Elle blocked the attack of two more women, but she was growing tired from constantly running before having to hit someone. Elle took off in a sprint as others chased her. Apollo was right—if she didn’t get a sword instead of a staff, someone who did possess one could cause serious damage to her.
Sadly, she hadn’t been quick enough to reach one. Someone knocked her down roughly. A woman then kicked Elle’s back and proceeded to slice her shoulder blade with the tip of her sword in an attempt to stab her. Elle went down in an ugly tumble, droplets of blood squirting from her shoulder. The pain was excruciating.
“Holy cheese,” she moaned, her eyes tearing up. It was strong enough to even cut through the armored material of her suit.
The same woman who struck Elle kicked her hard to the stomach, causing the air to momentarily leave Elle’s lungs. The woman proceeded to straddle her waist as Elle lay sprawled on the sandy ground. The beautiful yet slightly overweight wife of Zetes punched Elle to the face before grabbing her dark ponytail and slamming her head against the ground. Tiny black dots danced across Elle’s eyes as dizziness came in. Her vision was blurring. Zetes’ other wives now stepped forward, while the one with the broken ankle slowly limped closer. They were surrounding her, all their eyes glittering with excitement.
There was no one to help Elle. Any supposed allies among Triton’s wives were busy battling others. The wives of Hercules were attempting to harm the wives of Triton while Ajax’s sole nymph was trying to bite anyone within her reach.
“Sword,” the tall woman straddling Elle snarled. A nearby red-headed woman quickly moved to hand the woman, who was obviously the leader, her diamond-studded sword. Elle struggled to move beneath the woman. She was a victim to her hefty weight.
“You need to diet,” Elle snarled, wiggling once more, only for the woman to slam her head on the ground. Sarcasm was probably the wrong thing to spew right now.
“Do you have anything else to say, mutt?” the woman rasped, her fingers roughly wrapping around strands of Elle’s hair. “Queen Oritya wants you to suffer…” The woman smiled devilishly. “Until we get the chance to kill you in sparring, we’ll just have to settle with cutting off pieces of your pretty little face…”
“Shall we start with her nose?”
“Her eyes?”
“Ooh! Her lips to prevent her from kissing!” Another woman giggled.
“Hey, Firecracker!” someone interrupted in a loud yell, causing Elle and the women to whip their heads up. They spotted a new arrival in the stands just ten feet above them. Elle’s tired eyes drifted up to find her fiancé glaring.
Jack Frost’s jaw was clenched as his grey eyes smoldered with intensity. “Get up. If you have the guts to take on someone as powerful as myself, you can fight the cow sitting atop of you!”
He severely irritated the woman sitting on Elle. She snarled at him. It was only then that Elle realized this was Jack’s rather strange version of a motivational speech. Did he not realize how petrified Elle was? She was oozing fear! These women wanted to cut off parts of her body! What could Elle, a newbie, do against these women who had probably been fighting for hundreds of years?
“Get angry!” growled Jack. “Unless you wish to be as pitiful as your daddy was. Maybe sooner rather than later you can join him six feet under.” Jack’s handsome features hardened.
His one comment suddenly angered Elle to no end. She shook underneath the weight of Zetes’ wife. That was a low blow.
“What did you just say?” Elle shrieked, causing the woman on top of her to slap her roughly.
“Did I tell you to speak?” the woman above her snarled before spitting in her face.
Too many things were happening, causing Elle to become angry, but the wad of saliva was her last straw. The same boiling rage Elle felt the night of the ball returned full throttle. One moment she was cowering in fear and the next she was shaking with sudden rage. Elle reached up and grabbed the face of the woman straddling her. Before Elle really knew what was happening, a spark of fire erupted from her hands and the woman’s entire face erupted in flames. She was now on fire.
Elle was suddenly free as the woman fell off of her before starting to roll on the sandy ground. The woman howled in absolute pain as her fellow wives tried to help her put out the flames.
Too many things started to happen at once. Zetes’ wives helped put out the fire that danced across the woman’s skin while at the same time hurrying away from Elle. They half pushed half dragged their fallen wife away. One other wife looked as though she wanted to fight before she seemed to think better of the idea.
Zetes’ wives weren’t the only ones suddenly afraid. The wives of Hercules, Triton, and even Ajax’s nymph stopped fighting around the arena. All eyes were locked on Elle as they wore fearful expressions. The only sound that could be heard was the horrible wails of Zetes’ wife. The flesh of her face was now bubbling with horrid, pus-filled burns.
Everyone dropped their weapons simultaneously. They took a knee while staring at Elle. The ones who were not wives of Zetes all bowed their heads to her in respect.
Elle did not quite understand why everyone was kneeling her way until she saw it. The bright flicker of orange and red embers that flickered out of her hands. The fire soon flew up both of her arms fully. It took over Elle’s arms all the way up to her shoulder blades. Strangely, Elle couldn’t feel a thing. She didn’t feel hot. She didn’t feel in pain or that she was suffering any burns on her body. There was nothing.
Elle could still move her hands as if it was just a normal day and she wasn’t erupting fire from her palms. She started to feel warm as the fire grew hotter, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Elle could sit with her arms aflame all day and not feel uncomfortable.
Ares appeared within the blink of an eye in the center of the arena. He looked around at all the women kneeling while Elle still stood. “We have a winner! Elle Darrow, betrothed of Jack Frost, you are the last one standing for this session. Class dismissed!”
As the other women—minus the wives of Zetes, of course—began to applaud, the spectators and even the higher-ranked gods and goddesses joined them, and Elle slowly felt her flames start to disperse. They evaporated once she calmed down emotionally. When she wasn’t terribly angered, she wasn’t on fire.
Apollo suddenly arrived to engulf Elle in a hug, and Hermes beamed. Hera started clapping her hands excitedly while Khione applauded in a very lady-like yet jubilant nature.
Even as spectators began talking and happily congratulating her, Elle only wanted to thank one person.
She wanted to thank the man who used a mean remark, not to be cold and callous, but who used it to ignite the proverbial fire Elle needed in order to save herself. She looked around for Jack Frost, disappointed in finding he was no longer here.
Chapter Seventeen
Elle gasped as she stretched the wrong way. Pain radiated throughout her entire body. Blue and purple bruises were painted across her skin, and an unpleasant ache filled them.
The fight went on for barely ten minutes, and yet Elle could feel incredibly tight pain throughout different parts of her body. Her head ached. Her arms, legs, and toes hurt. The soreness was not only from wearing the heavy armor but also from her running and diving while wearing it. Scrapes and bruises decorated many parts of her body.
As Elle slipped the flowing cream gown provided by the castle keepers over her body, she was thankful for the lightweight material that flowed behind her. It was a pretty gown that settled over her curves nicely and didn’t hurt to wear. Elle had been fighting so hard to remain dressed in her ratty sweatshirt and pajama shorts lately that she didn’t learn to appreciate how comfortable the ensemble was. Even the gladiator sandals Elle slipped on were more comfortable than the metal boots she had been wearing in the arena.
Immediately after being congratulated on her win, Elle was brought back to the kingdom of Boreas. She was told to bathe and change into new clothes. Due to her winning, Elle was allo
wed to eat her supper upstairs in her large bedroom. Whether this was a reward because Elle won or because Boreas wanted to keep her separated from Zetes was unknown.
The last Elle had heard, Zetes’ wife faced the possibility of going blind due to how badly her face had been burned. That scared Elle. She did that to someone. Even though the woman had been planning on cutting off different parts of her body, Elle still possibly blinded her. Did that make her just as bad as Zetes’ wives?
She tried not to dwell on the matter. Elle mentally tried convincing herself it was all the woman’s own doing. She was trying to maim her, and it was just unfortunate for her that Elle happened to be a hybrid of half human, half torch.
“What is wrong?”
Elle gasped at the sudden entrance of Eros as she exited the bathroom. The young man had himself propped against an icy pillar in her room. He glanced over his fingernails in a rather casual manner. Eros was dressed in a sharp silver tux with a blood-red tie on him. His sandy hair was slicked back as his kaleidoscope-colored eyes remained transfixed on his fingernails. To Elle, Eros currently resembled a too-young lawyer.
“What do you want?” Elle asked, suddenly feeling suspicious. She didn’t necessarily like Cupid. He was someone she put on her mental list of people to distrust. It was he who gifted her the snow globe that helped Jack find her. He was the one who was behind nearly causing Zeus to do something horrible to her for hitting the nasty Voluptas.
“I don’t feel you’re happy to see me…” Eros said, straightening his hunched posture.
“Was it the dirty look plastered on my face that gave it away?”
Eros shook his head. “More like the way your hand is igniting in flames at this moment,” he said, nodding at Elle’s clenched fist.
Frightened, Elle shook the flames in order to diminish them. Her brown eyes widened in surprise. This fire thing was getting out of hand—literally. Ever since her first time of starting the flame, it seemed to grow easier to start fire with her palms. “What do you want?” Elle asked again, watching her palms with a frightened expression.
“I feel we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, darling.”
Elle near snorted at the young god’s statement. “Maybe you shouldn’t have dragged me to Zeus demanding that he punish me for something your daughter started,” she countered coldly.
Eros did not blink as he answered. “My apologies. You are not yet a mother. You have no understanding how it feels to have offspring. You feel automatically compelled to defend your children even if they are in the wrong—”
“Unless you’re about to start tap dancing while reassuring me this has all been some outrageously crazy dream and I’m about to wake up, I really don’t care about anything you have to say,” Elle said quietly.
She was in absolute pain from her neck and all the way down to her toes. As Elle thought about it, all she really wanted to do was sleep until the following week. Even her eyes felt sore.
Eros did not look offended in the slightest by her comment. “Interesting how Jack was helpful to you this afternoon, no?”
That comment caught Elle off guard. This was something that was weighing heavily on her mind, but she held no real chance of asking Jack Frost about it before he had suddenly vanished. It was Elle’s silence that caused Eros to smirk. “Feeling protective toward someone else is the first step toward friendship.”
Elle closed her eyes, shaking her head gently as she placed her now-dry hair into a ponytail. She suddenly ran a hand through her silky soft dark hair to find it was all completely dry even after she had just climbed out of the bathtub. It should’ve been soaking wet.
“You crossed your vanity threshold with still-wet hair. There is an enchantment on your door that as soon as the threshold is passed, you return to a dried nature to continue about your day,” Eros explained, still examining his fingernails.
Elle felt both amazed and extremely weird about magic at the same time. She truly wasn’t in the real world anymore. The thought made her feel sad. What about her grandparents? Did they think someone kidnapped her? They wouldn’t be wrong, but Elle doubted they knew she was specifically kidnapped to marry a malevolent god.
What about Lucy? Did she believe Elle just up and left without so much as a measly goodbye? Were the police looking for Elle? “You’d have better luck talking with someone other than me,” Elle said quietly, her dark eyes watching her feet as she thought about home. “I have nothing to say to you.”
“Come now, realize your destiny, and—”
“What do you want from me?” Elle snarled back. “Jack and I, we will never like each other, let alone love. Everything that’s going on is utterly pointless—you people are just exhausting yourselves for no reason. Voluptas wants Jack, go help her marry him—”
“My daughter is not of the prophecy—”
“Go fluff your prophecy,” Elle shot back, not even caring that the comment didn’t make a lick of sense. “I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t want to be—” Elle was cut off as she was suddenly transported to another room altogether. Eros was no longer in view even though she was certain he had brought her here when he had snapped his fingers just two seconds before.
Elle scowled at his sudden exit. “Stupid immortals,” she grumbled.
Taking a look around, Elle couldn’t quite place where she was. She was not inside her bedroom. Instead, she was in a room that looked purposely designed to look like a winter forest. At first glance, it looked identical to a forest. Thick twine and frost laced up the walls as a very large tree trunk formed a throne-like seat across from a very large flatscreen TV. The ground seemed to resemble a forest floor. As Elle bent down to examine the soft dirt-like material, she found she didn’t get herself dirty from touching it. The snow on the floor didn’t feel cool to the touch. The entire room gave off the very remarkable feeling she was actually in the middle of the forest. It was only the wooden forest-themed pool table nearby along with the very large twelve foot window overlooking the North Pole that revealed this was just a craftily developed room.
The ceiling softy began snowing, causing Elle to realize this was easily the most beautiful room she had ever been inside in all her life. The couch looked comfy. It looked how an actual forest would look if someone ventured through it during winter. The snow falling from the ceiling was cold to the touch when it fell on Elle’s skin, but it didn’t leave her wet like normal snow would have.
That was when Elle glanced up at the ceiling to notice that it was enchanted. Clouds and mist swirled above, giving off the impression there was an actual snowstorm on the ceiling when in actuality there wasn’t.
This was strangely relaxing. Soft pellets of the cold snow stuck to her hair in gentle ways. Elle closed her eyes and smiled to herself, feeling happier in this one moment than she had during her entire kidnapping. “You really enjoy breaking into my room, don’t you?”
A garbled yell of fear escaped Elle as she jumped in fright at the familiar voice. She wasn’t anticipating this was Jack Frost’s room. She also wasn’t anticipating Jack would’ve been entering this room wearing nothing but a pair of navy pants.
His smooth chest looked to be sculpted from pure marble as it radiated a brilliant pale white that made his hair nearly look a light silver. Elle diverted her eyes to the floor to avoid staring as a hot blush creeped across her neck and cheeks. If anyone had any doubts that gods and monsters existed, all someone had to do was take a look at Jack Frost. He was too surreal to simply be ordinary. His muscles were highlighted in the right places without being overwhelming. He had the most perfect and unmarred face of an angel. The best word that came to mind for Elle to describe him mentally was that he was utterly beautiful. She silently hated herself that she felt the man who tried to kill her held beauty.
“Eros brought me here,” said Elle, inwardly knowing that the god of love purposely brought her to this room.
Jack sighed before nodding. “I understand. That twit did the same thin
g to me when you were bathing.”
Elle’s head snapped up in surprise. She was purposely not looking at him since he was half naked. She was mortified. “W-what? You’re not serious!”
“Relax,” said Jack mildly, “I didn’t see anything. I only heard a rather annoying sound that perhaps in your mind qualified as singing…”
Elle closed her eyes and groaned. She had started singing in the bathtub earlier as a way to calm herself. Singing in the shower was something she did at home. “Can you just tell me how to get out of here?” she asked gloomily. Jack tilted his head to watch her curiously. Elle didn’t return her gaze as she kept her eyes fixed on the floor. She didn’t find it polite to watch someone while they were half naked.
“What’s wrong, Letter? I’ve come to find you usually enjoy a good verbal sparring session.”
Elle near laughed at his comment. She gently shook her dark head. “I think the actual sparring session took away any will I had left to fight with you,” she muttered, her gaze transferring from the floor to her bare shoulder that was exposed by her lovely cream dress. She needed stitches to close up the gaping wound on her shoulder, but Elle did not want to ask any of the castle keepers for help. She jumped as Jack’s pale finger was now touching the aching shoulder. He appeared before her eyes in a near nanosecond.
“I’m surprised you didn’t allow Lord Glow-ball to heal you,” Jack mused, his cool touch actually comforting against Elle’s soft skin.
“Who?”
“Apollo, god of sun,” he replied. “I refer to him as a Glow-ball.”
Elle noted that sarcastic name actually fit Apollo. All her years of knowing Aiden, she always felt he had a near-glowing aura to him that made people want to be around him. Turned out being the god of light, that glowing aura wasn’t as imaginary as Elle always imagined. She gently shook her head as she remembered she hadn’t answered Jack. “I don’t really care to be around him,” she muttered, watching Jack’s finger with near suspicion.
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