by Meg Xuemei X
So he and the elemental shifter weren’t working together. I’d just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time while hunting the robber in disguise.
“I track only you, which isn’t that difficult since you have a godly imprint as Hades’ daughter. But it isn’t easy to get you out of the Academy. Every inch of that school is rigged with spells, and I couldn’t deploy my Mermaid’s Net there. I’ve been waiting for you to seek fun outside the Academy.”
I glared at the pompous mage, who dressed in a red designer shirt and white slacks that hadn’t the slightest wrinkle.
He stalked closer to me, his green eyes never leaving me.
Power rolled off him, and he no longer disguised it.
Noah indeed had the power of the burning stars, just as I’d once felt. I hadn’t been wrong when I’d seen the illusion of a giant male driving a chariot of fire like a glorious sun god. Only it was too late for me to realize that it hadn’t been an illusion after all.
“Apollo,” I whispered. “The god of sun, music, plague, and prophecy. Son of Zeus and Leto.”
He was Alaric’s half brother. Alaric had sensed something off with Noah, but he didn’t detect the sun god. The gods had upgraded. They had advanced spells to mask their godly essence.
At my words, Noah’s mask fell off, and he transformed to his true self. He now wore an Olympian armor and carried a legendary lyre. He was every bit a glorious god, radiating beauty, perfection, power, and cruelty.
“Hello, little Cass, the newest member of the Olympian family,” he said with what he thought was an irresistible smile. “It’s nearly impossible to get you alone. Your four mates are pathetically clinging.” He shook his head in disapproval. “But I have you now, all for myself.”
I remembered him watching Pyrder and me by the lilac pond, dark lust and rage in his eyes before he’d hidden again and disappeared like a fleeting shadow. I should have paid attention to the telltale sign.
“You’re more than a goddess, little Cass. There’s something more in you, and I’ll help you figure it out. You’re better off with me. Your mates can never truly understand what you really are, but you can be everything I want.”
In his godly self, he was even more of an arrogant prick than as the phony ringleader of the mages. And how I hated anyone calling me little!
I summoned my power and once again failed big-time.
“Your power won’t work while my Mermaid’s Net is activated,” he said. “If you had a better grasp of your true power and came to full strength, you’d probably break it. But I can’t risk you growing that powerful, so I have to act before then. I have to abandon all my plans for the mortals and immortals and take you home instead.”
Since I couldn’t break the cage of light, despite my constant efforts, I had to stall him till my mates got here. I used every ounce of my will to push my fear and panic to the edge, so my mind remained clear.
“How long have you been infiltrating the Academy?”
“A long while, and then after Ares’ son told his father and me about you, I brought my base here just to wait for you. By the way, little Cass, you traumatized the boy. And you kept telling him that he was dangerous to society. He’s now going through extensive therapy.”
My mates had thought the Academy was the safest place for me when they had brought me here. They kept their protective walls around me. Now they would really kick themselves in the balls. But who would have thought a major god was among us, like a rattlesnake ready to strike?
“That’s why the Olympian gods haven’t attacked,” I said, like one predator looking into the mind of another. “You have the biggest Earth army at your disposal, but you want to play a cat-and-mouse game with the mortals and supernaturals first. You want to hunt them on their own hunting ground.”
“Do you think those riffraff stand a chance against the gods; even with their smart, brave, and powerful Cass as their champion?” Apollo said, cocking his head.
“Then why don’t you release this champion and see if we can even the odds? Why don’t we play a new game that’s more interesting and fair?”
Once I sank my feet onto the Earth soil, I might regain my strength and power, and then I would take him down.
Apollo laughed, his voice beautiful and velvet, yet I shivered in chill and dread.
“I can’t unleash you no matter how hard you try to provoke me, little Cass. You’re the wild card. I even had a glimpse of my own prophecy when it comes to you.”
“What prophecy?” I asked hoarsely.
“You’re the weapon that the earthlings will use to bury deep into our hearts, but we can also hone the weapon and turn it against them. It all depends on who wields the sharp tool. Once your four mates are out of the picture, you’ll be completely mine.”
Never!
“Are you the seer who whispered to little Phobos about me?” I demanded.
That little punk had betrayed me on every level. He’d even told other gods that I traumatized him. And now every god knew that I could drink energy from at least a minor. How was I going to get one for the future when every god avoided me like the plague?
“That seer is a witch,” he said. “She vanished when Phobos went missing.”
“Then tell me, Apollo, what’s your end game?”
He flashed me a rapacious smile. “You want to know the end game, little Cass? I can tell you that you’re a crucial part of it, now that you’ve finally surfaced. The world will be a much more interesting place with you in it.”
“Really?” I said, still trying to conjure up my power as I kept Apollo occupied. “I have a leading role? Tell me more, Apollo.”
“I know you’re stalling, my conniving little Cass. I actually like that about you. I’m also waiting for your mates to show up. I want them to see me take you. I want them to feel how powerless they are when they can’t save you. I especially want to see the helpless look on my half brother’s enraged face. Until today, my father still secretly favored his firstborn bastard over us. I truly don’t get it.”
“So this isn’t about me, which is awesome. Then why don’t you let me out of this Mermaid’s—”
“Dulcis!” I heard roars from Lorcan.
“Lorcan? You can’t be here!”
He shouldn’t have been here. I looked at the brilliant sun over the sky. It was high noon. The sun would hurt him.
My other mates joined the furious shouts. “Cass!”
“It’s a trap!” I shouted back. “Don’t come in without a plan! The creep Noah is Apollo!”
But my mates didn’t care, and they tore through the ley line.
Unlike unfortunate me, they landed at the edge of the pool instead of the icy water.
Alaric tossed bolts of lightning at Apollo, but the sun god raised his lyre and diffused them.
“I’ve practiced for an eon to fend off your lightning, little bastard,” said Apollo. “I was disappointed in you when you didn’t even recognize your own brother in the Academy.”
Reysalor and Lorcan charged Apollo with their flaming swords, and Pyrder peeled from them and snuck toward me. Alaric kept throwing his lightning at the sun god to distract him.
In a flash of light, Pyrder teleported.
Before the fae prince reached me, Apollo dashed behind me and grabbed the net of light. I fought to no avail. I couldn’t move an inch. The fiercer I struggled, the tighter the net cut.
“Fuck off!” I screamed at the sun god.
Apollo zoomed out with me into the high sky.
I roared my mates’ names.
“Cassandra Saélihn is mine,” Apollo shouted. “And she’ll be the mother of my children.”
I tried to throw a punch at his insufferable face, and again failed.
My mates leapt up to reach me in uncontainable rage, but they couldn’t reach the sky.
The last I saw was fury, pain, and desperation distorting the faces I loved so much before I vanished with Apollo.
“We’ll come for you, Cass baby
!”
Their roar of inferno promised that and vengeance, and they’d free me again.
Epilogue
Lorcan
The fucking sun god took my dulcis, my mate, my everything.
She was taken right from under our noses.
Rage, fear, and desolation pounded in my brothers and me like a never-ending storm, threatening to tear apart our every fiber. I sent them a quick glance. Their eyes were bloodshot, their veins about to burst, and half-madness twisting their enraged faces to beastly shapes.
Through our brotherhood bond and the deep, pulsing new bond our mate shared with us all, I felt the burning abyss in their essence, as it was in mine.
We couldn’t afford to lose her.
Without her, we were but empty shells.
Cassandra Saélihn had become our existence.
“Don’t lose yourselves,” I snarled at them. “If we do, our mate will be lost forever and locked in a cage. Calm yourself!”
We had been slow. The gods had moved three steps ahead of us. They’d lurked in the place we had thought the safest for our mate. They’d been among us the entire time. The sun god had been determined to steal Cass away from us.
I hadn’t cared that the high noon sun would burn me to ashes when I’d heard from Cass’s seer that my dulcis had been taken. I’d charged into the brilliant daylight only to find the sun could no longer burn me.
That was the greatest gift anyone could ever give to me, and my dulcis bestowed it on me after we bonded. I’d thought she was the fire and light from the sun I craved when I drank from her and claimed her. She was sunlight to me, and she literarily gave it to me.
I looked up at the sky, intense sunlight shining on my face for the first time, like fire licking me yet not scorching me. I should have felt great as I could now walk under the sun, but it was the worst day in my life.
While I gained such a divine gift, I lost my mate, who was my true sunshine and everything to me.
We hadn’t protected our mate.
My brothers roared in half-insanity.
For their sake, and for my dulcis’ sake, I needed to rein myself in with my iron will honed for an eon.
I would destroy the world to get her back. No, I’d destroy the gods, who had taken my mate.
“Brothers,” I growled. “We have work to do to get our mate back. It starts now. And we’ll get her back at all costs.”
Their roars shook the ground. We’d rain down hell on the fucking gods.
Just then, my heart stopped beating.
It would never beat again until we had our beloved mate back.
A Court of Ice and Wind
War of the Gods Book 3
A Court of Ice and Wind
Cass Saélihn isn’t some defenseless damsel, sitting on her ass and waiting for her hot, alpha males to rescue her.
She won’t accept the fate of being in another cage.
Even though she’s heavily guarded. Even though the torque on her neck binds her, rendering her powerless.
She won’t allow Ares and Apollo to sever her mating bond to her beloved mates, no matter how they seduce, threaten, or torture her. She knows if the rogue gods can’t make her their queen and weapon in a war between the gods, they’ll destroy her. But she doesn’t bend, and she’ll never break.
They may have a terrible plan for her, but she’s reserved worse for them.
Now she awaits the one chance to strike back and return to her mates, who she knows are coming for her.
1
__________________
The God of Sun tore me away from my mates.
Their agony at seeing me taken impaled my heart like a wooden stake, but now wasn’t the time to cry. I had work to do and a plan to make—to return to my mates, where I belonged.
“We’ll come for you, Cass baby!” They roared their determination and devastation, too far away to do anything else.
My males would rain down their wrath upon our enemy. They would find a way. They didn’t make empty promises.
They would come for me and tear both hell and heaven apart to set me free.
I had no doubt.
But we needed to fight smarter, and dirtier, since the gods were more powerful. The last thing I wanted was for my mates to rush to Mount Olympus, charge into the battle blindly and full of rage, and get themselves killed.
They were everything to me; any of them perishing would just shatter me.
“Don’t come for me before you’ve got a solid plan!” I barked back, trying to sound masterful and upbeat, but I failed at both. I hoped the wind could send my last message before Apollo made me disappear with him. I could already feel his breath on my neck, making my hairs stand on end.
He didn’t teleport; instead, he dragged me behind him as he sailed along the slipstream that the gods travelled. The sun god once rode the chariot of fire across the sky, and now he wanted to show me how I was under his mercy.
I was a pathetic sight, caged within the tight net of his crimson light, unable to move an inch, hauled along like luggage.
“Hey, where the fuck are you taking me to, batshit?” I shouted after him.
I couldn’t move, but I could still hurl insults his way. And hurl them I did, many of them and often; I was so good at it, since being locked inside the cage for over a decade had honed my skill at annoying people.
“You’ll learn to respect, desire, and submit to me, Cassandra Saélihn,” Apollo said in a flat tone, but he sped up, which meant I’d riled him.
But his sour mood didn’t do me any good because the ride soon became bumpier in the high air, turbulent and angry.
I wasn’t going to compromise though.
“Sure, I’ll respect, desire, and submit to you,” I offered.
He looked back at me over his shoulder, his handsome features softening a little. “You will? So easily, Cassandra?”
“Yes, sun god, when the sun comes out of your asshole.”
He frowned and the ride grew volatile again. “We’ll need to work on your sparkling personality once we get to my palace. You were raised as a wild animal, but it’s nothing I can’t fix. I saw your great potential the first time I laid my eyes upon you. I’ll make it my personal mission to transform you into a glorious goddess before I wed you.”
My heart skipped a beat. He intended to force himself on me. I sneered to cover up my dread. However, I needed more intel.
“And just how are you going to achieve that submission, Apollo?”
“At any cost,” he said. “And by any means.”
So, he was determined to tame me by using brutality. Icy fear cracked in my veins again, despite my apparent bravado.
Yet a small glimmer of comfort and hope flicked alive like a tiny flame in my stomach. He wouldn’t rape me before he’d made me live up to the standards he’d set for me. So long as I could stall him and hold on, I would make it until my mates came to save me, or I made my own escape.
I tried twisting my torso inside the cage of light and failed again. It had me held tight.
And soon I’d be in another cage, an even worse one.
I’d once sworn I would rather die than return to any cage, but I’d since changed my mind. I would suffer through anything for my mates. For them, I’d hang in there.
“Are you bringing me to Mount Olympus?” I demanded.
“What do you think?” he asked lazily. “I’d like to hear your thoughts, since they’re often entertaining when your mouth isn’t too foul.”
“Since I’m one of the goddesses, I have equal rights as you.” I was testing him. “I’ll protest your treatment of me before King Zeus and the jury of gods. You have no fucking business abducting me. Return me to the Academy now, and I’ll forget all about it.”
“There’s no jury, little Cass. We aren’t humans. You were raised among those ants, so you think small like them. The first lesson I offer you is never to apply the puny human standards to the gods. Zeus rules all as a tyrant since the begi
nning of time. If you think to gain some sympathy amongst the gods, you’d better drop the idiocy, or you won’t survive long. Zeus, the role model to us all, is a cheater and a rapist. He has violated countless women, including mortals, immortals, and goddesses. He even forced himself on Persephone, your stepmother, and then covered up his act by helping your father abduct her to the Underworld.”
“Just like how you’re abducting me?”
“I’m not kidnapping you,” he said. “I’m giving you a true future. The method might seem harsh, but it’s necessary for a stubborn creature like you. Your former lovers brainwashed you. They plucked you away just when you were about to make your debut in Olympian society. They took advantage of your naivety, and I have every intention of correcting these wrongs and undoing all the damage they’ve done.”
“So you say. If it’s not an abduction, you’ll remove the rope made of fucking light from me.”
“I can’t do that, Cass. It’s for your own good. We’re travelling through the slipstream. If I cut you loose, you’ll fall into another dimension and be lost among worlds of monsters. You don’t want that, do you?”
The gods didn’t think of themselves as monsters. Delusional assholes.
I scanned the endless clouds on either side of the path that stretched ahead of us. Strangely, there wasn’t even any wind there, despite our speed as we glided through our highway in the sky.
“Is this a ley line?” I asked.
“It’s superior to the supernaturals’ ley lines. Don’t forget we’re gods. You’re a god, too, yet you’re also something more. I just need to figure out the other part.”
I couldn’t help but sneer. “How can you be so sure I’m Hades’s daughter? You could be mistaken!”
“The major gods can sense each other’s bloodlines,” he said, ignoring my verbal challenges, and whistled. “We’re home.”
A vast patch of land loomed ahead. I could see the outlines of silver streams and lush gardens encasing an amethyst palace.
Fuck!
