by Amy Braun
He looked at me, uncompromisingly serious.
I opened my mouth to argue. Brutal fight or not, I was not about to let my brother die at the hands of anyone, least of all a god. The same could be said for Selena. Apollo had already tortured her so much, and I was going to do everything I could to keep him from hurting her again.
Still, I couldn’t assume that my powers, impressive as they were, would hold a candle to a centuries-old Olympian who could literally See through all aspects of time and heal any wound in the blink of an eye.
I couldn’t lie to my brother. Not anymore.
So I said nothing.
Again, I didn’t lie.
He fell silent for a moment.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it, and gods above and below, I needed it. It could very well be the last laugh I ever had.
I nudged his elbow with my own.
He glanced at me.
I grinned.
He rolled his eyes, but I knew his mind. He wouldn’t have my back because he would be at my side where he’d always belonged and where I should have let him be. I’d made mistakes and leaped without looking in the past. It had cost me. Cost both of us.
Was Ki̱demónas changing me? Probably. How could it not? Was I going to let it control my thoughts and actions? Honestly, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want it to, but it mingled with my Berserker Rage so well, and I couldn’t deny how powerful it made me.
That was enough to blind me to any danger. I only had one pair of eyes.
Then again, I did have a little brother, and he was the greatest weapon I could have asked for.
Liam’s eyes flicked past me, and then he stood up. “I’m going to find Persephone. See if she’s ready to go with that teleporting enchantment.” He was walking through the pews before I could stop him.
Leaving me alone with Selena.
I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She was as rigid as her black armor, and her hair was wound in a tight bun at the back of her head. If her eyes could have bored holes into the pew in front of her, they would. Unlike Liam, I couldn’t read her mind. And unlike Liam, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
She’d volunteered, and I wasn’t doubting her strength, but I also needed to know if she wanted to back out.
“Are you—”
“I haven’t looked. I Saw enough to help Thea, and that was it.”
I blinked, not expecting that response. “I wasn’t going to ask you to.”
“I know. You were going to ask me if I was all right. But you know I’m not.”
Of course I did. Worse, I didn’t know how to help her.
“Do you still want to do this? You don’t need to, Selena. We would all understand. No one would be angry with you.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “But I would be angry with myself. I need to confront Apollo for starting all of this. Everyone else who hurt me… they’re dead. Athena and the Fates saw to that.” She hunched forward and wrapped her arms around her middle. “But I still can’t bring myself to look. I don’t want to See what happens because…” She let out a shuddering breath.
“We’ll get through it, Selena. We always do.”
But she was shaking her head. Another strangled breath escaped her. “No. You can’t make promises this time, Derek. It won’t work. Because if he hurts you or Liam, he’ll be hurting me.”
My heart squeezed then squeezed again when she wiped at her eyes.
“Apollo destroyed everyone I love because I didn’t want to be his toy. He ruined me because I refused him. And here I am again, two thousand years later, about to refuse him again. Refuse him when I know I’m going to see people hurt and killed. He’s torturing them right now because I couldn’t stand up to him.”
She leaned back and took in a ragged breath. “I built a new life. A new identity. I put him in the past where he belongs, because I was so sure he would never hurt me again. I thought I was free. And now I have Mason and Thea and Corey and Liam and you… and I can’t remake myself again, Derek. I’m not strong enough.”
She was wiping furiously at her eyes again, shoving the tears away, pretending I couldn’t see them. She couldn’t catch them all.
So I did.
My fingers were featherlight against her cheekbone and chin. Selena went completely still, watching me as I wiped them away. I barely heard her breathing. When the final tear was gone, I looked her in the eye.
“You chose to face Apollo,” I told her, “and you can choose not to. Regardless of what you choose, he has no claim over you. No one does. Surviving those two thousand years… I can’t even pretend to know the kind of strength that takes, Selena. But it means you spent two thousand years giving him the finger. You showed him and every single Olympian in the pantheon that you were smarter than they were, stronger, and unwilling to let anyone be hurt for their selfishness. The way things have turned out is not your fault. Attacking those people is on Apollo’s head, not yours. You made the right choice, and Apollo threw a temper tantrum. That is not your fault.”
“He took the Eye.”
“Because he’s greedy and he’s a god. You have no control over either of those things. Just as you are not ruined.”
Selena grimaced and wrapped her arms around her chest. “Derek, I was—”
“Ajax and Agamemnon hurt you, and if they were still alive, I would beat ten shades of shit out of them for what they did. But you’re still alive, sitting here, dressed in battle armor, ready to fight a god to save people you’ve never met. That’s you standing on their graves. That’s you proving you’ve always been stronger than they were. The scars you have don’t ruin you, Selena. They’re another layer of armor.”
I turned to face her fully and gently set my hand on her shoulder. Her eyes shimmered as she looked at me.
“You’re scared now, but you won’t be when we get out there. You know how to handle yourself in a fight. Apollo’s never going to change that. And in the unlikely event that you do freeze”—I gave her a sly grin—“that’s what Liam and I are there for.”
I didn’t know if Selena was going to freeze or not. I didn’t have the Sight. But it didn’t matter. I loved her, and I would always be a shield for the people I loved.
She blinked again, her eyes darting between my eyes and my lips.
And then her lips were pressed against mine.
I was so startled that she was able to press me to the back of the bench and crawl on top of me before I could react. She kissed me fast and desperately, as if she were trying to devour me.
I was half ready to let her.
Then I set my hands on her lower back and the nape of her neck and changed the speed of the kiss. I let each one linger, tasting the fullness of each soft lip and breathing in her lily scent with every inhale. My fingers toyed with the soft hairs at the back of her neck, and her body molded around mine. I teased her with gentle nips and quick kisses to the corner of her mouth. She wanted to devour me, but I wanted to savor her.
After another long, slow kiss, Selena drew away from me. She set her hands on my chest. Even through the armor, she had to feel my heart pounding. My eyes traced her delicate collar bone and slender neck. I hadn’t kissed those yet, nor had I unbound her hair and watched it spill around her, things I was aching to do.
When she was ready.
I reigned in my desire and stroked my fingers down her face. “Not that I’m complainin
g, but what was that for?”
“I had to, in case…” She bit her lip instead of elaborating.
But she didn’t need to. In case we die, was how that sentence was supposed to go.
“I owe you so much, Derek.”
I curled a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to see her eyes. Gods above and below, I loved those eyes.
“You don’t owe me anything,” I murmured. Grinning, I added, “But if that’s how you want to repay me, I wouldn’t be averse.”
Selena rolled her eyes, but she was smiling too. And she wasn’t moving off me. She was settled in my lap, leaning into my chest like she belonged there.
Tell her. Tell her you love her. You may not have another chance.
“Uh, you guys look cozy.”
Selena jumped off me like I was on fire. I leaped to my feet and whirled around to find that Liam had returned, with Persephone right behind him.
The Queen of the Underworld looked between us. In that moment, I knew what it was like when parents walk in on their teenagers doing something they shouldn’t.
I could have done without the awkwardness.
Selena, however, was a queen in all but name.
Smooth as could be, she walked past me and faced the goddess. She bowed deeply. “We have no way to repay you for your selflessness and kindness, my lady. I can scarcely find the words, and… I am sorry. I remember everything about my past now, but the days around the time I was hexed are still foggy to me. I don’t know how much longer it will be until the hex is no longer damaging to me.”
Persephone smiled at her. “Please rise. You have nothing to repay, and you are far from damaged.” Selena looked up. Persephone held her gaze, then looked between me and my brother. “I was able to finally see my sons. I am proud of them. That is all the payment I require.”
For now. I had to think those words. It was just the way of the Olympians. They offered nothing without wanting something in return.
But it was refreshing to meet someone who genuinely wanted to help us.
I moved into the aisle next to Selena and bowed. “Thank you. I’m honored to be part of your bloodline.”
As I said it, I realized I meant it, even without fully understanding the goddess’ motives. Yes, Ares had given me my core element, my strength, and my fighting prowess. He’d even accidentally given me his spear. But he wasn’t someone I would aspire to be.
Persephone, on the other hand…
I didn’t know much about her. But from what I’d seen so far, she was one of the better Olympian role models.
Persephone was quite pleased with my words. She smiled and inclined her head.
Then she looked at Selena. “I am in debt to you, Cassandra of Troy. You watch over my sons. You let me see them when I believed I never would. You care for them. I am only sorry that I was not there for you when I needed to be.”
Selena said nothing, but I had gotten good at reading her eyes. Whatever she was thinking, it was bringing her pain.
And she was going to fight it.
The goddess said, “If there is something you want from me, merely speak, and it shall be yours.”
Selena hardened her gaze, looking as fierce as I’d ever seen her. “Please don’t call me Cassandra. My name is Selena Kythian.”
Her voice was gentle, but she was determined to leave her life as Cassandra in the dust. Persephone’s eyes sparkled, and she nodded with an agreeing smile. “Very well. Know that all of you are welcome here, and I am willing to give whatever aid you need.” Her gold-blue eyes cut to Selena again. “There is no place safer than the Haven.”
“Thank you,” I said again.
Persephone gave another nod, then said, “I am reluctant to send you into the heart of danger. But I also know it is not my place to stop you.”
She gestured to the chancel behind us. We walked down the aisle and up the steps of the platform. We settled behind the pulpit and stood in a half circle facing the goddess.
“I warn you,” Persephone said, raising her hands and filling them with black aether, “this will be a little more… jarring, than your friend Corey’s teleportation.”
Liam tentatively raised a finger. “When you say jarring, you mean…”
I was already looping my arm through his and Selena’s.
Persephone gave us one final look with her sad, gold-and-blue eyes then let the aether spill from her hands. It curled around our feet and moved up our legs and bodies, encasing us in darkness. We all cringed at the snapping, cold chill folding around our limbs. I sucked in a breath, tasting ice and smoke, and then felt my entire body contract.
I was yanked forward, that ashy frost taste lingering. Time splintered into nothing. I could feel my body moving, though I felt like I was standing still. My heart thundered, and just when I felt I was about to be crushed, the pressure relaxed, and the shadows drifted away.
I blinked and found myself in a war zone.
THE GOOD NEWS was that Persephone had teleported us directly onto the beach.
The bad news was… everything else.
The Olympians had done their part while we’d been preparing. The entire beach had been evacuated. There were no helicopters or Sea Guards or any other form of law enforcement risking their lives on the beach, save for us.
The beach itself was in ruins.
Umbrellas, beach chairs, towels, tents, streamers, tables—everything had been hurled aside or smashed to splinters in the fight. Motionless bodies were half buried in wet sand. The tide smashed violently on the beach, the cold water surging upward and swallowing our feet. Black storm clouds rolled across the sky, shards of lightning flickering within them.
We turned to find the gods.
We saw Apollo first. He was still clothed in striking white and looked immaculate. His eyes were fathomless voids in his skull. He moved only when he slashed his hand through the air. A beam of light slipped out of his skin and cut across the stomach of the nearest Olympian.
Artemis. His twin sister.
She screamed in rage and spiraled into the sand. Gold blood sprayed across the grit. About thirty feet behind her, Hermes was crawling away, reaching for his winged sandals with blood-soaked hands. Hephaestus screamed and rolled in the sand just beyond Hermes. Apollo had somehow gotten into the already unstable Olympian’s mind and unhinged him further.
A man bellowed with rage. A gigantic tidal wave rose up behind Apollo and curved inward, as if compressing into a spear. It lashed down—
Apollo swung his left arm out. A gold barrier swelled out from his fingertips. The crashing wave struck it. Poseidon’s attack barely moved Apollo.
Cutting through the grim battle was a bolt of lightning. Apollo swung his right arm up. A whip of light unfurled from his forearm and lashed the Thunderbolt away.
Apollo had broken three of his opponents and was toying with the other two.
“Apollo,” screamed the Artemis, rising to her feet and nocking another arrow. It glowed silver with power. “Do not do this.”
“You will not harm me, sister. There is no future I have Seen where you shed my blood.”
The dark-haired, bright-eyed huntress scowled and fired the arrow. It seared toward her brother, white-hot and wicked fast. As the bolt got closer, it split into a hundred daggers. Apollo conjured a shield of light and closed it over his body. The arrows bounced off Apollo’s shield and landed in the sand, burning holes in the grit.
Apollo leaped into the air, a streak of gold clashing against the dark, thunderous clouds. Hermes found his feet, the winged sandals fully attached around his ankles again. He jumped and sped into the sky, following Apollo, and moving faster than anything I’d ever seen.
Apollo turned and conjured a bow made of gold light. Three arrows appeared in it and were fired with a simple pull and release of his arm. A gold arrow sliced through the top joint of Hermes’s foot and cut straight through to the back of his ankle. The god roared and spiraled down from the sky.
; The other two bolts split just as Artemis’s arrows had, and showered gold fire onto the sand. I drew aether out of my skin and walled Liam, Selena, and myself from the barrage. I didn’t care what the gods did or didn’t see anymore.
The arrows ate through my aether shield. The impact had been stopped, but the heat of Apollo’s magic was no match for mine.
Gods, what would it be doing to Hermes’s foot, then?
Shoving the thought away, I lowered the shield to see Apollo dodging more lightning and ice attacks from Zeus and Poseidon. He wasn’t fighting them, merely trying to get away.
No!
I raced across the beach to catch the crazed god, but I wasn’t fast enough.
Artemis saw what her brother intended and tried to confront him. She lashed out with bolts of silver arrows and fierce hand-to-hand strikes. Apollo dodged and fought back. He’d already anticipated her moves. He’d Seen all of it with Cronus’s Eye. He ducked her punch and rose back up, snapping a brutal roundhouse kick to the side of Artemis’s head.
She fell, and then he was in front of the half-unconscious Hephaestus, the God of Volcanoes and Blacksmithing. A god whose mental state was questionable at the best of times. Apollo clasped his uncle’s temples. Gold magic slipped into the scraggly bearded god’s head. Apollo’s musical voice rang through the air. Hephaestus’s normally dark brown eyes suddenly glowed gold.
Anyone who had Apollo’s song directed at them would obey his will. No one could escape its grip, save for an Olympian… if that Olympian was fully awake and mentally sound.
Hephaestus was neither of those. Apollo’s song had taken him over, his dark eyes glowing gold.
A god reduced to a puppet.
With a mighty roar, Hephaestus turned on his brothers—Zeus and Poseidon. Still shouting, he raised his hammer and slammed it down on the sand. Fire and lava roared out of Hephaestus’s hammer and hands. The impact trembled across the beach. The flames ate through the sand like it was paper, streaking toward Poseidon and Zeus. Poseidon shoved his hand down and stopped the lava flow with ice. Zeus launched bolts of lightning at Hephaestus. The fire god swung his hammer like a baseball bat, knocking aside the bolts poised to strike him down. Sparks and embers spat from the hammer at every strike. Hephaestus’s rage grew at every clash. The orange glow in his arms swelled up to his shoulders and expanded across his chest and back. He looked like a man burning alive.
