Aphrodite lifted her chin, her gold eyes flashing with stubbornness. “Like you’re in any better shape?”
“Much.” Hades gave her rapidly darkening arm a significant look.
I followed his gaze and my heart stuttered in my chest. Her arm was worse. Much worse. The cut itself was concealed by her sleeve, but jagged black streaks stretched from her neck to her fingertips now. The edge of her chin was just starting to turn gray.
“It’s got to be me.” Her hand rose to cover her arm. “I’m connected to Adonis, so I can pull from him. And since I’m sworn to your wife . . .”
“I can lend you power, but I can’t take it,” Hades finished, apparently seeing her logic. That made one of us. “No, you’re right, if she can’t swear fealty—”
She spoke right over him in clipped tones. “You can’t ask her to do that, even if she could. Not without her truly understanding what it means. It wouldn’t work.”
Aphrodite was dying.
No, she was dead. Somehow, I just knew once those jagged black lines pierced her heart, it was over. I knew it with the same certainty I felt when I looked out at the ominous ocean waves and realized I wasn’t welcome within them. Divine instinct, Aphrodite had called it. She was dead, and she was using her last moments to defend me.
“Damn safeties,” Hades grumbled, his blue eyes narrowed with anger.
“What does that mean?” I demanded, beyond confused.
“There’s not time to explain. But it doesn’t matter because no one is swearing anything to anyone. Just directing power.” Aphrodite’s gold eyes met mine. “We can pool our power. None of us have much, but hopefully it’ll be enough as long as we’re all focusing on a common goal.” She held out a hand to me and Adonis. “So, I’m going to need you both to focus, and do exactly what I say.”
Hades took my other hand, his fingers surprisingly cold, and held out an arm for Otrera. “You’ll want to hang on to us.”
She tucked her Steele in her belt and grabbed his hand, her nails scraping against his skin in her haste.
“Close your eyes,” Aphrodite said.
Down the hall, I heard doors burst open as demigods forced their way into the hidden wing. Aphrodite didn’t miss a beat. She walked us through the familiar process of selecting targets to teleport and focusing on the destination she described. Some flower shop in Athens, Georgia.
I felt a strange push of power. It was weak, but it was something.
Suddenly I understood what she was doing. She was pulling her power from Adonis and Hades somehow and pushing it to me. Aphrodite cried out as she channeled the power, knees almost buckling. I did everything right. I selected my targets, I focused on the destination. It should have worked.
But it didn’t.
Chapter XXXIX
Medea
“MEDEA, SHIELD!” Aphrodite must have been trying to get my attention for some time, because her voice was hoarse from shouting.
“I—I can’t.” I’d never felt so drained in my entire life.
“We can.” Despite a myriad of cuts and bruises, shaking limbs, and deathly pale skin, she projected strength. “Together. But we have to have a foundation to build on. So, cast a shield, whatever you can manage.”
A thud sounded at the door. Shocked, I realized how little time had passed since Adonis pulled me into this room. The same moments that had held still for an eternity seconds ago now rushed together in a whoosh.
Otrera braced herself against the table, her muscles cording in her arms. She might be able to hold the door, but if they broke the large, reflective window looking into the room, we’d be in trouble.
“Medea, cast a shield,” Aphrodite repeated. “Just around that wall, don’t worry about reinforcing the island. Just focus on the doorway and that window. A solid shield.”
“It won’t be strong enough.” They slammed against the window, the door, the very wall, closing in on us, driven by a desperate need to tear us limb from limb. I couldn’t stand up against that.
“Do it now,” Aphrodite yelled as the ground lurched beneath our feet.
Cowed, I threw up a shield along the front of the room, projecting it just outside the door so we’d have some warning before anyone could break through. Aphrodite poured power into me, her knees buckling as she cried out in pain.
Before she could fall, Hades dropped my hand to steady her. I expected to feel his power drop away as well, but it didn’t. Maybe the hand-holding wasn’t needed after establishing the initial link?
“You know you can drop the glamour,” Narcissus called from the other side of the doorway. “We know your secret. You can stop looking like her.”
“I told you she couldn’t be trusted,” Calais crowed triumphantly, a shadowy hand pointed toward Aphrodite through the large picture window.
The window was two-way, so I saw myself in its reflection. But whenever something on the other side got too close, I could see shadowy glimpses. And of course, I realized with a sickening twist to my gut, they could see us entirely.
“Didn’t I say,” Calais continued. “That’s a divine sympathizer right there. I warned you! I said to let me take care of her. But no.”
Hades leaned toward me, his dark hair falling into icy-blue eyes. “Stay focused,” his harsh voice hissed in my ear.
I was focusing. But if I argued with him, I wouldn’t be, so I ignored him. A metallic taste filled my mouth as I overextended my powers, like I was sucking on a battery. Just wait it out . . . Persephone would find us soon.
Aphrodite lifted her chin. “I don’t know what he’s told all of you, but the real Elise is fine. And she’ll stay that way as long as you let me and my friends walk out of here without any further harm coming to them.”
Narcissus laughed, and I could feel him running a length of Steele across the shield. “You must think me a fool.”
“Well . . .” Aphrodite shrugged, tossing back her golden hair with a dismissive snort.
His voice darkened with so much anger, I shivered at the sound. “I don’t know what you did to her, but—”
“Elise volunteered,” Adonis said. “She offered to let the Pantheon take her place. Infiltrate. Whatever it took.”
My gaze jerked toward him, but I quickly looked away. There was something disquieting about his silver-pale features. But his voice was familiar even though the tones weren’t. It was so weird.
“She wouldn’t do that,” Narcissus growled.
“I can’t lie.” Adonis reminded him. “She looked at what we were doing and realized she was on the wrong side. The things DAMNED has done, the things you asked me to do . . . We’re no better than they are.”
Aphrodite nodded, her narrow shoulders slumping with exhaustion. “She vetted the terms of the truce Persephone offered you. And she wasn’t the only demigod we consulted. Your people want this. At least some of them. Put down the Steele, and we can sit down and work all this out.”
Even I knew better than to hope for that.
“We have nothing to discuss with the likes of you,” Calais growled.
“Don’t act like we’re the only ones with something to answer for.” Hades’s voice brimmed with authority and darkness. Even through the window, I could see everyone stand straighter. “You’ve imprisoned, poisoned, and attacked us. You’ve killed humans in the crossfire. Your methods are as low as they come. But we’re still open to negotiation if you are. This doesn’t have to end in bloodshed.”
“It’s already come to bloodshed.” Narcissus’s voice was clipped with anger. “It started in bloodshed. You just never noticed until it was you doing the bleeding, Medea, drop the shield, now.”
I sucked in a deep breath of air that smelled of power and decay, struggling to keep my focus on the shield. If they got in here, they’d tear us apart.
>
“The island is breaking.” Narcissus knocked a hand against the shield to get my attention. “I understand if you couldn’t maintain your hold on the island. Perhaps we expected too much from you. But if you keep us from your shield, our deaths are on your head. Let us in.”
Sweat beaded along my forehead. I felt hot and cold all at once. My body didn’t feel connected anymore. Every piece of me faded to static as I focused on pouring every iota of power I could manage into the shield.
“But I guess you don’t have a problem leaving people for dead, do you?” he continued as if I’d answered. “Like you left Jason.”
“Oh, please.” Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “He’s just trying to get to us. Don’t,” Aphrodite murmured through clenched teeth. “Don’t let him distract you.”
Something crashed in the lab as the island shook. For now, our room remained stable, but I wasn’t sure how long that would last.
“I’m most surprised to see you in there, Otrera,” Narcissus called, changing tactics. “I thought you were the most loyal among us. Yet, there you are, defending Glauce’s murderer.”
“The gods had nothing to do with what happened to Glauce,” Otrera snapped, gold eyes glittering with rage. “That was all—”
“Medea.”
A chill went through my veins that had nothing to do with the shield, and my focus wavered.
Otrera snorted.
“You don’t know?” Narcissus said in surprise. “I bet you’re the only one. Go ahead, ask her.” He motioned to Aphrodite. “She can’t lie about it.”
The ground beneath us shook as my shield weakened. How did he know? If Otrera found out I’d killed Glauce . . .
“Tell me he’s lying,” Otrera said in an undertone. She stood braced against the Grace’s autopsy table, every muscle tense as she glared down Aphrodite.
“I’d have to know for an absolute fact that he’s lying to say that,” Aphrodite said softly. “Ask me who I think is responsible for her death if you want an answer I can physically speak, but you and I both know he’s trying to distract us. To divide us. Don’t let him.”
But Otrera must have seen the guilt written on my face. “He is lying, isn’t he?” she demanded, golden features fierce. “Answer me!”
“She wasn’t—” Tears spilled across my face, saline teasing the tip of my tongue as it dripped past my lips. “She wasn’t supposed to die.”
Otrera stared at me for a second in disbelief, but her gaze tore away when the door slammed open and the window shattered. Glass flew everywhere. “Well, don’t kill the rest of us,” she shouted, her voice aching with betrayal. She ran forward, grabbing a piece of Steele and pressing herself against the metal table where the Grace lay to try to close the door “Put the damn shield up!”
My shield flickered back to life, rebuffing the demigods at the door.
“Adonis . . . ,” Narcissus called in a singsong voice.
Beside me, Adonis went rigid. “Knock me out,” he said to Hades.
Knock him out? Why would he ask to be knocked out?
“What?” Hades drew back, looking as confused as I felt. “Why?”
“Let me in,” Narcissus demanded.
To my horror, Adonis lurched toward the door as though compelled, his movements jerky. Adonis had been Narcissus’s prisoner for a week. Narcissus would be a fool not to extract some kind of promise from him.
Adonis grabbed the Steele in Otrera’s hand and rushed toward the door. Otrera tackled him before he could reach the shield, but the damage was done. The shield, already fragile beneath the attack from outside and my own distraction, shattered.
Chapter XL
Aphrodite
MY HEAD CRACKED against the tile as I hit the floor hard enough for stars to fill my vision. I couldn’t tell where the pain from the power of fueling the shield snapping back to me ended, and the pain of Otrera tackling Adonis began. His cry of pain mirrored my own. Rolling over, I tried to get my bearings, but my vision kept swimming.
The room we’d barricaded ourselves into was a small, bland square that had neatly fit the table the Grace lay on and the equipment monitoring her. It felt larger now that the windowed wall had shattered. The metal table and everything attached to the Grace had been shoved against the door, clearing out space in the middle of the room where Medea and Hades stood.
From behind, all I could see was their dark hair and the determined set of their shoulders, his strong and powerful, hers slight, narrow, and drowning in her oversized purple shirt. But despite the overwhelming odds, the two stood strong. Ready to face a death that was looking more and more inevitable with each passing moment.
My gaze slid to the spongy looking ceiling tiles, and dimly, I wondered if we could escape through there. How would you get up there? Even if the tiles supported you, where would you go? Face it, you’re trapped. Now do something about it.
A blow to my stomach knocked the wind out of me. I gasped, my head spinning as my attention was jerked to the far wall on my left where Adonis and Otrera grappled in a flurry of gold and silver. He was in the same shape I was in, though he continued to struggle weakly against Otrera. Guess that’s something, I thought. The power snapping back to me had slowed him down too.
The metal table blocking the door fell over and various monitors and wires followed. The Grace tumbled across the floor before coming to a stop with a crash into the wall to my right. I winced at the sound of her delicate bones crunching, but the Grace slept on, far too gone for trivial things like pain to awaken her.
Demigods poured into the room. Hades grabbed Medea’s hand again—when had he let go?—and together, the two cast a shield that flickered to life before us almost as fast as it was sliced down by the demigods wielding Steele.
This must be driving him insane, I thought drowsily. Hades was the strongest god in the Pantheon, equal in power only to his wife. Hiding behind a shield from mortals was beneath him.
This is what they did to us.
Win or lose, they’d brought the Pantheon to its knees.
“Aphrodite!” Hades broke away from Medea, his blue eyes wide with concern.
I managed a low groan and tried to sit up, only to be forced back down as my stomach rose to meet my throat. Gods, I was so tired of hurting. So sick of being completely helpless.
Not helpless, a voice inside me from somewhere beyond the panic, somewhere beyond the pain, said. Never helpless.
“What do we do?” Medea demanded. The slight demigoddess was shaking. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer.
“Keep casting the shield,” Hades said, rushing to my side.
“But—” Medea broke off with a shriek as the shield shuddered against the onslaught of the people attacking it.
Adonis didn’t stay down long. He scrambled to his feet, colorless eyes narrowing in desperation to do Narcissus’s bidding despite the pain I knew he felt. Otrera had him down again in a second. I felt every blow she landed as if she’d bypassed him completely.
The panic I’d fought back so successfully while fueling Medea’s shield bore down at me in full force. My breath came in sharp gasps of air so cold my teeth got chills. We were going to die. This was hopeless!
Adonis faltered, slowed by my panic, and stumbled when he tried to rise, allowing Otrera to yank him away from the shield.
Panic. My panic could slow him down.
I stopped struggling to remember Athena’s coping mechanisms, stopped trying to fight the panic welling up inside of me, stopped everything but focusing on my scattered thoughts, allowing my fear to escalate to full-scale terror. My heart slammed against my chest as Otrera knocked the Steele out of Adonis’s hand.
Hades and Medea cast and recast a shield that was torn down in increments, backing us slowly, ever so slowly, into a corner.
<
br /> A piece of Steele rolled toward me and, despite my lightheadedness, I reached a shaking hand out and grabbed it. I’d been so afraid of it before. Now, the weapon in my hand felt like a solution.
I could tell the exact second Narcissus walked into the room, because Adonis went limp. His compulsion to obey Narcissus’s demand had been met. But that would only last until the next order.
“Soundproof,” I managed to say, sitting up with a groan and trying to ignore the silver dots swimming in my vision. “Hades.”
He slipped a hand around my shoulders, helping me to sit up. “It’s all we can do to keep the shield a solid barrier right now. Otrera, cover his ears.”
“Knock me out,” Adonis groaned.
“Don’t,” Hades said, when the athletic demigoddess moved to do just that. He jerked his free hand toward me, and Otrera’s golden eyes widened in realization that I’d felt everything she’d done to Adonis.
“What is this?” Neleus demanded, kneeling on the opposite side of the shield. He looked young and small and uncertain as he looked to Narcissus as though hoping for an answer that wouldn’t shatter is idealism.
I followed his gaze to the disfigured Grace and tried to clear my throat enough to speak, but the pain was too much to manage more than blood and spittle.
“That,” Otrera said, kicking off her shoes and flexing freakishly long toes. “Is why the Pantheon came after us.” She yanked the laces out of her sneakers. “Not because they’re ‘oh so evil’ and want to destroy our people for kicks like he led you to believe.”
“Shut her up, Adonis,” Narcissus’s voice called.
Otrera backhanded Adonis before he had the chance.
I hissed as stars filled my vision. By the time I recovered, Otrera had Adonis restrained neatly in the corner with her shoelaces. She walked over to me, grabbed me by the shoulders, and yanked me to the back corner of the room by the tray of Steele, so I wouldn’t be right on the front line when the shield broke again.
Venus Rising: Book 3 Aphrodite Trilogy (The Daughters of Zeus 6) Page 22
