Hunt of the Gods

by Amy Braun

  “Next one goes into your face,” I snarled.

  Tobin’s eyes, swollen as they were, filled with fear.

  “What are you trying to do?”

  He didn’t want to talk. I could see it. But the Rage was flowing through me again, and I was going to have my answers, one way or another.

  I cocked my fist back.

  “Cassandra’s trap!” he blurted.

  I stopped. Didn’t change my expression, didn’t douse the fire in my hand.

  “We got a tip,” Tobin stammered on. “The gods came here a few weeks ago and figured out Cassandra’s trap for protecting the Eye of Cronus. It needs a blood sacrifice.”

  My own blood went from boiling to freezing.

  “What kind of blood? How much?”

  “A lot of it.” His eyes darted to the end of the ledge, where the blood pools lay.

  My own blood went cold.

  “What did you do?” I rumbled. Tobin didn’t answer. I took a step forward. He jolted.

  “It was Kallis!” he shouted. “Kallis put in a call super early this morning. Said there was something wrong with the island. Some kind of attack that the Sea Guard needed to investigate. They got here just before we did and went to the siren cove. That was when they were killed and…”

  I went numb with anger. “Who killed them, and where are the bodies?”

  “Ares. Ares killed them. And the bodies… they’ve been taken to the cavern where the ritual is happening. Their blood is needed for most of the ritual, but not all of it.” He hesitated before giving me the rest. “They need an heir’s blood to complete the spell. All of it.”

  All of an heir’s blood…

  Mason.

  “Is that where the trap is? The caverns?”

  Tobin shook his head. “I don’t know. We knew the sirens were here, and we were told that you’d follow the sirens’ call. We just had to wait until you were separated from your friends.”

  My heart hammered. I reached for the blood bond.

 

  No answer.

 

  Nothing.

  Panic closed around my heart. It wasn’t like Liam not to respond to the blood bond, even when he was in a fight.

  If he wasn’t responding, he was either out of range, unconscious, or…

  I punched Tobin’s arm again. He screamed.

  “Is my brother alive?” I shouted.

  “I don’t know, but we weren’t supposed to kill him!”

  Oh, those were the wrong words to say to me.

  I signalled Ki̱demónas. The spear hovered in the air, its blade pressed to Tobin’s temple.

  “If he’s dead,” I growled, “you’re going to fucking follow him.”

  A shiver went through Tobin. I didn’t care.

  “Derek.”

  That distant, strong voice cut through the fog of my temper. I almost didn’t listen to it, because it was soft and gentle and had no place in my frame of mind.

  But I heard it again, that time with a desperate undertone.

  Selena.

  I let go of Tobin, called Ki̱demónas into my hand, and stepped away from him. With every step I took, I regained the clarity I had forgone in place of justice.

  No. It hadn’t been justice. It had been more like self-righteousness. Like I could do whatever I wanted to, simply because I wanted to.

  I felt her at my side, watching me, but couldn’t look at her.

  After a long, contemplative moment, Selena stepped closer. Tobin crawled backward, but he was too weak, and she was too quick. She grabbed his shoulder, the unburned one, and glared deep into his eyes.

  “You best thank all the gods that I was able to stop Thea from dying. If she’d died, it wouldn’t have been Derek you needed to fear. I’m putting you to sleep. If you follow us, I’m not going to stop him again. I’m going to fucking help him.”

  Tobin’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he went limp. The sleeping spell was in place. Selena straightened and stared down at him. Water lapped at the rocks of the lagoon. Wind swirled across my heated skin, and I smelled blood and embers. I was all but shaking with the need to do something.

  I collapsed Ki̱demónas and placed the spear on my back. “Will Thea be all right?” It was the safest question I could think to ask.

  Selena’s shoulders slumped, and a heavy sigh escaped her. “She’ll live. I used the rest of my magic to heal her. I just have my Sight left. I don’t know when she’ll wake again, but when she does, she’ll be weak.”

  She turned just enough to look me in the eye. “You know who else is involved with Ares, don’t you?”

  I didn’t say anything aloud, but I’d been thinking about it.

  There was no way to predict that I would have reacted the way the Cetea Clan had been told I would react. My actions had been completely unscripted, and no one had forced me to walk out of the Sea Guard station. No one could have possibly known that I would fall for the sirens call or that it would split our group.

  No one could have possibly known all that unless they were a god with a specialty in Prophecies and Sight.

  Why Apollo would want to side with Ares was a mystery to me, but if the Golden Prince of the Olympians was involved in his bloodthirsty brother’s schemes, it could only spell trouble for us.

  Selena must have been thinking the same thing, because she exhaled again and shoved a hand through her damp hair.

  “We need to get back up there.” She looked at the unconscious bodies and the water surrounding them. “But I don’t know how. We can’t carry Thea, and as much as I want to, we can’t leave the Cetea here.”

  I agreed. I still had some magic, but I couldn’t Adapt to climb a cliff and carry four bodies on my back, and I didn’t have any rope or—

  A thought crossed my mind. Smoky power moved through my veins and chest.

  It was a risk I didn’t want to take, but if it was our only option…

  “I might have an idea,” I confessed. “I just don’t know if it will work.”

  Selena laughed weakly. “That’s not exactly promising, but I’m all ears, tough guy.”

  “I… I need to test it on you to be sure.”

  She raised an eyebrow. I held out my hand. She might have appeared skeptical, but there was no hesitation when she walked over and placed her hand in mine.

  “What do you need me to do?”

  But I was already testing my theory. Carefully, I pulled aether out of my palm and coiled it in Selena’s hand. I focused on it, willing it not to hurt her with every ounce of conviction I had. It wasn’t easy. Magic often becomes aggressive when it encounters another descendant, with an almost sentient desire to dominate. But she wasn’t flinching, though she looked confused.

  “This isn’t going to make any sense, but I’ll do the best I can to answer whatever you ask.” I let my hand linger in hers, feeling her warm skin beyond the cold smoke of my magic. “I meant to tell you and Liam. I didn’t want you to find out like this.”

  “Derek, what are you…”

  She trailed off as my fingers slipped away from hers and left a thin whisper of black smoke behind. Selena gawked at the dark vapor coming from my fingertips. She blinked, but they were still there.

  “I told you what happened when I fought the manticore,” I began. “But there was another reason I survived.”

  I TOLD SELENA how I defeated the manticore two months ago when my fire was spent and all I had was aether. I told her I didn’t know why I could use it, that Athena and Ares knew I could, and that I hadn’t known how to tell her or Liam, so I remained silent. I even explained that I had wanted to see if I could control the aether enough to keep it from hurting her so I could use it to bundle up our unconscious friend and foes and lift them to the top of the cliff.

  It was an unconventional solution, and I worried that the aether wouldn’t hold. Four bodies were heavy, and while aether could form virtually any object of any density, it was a little
precarious to think I would be carrying four adults with magic smoke and a wish.

  Yet despite my reservations, it worked. After laying the bodies side by side on the ledge, I manipulated my aether until it was a hardened shell, scooped them up, and lofted them into the air.

  Then things really got challenging.

  I had never exercised that much aether before, and my fingers shook with nerves. Each vertical foot of distance required more focus on the four bodies. I estimated that their combined weight matched that of the manticore I had fought, but they were lighter, and I overcompensated for their weight. They flipped and tumbled, and I nearly dropped them more than once.

  Using aether in a precise way was far from simple. Most of the aether I’d used previously had been in brief, snap-reaction bursts, but I’d never had to use it with such delicacy and precision.

  As much as I had learned about aether, it wasn’t the element I had been born with. It had been triggered when I officially became the heir of Ares a couple of months ago. It had taken the combined force of Ki̱demónas and a death-battle with a manticore to wake the aether in me. I tried to use it the same way I would use fire, constantly funneling magic out through my arms and enveloping the unconscious bodies in tendrils. But like flames, aether was not a harmless element. I was grateful all four of them were unconscious.

  If that wasn’t enough, I was hyperaware of Selena watching my every move. She’d listened in silence to my story about how I gained aether, but her eyes spoke volumes. She’d been furious that I’d kept such a secret from her. I wondered what she thought as oily black smoke unraveled from my forearms, snaked through the air, and lofted her enemies and friend into the air. Did she see me differently as those black ropes bound and hefted them like rising tentacles? Did she think I was hiding something else from her? Was she ever going to trust me again?

  Every time I lost focus, the bodies started to fall. I had to hold three of them upright with aether flowing from one hand and use the second hand to cast a stronger spell. My arms ached the longer I held them in the air. I pushed my shoulders back, gritting my teeth at the burn in my muscles. I felt like I was lifting all four bodies myself, without the help of aether. Bitter cold magic spiked in my chest. I was working my aether to its max, but the last thing I wanted was to drop one of these unconscious people—Thea especially—and have them break their head open on the rocks.

  There was enough blood on these stones already.

  But I didn’t stop, and finally, I raised the four bodies over the edge of the cliff, then released my grip on the aether, hoping the grass was soft enough for a landing. I was panting from the effort but looked over my shoulder and gave Selena smile that, in hindsight, probably looked moronic.

  “Not bad, huh?” I quipped.

  She blinked, then walked right past me and started climbing the cliff. Probably not the time for levity, I thought as I followed her. We made it up the rocks with relative ease, but throughout the climb, I dreaded what we might find at the top. I’d tried reaching Liam through the blood bond, but he still hadn’t responded. My anxiety only got worse when we arrived, and he wasn’t there.

  It wasn’t just my brother who was missing. It was everyone—Liam, Mason, Corey, Kallis, Catalina, Alexi. The grass had been crushed in places, and I could see spots of blood in it. Liam’s sword and knives had been tossed aside. But those were the only traces I found of my brother and my friends.

  I walked around Thea and the Cetea. I reached out with the blood bond again, but there was no reply. Even though Tobin had told me the Cetea’s plans, I didn’t want to believe Liam could have been taken. But I had to admit that, though my brother was smart, quick, and resourceful, if he had seen me fighting the sirens, he would have been distracted. It would have taken just a split second to knock him out with a spell or a punch, or to—

  No. I wasn’t going to think about that other, awful scenario. If that were what had happened, the body would have been left behind or tossed into the lagoon with the others. Liam was alive. So were Corey and Mason. I had to believe that, otherwise I would go insane and do something I would regret.

  Gods, I was so tired. The fight with the sirens and mermen, the stress of Selena’s near drowning, the betrayal and stabbing of Thea, the truth about my magic, lifting four bodies with said magic, climbing that damned cliff face again…

  A soft hand pressed against my shoulder. Warm magic slipped through my battered wetsuit and into my skin. The aching throb in my muscles slowed and disappeared. I looked at Selena. Her eyes were on my arm, not on me.

  “Thank you,” I told her.

  She nodded and slipped her hand from my shoulder. “You saved my life again. It was the least I could do.”

  It was a shaky start, but it was something. When I saw her hanging limp in the kelp, even my Rage had known that I needed her with me. It was a base, possessive thought that had been blurred from the real truth.

  I did need her. I needed her as a friend, as someone who would have no problem keeping up with me in a fight. Because the truth was stretching its claws over my mind—I couldn’t do it by myself. Liam was missing, and bad things happened when I took the leap and fought alone.

  I took a breath to say as much to Selena, but she was already backing away. She wasn’t ready for another deep conversation. I wasn’t sure I was ready, either.

  “We should leave the Cetea in the station,” Selena said. “They’ll be found when the Sea Guards come back.”

  “Yeah,” I said distractedly. Securing our unconscious enemies should have been on my mind, but all I could think about was what could be happening to Liam, Mason, and Corey. According to Tobin, Mason was the only one they really needed.

  But that depends on how big the blood sacrifice needs to be. Why the hell would Cassandra make a trap like that for the Eye?

  “We’ll find him, Derek.”

  I knew that. I knew it. But I couldn’t make myself believe it.

  Reluctant to speak, I flicked my hand and lifted the unconscious bodies into the air on the cloud of aether. I walked toward the Sea Guard station with Selena at my side.

  “How much can you do with it? The aether.”

  I slid a glance to her. Maybe she was ready to hear a little more. “Don’t you want to know more about why I didn’t say anything?”

  Her gaze was cutting. “You explained it to me, Derek. I’m just not ready to forgive you for it.”

  Which is what I deserved for lying for so long, but it put a sting chest anyway.

  “This is the most I’ve been able to do,” I answered. “I’ve experimented just enough to get a handle on it, but it’s linked to the Rage. Like calls to like, that sort of thing. Every time I use it, I can feel myself losing control.”

  “Like you did with Tobin.”

  I gritted my teeth. “I’m not going to justify what I did. But I’m not able to take it back, sorry as I am.”

  She didn’t say anything more and helped me find some rope to tie up the Cetea. We tested the radios to call for help, but all their wires had been cut.

  Kallis wasn’t taking any chances.

  Kallis, who had arranged for Ares to murder innocent Sea Guards. Kallis, who had taken my brother and two of my friends hostage.

  I was not about to let him walk away unscathed, and Ares…

  Ares would know my Rage just as well as Kallis would.

  By the time the Cetea were bound, Thea had woken up. She was still paler than normal and slightly delirious from blood loss but was overwhelmingly grateful we were still alive.

  She looked at us. “What happened? Where are Mason, Liam and Corey?”

  We summed up events for her. Each word seemed to add to Thea’s fury. By the time we were finished, Thea was on her feet and ready to beat her friends all over again.

  “Godsdamn it all,” she snarled. “This is exactly the kind of shit Kallis loves to pull. I should have known he would do something like this. I never should have trusted him, and we never sh
ould have worked with them.” Her eyes were beyond furious, and I wondered if she was thinking not only of our missing friends, but of the foster parents she had accidentally killed thanks to Kallis’s tricks and lies.

  “The gods didn’t exactly give us a choice,” I reminded her.

  Thea wasn’t having it and scowled at my reply. “I hope you’re not trying to make me feel better,” she snapped, “because all I can think about is that my friends are with that fucking snake and his twin leeches. If you had any idea what they are capable of, what they enjoy doing…”

  She trailed off, possibly because of something she’d seen in my face. She turned away, her jaw tight and her fingers clenched into fists.

  “No one is blaming you, Thea. We’re going to get them back.” I had to believe that, no matter what. Thea wasn’t going to take the blame for something that hadn’t been her fault at all.

  It was mine.

  I didn’t give in to the doubts that threatened. Instead, I made my way toward the door.

  “They can’t have gotten too far ahead of us,” I told the women as they followed me. “Thea, you know the island, and Selena, you have Sight. If we book it, we might be able to catch up to them.”

  “Derek, I just got stabbed,” Thea griped. “I’m not in prime condition.”

  “My magic is only now starting to come back,” added Selena. “I’m not going to be able to craft anything that will make me faster.”

  I stopped then turned to face her. “Can you See where they’re going?”

  Selena took a moment to consider, then nodded. “I can try. This island screws with my magic, though, so I can’t make any promises.”

  I hadn’t forgotten the strange magic stirring underneath my feet. I just couldn’t tell what it was doing or where it was coming from. But if I had to guess, I would say it had something to do with the blood that had been spilled. And was still being spilled.

  Hang on, Mason. Please hang on.

  Selena closed her eyes and focused.

  “Have you tried contacting Liam?”

  I looked at Thea. Her question had been surprisingly timid, and her temper had waned somewhat. She even looked slightly uncomfortable, like I might jump to conclusions about what she asked and why.