Slowly, she pushed up on her arm, wincing at the sting in her side. A soft bed lay below her. An eerie gray light shone through the window across the room. Sitting back in the pillows, she glanced around the bedroom with its dark furnishings and high-beamed ceiling and tried to figure out where the heck she was.
Her memories were a foggy mess. She remembered talking with Athena and Zeus. Remembered being in the woods with Sappheire. Remembered those daemons showing up. Remembered running and being struck in the side. Remembered...
Her eyes grew wide as her mind flashed back to the warrior she’d seen battling those daemons. To his mismatched eyes. His wild look. And the way he’d focused on her as if she were his next victim.
Throwing back the covers, she pulled up the long shirt she was wearing and checked her side. Four thin, red lines crossed her skin from her hip to just beneath her breast.
Confusion tugged her brows together. She brushed her fingers over the sealed wounds that should have killed her and tried to remember what had happened but couldn’t. Tried to figure out how long she’d been out of it but drew a complete blank.
Her gaze drifted to the bed beneath her, the floor, then finally to the window. Cringing at the pain in her side, she pushed to her feet. Her breath caught as she pulled back the curtain and gazed out at the snowy forest and acres of mountains that disappeared in a dark gray sky.
No other houses. No other signs of life. Just miles and miles of wilderness and snow as far as the eye could see.
Her heart pounded as she let go of the curtain and turned to look around the room again. The walls were made of logs. Dark, scuffed hardwood floors ran beneath her bare feet. The sleigh bed she’d been sleeping in was old but more than comforting.
Think, Daphne.
Her hands shook as she pressed them to her cheeks. The crazed Argonaut had obviously brought her here, wherever here was. He must have sensed she was a nymph. Zeus had said he had a weakness for nymphs, and that meant she was over her first hurdle—finding him and not getting killed. She wasn’t sure how he’d healed her, but just the fact he’d bothered meant she was halfway to her goal. And that meant all she had to do next was make nice and…and seduce the psycho so she could complete the second half of her mission.
Feeling lightheaded, she lowered to the bed so her legs didn’t go out from under her. Squeezing her shaking hands into fists against the comforter, she drew a deep breath then let it out. She could do this. She’d trained with the best, after all. And when it was done, she’d finally be a Siren. He was a monster, right? Just because he’d saved her from a horde of daemons didn’t mean anything. It just meant Zeus was right and that his brain turned to mush near a nymph.
That she could use to her advantage. Rising again, she stepped toward the door only to realize she was wearing nothing but a male’s white button-down shirt. The tails hit at her knees, and the sleeves were so long, they’d been rolled up several times to her wrists.
He’d changed her clothes. He’d seen her naked. Her stomach swirled with that realization.
That’s not exactly a bad thing considering your mission.
Straightening her spine, she pulled the door open, then peered down a long, dark hallway. Sconces lit the passageway on both sides. Her stomach continued to toss and roll, but she moved as quietly as possible through the corridor. Doors opened on both sides of her, but she didn’t look to see where they led. Her focus remained fixed on the light ahead and what she had to do next.
The hallway opened to a balcony that overlooked an enormous great room with more antique furnishings set near a giant stone fireplace that rose to the ceiling. Drawing to a stop at the railing, Daphne glanced over the empty space and tried not to be completely awed by the three-story windows that looked out over a wide deck and across a snowy valley. A frozen river meandered far below, and though she couldn’t be sure, she had a feeling those black dots down there weren’t people but elk or deer wandering across the frigid earth.
Her gaze drifted up and around. The enormous lodge-style structure seemed to be tucked into the side of a mountain and built on the edge of a cliff. The perfect place to wait and watch. If anyone tried to attack this place, they’d be spotted long before they could even mount an offense.
And that meant if things went bad for her, she wasn’t getting out of here unseen.
Pushing down the unease, she headed for the curved staircase. Escaping was five steps down the line. After she completed her mission. When he was dead. Until then, she had other things to focus on.
A twinge in her side made her stop near the bottom step and draw another deep breath. She pressed her hand against the wounds and fought back the wave of nausea that seemed to want to pull her under.