by Amy Braun
Chunks of stone lifted from the ground and circled around her, melting her out of sight.
She’d barely disappeared before the Furies surged out of the staircase and flew through the air.
Just need to hold them off, just long enough until Ki̱demónas can come back––
The Furies swept low, lashing the whip and stabbing with the scimitar.
“Murderer,” shrieked Alecto. Black tears streamed down her blue cheeks. “Wretch. You dare.”
She lunged at me again. I twisted and tucked myself behind a pierce of heavy machinery.
“We were going to simply take your heart and leave,” growled Tisiphone. Her whip cracked over my cover. Its tip bit into my shoulder, drawing blood. “Now we shall make you suffer.”
Adapting quickly, I hardened my skin and doubled my reflexes and sense of hearing––
A shadow swooped over me. I twisted and pushed up my hands, pushing fire out of them. The flames pushed Alecto away, her wings beating furiously.
Tisiphone’s whip cracked across my chest. The armor held, but the breath knocked from my lungs. I grimaced, already feeling the bruise forming.
The purple Fury moved in a blur, zipping behind the support beams and twisting behind the machinery to keep herself from my sight.
Alecto screamed again. I whirled around, snapping a whip of fire out from my hand. Alecto tucked her wings in and spiraled toward me, a missile of anger and vengeance.
I dove aside at the last second––
She unfurled her wings and snapped to a halt, missing the wall and kicking out. Her boot slammed into my stomach. I flew backward, striking a machine. I staggered and kept on my feet.
Steel glinted. I ducked, and the scimitar punched into the machine where my head had been.
Alecto’s knee plunged into my solar plexus. I struck an elbow into her ribs. She barely flinched. Bloodstained claws sliced upward, aiming for my jaw. I caught her wrist with my elbow, fighting to lock her in place. The blood soaking her arm made the grip slippery.
She screeched and struck her head forward. Her skull cracked into mine, pain blurring my eyes when my nose broke. I kicked at her knee, forcing her off balance. Alecto yanked her scimitar through the machine plating, metal shrieking in my ear. Gritting my teeth, I brought up my free arm and blocked her strike. Muscles strained as I tried to hold her back. Gods above and below, she was strong––
Magic hummed inside of me, stirring the Rage. I held the Rage in and let the magic out.
But rather than choose fire, I used aether for my armor. Black smoke rolled out of me and curled against my Adapted skin, closing around my entire body except my eyes and thin layers around my nose, mouth, and ears.
Alecto hissed at the fifth element’s cold touch and yanked her scimitar free of the machine. She arched her arm back, black eyes wild, eager for my blood.
I needed to get her away from me.
Spikes stabbed out of my aether armor and slashed Alecto’s skin. She roared in anger, shaking and thrashing, her monstrous strength enough to throw me out of the grapple. Concentration flickered, and though I kept my aether armor, it was no longer spiked.
Tisiphone’s whip cracked. The lash caught my neck. It couldn’t pierce me, but I felt the pressure building around my skin. She lifted me into the air by my neck. I grasped at the whipcord and glanced down. We were above the catwalk.
Flames poured from my hands. I burned as hot as I could, needing to singe the whipcord––
Whatever it had been made of, it was too strong. It wouldn’t even fray. Tisiphone lifted me higher. Soon I would be too high to protect myself against a fall, even with three layers of armor on me.
Time to change tactics.
Still gripping the whip, I shot my fire up its length. The flames blasted over Tisiphone’s bloody hand. She screamed and loosened her grip.
Enough for me to Adapt my weight and make myself heavier.
I fell like a stone, the whip still noosing my neck. I glanced down, bunching my legs together––
The metal catwalk slammed into my feet, sending shockwaves through aether, Kevlar, and Adapted armor. Without all of those, I would have broken my legs.
Yanking the whip from my throat, I sucked in a needed breath––
Alecto blurred up beside me, beating her wings and raising her scimitar. She lunged and I ducked down. She pivoted herself and stomped onto the catwalk. Boots slammed behind me. Tisiphone blocked my escape—the Furies trapped me.
They launched into an attack. I Adapted my speed and pushed energy into my aether armor, growing its spikes. The Furies were not phased or intimidated. They lunged at my weak points, punching and slashing, covering my body with bruises. Wild strikes flowed into each other; I couldn’t tell where one ended and another began.
It wasn’t long before they became too much.
Tisiphone kicked me in the chest. My back struck the railing, nearly tipping me over––
Alecto’s scimitar came down. I grabbed her arm with both hands. She snarled and wrapped the blade with bloody claws, pushing harder. My elbows bent with the weight. The scimitar nicked my smoky armor.
I reached for the spikes, and then Tisiphone shot to my side. She pummeled my ribs and kidneys, quickly becoming bored with her fists and jabbing her claws into me.
My strength waned, and the claws tore through smoke and armor and skin. She grabbed the back of my head and wrenched my head up toward the scimitar––
I kicked my foot out, catching Alecto’s thigh and pushing her away––
Tisiphone wrapped her arms around me and hauled me off the catwalk. Then she dropped me.
The fall was significantly farther, and I was going to slam onto the top of a machine.
Snapping my hold on the Rage, I frantically thought of my friends and loved ones. The way Artemis had cheated and betrayed us. The ease at which the Furies tossed me around. Not trusting the goddess to keep her word. The dread I felt that I faced my death and was not prepared for it.
Magic exploded inside me, burning through my heart, and I used it.
Hands spread, aether peeled off my arms, erasing my armor and stretching between me and the top of the machine. I wove it together, imagining a softer landing––
Then I hit.
I landed on the aether on my side, pillowed for a split second, then fell through and struck the top of the machine. I slipped off, banging against a conveyer belt, then sliding off that and onto the floor.
It should have hurt, but the Rage did not let me feel anything. I rolled to my feet and worked my magic quickly.
Fire and smoke ripped out of me and twisted into a dozen shadowfires. I formed them around me, reinforced them with everything I had.
More magic flowed out from me. Months ago, I had seen a dark scion create monsters from aether. I channeled my power and did the same.
Black smoke writhed on the concrete floor. I closed my eyes and thought of the first creature I could.
A feminine form with large bat wings rose from the dark magic, snapping aether off her body like dust. She hefted a battle-axed in her hands.
Alecto and Tisiphone howled at the sight of their shadow-sister.
I sent the false-Megaera to attack.
The Furies didn’t hesitate, even as they looked on their shadow-sister. They sliced at the smoke, wrenched away from the axe, and dove toward me. Shadowfires formed a line in front of me, each holding a spear in their hands. I grabbed two knives from my belt. I itched for a fight.
The Furies set their feet on the ground, and my fighters swarmed them.
They wanted it that way.
Alecto’s scimitar cut through two of my shadowfires. Tisiphone’s whip lashed at shadow-Megaera while her free hand cut through the shadowfires like they were warm butter.
I drew two knives from my belt and rushed the Furies’ blindspots.
I didn’t care where I hit the Furies, only that I did. Steel knives slashed wings and ribcages. They stabbed into Alecto and Tisipho
ne stomachs and shoulders. I punched and kicked, sneaking behind my shadowfires whenever the Furies got too close.
Black blood spattered my face and chest. I could taste its bitter tang on my lips. Blows hit my torso and face, but I felt no pain. My vision became a blur of aether, fire, blood, and monstrous faces. The noise became monumental.
Shadowfires were cut down, but I made more. One, two, maybe three. A sign that my strength waned.
I fought, punching a knife into Alecto’s ribs and kicking Tisiphone in the face. Neither Fury reacted to the pain, merely howling with the anger that I had the gall––the audacity––to hit them. To make them bleed the same way I bled.
Alecto pushed her claws forward, carving through a shadowfire’s skull to reach me. I just jumped back, a wicked smile creeping across my face––
A punch struck the back of my right shoulder. It was so abrupt, so sudden, that I lost focus.
The Rage snapped away and I stopped smiling.
I stumbled to my knees in pain, grimacing as blood trickled down my back. Sweat slicked my face.
Gritting my teeth, I looked up. The trio of shadowfires were easily cut apart by Alecto. Shadow-Megaera loomed over Tisiphone, who cracked her whip, but did not catch my creation. The shadow-creature flew over them and landed next to me, guarding my back from whatever had struck me.
I glanced over my shoulder, noticing the silver arrow buried in my shoulder blade. Dread mixed with pain when I saw Artemis slinging her bow back across her chest.
She held her hands at her side, and two silvery blades formed in her hands. Shadow-Megaera roared and raised her axe. Artemis twirled away from the strike and plunged one sword into the creature’s ribs and hacked its head off with the other.
My last weapon vanished in a haze of smoke.
The claws dug into my back then.
I screamed, yanked to my feet by the claws of an angry Fury. I had nothing left to fight her with.
Artemis trembled with rage.
“Your friend,” she growled. “The new goddess. She got the Knife away.”
The words replayed in my mind.
She got the Knife away.
I did the one thing I shouldn’t have done.
I laughed.
Once I started, I couldn’t stop. After all of the madness, all the plans, all the treachery, we had still managed to come out on top.
The Knife was gone. I didn’t know where, and I didn’t care. It was gone.
Artemis glared at me as I laughed, unable to stop, even with the claws searing into my back. “I sensed Athena’s waking. But it will not be enough to save you. Be glad I have no need to cause your loved ones more pain. What the Furies do to you will leave wounds I never could.”
The laughs died in my throat.
She looked to Tisiphone and nodded.
Stone spun around the bottoms of Artemis’s shoes, crawled up her legs, and vanished her from sight.
Tisiphone stalked around my shoulder and looked directly at me.
“Derek Areios,” she hissed, coal black eyes boring into mine. “May you find peace in the Underworld. For Elysium will not welcome you.”
Her claws punched into my chest.
LIAM
I WOKE UP to Selena’s desperate screaming voice and Thea’s hands healing the crack my skull had taken.
The room was dark and smaller than before; we were still in the middle of the basement, a giant stone wall driven up in the middle. Selena stood at the wall, shouting through a small gap that had broken through.
Derek shouted back to her. I scrambled to my feet, watching the Omega Knife slip into Selena’s hands. Something happened beyond the wall, and she dropped it. Fire wrapped around her fists and she clawed at the barrier, fighting to get through.
I staggered to my feet, heart pounding and head spinning.
Selena turned, her face wracked with fear and grief. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Blood coated the nails she tore fighting the wall. “Thea! Thea, take the Knife. Get it out of here.”
Thea didn’t question her friend. She raced for the Knife and scooped it up. Cold water swirled from her feet and lifted her body, teleporting her from sight.
I ran for Selena, but she suddenly backed away from the wall, her hands coming up to her face––
The stone wall exploded outward, the blast nearly knocking her from her feet. Larger chunks of rubble hammered into the ground, turning to dust and coating my tongue.
Artemis strode through. I couldn’t see Derek or Athena; Ares’s body was covered up by a mound of rock.
Then I heard the screams. The piercing, animalistic shrieks carrying through the ceiling.
And I knew where Derek was.
Fear gripped me like it never had before. Every time Derek put himself in danger over me, I worried about the damage he’d take. But he walked away from it, moving between battles like they were crosswalks on a street. I never stopped being scared for him, but deep down, a piece of me knew he would always be okay.
He had to be. He was my big brother. He was nearly invincible.
Nearly.
But this was different. The Furies were not creatures that could be stopped. Nothing escaped them.
Not even Derek.
I’d heard legend of what the Furies were capable of, so seeing them in the flesh had terrified me.
If Derek faced them alone…
I wouldn’t let myself think that.
“Call them off,” I shouted. “Call them off of him. He did nothing wrong.”
Artemis didn’t slow down. “Not yet. But he will.” Her eyes flicked around the room, seeking something and darkening when she couldn’t find it. “Where is it?”
“Fuck you,” spat Selena. I’d never heard her so angry.
Artemis glared at her. “Make this easier on yourself, Cassandra. Even you must have Seen how this will end.”
“I have. And if you think I’m going to allow it, you are sorely mistaken.”
Selena raised her hands and tossed spears of flame at the hunter goddess. Artemis easily sidestepped them––
Becoming easier to flank.
I wrapped my hands in fire and shoved the blasts at Artemis. Recklessly attacking an Olympian, I thought as she whipped her head toward me, spotting the flames. Derek’s had too much of an influence on me.
Artemis lifted her hand and blocked my flames with a slab of concrete torn from the wall. This factory would be nothing but collapsed ruin by the time the goddess finished with it.
Selena formed fire between her fingers, a blaze as big as her torso, and pushed it toward the goddess. Artemis leaped away and formed her bow from the ether. Two silver arrows misted into the strings that shot at Selena. My friend ducked, the bolts just grazing her hair.
An icy chill erupted in the room. A tornado of water formed in front of me, pouring Thea forward, returning her to us in a fury. The water collapsed onto the ground, forming a ring at her feet. Selena and I harried Artemis with more fire, keeping her pinned and away from whatever Thea worked at.
The water rose higher, lifting her as if she stood on a pedestal. She stepped off the water and onto the concrete. Anger burned in her aquamarine eyes as she twisted her hands. The watery pedestal rose at her command, forming a missile of water near her side. Snarling, Thea pushed the water forward. It slammed into the rock Artemis hid behind, dashing against its surface.
Then Thea bent the water. It wrapped around the stone and hardened into spikes of ice.
Artemis roared, hurling the stone slab toward us. The slab smashed into the wall behind us, stone splintering like glass. Artemis twisted her fingers, and the broken stone lifted and ricocheted toward us.
Thea raised her arm, a wall of ice forming with the sweep of her hand. As ice crashed against it, I saw the grit of her teeth.
“Do not make me do this,” Artemis shouted. “I swore to keep a promise. I do not wish to renege on it.”
She spoke like she fully intended to keep her word abou
t keeping us out of harm’s way.
Something that meant little to me because she wanted to see Derek dead. As if that were the smallest harm that could come to me, rather than the greatest.
I didn’t give a shit what she said—I needed to get to my brother.
I raced for the stairs. Concrete grumbled, and a wall of stone blocked my path. I whirled around, furious––
A harrowing scream ripped through the air behind me. It startled me so much that my heartbeat actually stopped for a second.
Dread pouring into me as I turned.
Mason had finally woken up and found Corey’s lifeless body.
I didn’t know how long he’d been conscious since his healing, but the look on his face frightened me. The Mason I knew was always calm, collected, and happy—at peace with himself.
This Mason wore ragged, bloody clothes, had bruises spotting his skin, and allowed tears to stream down his face. His eyes, usually warm and dark, flashed white. Lightning sparked across his knuckles, spearing through the leather gloves. Despite what Hades stole from him, Mason carried power.
And he’d found a target.
Lifting both hands, he pushed bolts of lightning at Artemis. Each blast spanned the length and width of me.
I jumped aside, eyes wide as the static crackled the air. Light seared my eyes and my hair stood on end. Even Artemis’ eyes bulged as the power slammed closer to where she stood. Her reflexes kicked in, blurring her form as she bounded away from Mason’s power. Crackles and squeaks of wild lightning burned through the room and seared my eardrums.
Nothing hurt more than listening to the sound of Mason’s scream. The sound of a man who had just lost everything.
Artemis’ immortal powers were all that preserved her life.
I stumbled back, my heel slipping on rough stone, as I moved my way to flank the goddess again. I formed a bolt of fire and launched it at her. The blast caught her in her side and she lurched left––
Right into the blast of Mason’s lightning.
He exhausted himself of power, collapsed to his knees, and fell all the way to the floor. Thea raced for him while Selena and I hurried to shield them from the goddess.
Artemis pushed herself up. Her clothes were charred yet still intact. There was no hint of pain on her face, yet a strand of gold blood dripped from her lips.