she could feel his heat and smell that musky scent she always associated with him. The babe in her belly kicked out, and she winced.
Concern tightened his features. “Kardia?”
Isadora rubbed at the tender spot where she’d been round-housed then moved her hand to the pressure intensifying against her lower back. “Dumbass?”
Callia chuckled and covered her mouth with her hand.
Demetrius scowled. “I see you’re still pissed.”
“Your powers of deduction are stunning.”
He perched his hands on his hips and glared down at her. He was twice her size, but she knew he’d never hurt her. At least not intentionally. “You should go back to Argolea.”
“Telling me what to do again? It didn’t work last time.”
“It never works with you, kardia.”
“And yet you keep pushing.”
“I keep hoping you’ll wise up and listen.”
She narrowed her eyes and stared hard into his. At her side, Callia muttered, “Um, I’m gonna go see if Zander needs any help.”
Callia’s footsteps faded in the distance. The crowd was thinning, only a few dozen colonists waiting to cross into Argolea, but all she could focus on was her mate, the ándras she loved above all else and whom she wanted most in the world to be happy.
“Are you ready to admit I won’t be safer here?” she asked.
“On a good day, you would be. This just doesn’t happen to be a good day.”
Gods, he was stubborn. And though she hated that about him, she also loved it. “I’m not afraid of the Council.”
“You should be. They don’t want you to rule.”
“You didn’t either for quite some time.”
He sighed. “Isadora—”
“Look. The Council is just going to have to get used to the fact I’m not backing down, and I’m sure as hell not going anywhere. Just like you’re going to have to get used to the fact I don’t want Nick. I don’t want anyone but you. And if you keep trying to push me away like you’ve been doing, all it’s going to do is make me dig my heels in deeper. You are mine, and that’s the end of the story. I love you, and I’m not giving you up, no matter how much you piss me off. Got it?”
Ever so slowly, his eyes softened, enough to push aside what was left of her anger. “I don’t know what the hell you see in me.”
“Sometimes I wonder the same thing, and then all I have to do is look at you, and I know. You’re my hero, Demetrius. All mine. I have no reason to live without you.”
“Kardia…” He wrapped one arm around her waist and drew her against him, then leaned down and tipped her face up to kiss her. The tug was gentle because of the baby, but his kiss was filled with need and desperation.
Home.
It was the only thought she had. The only one that mattered. His lips were soft, his body warm and so very muscular. And held tight in his embrace, she didn’t even care that people were looking or that danger lurked outside. When they were together like this, anything…everything was possible.
He eased back, gazed down into her eyes, and brushed a hand against her lower spine, as if she were the most precious thing in the world to him. Which, she knew, she was. “Will you please go back to Argolea now?”
“Not until the battle’s over and I know you’re safe.”
He breathed out a sigh of frustration. “Isadora—”
“Speaking of which.” She grinned because she knew she’d won, then eased out of his arms. “Theron and the others could probably use your help.”
The intense light from the portal dimmed, and Isadora turned toward Zander and Callia, both of whom were heading her way.
“Everyone’s across?” she asked.
“Safe and sound,” Zander answered, rubbing his hands together.
“Kardia, don’t fight with me on this one.”
She didn’t plan to. No way she was leaving him here with Hades right outside. “Callia and I will stay unless it becomes necessary for us to go. In which case, we’ll contact Casey and have her open the portal for us. That decision is nonnegotiable.”
At her back, Demetrius blew out a hard breath.
Callia’s features morphed from amused to concerned. “Isa?”
“What?”
Her gaze shot to the floor where Callia was looking, and the puddle of blood forming between her feet.
Chapter Sixteen
Ogygia was not what Natasa had expected.
Sweat slicked her skin as she stopped in the shade of a palm and lifted the shirt away from her breasts, fanning her overheated flesh. Sunlight beat down from above. Warm earth radiated heat from below.
Of all her luck, to land somewhere sweltering when she was already battling this bloody fever.
“You okay?”
Natasa dropped her shirt, working for indifference when she faced Titus. She didn’t want him worrying about her, not when he’d just risked everything for her. And she was still stressing over that fact. Was he not thinking clearly around her? How would he be reacting to her if she didn’t have this damn element inside? “Fine. You?”
Sweat slicked his skin too, but unlike her, the heat made him look sexy and desirable. Not weak and pathetic. He’d taken off his shirt and tucked it in the back pocket of his pants. A thin sheen coated his rock-solid chest. His wavy hair was tied back, two day’s worth of dark stubble shadowing his strong jaw. Warmth reignited in her belly when she remembered tracing the line of that jaw with her lips…with her tongue…
He stepped in front of her and placed his palm against her forehead. Deep lines formed around his eyes and mouth. Before she could push his hand away and reassure him she was okay, he reached for the hem of her shirt and dragged it up. “You’re too warm. You need to take this off.”
She swatted at his hand. “Titus. No. Someone could see me.”
He chuckled and easily pulled the garment over her head. “Who’s gonna see you other than me? Besides, I like looking at your breasts, ligos Vesuvius.”
She frowned, feeling totally vulnerable in nothing but her bra and jeans, but he was right. The air rushing over her bare skin felt a thousand times better than under that shirt.
He knelt in front of her and pulled a dagger from a sheath at his hip. “Don’t move. I don’t want to cut you.”