Heart

by Higginson, Rachel

  I had been tempted to dress in jeans and a t-shirt just to spite the Pantheon, but standing in the middle of them now, I knew it had been a smart move to dress respectfully.

  The atmosphere of the temple was saturated with defensive aggression. Half of them wanted to hand me over to Nix and the other half wanted me for their own gain.

  If there was anyone on my side besides Zeus and Hermes, I couldn’t find them.

  “Despite your testimony, I find you at fault for the death of Hades,” Hera announced over the constant chatter of the gods. “You were the reason he attacked. You are the reason he’s dead.”

  Unable to hold back my retort, I said, “You’re blaming me? It’s my fault that he wanted to attack me? That is the craziest-” I heeded Smith’s warning glare and adjusted my argument. “Do you know what he would have done if he managed to capture me?” Out of pride, Hera stayed quiet. “He wanted to take over the world, my queen. It wasn’t about wanting another wife or sprucing up the Underworld. He wanted to rule the world. The whole world. Especially Olympus. If Persephone hadn’t intervened, he would have gotten his chance.”

  “He would never have come after the mountain,” she argued stoically. “His home means too much to him to throw it into civil war.”

  I chanced a glance at Nix and saw the arrogant smirk he wore. Hera was an idiot to believe that, but I was afraid Smith believed that lie too. There were plenty of gods and goddesses willing to take control of the mountain. They didn’t care about anything except power and fame.

  “He’s dead now, so feel free to believe the best about him, but he told me what he wanted to do. He would have killed Ryder to get to me. He would have used me however he wanted to.”

  Shouts and accusations thundered through the open-aired space. A few random flashes of lightning crisscrossed overhead.

  Smith took a step forward and held up a hand. Immediately he had silence. “Regardless of what happened before Hades died, the truth is that Ivy did not kill him.”

  “A technicality!” Hera protested.

  “But an important one. If anyone needs to be on trial, it’s Persephone. She knew the cost of killing her husband. She could have helped him back through the veil. Instead, she murdered him. Ivy couldn’t have predicted what would happen once Hades crossed the veil.”

  “Why are you sticking up for this child?” Hera sneered.

  Smith leveled his gaze on her. “Why are you afraid to bring Persephone to trial?”

  Hera’s mouth opened, and then closed quickly before she was able to compose herself. Finally she said, “Persephone is my sister.”

  “Persephone has not been clear-minded for ages. If it pleases you, Wife, I suggest we let this go. The Siren and the musician are innocent and we cannot bring Persephone’s addled mind to justice.”

  Hera’s mouth turned down with disgust. “Hades deserves more than this. He deserves more than sweeping his killers under the rug and forgetting his legacy!”

  I thought of Sloane’s older sister, Evaleen. I remembered the man Hades had been around Eva. How he had stripped away pieces of her every minute she spent with him until she was a hollow, lifeless black hole. I thought about the painful despair I saw in her eyes and the anguish Crete caused her to feel. I thought of the night she escaped, how there was hope in her soul for the first time since she met him. And then I thought of her death… how he hunted her down… how she took her own life to escape him.

  Hades had been a sadistic monster when he was alive. He tortured countless women. The world was better off without him.

  But I kept those thoughts to myself. If Nix wasn’t punished for his behavior then I highly doubted they would care about Hades and his taste for abusing women.

  “Let them go, Hera,” Zeus pleaded. “We can ask them to leave Olympus. They are not welcome here anymore. But they cannot be punished for someone else’s crime.”

  Her presence became less hostile as she listened to her husband. She was the kind of woman I assumed resented all men for the simple fact that they were male. She was the divine female after all. A goddess. She didn’t want or need men unless they could do something for her she didn’t feel like doing for herself.

  Yet, she listened to Zeus. She softened when he spoke kindly to her and took the time to be thoughtful when he asked something of her.

  What was strangest of all was that I could relate to her in those moments… I understood her reaction and behaviors because I had them too. She loved Zeus.

  Even after all of this time, after every cruel and heartless thing they had done to each other, after countless affairs and an eternity of going head-to-head and losing… she loved him.

  She conceded to his demand with one of her own. “I want to speak to the musician,” she said quietly.

  “He has no information the Siren did not already give us,” Zeus protested.

  “It is still worth my time to speak to him,” Hera insisted.

  They maintained eye contact for long moments, neither moving a muscle. Finally, Zeus turned his head to face me and said, “Wait outside, Siren.”

  My feet didn’t immediately move. I couldn’t make myself leave Ryder or willingly turn my back on this group of immortals.

  “Go,” Smith sighed. “Nothing will happen to him. You have my word.”

  I met Ryder’s gaze across the room and held it. His silver gaze promised that he would be fine. If I could just let him go for a few minutes, we would be able to leave. We could turn our backs on this world forever.

  Nerves scratched like razorblades in my blood, but I forced my body to leave the temple and walk down the long set of stairs to the road. I thought I might be able to listen in on what they wanted from Ryder, but the wind whistled through the empty buildings and drowned out any voices.

  I looked up at the hazy sun, hidden behind thick white clouds. The temperature was warm, but the wind had a bite to it that pulled goose bumps from my arms. I rubbed my forearms and tried to calm my panicking heart.

  Everything would be okay.

  We would be okay.

  This was almost over.

  “Siren.” The cold voice called out to me with the heaviness of a steel blade.

  I turned on my sandaled foot and nearly toppled backwards at the sight of Eryn dressed for battle. Two swords made out of blinding orange flames dangled in her slender hands. Her orange and black hair was styled with warrior braids. She towered over me, angry, purposeful and full of hate I didn’t understand.

  “Are you here to kill me?” I asked because it seemed so absurd.

  “I am,” she replied definitely.

  “But why?” I should have been reaching for a weapon or screaming for help, but I couldn’t get beyond her intent to kill me. I wasn’t her enemy. We were on the same side!

  This was ridiculous.

  “I protect Olympus,” she declared. She lifted her square jaw and dared me to argue. “You have become a threat to the mountain. I cannot let you live.”

  My heart kicked in my chest. “I’m not a threat,” I said quickly. “Not at all! I don’t want to hurt the mountain or the people on the mountain! I just want to go home. I swear to you that you’re safe from me. I want nothing to do with this place ever again.”

  “This place is your home,” she growled.

  Ugh, I forgot how upset they got when I told them I wanted nothing to do with them. “I know that,” I said patiently. “But it’s not safe for me here. And I’m not even talking about you!”

  “You could still plague us,” she hissed, “from your sea.”

  “But I won’t,” I promised. Fear had finally set in and my hands started shaking. I could protect myself. I could hurt Eryn if I wanted to. Her scarred face winked at me, telling the story of past pain.

  I wasn’t Nix.

  I couldn’t hurt her because I didn’t want to. And if she forced my hand, I had no idea how potent my powers would manifest. I could do so much more damage than I intended to.

  Some
thing like indecision flashed across her face, but she still took a step forward and lifted her sword-wielding arms. “I have my orders,” she murmured.

  I had nothing on me so the second she lifted her right hand to swing her sword I threw both arms over my face and screamed. Energy and power burst out of me in a concentrated stream of aggression.

  I heard her choke on water. She made the wet gurgling sound that could only be associated with drowning.

  I dropped my arms and watched her stumble to one knee. She leaned over and choked up mouthful after mouthful of water. The sticky sea water landed on the hem of my gown as I rushed to her side.

  I didn’t know what to do. I tried to pull my power back, drain the water from her shaking body, but I was too hysterical to do anything quickly. I had just meant to warn her, not murder her.

  I patted her broad shoulder with my trembling hand and tried to calm my nerves so that I could work quicker.

  “I’m sorry,” I told her. “I just… I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  Finally the well in her lungs seemed to go dry. She made a high-pitched wheezing sound with each breath she took and her shoulders were racked with weighted breaths. “But you did,” she rasped. “You… you’re faster… than me…”

  “It was a gut reaction.” I looked around frantically, afraid that someone had seen me and would drag me back to Hera. “I… I didn’t mean to. I swear.”

  Slowly I became aware of how hot her skin beneath my hand had grown. When I took a moment and forced my mind to pay attention, I could see that the length of her entire body was wrapped in an orange glow. She was still shaking, but not from weakness anymore.

  Out of all of the Greek myths, the Furies were something that scared me the most. Their destruction was absolute. They were awesome with their power, with their sword skills and death count. They could raze cities or kingdoms or worlds when unleashed.

  Save for the gods, nothing could stand up to the Furies.

  And yet, I had attacked one… after she told me she wanted to kill me.

  So yeah, I was pretty much dead.

  I took a step back. I wiped my raw hand on my gown and ignored the pain that burned from my palm to my elbow.

  “You should have killed me, Siren,” she growled.

  I jumped back another few feet, just as she swung her sword into an arc landing lithely on her toes. She lunged for me and I just managed to scramble out of her reach.

  She was toying with me now. I caught the pleasure in her burning eyes. I felt her excitement ripple through the air and promise pain.

  I turned around and sprinted forward. The slits in my skirt made it easy to run, but I was wearing loose sandals and the terrain was unfamiliar.

  I scraped my arm against the side of a building when I tried to run behind it. My body bounced back from the impact and I stumbled again. My arms flailed as I tried to keep my balance.

  The ground was too uneven and I tripped in an awkward crash, landing on my butt.

  She stood over me before I’d managed to take the next breath. The fall had jarred me more than I wanted to admit and I stared up at her with clouded confusion. How did we get here so quickly? I hadn’t even put up a fight.

  She smiled down at me and the malicious expression filled her with evil anticipation.

  “Why?” I gasped. “I did nothing to you.”

  She dropped her second sword, tossing it out of reach. Then she lifted her remaining blade with two hands above her head. The orange glow that swathed her body seemed to catch the fire from the blade. She looked like she had been set aflame, her wild hair tossed in the wind and her eyes glinted with coming death.

  “You-”

  But she never got the chance to finish her sentence. Her mouth filled with more water, spraying from her enflamed lips in choking spurts.

  Her eyes rolled back in her head as she tried to fight the drowning sensation. Her arms wobbled overhead before they fell limply to her side. Her sword clattered away and extinguished itself.

  Confusion invaded my mind and I tried to find my power that I hadn’t summoned yet. I hadn’t been ready to let her die, but I wanted answers before I hurt her. I had been building up to it… as ridiculous as that sounded in my head now.

  She had been poised to execute me and I was still trying to find a reason to stop her.

  What was wrong with me?

  The truth was that I had trusted her once upon a time… or as close to trust as I could get. And she had betrayed me. She said she had taken orders, but from whom? Who wanted me dead?

  Who would send a Fury to kill me?

  She fell to her knees, straddling my legs awkwardly. A large manicured hand pushed her head to the side and she toppled over, seizing violently on the cobblestone ground.

  I pulled my legs free and crawled backwards, away from her. Sea water mixed with foam and blood. My heart ached as I watched her begin to die.

  “Give me your hand,” a voice demanded.

  Without thinking, I put my palm in his outstretched one and let him haul me to my feet.

  “Good girl,” he murmured.

  If I hadn’t already felt queasy, the sound of Nix’s satisfied baritone voice would have done the job just fine. I did a double take at his smug face before I tried to run away again.

  His hand clamped down over mine, squeezing until tears pricked at my eyes and I could have sworn he was seconds from ripping it off my body.

  “Finish the job, Meg,” Nix commanded.

  A hot blue blade whistled through the air, swishing against the wind until it met malleable flesh and crunching bone. I screamed out as I watched Meg behead her sister. Blood sprayed in long streaks across the ground and the bottom of my gown, it mixed with the sticky saltwater that turned the fabric translucent.

  I stared at my dress as the blood mingled with the water, turning a deep shade of purple. I stared until my vision blurred and hot tears streaked down my cheeks. I stared because I couldn’t look at Eryn on the ground or the sister that had betrayed her.

  The Fates had predicted this would happen… the Fates told of this exact moment.

  I should have been prepared for it.

  I should have figured out a way to stop it.

  “I’ll meet you on the island.” I heard Nix speak to Meg. I still didn’t know which sister she was because I couldn’t bring myself to look at her face. Maybe it didn’t matter… Maybe they were both working with him. “We’ll only be a second longer.”

  “Can you move with her?” the deep female voice asked in a businesslike tone. She didn’t really care except that it might get in the way of her getaway.

  “Obviously,” he snarled. “Now go!”

  I lifted my head just in time to see her leap into the air and keep going. She can fly, I thought idly. She disappeared into the cloud cover overhead, the only evidence that she was still there was the occasional glimpse of her glowing blue sword.

  I pulled against Nix’s hold, suddenly realizing what he intended to do with me. I had no doubt that the island they talked about was not my island.

  “Let go of me,” I screamed.

  His grip tightened until I had to bend down to ease the pain. His black eyes found mine and whispered a thousand evil things. “It’s too late, Ivy. You’re finally mine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “I’ll never be yours,” I winced. I continued to struggle even while I couldn’t move, even while he held me so tightly I knew my bones would start breaking in the next few minutes.

  And he wouldn’t care.

  Maybe he was trying to break them.

  Maybe it was just the beginning of how he was going to break me.

  “Never again,” he growled. “I will never let you go again. If I have to chain your body to mine, I will, so help me. You will not escape again.”

  I sucked in a breath as I felt the finality of his words. Something permanent and eternal landed on my shoulders.

  He was right. I would never escape him un
til I killed him. I would always be chained to him, figuratively or literally. I would never be free of him until one of us was dead.

  “You’re hurting me,” I whispered, testing him. I needed to see where he was at. I needed to see how far gone to rage he was.

  His pressure didn’t ease, but he moved so that I wasn’t in such an awkward position. “You haven’t thanked me yet.”

  My eyes went big and I licked my lips, stalling for time. “For what?”

  He jerked his chin toward Eryn’s dead body.

  Did he honestly expect me to say thank you for that?

  “I saved your life,” he pointed out. “You could express your gratitude.”

  “I’m not sure that I am,” I answered honestly.

  A slow smile spread across his face, transforming his ire into amused allure. He was beautiful. I could admit that. Physically, he was perfect. Dark haired, dark eyed, golden skin and an aura that captured everyone around him.

  But he was also evil… repulsively so. And I hated that he wanted me so completely, that he couldn’t let me go. I hated that I had to fight him every step of every day.

  I just wanted this to be over.

  And maybe that was my problem. I had run from him every chance I got. I had forced him to chase me.

  But I wasn’t helpless and I wasn’t confused any more. I knew exactly how I wanted this to end.

  I was tired of this game he insisted on playing. Even if Ryder and I made it to Tortola, we would always live in fear that he would somehow find us or get to us. I would never be able to breathe easily until I had finished this completely.

  Instead of saying thank you, I asked a question that bothered me most of all. “Why did you send her to kill me to only kill her yourself?”

  His head jerked back and he shook it slowly. “I didn’t send her to kill you. I don’t want you dead.”

  I looked down at Eryn’s lifeless feet. “Then who did?”