Page 23 of Bought By the Manticore

Medea flinched. She bowed her head, her silver eyes bright with tears. “Yes. He paid the price for my happiness.”

A sudden, violent surge of anger rose in my chest.

It was hot and bitter, burning through the lingering awe I had felt upon entering the garden. I looked at the woman kneeling next to me. She was beautiful, healthy, and whole. She had her mate. She had her freedom.

And Skaros had only the dirt. He didn’t even have me, not really.

For the past three days, I had been mourning the loss of the majestic beast from my dreams. I had resented waking up toempty walls and smooth vines, wishing he could manifest in the flesh and stand beside me.

As I knelt in the dirt, tracing the shape of his leaves, I realized how incredibly selfish my frustration had been.

Skaros was Skaros. Whether he possessed the golden mane and amber eyes of a manticore or the pale petals of an asphodel, the soul beneath remained exactly the same. He was my mate. I didn’t need the beast from the dreamscape. I only needed him.

I drew my hand away from the vine and stood up. The lingering traces of his death energy fueled my muscles, and the fierce resentment gave me strength.

“He isn’t gone,” I whispered.

Medea watched me, her brow furrowing slightly. “His essence remains in the garden. In the city. We had hoped that he’d be resting by now, but—”

“He isn’t resting.” I cut her off, wiping a stray tear from my cheek. I looked up at her, my resolve hardening into something sharp and unyielding. “He is fighting. And he is doing it alone.”

I didn’t need to hide in the shadows of the dreamscape anymore. I didn’t need Eryx’s potion keeping me numb while my mate withered in the dirt, trapped in the belief that I only wanted the phantom he projected in my sleep.

“I have to go back to the infirmary,” I told Medea.

Medea opened her mouth, perhaps intending to reply. But I didn’t wait to see what she had to say.

I turned my back on the overgrown, untamed garden and retraced my steps toward the looming architecture of the healing wards. He was waiting for me in the dark of my room. The dreams were no longer enough. I was going to give him exactly what he needed, and I was going to do it with my eyes wide open.

9

I am Here

Skaros & Ianthe

When my mate left, I didn’t begrudge her the departure. If anything, I was glad she felt well enough to leave the infirmary. She belonged in the sun, breathing fresh air, not among the quiet stones of Iaso’s domain.

But predators had never been particularly selfless. With every passing moment, I grew more discontent. The death crystals couldn’t sate my hunger. Ianthe was my mate, and anything that kept us separate was wrong.

I couldn’t feel her out there, in the city, not anymore. My decision to withdraw to the infirmary had cut me off almost entirely from the rest of Asphodelia. There was only one placewhere my consciousness still lingered, but Ianthe had no reason to go there.

Or so I thought. At one point, I felt the echo of her presence—not from here, in the infirmary, but from my mother’s garden. Ianthe had gone there with Medea. I could tell that much, though her reasons were less clear.

I couldn’t risk pursuing them to the other side of Asphodelia. And so, I waited. I felt my mate touch the asphodels in my mother’s garden. I felt her jerk to her feet. And I felt her walk away.

Something is wrong.The realization settled inside me, the same way it had the night Ianthe had collapsed at the Agora of Echoes. But she hadn’t shown any signs of a relapse, and the parasite inside her remained quiet.

I forced myself to wait.

And then she walked in. Her usually graceful footsteps carried an anger I’d never felt from her before.

“Ianthe?” Iaso asked from somewhere outside. “Is everything all right?”

“Everything is fine. I just… I think I need to be alone.”

“Very well, child,” Iaso answered.

The door closed, and Ianthe stalked up to the bed. At the very last moment, she changed her mind. Instead of lying down on the cot, where I’d found her so many times over the past few days, she sank to her knees.