EPILOGUE
ILIANA
Darkness—warm, soft, and endless—wrapped her in peace. She didn’t dream, but floated, suspended. Then, there was a voice. Distant at first, as if someone were calling from the other side of a thick wall.
“It is time to wake, epizón.” The voice slipped into her sleep gently. Insistently. It urged her to consciousness, toward awareness.
But she didn’t want to abandon the safety and comfort here. She tried to sink back into the dark, into nothingness. But the voice didn’t seem to have the same desires.
“You are strong, epizón, and you need to wake up.”
The voice tried to pull her from the dark. She resisted.
“Trust the ones around you. They want to keep you safe, even if the world seems against you.”
She groaned, wanting to swat away the voice but not wanting to move. “Go away, creepy voice.”
A quiet chuckle came from behind her, and the warm breath over her skin caused her to shiver. She stretched, feeling her weight sink into something soft. A bed.
“Iliana?” They were close enough to feel the vibration against her back. Someone was—
A pair of arms was around her waist, holding her against a firm chest. “Beautiful girl, look at me.”
She fought the fog in her mind, trying to identify who held her, but her body wouldn’t obey. She liked it here, the way the arms made her feel protected.
Another voice followed, rougher and cracked with emotion. “Iliana, please. We need you.”
Her heart sped up slowly at first, then faster. She felt a rough hand on her ankle, fingers in her hair, a caress on her cheek, breath on her neck. The sensations delighted and alarmed her.
Four strangers were here with her; touching her.
Her body knew something her mind didn’t. The arms around her made her feel safe. The voices had no faces or names. She couldn’t match the scents—citrus, lavender, spice, or earth—to any of them.
The realization should have sent her into full panic or made her want to fight them. But she remained motionless. It wasn’t just their touch, but some instinct promised she was safe. They wouldn’t hurt her.
How did she know that?
She finally opened her eyes.
Golden-brown eyes gazed into hers, warm and framed by a face too flawless to be real. She looked over the sharp lines of his cheekbones and the curve of his lips. Her hand lifted before she could stop herself and touched his jaw.
His lips tilted up slightly.
Her body went rigid, and she jerked away, her elbow bumping into something solid behind her. There was a small grunt, and the arms tensed around her waist.
She wasn’t in bed with only one man.
At her feet, a man with gold eyes watched her. “Shhh, little one,” he said soothingly.
She went completely still. None of this made sense. “I don’t remember,” she said to herself, the words leaving her in a broken whisper. She didn’t remember these men, this room, or why they touched her as if they had every right to.
Iliana. That was her, wasn’t it?
Her breathing shallowed, tightening her chest as everything she didn’t know closed in.
Who was she? Where was she? What happened to her? Why couldn’t she remember?
She turned toward the person behind her to see a blond man. He was handsome. The smirk on his face was a little too at ease. He opened his mouth, but someone else spoke.
“Let her go, Hermes.” The command was calm, though firm.
She looked up and met the gaze of a man identical to the one in front of her, though the twin’s dark eyes contained something fractured.
One by one, the touches fell away, giving her space. That should’ve made her feel better. Safer. But it didn’t. Now she was alone, with many questions and no memories to tell her who to trust. She closed her eyes and tried to sort through her thoughts.
The voice that woke her spoke again, whispering softly, “Trust the ones around you.”
How could she trust strangers when she didn’t even know herself? Trusting them meant believing they knew her better than she knew herself. Would accepting their help mean admitting she was helpless?
She slowly sat up and hugged her knees to her chest, needing a barrier, something between her and them. Looking them over, she met each of their eyes. They expressed a range of emotions—love, sorrow, even hints of amusement and protectiveness. Her gut instinct was telling her to trust them.
That voice in her head seemed to agree. She thought back to its words.
Trust the ones around you. They want to keep you safe, even if the world seems against you.
“You called me Iliana. Is that my name? And if it is, how do you know? Who the hell are all of you?” Her hands clenched tighter around her legs. “What happened to me?”
Silence filled the room, leaving only the sound of her panicked breathing.
She looked up at the too-beautiful men in her bedroom, wondering if she should trust the words spoken into her head.
Should she trust the men who’d been in bed with her?
But how could she decide to trust them when she didn’t know who she was?
Instinct was all she had. There was no experience or logic she could use to back up her feelings. No memories to confirm them. Only the feeling that these men wouldn’t hurt her, even though she had no reason to believe that.
But they backed away when she’d tensed. They looked at her as if she was breaking their hearts. She didn’t know if that was enough.
She could run from four men who were larger and no doubt stronger than she was. But to where? She didn’t know if anywhere was safe. Staying was an option too. She could listen and give them a chance to explain before deciding whether to trust them fully or find the nearest exit.
There was only one choice.
She’d listen and watch for lies. If they gave her a reason to leave, she’d find a way to escape. She’d survive. These strangers wouldn’t control her. She wouldn’t give in or break, no matter what she’d forgotten.
That resolve felt like the first piece of herself she’d reclaimed.
Her eyebrows rose as they stayed silent. Before she could question them, the two blonds and the taller one started talking at once. She was quickly overwhelmed by the overlapping explanations, voices blurring together until she couldn’t distinguish one word from another.
She held up her hands, and they quieted immediately.
Interesting. They listened to her and seemed to respect her boundaries. That counted.
She scanned their faces, looking for…what? Honesty? Deception? She didn’t know what either looked like on these strangers. Her attention caught on the dark-haired twin who’d remained silent throughout. While the others rushed to explain and reassure, he’d only watched her with those sorrowful eyes.
Something in that pain called to her. This one looked as though he’d rather suffer than say the wrong thing. Maybe his quiet pain was honesty, at least at that moment.
She chose. Pointing at him, she said, “You.”
He stiffened, surprise passing over his face briefly before he covered it with a frown.
“I want answers. All of them.”