Entwined Read Free Page A

protecting any half-breeds on this mountain. There was no one to get to safety. If things got hot, Titus could open the portal and flash back to Argolea and save his own ass. So why was Zander fighting this when he could possibly finish it once and for all?
    Before he could change his mind, he dropped his weapon. Stood up straight. And stared at the three daemons around him. They looked as dazed and bloody from the fight as he felt, but they weren’t nearly done. They each had the strength of ten men pumping through their veins. And from the menace rolling off them in waves, were getting ready for the final kill.
    Yes. That’s what he wanted.
    Zander held his hands out to the side and closed his eyes. Sweat ran down his forehead to mix with the blood and other things on his face he didn’t want to think about. He cleared his mind and thought about…nothing. Just sweet, empty nothingness. Which was all he really wanted anymore.
    “You goddamned prick!”
    A body hit him hard. Took him to the ground. His head cracked against rock. But when he peeled his eyelids open and looked up, he realized it wasn’t a daemon on top of him. It was Titus.
    Fire flashed in the other Argonaut’s eyes. The daemons growled behind him.
    “You asshole. Get off me!” Zander struggled beneath him as a familiar, uncontrollable urge rolled and boiled inside him. What the…?
    “Saving you, you son of a bitch!”
    Before Zander could comprehend that Titus had just read his mind again, the Argonaut brought his arms together between them. Titus’s elbows dug into Zander’s ribs, but who the hell cared? The only thing that mattered was the fact Titus was going to fuck this up.
    “No!”
    Titus’s hands came together, and the markings that ran from his forearms down around his fingers glowed from the inside out. A flash erupted as the portal opened. And then all Zander felt was air as they both spiraled through space.
    He landed on his back against cold, unforgiving stone. Knew without even opening his eyes that he was at the Gatehouse, the portal into Argolea. But it was the bone-jarring right hook to his jaw that had stars firing off behind his eyes.
    “You motherfucking son of a bitch!” Titus hit him again. This time hard enough to rattle brain against skull.
    “Titus! Enough!”
    Titus was yanked off Zander’s bruised and beaten body with a grunt. Dimly, Zander heard voices. Theron. Demetrius. A lot more swearing—mostly from Titus. Feet shuffling. Heavy breathing. And Gryphon chuckling in his ear. “Way to go, Z. What’d you do to light him up, anyway?”
    Ah, hell. Just his friggin’ luck, all the Argonauts were in the Gatehouse.
    Strong arms wrapped around his biceps. Pain shot through his left arm as Gryphon eased him to sitting, but he shook it off. When he opened his eyes and looked across the massive room with its soaring ceiling, he saw Demetrius holding Titus back in a death grip and Theron up in the Argonaut’s face trying to talk him back from a blowup.
    The portal glowed and popped behind them. Titus glared around Theron’s massive shoulders toward Zander. Jerked against Demetrius’s hold.
    Zander shook off Gryphon’s help and pushed to his feet. Rage boiled just beneath the surface of his control. Fuck it.Fuck Titus. Fuck this damned war and his never-ending life. Fuck all the Argonauts, for that matter, and their constant interference.
    “You nearly got me eaten because of your goddamned death wish!” Titus roared.
    “Stop being such a pussy,” Zander tossed back. He felt like his shoulder might be broken. A rib or two. He’d lost quite a bit of blood, but he could already feel his body trying to heal, dammit. “You can save your own sorry ass anytime you want with that light show you just pulled.”
    “That’s it.” Fury flashed in Titus’s eyes just before he yanked free of Demetrius’s hold. “Your ass is mine, you sick fuck.”
    Zander’s adrenaline pulsed with the prospect of another fight. And