by Addison Fox
“You think about Themis far more than you let on. And you know the bargain with her limits your ability to interfere. However, I’m sure if you thought your prized possessions had been stolen by a Warrior, you’d call off those barely held controls.”
“What nonsense you speak.”
“It’s the very nonsense your daughter wishes you to believe.”
Zeus’s gaze darted to his daughter before coming back to rest firmly on Ilsa’s face. “I have all the power over you. Wasn’t it I who sentenced you to this cave?”
“And it was your brother who saw to it that I could leave.”
Confusion etched firm lines through Zeus’s craggy face as he reached up to stroke his beard. Although he had the look of an elder statesman, his body was a fine specimen, resembling a fit human in the prime of his life.
“My brother?”
“Hades rescued me. Gave me work. Gave me a new name. Gave me a life.”
“And what name is this?”
Ilsa smiled again and Kane saw her gaze dart toward him ever so briefly. “I don’t use that one any longer, either.”
Zeus’s voice boomed off the cave walls. “Games. Silly games and silly nonsense. If you choose to withhold it, I shall call you by the name I know. Adrasteia.”
“Then I shall not answer.”
Kane heard Quinn’s sharp intake of breath behind him. The woman dared much in her dealings with the god.
His woman dared much.
Ilsa followed the cheeky comment with further taunts. “Come now. Do you seriously believe I took your things?”
“It’s obvious you did,” Enyo chimed in. “You betrayed him all those years ago and you’ve attempted it again. It’s a good thing we got here before you could do any real damage.”
Ilsa’s calm demeanor shifted into something far more potent. Far more dangerous. “Since you were the one who just decimated the baby blanket, I think you might want to reassess that opinion.”
“Enough!” Zeus shifted his focus and Kane felt the glacial attention as it came to center on him, Drake and Quinn. “And you. Themis’s Warriors. Do you do as my daughter says? Did you align yourselves with Adrasteia to steal the power of my thunderbolt and crown?”
Kane staggered to his feet, his patience at an end. Ilsa had suffered too long. His scorpion twitched to life on his shoulder, the tattoo’s agitation at the internal and external battles being waged almost too much to keep it in line. The best and worst of his gifts, both locked inside of him.
Protector and foe.
Both pulsed with life.
Kane gritted his teeth against the feral pain of the poison and focused on the threat to his woman and how to eliminate it. “You will not speak to her this way. The theft of your possessions lies with your daughter. Not with Ilsa.”
“Ilsa, is it?” A sneer formed on Zeus’s lips, his tone an audible match for it. “She thinks a name will change what she is? What she did?”
Kane pressed on, unconcerned with consequence. With punishment. He wouldn’t leave Ilsa to do this alone. To fight this battle alone. “She protected you and you repaid her with scorn. With punishment!”
“She kept me from fulfilling my destiny!”
“You seem to be doing just fine from my vantage point.”
Kane knew it the moment he overstepped. The barely banked fury written on Zeus’s face shifted from anger to action. The god leaped, his attack swift as his body forced Kane to the ground.
Kane pressed against the god, but in his weakened state, he felt the strength in his arms slip almost immediately. Zeus lifted his arm, preparing to strike, when . . .
Light filled the cave, followed immediately by rolling claps of thunder.
In unison, all of them turned toward the epicenter of the light.
And found Enyo wielding the thunderbolt aloft, waving it wildly at all of them.
“Enyo!” Zeus’s bellowing voice rivaled the claps of thunder that had sounded earlier. “Lay that down.”
“No, Daddy. I will not. It is my turn to rise up. My turn to wield power.”
“You have no right!”
“I have every right. You entered me into a bargain I didn’t want, dictating the terms of the agreement. Well, Daddy, the terms are changing.” She swung the bolt in a wide arc, the wild display of power erratic and out of control.
“She doesn’t like her job?” Drake whispered. “Could have fooled me.”
Zeus marched toward his daughter, only to be pressed back by a bolt of lightning straight to his chest. Although clearly alive, the bolt threw him across the cave to land on his back, lying there like a stunned turtle in an overturned shell.
“Clearly no one’s done that to him in a really long time,” Drake added.
“Or ever,” Emerson finished for him.
Any sense of humor between them vanished as Zeus came to his feet with the finesse of a raging wounded animal.
“Over there.” Drake nodded at Emerson, gesturing with his head to the far side of the cave, near the exit. “Get over there and prepare to run if things get bad in here.”
“I don’t need—”
“You’re not an immortal. Do as I say.” Before Emerson could argue further, Drake bent over and pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “Now.”
Kane shot a quick glance toward Quinn, their thoughts telegraphed as clearly as if they’d spoken them. Well, that was unexpected.
Kane then watched as Brody settled Ava beside Callie, her grip on the woman’s thigh matched in support to where Ilsa stood on the other side. Brody then continued on, flanking the rest of the Warriors.
“Can we take a direct hit from the bolt?” Kane whispered to his brothers.
“Maybe. Maybe not. You?” Quinn shook his head. “No way. The poison is too close. That bolt is designed to cut straight through a threat and destroy.”
Sit and wait.
You’re not strong enough.
The poison is too strong.
Scorpios acted. They were decisive and strong. And they protected what was theirs.
He could wait no longer.
With a battle cry, Kane gripped his claymore and took off for Enyo. His scorpion unfolded and rode high on his shoulder, that lethal tail swinging in deadly arcs.
Quinn screamed from behind him, but Kane ignored him.
Ilsa screamed from her position next to Callie, but Kane ignored her.
Enyo lifted her arm, aiming for his chest, but Kane ignored her.
With a last, final leap toward the goddess of war, he allowed his scorpion full extension within his aura, the large animal landing as he did, their combined force pushing Enyo off balance and landing so that the thunderbolt skittered from her grip.
The scorpion dropped its tail, the motion pinning her to the ground as Zeus stalked toward them.
His brothers stood in a half circle around them as Ava and Ilsa helped Callie to the ground, the women having already dealt with the noose.
As Enyo lay on the ground, she stared up toward Kane, a mutiny of the coldest evil alight in her eyes. The heavy black tail of his scorpion lay on her chest, holding her in place, but the air quivered with her anger.
Her fury.
“Let my daughter up.” Zeus’s voice thundered in Kane’s ear.
Kane didn’t move; instead, he questioned the order directly. “Do you believe we didn’t do this?”
The god’s tone had quieted, but his words indicated he wasn’t ready to acquiesce. “I must evaluate further.”
“Then I’m afraid I can’t let her up.”
A red flush crept up Zeus’s cheeks, but his tone remained consistent. “Let my daughter up. I shall deal with her.”
“So you acknowledge Ilsa is innocent in this deception? That the Warriors in service to Themis are innocent?”
Zeus’s features remained implacable. “As I said, I must evaluate further.”
Before Kane could respond, he felt movement against his scorpion, coming from the direction of the
tail.
Enyo applied the force of direct pressure, coupled with the power of a goddess, and snapped the edge of his scorpion’s tail. There was no pain, but the loss of a portion of his tail altered the animal’s balance, allowing Enyo to wiggle free.
As she leaped away, she slid unerringly toward the discarded thunderbolt and once again lifted it.
“Mine.”
Ilsa leaped toward Enyo, unwilling to allow the bitch to take the thunderbolt twice.
The move worked, her forward momentum knocking Enyo off balance as they wrestled each other to the floor.
Although Enyo had several inches of height on her, Ilsa managed to get a strong leg lock, ensuring the fight remained contained as neither could use their feet.
The large thunderbolt juggled between their arms as they fought. Ilsa felt the hard, jagged length of it slice at her inner arm and used the pain to fuel her anger.
Pulling back, she threw a direct hit at Enyo, satisfied when she heard a grunt of pain on contact. Ilsa shifted to try the move again when light blasted through the cave.
Enyo renewed her assault as the unexpected light faded and it was only as they rolled a few feet further that Ilsa realized the light suffusing the cave was different.
It filled the air with a warm golden light, soft and welcoming. Beckoning all to come closer.
Both Ilsa and Enyo stopped struggling to look at the source. Although neither loosened her grip, they did divert their attention to the woman that had materialized in the cave.
“Do you see what your daughter has wrought?”
Themis.
Ilsa looked with amazement at the sheer power the woman wielded. Her slender form was clad in long white robes and her Titan red hair hung in warm waves over her back.
“My daughter has wrought nothing,” Zeus spat back. “Your Warriors thought to gain the upper hand. Betray our agreement.”
“My Warriors did no such thing, but your idiotic belief they did is why I’m forced to arrive here today.”
“They had help.” Ilsa felt the point of Zeus’s finger with the same swiftness he launched thunderbolts. “Adrasteia.”
Themis shook her head. “Why are you so blind when it comes to her? She raised you. Loved you. And you repaid her with scorn.”
“She betrayed me! She kept me here, locked away while my father ruled in his glory. It was my job to punish him and she kept me from that.”
“She protected you.”
“She kept me from my destiny. You know that. It was you, all those years ago, who spoke of balance.”
Themis shook her head, the lush waves of her hair a beautiful red waterfall about her face. “I spoke of the balance of our lives. Not that it should be based in vengeance. In hate. You took my words and twisted them to fit your version of strength and honor and manhood.”
Ilsa listened to the goddess’s words. Was it possible? Was Themis truly blameless?
Zeus’s face remained stubbornly mulish. “You said that it is essential to seek balance.”
“Aye. I most certainly did. You were a young buck, recently off your victory over your father and you thought yourself invincible. I tried to explain to you the price you’d pay if you didn’t understand the balance required in our universe. The balance required by victory.”
“I punished her.”
Themis nodded, then shifted her gaze. Ilsa felt the warmth of her approval and—was that a sense of sadness?—for what had been lost.
“You punished her without cause. It is only through the mercy of your brother that she’s even had some semblance of a life.”
Zeus turned his gaze as well and Ilsa saw something there. Not quite shame. Not quite apology.
But perhaps a sense of regret.
Shifting her own gaze, Ilsa stared at Kane. As she met those endlessly deep, dark eyes, the final piece fell into place.
What came before truly didn’t matter.
It was what came next that would give her life meaning. Fulfillment.
Truth.
Desperate to be with Kane, Ilsa let go of Enyo and rolled away. As she shifted to gain her feet, Enyo lifted the thunderbolt.
Ilsa felt the shot of cold fire at the center of her body as Enyo hit her target with unerring precision.
The hole in her soul that sat under her heart, just outside her rib cage, filled with the searing heat of the bolt.
All action in the cave happened at once.
Kane leaped across the room toward Ilsa as Quinn, Drake and Brody made a phalanx around him.
Zeus flew toward his daughter, tackling her to the ground and removing the thunderbolt from her grasp.
Callie, Ava and Emerson followed on the heels of the Warriors to close the circle around Kane and Ilsa as he lay on the ground holding her body.
“Ilsa.” Kane rocked her, holding her to his chest. “Ilsa!”
High-pitched screams pierced the cave as Zeus dragged Enyo away, but they all ignored it. Everyone concentrated on Ilsa.
“Kane, let me have her.” Themis hovered over him, her smile gentle.
“I can’t let her go.”
“Please. Let me have her. I can help her.”
“You saw it. Nothing can help her. The bolt hit her chest.”
“Kane.” He looked up into eyes full of understanding and wisdom. “Allow me to have her.”
Lifting his arms, Kane placed Ilsa in Themis’s grasp.
They followed as Themis walked across the room toward a carpet that lay in front of the fire pit.
Themis turned to all of them after laying Ilsa on the rug. “She will be fine.”
Silence greeted her proclamation.
With slow, graceful movements, Themis sank to the ground, her robes billowing out in gentle waves. With tender, probing fingers, she ran her hands over Ilsa’s body, stopping when she reached the area where the tear was.
Themis turned her face up, her question direct. “Kane, is this it? Is this the site of the tear?”
“Yes.”
“Come here. All of you.” Themis beckoned them forward, instructing all but Kane and Callie into a circle.
“Kane. I want you here. On this side.” Themis had him sit, replacing her at Ilsa’s side. “Callie. I’d like you to match his position on the other side.”
Callie quickly took her seat.
“Lay your hands upon her, over her heart.”
Kane did as he was told; he saw Callie follow suit.
Themis stood to her full height and inquired of Quinn, “Your Xiphos. Please.”
Quinn scrambled to pull the instrument from where it sat strapped to his thigh, then handed it over, handle first.
With deliberate movements, Themis lifted her arms, allowing the sleeves of her robes to fall to her elbows. Extending her left arm, she positioned herself over Ilsa’s body. With the Xiphos in her other hand, Themis executed a quick slashing motion, blood immediately welling on her inner arm.
As she turned her arm over, allowing the blood to drip onto Ilsa’s chest, Themis chanted.
Blood in strife.
Blood for life.
Souls do bleed.
Souls in need.
By my hand, feel my power.
Take my strength, in your darkest hour.
Warm waves of light filled the room, coming from the cut in Themis’s arm.
Kane felt the change under his hands. Felt the pulse beat with increasing steadiness in Ilsa’s chest and the color fill her cheeks to a bright pink.
Still, Themis chanted, over and over, as her blood slowly dripped onto Ilsa’s chest.
With each drop of blood, Ilsa’s body grew stronger, her breaths more full.
Until . . . she woke.
As simple as that, and equally wondrous.
Those beautiful blue eyes opened and stared up into his.
“Ilsa?”
“Yes?”
“Are you back with us?”
She smiled. “Yes. I’m back. What happened?”
C
allie reached over and smoothed the hair from her sister’s brow. “Themis saved you.”
Themis shook her head as she readjusted the sleeves of her robe. “Ilsa saved herself. She chose life and she chose love. I simply ensured she was intact again to finally enjoy all those things.”
“Intact?” Kane looked up at his goddess in wonderment. “Her soul?”
Themis smiled gently, and Kane felt her innate goodness wash over him as she pressed her cheek to his. “Aye. It is intact.”
“You can do that?”
“I can do many things, my Scorpio. When the price is a fair one, I can do many things.”
Kane leaned in, pressing his lips to her ear. “Thank you. With everything I am, thank you.”
Themis pressed a light kiss of her own, then stepped back. A distinct twinkle filled her eyes. “Does the poison ravage you any longer?”
Her words registered and Kane focused on his own body.
The poison wasn’t gone, but it was more of a nuisance than a threat. His muscles felt strong and vibrant and his stomach was free of nausea.
“It’s at bay.”
“And that’s where it will stay. A small reminder of humility, but no longer a threat to your well-being.”
“But how?” Kane marveled at the renewed vigor in his body, the pain that had filled his muscle fibers receding with each passing second.
“The one who bound you is no more. His dark magic will leave a mark—it is why you’ll never be fully rid of the poison—but it no longer has the power to take your life.”
With that, Themis smiled more broadly. Arms outstretched, she reached for Ilsa’s hand and joined it with Kane’s. “And now, all is as it should be.”
The light shimmered and the air whistled around them as Themis ported out of the room.
Turning toward Ilsa, Kane looked down at their joined hands. “I think she meant something with this.”
Ilsa smiled up at him. “You’re a perceptive one, my Scorpio.”
“I think I’d like to take it one step further.”
In one fluid movement, Kane dropped to his knee.
“Ilsa. Love of my life and the keeper of my heart. Marry me. Live with me. Be my wife.”
