by Celia Aaron
“You wanted me here. Here I am.” I shoved the blade in past the hilt, enjoying the feel of Ares’s heart’s blood cascading over my hand. The god was dazed, and blood poured from the wound in his chest, thanks in no small part to the fury venom I had coated on the blade.
“Lilah, now.” I held out a hand, never dropping my gaze from Ares.
Her hand slipped into mine, and it was the single most wonderful sensation I’d ever felt. Mine.
The corners of Ares’s mouth turned up in a cruel smile. “You can take her.” A fine mist of blood sprayed onto his lips. “But she’s mine, and I always come for what’s mine.”
Lilah gasped in a breath and a tremor ran through her body. There was no way to kill a god, but I could keep him wounded for long enough to get Lilah to safety.
“I’ll deal with you then too.” I twisted the blade until the hilt broke off in my hand. Ares roared, and I wasted no more time. I yanked Lilah to my side and rushed her out of the room before heading toward the narrow stair. She moved more slowly than usual, so I scooped her up into my arms, bundling her into the blanket she’d wrapped around herself, and dashed up the steps and into the dark cavern.
“He’ll come for me.” She buried her head in my neck as I ran.
“He won’t take you. I swear it.” I shushed her, never slowing my pace.
I didn’t even make it past the throne before Ares appeared, robed in black. He was still bleeding but very much capable of killing us both. I slowed and gently placed Lilah on the ground, leaning her against the back of the throne and setting my satchel next to her. I tore the manacles from her wrists.
“Don’t.” Her blue eyes were wide with alarm. “He’ll kill you.”
“She’s right.” Ares appeared next to me and landed a ferocious punch to my cheek. I fell to my side and struggled to rise. Lilah’s scream was enough to get me back on my feet. Kill him. I would fight to the death to keep her safe.
“You think to take Aphrodite from me and now this little morsel?” Ares entwined a hand in Lilah’s hair, ripping her up and off her feet.
She aimed an elbow at his solar plexus, but he shook her until she looked like a marionette. I reached into my pack for a magic bomb but realized I couldn’t use one without harming Lilah.
Still holding her by the hair, Ares fished into the wound on his chest and pulled the poisoned blade from his heart. He held it to Lilah’s neck, daring me to make a move. But I couldn’t risk it, couldn’t risk any more harm coming to Lilah on my account.
“Ares, I’m here. I’m the one you want, the one you sent her to get.” I kept my tone as even as possible. “Let her go and do what you will to me.”
“Let her go?” Ares laughed, throwing his head back and filling the chasm with a sinister breeze.
“I won her fair and square. She failed me, so now she’s mine.” He sank his even white teeth into her shoulder, leering at me. She screamed as fresh blood poured from her, and I thought I would go mad at the sound of her suffering. Kill him! But I was powerless to stop the god, not with the blade threatening her life.
“Stop!”
“Does this bother you? I think I’ll make you watch everything I do to her.”
I changed tactics, realizing the one sting no god could withstand—wounded pride. “Stop hiding behind her and face me, coward.”
Ares bristled at this and tossed Lilah aside, pointing the deadly blade at me. “I will cut out your lying tongue and feed it to you.”
Lilah crumpled to the ground, still not far enough away from Ares for me to use any of my magic stores. I drew a second blade from the scabbard hung behind my back and faced off against the god, ready to do what damage I could to get Lilah out of this pit.
“I’ve been spoiling for a good fight ever since this one”—Ares kicked Lilah in the ribs, and she curled into the fetal position—“tried to beat me.”
I would make him pay for every ounce of pain he dealt Lilah. Make it hurt. Though I knew I would die here at Ares’s hands, I only hoped I could inflict enough injuries to allow Lilah to escape.
She’d have slim chances of navigating the barren valley, but I could only hope she would make it out of the god’s clutches. That alone would give her a chance of survival she sorely lacked at the moment. I would give this to her, because it was all I had left to offer.
I brandished my blade and motioned for Ares to come at me.
54
Lilah
Blood trickled onto my lips. Ares had cracked my ribs and punctured a lung with his last kick. Grasping my injured side, I sat up, dimly aware of the clanging of blades mixed with cries of rage and pain. Agony caused a haze over my vision, and I was caught in a nightmare.
Ares and Roth came into my field of vision, both bleeding, but Roth more so. His eyes were lit with the unholy fire of the incubus, but he was fading against the god of war’s onslaught. I had seen Ares on the battlefields of Olympus, knew how brutal he could be. Roth was doomed…unless I did something.
I rose to my knees, groaning with the effort and coughing up blood, but I couldn’t stop. Roth’s bag lay on the floor near me, and I dragged myself along the smooth stone to get to it. A sharp cry of fury erupted from behind me as Ares doubled over in pain. Roth aimed a vicious kick at the god’s face. Ares’s head flew back, and a perfect white tooth skittered past me. For a moment, I was mesmerized by Roth’s face—fierce and beautiful—he was a warrior worthy of the gods.
Shaking myself, I began digging through the bag, grabbing magic bombs and stacking them in a heap before landing on the most precious item, a tiny vial of aqua vigoratus. Without hesitation, I downed half the dose, saving the rest for Roth. The warmth coursed through me, and my insides were set to rights.
Throwing off the blanket, I summoned my bow and searched for Ares in the gloom. The whisper of a blade cut through the air, and Roth cried out in pain. Then I saw them, not twenty paces away.
Something was different. I gripped hard on the bow, trying to discern what it was. It glowed brightly in my palm. And then I felt it, like a jolt straight from the heavens. Artemis’s power once again flowed through my veins, and just like that, I was Lilah de Artemis as I was always meant to be. The goddess heard my plea!
Ares stood over Roth, who was kneeling and grasping a deep gash in his neck. The god readied his blade for the death stroke, but I wouldn’t give him the chance. Raising the bow, I released an arrow—one imbued with the power of the goddess—flying for Ares’s heart. It struck true, and he faltered, dropping to one knee and clutching the arrow’s shaft.
I raced to Roth’s side and poured the last of the aqua vigoratus on his gaping wound. The bleeding stopped, but it would take a while longer for the slash to close. We had no time to waste.
I looped Roth’s arm over my shoulder and dragged him away from Ares, who was still trying to free the arrow from his breast. Once far enough away, I lobbed a magic bomb at the god, who yelled with unbridled fury when he saw it land near him. The ensuing explosion rocked me off my feet and sent both Roth and me flying to the other end of the cavern. Apparently, Roth could afford some ordnance with a bit more potency than mine.
The air was filled with dust and debris, and my ears rang from the sound. Roth’s eyes were glazed, and a jagged piece of rock had struck him in the thigh. Stalactites fell all around, creating an obstacle course of death between us and the gruesome stairway out of Ares’s lair.
I wrenched the projectile free from his leg, flinching at his cry of pain. But I didn’t have time to finesse it. The place was coming down around us. And though there was no sign of Ares, he was still out there, likely watching and waiting.
“Leave me.” Roth ripped a piece of fabric from his shirt to wrap around his wounded leg. “You’ll go faster alone. I’ll catch up.”
The fire was gone from his eyes, replaced with concern for me.
“You came for me.” I stroked a lock of dark hair from his eyes.
He searched my face with a possessiv
e gaze.
“I’ll always come for you.” The conviction in his voice made my knees suddenly weak.
I couldn’t wait another second and kissed him as if it were the last time. And it likely was. A hunk of stone crashed next to us, embedding itself in the cavern floor, but I didn’t stop. Roth’s hands snaked around my back, pressing me against his chest. His tongue caressed mine, and his mouth owned mine completely. When I ran a hand through his tousled hair, he groaned against my lips. Another crash, this one even nearer, had Roth pulling me away, though I never wanted to stop kissing him.
“Go. Now.” Fire swirled in his nighttime eyes.
“Not without you.” I dragged him to his feet.
“You’ll never make it with me slowing you down.” Frustration welled in his tone.
“Well, I guess we’ll just die here together, because I’m not leaving without you.”
He began limping along as best he could. We picked our way through the rubble and to the door.
After what seemed like an hour but was only minutes, we finally reached the bottom of the stairs. Though it was free of falling stone, the entire structure was shaking, as if it would collapse in on itself at any moment.
“I’ll never make it.” He took his shirt off before pulling it down over my head. “You must leave me, carissima.” He gestured at his wounded leg. The injury was large and wasn’t healing fast enough. At this pace, we’d never make it to the surface before the walls fell in on us.
I spared a glance behind us and cursed at what I saw—the bloodied Ares, still wielding Roth’s venom-laced blade, rampaging down the corridor right toward us. His face and torso were shredded with deep cuts, and his fury ate up the air around me. “Son of a bitch!”
Before I had a chance to ready my bow, Roth shoved me aside and darted out in front of the royally pissed-off god. I fell hard against the stairs and heard the sounds of renewed battle. When I regained my balance, the two of them were already locked in combat once again. Ares was weaker, weaving slightly as he slashed out with the silver dagger. But Roth was still no match for the god, especially not when Roth’s leg was leaking like a sieve.
The smooth stone ceiling in the corridor began crumbling as the tremors rose from deep in the earth to shake the foundations of Ares’s lair. I tried to aim a shot at the god, but Roth was between us, and the falling stones made a shot impossible. But they did give me an idea. Looking up into the jagged fissures that rent the stone, I saw an opening. Wrapping the final magic bomb around my broadhead, I nocked the arrow and lined up so I faced Ares directly. Aiming for the stones over his head, I let out a long, slow breath and waited for my shot. It was as if time stopped moving, and even the falling stones were a blur. I concerned myself solely with the motions of the two warriors, nothing more. My senses were attuned to every movement as I waited like a spider.
Within seconds, my chance came—Roth parried to the side and backed away. The god focused his vicious gaze on me as I let the arrow fly to its home. Ares made one swift movement before the bomb exploded. In an instant, he was buried under the tons of stone that came crashing down from above.
Roth retreated to my side as the ruined lair imploded on its master.
“That’s going to leave a mark.” I fell to my knees. Roth rushed to me, but it was too late. The dagger Ares had thrown was embedded deeply in my chest, and the fury venom was already wicking away my life, one tortured heartbeat at a time.
55
Roth
I HELD her in my arms, not caring that I would soon be trapped in this stone crypt. Her life was ebbing away as her eyes fluttered and she tried to focus on me.
I stroked her hair and murmured words of comfort, though I knew she wasn’t afraid. Not even death could break her.
Lilah reached up a trembling hand to stroke my face. I clasped it in mine and kissed it gently, already feeling the cold settling in her delicate fingers.
“I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for.” I looked once more into her blue-gray eyes. She had set out to betray me, to end me, but she had done neither. She had saved me.
I rocked her, unable to speak any more words to assuage her pain or my own torment.
I had only moments before she was gone forever, lost to the ferryman and what lay beyond. My heart chilled around the edges, ice spreading inward, and the incubus wailed with abject grief.
“Kiss me.” Her breaths began to sputter.
I leaned down, cradling her like a precious babe, and lightly brushed her lips with my own. When I leaned back once more, she was gone. Her eyes were closed and an angelic look rested on her beautiful face.
I clutched her limp body to me and roared with fury, shaking even more stone from the crumbling ceiling.
Grief washed over me as if I were sinking into a bottomless ocean of sadness from which I’d never rise.
I rubbed her pale cheek, only then noticing the wetness on them. They weren’t her tears, but my own. The first I’d ever shed.
A chunk of ceiling shattered next to me, but I simply adjusted Lilah in my lap, held her close, and waited for the end to come.
56
Lilah
Whispers floated past me and shadowy shapes moved in the darkness. But I couldn’t move, couldn’t even lift a hand in defense. I was powerless, and Ares was there, right outside my field of vision. He’d captured me again, and this time he would make his threats—all of them—come true.
A burning pain shot through my chest, and I wailed with agony, feeling as if someone had poured molten silver directly into my heart. Then I felt hands on me, brushing away the tears that must have been rolling down my cheeks.
The touches were kind, not at all like those of Ares. The whispers became louder, and my eyesight began to clear. Tree branches hovered above me, swaying slightly in a gentle breeze.
The sky beyond was a dusky blue, and the sun was already hidden behind the slopes of the mountain. I had to be in a dream, for I could hear Elena’s voice, singing a clear tune meant only for the hunt. One that all the warrior maidens knew and sang each time we headed out of camp for sport or battle.
I turned my head and saw Elena sitting next to me, braiding wildflowers of the deepest crimson into my dark locks. I was back in the Forgotten Forest, wearing robes of forest green—Artemis’s color. It was a truly lovely dream.
“Elena?” It came out as the faintest whisper.
Elena’s song stopped so suddenly that I wished I’d never spoken. Its melodic tone vanished on the wind as Elena wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the forehead.
“She’s back. She’s awake!” Elena yelled over her shoulder, never letting me go for a second.
Still dazed, I let myself be held, enjoying the embrace of the sister I thought I’d lost for good.
A patter of feet alerted me to my many sisters who were crowding around. My vision sharpened, and I could make out my old friends. I was surprised to find even Lynxia’s violet eyes were lit with a happy glow. Iphi and two other sisters rushed me, almost knocking me over with their simultaneous hugs.
“H-how?” The last moments of my life came back in a frightful rush—the dagger and the collapsing cave. And Roth, there with me in the worst sort of danger. An icy fear pierced my heart as I remembered him wounded and trapped.
“Roth?” I separated from my sisters and looked to Elena. “Where is he?”
Before she could answer, Apollo stepped from the crowd, his eyes bright as he surveyed the maidens before him. He was like a failed dieter at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
“Miss me?” His gaze settled on me.
I’d never seen a male in Artemis’s encampment—and clearly neither had the other warrior maidens. They couldn’t take their eyes off the golden-haired god.
“Don’t you want to know how I saved you?” A devilish glint lit his eyes.
“If you don’t tell me right now where he is, I’ll…I’ll…” I was having trouble coming up with the appropriate threa
t because I couldn’t even lift my arms for emphasis. It was as if I were partially paralyzed, though I could tell it was slowly wearing off.
“You’ll what? Attack the god whom you serve?” He was enjoying my predicament a little too much.
Wait, what?
“I serve Artemis, not you.”
Elena cleared her throat. My gaze strayed from Apollo to her.
“You serve Apollo now.”
The words didn’t make sense. “What?” Slowly and with much effort, I brought my hand to my neck. But the mark of Artemis was gone, replaced with an entirely foreign array of symbols.
“It was the only way.” Apollo winked at Lynxia, who had been eyeing him with open interest. Her cheeks colored, and she looked away.
“The only way to what?” I feared I already knew the answer.
“To bring you back.” Elena smiled. “You know the rules. Death must have his due and then only a god can resurrect a halfling, and only if the halfling agrees to give the god her allegiance. Apollo saved you from the cave. If he hadn’t chosen you to serve as one of his warrior maidens, you’d still be dead.”
I looked up into Apollo’s face. He seemed extremely pleased with himself, the mischievous look in his eye making me want to knee him ever so badly.
“She’s mostly right.” Apollo rubbed the stubble on his perfect jaw. “I did owe Roth a favor, so I gallantly rescued your tight little body from that disgusting lair.” He stared at my robe as if he could see right through it. “But she got one little thing wrong. Unlike my sis Artemis, there are no maidens in my service. Or at least, not for long.” He gave me and our audience a rakish smile.
There were more than a few “oh, gods” from my titillated sisters at this remark.