Hunt of the Gods

by Amy Braun

  I was standing when light reformed around Apollo, soaking into his skin. Gold blood stained his white suit, but he bore no wounds. Any scars he might have had were hidden by his glow.

  Selena’s kukri was in his hand. She was crumpled at his feet.

  I raised my hands.

  Apollo snapped his fingers. An arrow of light sliced through the air and slammed into my stomach.

  Pain seared through my gut. I landed on my knees but didn’t remember falling. I heard my name screamed but didn’t recognize the voices. I couldn’t have focused if I wanted to.

  All I could see was Apollo standing over Selena, nudging her onto her back so she was facing him. I saw his mouth move. I was too far away to hear the words, but I read them from his lips with horror in my heart.

  “Gia ména.” For me.

  Apollo raised the kukri. Selena held up a hand, a tiny shield of skin.

  It did nothing to stop the kukri from plunging into her chest.

  FOR A MOMENT, I was frozen in place, though the world moved on around me.

  Blood spurted from Selena’s chest. Mason, Liam, and Corey screamed. Ferocious magic built in the air. Apollo pushed the blade deeper through her hand. Through her heart.

  She went limp. Motionless.

  Dead.

  Grief sank its claws into me. The Berserker Rage stuttered, pushed out by a new pain. I was aware of Liam using his fire to push Apollo away from Selena. The god simply stepped back and let the flames roll past him. He didn’t even bother to take the blade from Selena’s chest.

  Corey was there suddenly, kneeling next to her.

  Apollo’s fingers twisted through the air, reforming his golden bow. He drew the shimmering string back and fired. The arrow stabbed into Corey’s ribs. My friend collapsed, screaming in pain.

  A bolt of lightning the size of my arm ignited Apollo.

  The god recoiled in surprise.

  Lightning writhed and sparked along his forearms, legs, and chest. The light was so intense that it washed out the deep-brown of his irises, making them seem solid white from lid to lid.

  Mason didn’t waste time on words. He threw his head back and roared. Lighting crackled and exploded out of him. Bolts unraveled from his body and twisted together into thick lances. Static charged the air and drew my hair up from my neck.

  Each bolt stabbed at Apollo. The god dodged, flashing in and out of sight to stay ahead of Mason’s wrath, but the storm scion was not holding back. Every time Apollo got close to Mason, a bolt whipped him. Every time he tried to use his light or arrows, Mason’s lightning snapped into it and burst it apart.

  I yanked the bolt out of my stomach. My hand seared, but I ignored the pain and slapped my hand onto the wound. While I healed myself, I raced to where Liam and Corey were kneeling by Selena’s motionless body. Every step was agony, but I wasn’t thinking about the pain. I was only thinking about her.

  Liam hauled Corey up onto his knees and removed his hands from Corey’s ribcage. The arrow was no longer in his side, and only a splotch of red blood was left behind on his skin.

  Selena, who was too bloody, too pale. Selena, who didn’t flinch when Liam pulled the kukri from her chest and pressed his hands to the oozing wound. Liam looked up at me, tears spilling from his eyes.

  “She… she doesn’t have a pulse…”

  Grief stabbed at me again. I sought out the Rage, promised to free it when I was done thinking.

  Gods above and below, I couldn’t think. If I started thinking about what it meant…

  Corey slid his hands under her back and shoulders like he was about to carry her and closed his eyes. His brow furrowed, and when he opened his eyes again, they were filled with terror.

  “I can’t get out of the dome,” he whimpered. “Apollo’s magic trapped me inside.” He looked at Selena. Tremors rocked him. “I can’t get her out of here…”

  “Then stay with her,” I commanded. “Use your magic to bring her back.”

  Corey’s anxiety lasted only a moment. Then he pressed his hands to Selena’s chest and began to heal her. It was her last chance.

  I grabbed Liam’s arm and hauled him from the sand.

  “I need you with me, brother,” I told him. “I need your Rage.”

  He’d sworn never to use it again. He hadn’t used it since we fought our father. He hated what it did to him. I’d never asked him to bring it back. He was a fine enough warrior without it.

  But this was different. A god was dead. Our friend might be joining him soon.

  Liam squared his jaw. “Done.”

  Power surged through him. His skin became so hot that I had to let go. The moment he was free of my grip, he turned, drew the sword from his back, and raced for Apollo.

  The Olympian’s handsome face contorted in anger. Mason’s power was relentless and wild. It battered and singed Apollo from every angle, and the god did not appreciate it.

  He swerved under a bolt of lightning and snapped his fingers.

  Mason’s body jerked suddenly, his power flickering and sputtering. Her jerked again, and blood spewed from his mouth.

  Mason curled his arms around his stomach and dropped to his knees. He kept coughing up blood. Corey shouted his name, and I ran to my friend to heal whatever poison Apollo was pushing into him. I barely winced when his sparks snapped against my skin.

  I heard a war cry. I looked up, just as surprised as Apollo when Liam appeared next to him and slammed a fist into the god’s jaw.

  That was just the beginning of Liam’s fury.

  He slashed with the kopis, kicked with his legs, and twisted fire around him as a shield. Apollo raised his hands and fought my brother with magic and blows to the body, but Liam didn’t falter through any of them. He could feel no pain. His only goal was fighting Apollo, making him suffer for what he’d done to Selena.

  “Can you get to Corey?” I asked Mason.

  Mason nodded. “Where’s the head? Where’s Thea?”

  Thea. I turned and looked for her, recalling that she’d escaped the dome.

  With the gorgon head.

  I whirled to look at the ocean. Thea was calf-deep in the water, the Trident of Poseidon in one hand, the bag with the gorgon head in the other. She swirled the Trident in the waves, churning them, and in the distance, I could see…

  Eyes widening, I looked at Mason. “Get to Corey.”

  He nodded wearily, in pain and out of magic.

  I checked on my brother. Blood covered his body and blisters marred his skin, but he was no slower or weaker than he had been when his Rage had begun. Apollo was cursing and yelling every time Liam nicked him with his sword or burned him with his flame. His most poisonous curses were saved for when Liam slugged him with a punch to the cheek or a boot to the stomach.

  I had one shot to take over from Liam, to buy Thea just a little more time.

  I drew on my flame and aether. I twisted them together, forming shadowfires. The featureless shadow and fire warriors stood, aether dripping from their bodies and flame burning in their hearts. I made a dozen of them, connected them to my mind, and focused on Apollo.

  Then I thought about the damage Apollo had done—poisoning Mason, shooting Corey in the side, attacking Liam. And Selena…

  Tormenting Selena’s psyche for centuries. Trying to force himself on her. Bringing back her past.

  Murdering her.

  The Rage detonated inside me, the pressure rising and molding around my muscles. I reached for the knives strapped to my belt and ran toward Apollo. The shadowfires followed at my sides, trailing smoke and embers.

  Apollo snapped a kick into Liam’s chest. My brother staggered back, his eyes blazing with fury. But Apollo’s focus wasn’t on him. It was on me.

  Good.

  The shadowfires leaped across the distance and launched themselves at Apollo. Black and red flashes swarmed the Olympian, cutting with cold aether blades and burning him with fire. Apollo twisted and dodged, snapping out of sight in blinks of gol
d light and shooting arrows at them from his golden bow. He managed to do that twice before my boot slammed into his face.

  Apollo had claimed he could See every future. I believed him. But he could only move in one space of time.

  Which meant I could hurt him. I could make him bleed.

  Watching gold blood fly from his face, feeling the crunch of godly bone under my heel, remembering what he’d done to Selena…

  It was oh, so satisfying.

  Apollo’s face twisted with hatred. He launched himself at me, two knives of light forming in his hands. I gripped my own knives tighter and let the remaining ten shadowfires drift away.

  That bloody, angry moment was between Apollo and me.

  So we danced.

  I shifted left and right, darted backward and forward, sliced up and down, leaped away from his kicks, struck out with knees and elbows and hard fists. The Rage pumped fresh energy into my limbs.

  I saw my own red blood spray and felt the brunt of Apollo’s kicks and hard knees. But I couldn’t feel the pain. Seeing my blood just reminded me of Selena. It made me want to punish Apollo for every ounce of flesh he’d taken from my friends. I didn’t care how much of my own blood was spilled.

  So I took hits to the ribs in order to swing back and slice Apollo’s shoulders. I let his light-knife slice across my stomach so I could drive a knee into his gut. I took a kick to the head so I could grab his foot, hold it in place, and stab him in the calf.

  Apollo roared with fury, but I didn’t let go. In the Rage, I was as strong as he was. Moving fast, I swung myself into his unbalanced body, heaved him up, and slammed him to the ground. I raised my knife over his heart.

  Apollo’s hands came up. Gold light flashed in them. I turned my head away and raised my arms, but the light still blasted me. I flipped off the god, pressing my hands to my charred arms and sliding a healing spell into them. I still couldn’t feel anything, but neither did I want to be completely damaged when the Rage wore off.

  Apollo stayed focused on me. He had no idea Liam was behind him, sword in hand.

  The god moved at the last second. Liam’s strike went too far, and he ended up hunched over Apollo’s shoulder. The god jabbed his elbow into my brother’s stomach then grabbed him by the collar and whipped him over his shoulder.

  Liam howled in pain. The Rage had worn off.

  Gripping my knives, I raised them to throw at the god.

  Apollo twisted a fist over Liam’s heart. My brother arched his back and screamed.

  The sound stopped me. I’d heard that sound years ago and swore I would never hear it again. That was the sound of Liam dying.

  Apollo turned his free hand to me and squeezed.

  My rapid breathing stuttered and stopped. I opened my mouth to gasp, but nothing passed my throat. An invisible hand had closed over my neck and squeezed. I pawed at my throat, ripping at air.

  The Rage flickered and sputtered, and the pain of every wound and bruise I’d taken from Apollo slammed into me with the force of a truck. But I couldn’t even scream at the pain of them. I dropped to my knees and choked, feeling my head pound and my lungs burn. I watched my brother rip at his chest where Apollo was torturing his heart.

  “Enough!” Apollo snarled. “I grow tired of this charade. You cannot defeat me, Derek Areios. What must I do to make you understand this?” He looked down at my brother and squeezed his fist tighter. Liam bucked and choked, caught in a seizure that made him spit blood.

  No, no, no, no, no, no!

  Apollo looked at me with cruel, black eyes. “Shall I take another from you, Derek Areios?”

  My eyesight was going gray. I didn’t have any more power with which to fend off Apollo. The Rage had consumed it. I could see my shadowfires waiting in the distance, flickering, thinning as my power and life waned.

  I slumped to my side, losing strength while Apollo watched. The world went darker and darker.

  Apollo’s head jerked upward. His eyes widened. He opened his hands and scrambled backward. The pressure on my neck vanished. I coughed and raggedly sucked air back into my lungs. Pain permeated by body, but I forced myself to ignore it. I called for the shadowfires to return to me and crawled toward my brother.

  I stopped when Apollo raised his hands and formed a sphere of light around himself. I looked over my shoulder.

  A giant crest of water had risen over Apollo’s dome. No, not water.

  Ice.

  Panicked, I concentrated on the shadowfires and forced them to meld together. I made it to Liam and draped myself over his body. I split my magic in two and sent half to where Corey, Mason, and Selena were huddled. I prayed to the gods that it would shield them. The second half draped over Liam and me.

  Crack! Crackcrackcrack!

  Fierce pounding hammered on Apollo’s dome. Fracturing it. Shattering it.

  A rush of icy air and liquid power flooded over our heads. I crushed Liam to me, wincing when blisteringly cold water flooded the space around us. It missed us by inches but roared like a river, and it was so, so cold. Frosty magic bit into the sides of my arms and legs. Ice cold water wet the sand beneath me. I could hear the rush of giant ice lances cutting through the air.

  Cautiously, I looked over my right shoulder, to where the power was coming from.

  Apollo’s dome was gone. A great current had flooded the beach. Lines of water sluiced through the sand, splitting me from my friends. Walking through the center of it, her hair and clothes dripping with water, the Trident gleaming moonlight-silver in her hand, was Thea.

  She didn’t walk like the young woman I’d known. She didn’t carry a trace of doubt on her shoulders or in her glowing aquamarine eyes. And her power…

  It matched Apollo’s.

  I was no longer looking at the heir of Poseidon. I was looking at the woman who had become him.

  Poseidon was dead. Thea was taking his mantle.

  But the woman remembered. While she’d been gathering the wave, she had seen everything beyond the dome’s shelter. She’d watched her friends beaten and burned. She’d watched her best friend die.

  And she had no intention of letting Apollo go unpunished.

  She strode past us without a second glance. I felt her power like an invisible current crashing into me. It chilled my skin and my mind.

  In her free hand, Thea carried the gorgon’s head, still in its cloth bag. She walked toward Apollo.

  He had been perforated. The Golden Prince of Olympus was speared through the chest, stomach, arms, and legs by huge lances of ice. Spikes of cold water rose around him, colored gold by the blood of the god. Thea stopped and stared at him, her shoulders tense with rage.

  I felt a dull prodding in my mind. I recognized it even though I was enraptured with Thea and her confrontation with Apollo.

  Ki̱demónas was calling, wanting to return to me.

  I opened myself to the spear, nearly slumping with relief when it landed in my palm. Ki̱demónas shivered, the tip of the steel nudging the aether shield over my head. I blinked in shock as the magic was absorbed by the spear and then slid back into me.

  The spear had known that I’d lost my magic when the Rage broke. It sensed my power and absorbed it, returning more strength to me.

  I funneled as much as I could into Liam.

  I pressed my fingers to his neck. The pulse was there, but it was weak, and he was unconscious. I didn’t know how my other friends were doing. Just as I was about to look, Thea spoke.

  “Tell me what this was all for, Apollo.” Her voice was deeper, louder. It echoed on the empty beach. “Tell me why you betrayed your gods.”

  Apollo looked at her, his body shaking in its icy prison. Finally, he was facing a power that could hurt him.

  But then he smiled.

  “You do not know what I have Seen, young human. You cannot yet comprehend what will come. You have Seen the Prophecy and the Bringer’s power. You cannot begin to understand what he will unleash, the change it will bring to the world.
These old Olympians will not survive it. But the young ones will. I will take my place among them and reshape the world. Ares is my ally, the general who will lead the bloody revolution. The Bringer is the weapon he shall wield. I intend to set the Bringer on his path.”

  “Then why did you try to kill Derek?”

  Apollo looked at her and smiled. “Such a fledgling. Your heart is hard, but your mind is tender. You do not know the truth. You have potential, daughter of Poseidon. But potential does not make you a goddess. You are human yet, and humans are so, so foolish.”

  When I heard him begin to hum, I knew what was happening.

  I staggered to my feet, my head spinning with sudden dizziness. “No!”

  But even as I screamed, I knew it was too late. Thea’s shoulders slumped, and the Trident fell loose against her side. Her hold on the bag slipped.

  Apollo’s eyes darted to it. The lyrics changed, and Apollo told her to destroy it.

  I sent Ki̱demónas forward. The spear was a streak of bronze flame. Thea turned and raised the Trident.

  Ki̱demónas slammed into the fabric of the bag and heaved it into the air. Apollo’s lyrics changed again, and Thea swerved to face me. Her aquamarine eyes were glazed over with a film of gold—Apollo’s hold on her. But I could see the rage beyond them. The cold determination.

  Water churned at her feet.

  Mason and Corey’s voices cut through the air, begging her to stop. Thea didn’t even look at them. She raised her hand. A current of water rose and crashed down toward them. Their screams were cut off.

  Horrified, I tried to turn to them, but Thea struck first. She launched the Trident directly at my chest. I twisted, feeling the Weapon wing past my torso. I moved away from my brother to keep him out of the line of fire.

  Pain exploded in the back of my left shoulder, knocking it from its socket. I cursed and grabbed my arm as I watched the Trident flip over my shoulder––the shoulder it had damaged––and slip back into Thea’s hand.

  Fucking perfect.

  With a cry, she leaped for me and slashed with the Trident. I stepped aside, watching the prongs sink into water and sand. She flipped the mess up into my face. I covered my arm and hardened my skin.