by JA Wren
A howl pierced the air, distant and coming from behind her. Inside the academy. “Asher,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder as if she might see him through the walls.
A searing slice to her upper arm had her crying out.
“Focus, little goddess,” Apollo boomed, one of his blades dripping with her blood.
The diminutive sneers were really pissing her off. She didn’t take time to check the cut on her arm, simply got to her feet and spun, running along the cobble path for the academy entrance. He’d probably stab her in the back, but she had to try. Couldn’t leave Asher to face those icy creatures again.
And what exactly do you think you’re going to do to help him, Knox?
She didn’t have an answer. Only the deep-seated need to get back to him. Like the pull of a magnetic force pointing her north.
She was five feet from the tunnel when something crashed into her, sending her flying through the air. With an oof, she landed right near the labyrinth hedge, her body fracturing all over from the thud to the ground.
A hum vibrated through every inch of her, tingles spreading out from her chest all the way to the tips of her fingers.
But at least her skin wasn’t blistering from the grass beneath her. Whatever deathly poison they used apparently didn’t affect her.
Handy.
Especially in her current situation. Maybe she could use that against the sun god.
“I’m starting to take offense,” Apollo roared.
Rayna curled her fingers into the grass and pushed herself up onto her knees, determined to get back to her feet. She wouldn’t be like the woman in her memories. Wouldn’t let him take her life while she was on her knees. No way she’d give him that satisfaction.
Using what strength she had left, she rose and glared at him, clenching her shaky hands into fists so he wouldn’t see the tremors. “I thought you were the god of the sun, not god of hot air.”
To her shock, he laughed at her taunt. Not exactly the response she was going for, but probably better than him flinging one of his blades towards her heart.
A smile stretched on his face, he ambled closer, right onto the grass that didn’t affect him, either. Shit. So much for that plan. “You’ve given me an idea, little goddess.”
She gnashed her teeth, hating the way he kept calling her that. People might have labeled her Nyx’s heir, but no way was she a goddess. That was something you’d know from birth.
Right?
It was just another way for the asshole sun god to insult her. Probably because she was so far beneath being a goddess, it amused him.
He tossed the twin daggers, the blade embedding themselves into the grass a few feet from her. That should be a good thing, less for her to worry about, except he rubbed his hands together with such delight on his face, a trickle of fear oozed through her belly.
A sphere of light circled his hands. Like a mini-sun the size of a basketball. He held it in his godly hands as though it was nothing at all. It grew, inflating like a balloon, until it arced above him like a giant halo and down below his feet where it singed the grass.
Shit.
Why’d she have to go and taunt a freaking god?
His arm struck out and the ball of light headed towards her, a wave of heat crashing over her seconds before the fiery sphere. She shut her eyes as her hands shot up, a feeble attempt to protect her even though she knew they didn’t stand a chance against the fireball.
Double shit.
Except nothing touched her. The wave of heat rolled over her like wind blasting up from a scorching hot tarmac, but the searing agony she expected never came.
She opened her eyes to a cloud of darkness surrounding her, so thick she couldn’t see through it. Black smoke poured from her hands, shielding her like a protective wall.
Apollo bellowed on the other side of it, but she couldn’t see him.
Okay, that wasn’t particularly helpful. The blackness might’ve saved her from the sphere, but if she couldn’t see a damn thing, how could she get to the entrance and through the tunnel to Asher?
That compass needle within her was still pointing her in his direction, demanding she listen, but she kinda had her hands full.
The smoke wavered, trembling as if it had absorbed a blow. Was Apollo still flinging light at her?
She squinted through the smoke, trying to make out even a hint of gold or—there. If she focused, she could see through the dense cloud. It was still there, but more like a hazy, mostly translucent shield, one only she could see through since he didn’t snarl directly at her anymore.
Finally. A quirk she could actually use. She was just starting to feel like she had a fighting chance against this asshat when he took a deep breath, his lungs expanding his chest.
No.
His whole body was expanding. Growing like the inflating balloon until he towered so high above her he could probably see the whole labyrinth from up there.
Triple shit.
Thirty
“You are no challenge for me, little goddess,” he boomed, voice shaking the ground like an earthquake. “You are but a speck, a tiny insect compared to me. I am an Olympian, god of the sun. Until you learn to master the power within, you are hardly above a mere mortal.”
Yeah, she was starting to realize that, but she really didn’t need the douche pointing it out.
He extended one hand up into the sky, as though reaching for the sun itself, and Rayna sensed true panic seeping through her. His other hand aimed at her, fingers stretched in her direction as impossibly bright light speared towards her from each fingertip.
He was literally harnessing the power of the sun. Beams of white light hit the black smoke, sending some of it receding into the trees.
Holy fuck she was done for.
Tears pricked her eyes, but she held up her hands, willing more darkness to pour from them until it seeped around her like a starless night sky.
Light and dark, she thought.
In every story she’d ever heard, light triumphed over dark. That was the way it worked. Always. Good versus evil.
Was she evil?
Would Apollo win because he was good?
It didn’t seem right, but then she pictured those blackened sheets. Her dead houseplants and her poor stray cat, fried to nothing but a pile of ash. That definitely didn’t equate good.
The smoke quivered, dispersing thin tendrils as her determination wavered.
But images from her memories danced before her. Apollo threatening Asher, swearing to punish him because he refused to do the asshole’s bidding. Then he’d killed the woman he loved out of spite, sliced through her throat simply to make a point. Or to hurt Asher. She wasn’t entirely sure of his real motivations.
Didn’t matter.
Anger, hot as Asher’s flames, rose inside her. He said he’d killed her once, that she was the woman who’d had her throat slit and bled out right there on the cold stone. No way was she letting him kill her again.
Apollo was anything but good. He might wield the power of the sun, use the light like a weapon, but that didn’t make him good. And he didn’t deserve to win.
Every muscle in her body clenched, holding herself steady as she willed more darkness from wherever the hell it was coming from. It flooded the gardens, oozing around her and seeping into shrubs and between the trees, turning day into night.
Apollo laughed, a low and grating sound. “A noble effort, little goddess.”
The hand he had outstretched to the sun swung towards her.
She screamed.
Closed her eyes.
And waited for the impact.
But it never came.
“Brother,” a feminine voice said, soft and gentle as a warm summer breeze. “How predictable you are.”
Apollo growled. “This does not concern you. Move or I will have no choice but to go through you.”
Rayna peeled her eyes open and squinted through the dense black cloud. A woman, as tall as Ka
lly but nowhere near the size of Apollo, stood between them. Her posture was relaxed, one hand on her hip with a bow clutched in the other and dangling against her leg. Rayna couldn’t see discernable features, but the woman’s long hair hung down her back in a thick braid the color of autumn leaves.
“You could do that,” she said to the giant sun god. “But then father would send you to the pits of Tartarus where you’d spend eternity. It would be rather hard to wage war from a prison cell, now wouldn’t it?”
He curled his lip, but slowly he deflated. Literally. Like he really was filled with hot air. He shrank back to the regular-sized man he’d originally been. “What do you care of war?”
The woman shrugged. “You know I don’t. But you’re on moon goddess territory, and I can’t have you killing Nyx’s daughter. Not again. And especially not now that she’s the chosen heir.”
There it was again. Apparently everyone knew Apollo had murdered her in another life.
“Besides,” the woman said, pacing in front of the black cloud while she spoke to Apollo. “Nyx sent me to protect her.” In a flash of movement, the woman aimed her bow at the man, an arrow appearing from thin air and poised to sail towards him. “Leave, or you will force my hand.”
“You would strike your own twin, Artemis?” he asked, confirming Rayna’s suspicions about who the woman was. “In the defense of a Primordial’s daughter?”
Artemis held her bow steady. “To prevent further conflict between the deities. You know I don’t want this war. It will destroy everything, including the animals I’m sworn to protect.”
Apollo laughed. “The mortals are destroying the earth all on their own. Join me and we can take over, restore the lands and everything that lives in this realm. A fresh start. Clean slate from which to regenerate a better world.”
Silence filled the garden. Artemis dropped her bow a mere inch, taking far too long to refuse him. Probably thinking hard about it, and frankly, Rayna couldn’t blame her. When he put it that way—fix a broken planet—it almost sounded appealing.
Except she’d likely die in the process.
As would everything currently living on the earth.
“But at what cost, brother? Millions will die in the devastation this war would bring. The earth itself will implode should the Primordials take up arms, as they surely will.” She aimed her bow again, right at Apollo. “Now, I’ll ask you one last time. Leave.”
He clenched his hands into fists, swirls of radiant light curling around them.
Oh, crap.
Rayna was going to get stuck in a battle between two Olympian gods. So not how she wanted to spend her morning. She edged to the right, slowly creeping around Artemis in the hopes she could make a run for it back into the academy walls while the two focused on each other.
She used her smoke as camouflage, still not exactly sure how it worked, but summoning it anyway. It curled around her, engulfed her in the black fog as she headed for the entrance.
A little spark of light caught her attention. Right at the yawning mouth of the tunnel. It flickered, then came zipping closer.
“Tink,” she whispered under her breath. The Wisp flew around her head, unfazed by the black cloud, then came to a stop inches from her face. “I missed you,” Rayna told her truthfully. It hadn’t been long, but she’d felt the separation like an icy splinter to her heart.
Tink did a merry spin, then flew off out of the smoke, towards the bickering gods. Right as Apollo sent a spear of light from his hand. Tink collided with the light before it reached Artemis.
Rayna shrieked. But Tink absorbed the flare in an explosion of rays that were sucked into her tiny body. She quivered in the air, but she seemed whole. Alive and unharmed.
The fuck?
Tink could absorb a blow of pure sunlight?
Apollo thundered enough the ground quaked again, but Artemis struck, cutting him off as her arrow embedded into his neck.
“Go!” she yelled at Tink. “Get Rayna within the academy walls.”
Tink zipped back to Rayna, then bobbed in front of her. She didn’t have to ask twice. The warring siblings could deal with each other. She needed to find Asher. Together they sprinted—okay, Tink flew and Rayna sprinted—to the tunnel entrance, down the dimly lit path and out the other end.
Chaos greeted them.
Those creepy ice-wolves stalked the grounds, battling students or professors, Rayna couldn’t be sure.
“Asher?” she yelled, scanning for him. She might’ve been pissed at him, but—he meant the world to her and she didn’t want him hurt. Or worse. “Asher!”
Tink spun around her head, then sped to the right. Trusting the Wisp to lead her in the right direction—a little terrifying given their history—Rayna followed. Through the huge trees and near the stables. Smoke filled her lungs and burned the back of her throat, tendrils wafting through the wooded area.
And then she spotted it.
A pair of huge, fiery wings attached to the hottest—literally—man she’d ever seen.
Asher fought off at least half a dozen wolves. Right near the entrance to the stables. Where the hidden world of magical creatures lived.
The scent of burning fur and flesh had her gagging, but she pushed it back and rushed closer. Determined to help him. Not that he really needed it. And besides, what could she do? Confuse the wolves with some smoke signals?
An especially huge wolf lunged at Asher, teeth bared and claws extended. He crashed into Asher and bit into his shoulder, tearing his flesh from bone and sending a chunk sailing through the air as he shook his head.
Rayna screamed, stretching her hand out as if that might magically save him. The wolf stopped, glanced up with those eerie eyes, teeth dripping with Asher’s blood, and growled at her.
Just when she thought he’d lunge at her next, a whistle pierced the air and the wolves paused, cocking their heads.
In a blink, they were gone, vanishing as if they’d never been there.
Well, except for the carnage they left behind. Not the least of which was Asher, his wings of fire disappearing as a bloody pool seeped into the earth below his shoulder.
“Rayna,” he whispered a second before his eyes shut and his body went limp.
Thirty-One
“We suffered a great loss,” Hale said, her shoulders held taught while lines crinkled the skin around her eyes and between her brows. “Never has Labyrinth Academy experienced an assault of this variety, from one of the gods who once supported the educational benefits of this program. I assure each of you, efforts will be made to make amends for this, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”
“Try telling that to the casualties,” someone called out.
Hale flinched, standing at the head of a grand hall where they’d congregated for her emergency assembly. Those who hadn’t perished or sustained injuries during the attack. Quincy and Lucia flanked her, poised and silent, their faces blank masks.
“I understand you’re all shaken,” Hale said. “But I vow to do everything within my power to prevent a secondary attempt.”
“Secondary?” Evelyn asked, standing right at the front of the students gathered inside the building.
Hale cleared her throat. “Yes. I believe this was merely a test. A sort of reconnaissance mission to find our weak spots. While there were several Winterhounds on campus, the numbers were nowhere near what might be required for a full on assault. As you are all aware, this was not even enough to activate our last line of defense, our living statues.” She licked her lips, probably stealing a moment before she added, “I don’t wish to alarm any of you, but I’m being transparent so that you are prepared for what I imagine is an inevitable threat.”
Murmurs wove through the crowd, students talking between themselves, whispers about Apollo and any of his descendants on campus.
Rayna stayed at the back, leaning against the doorway so she could leave the moment Hale dismissed them. But she spotted Delilah and Autumn, just the tips
of their heads poking out between the other students where they stood beside Ethan. His height made it easier to find them in the crowd and she was relieved as hell they weren’t injured.
Or worse.
“Silence!” At her command, the hum of voices quietened. “I’m taking extreme measure to ensure your safety, but if any of you wish to leave, that can be arranged. Our sister academy in Europe has opened their doors to all students wishing to transfer until this threat has been dealt with.”
All except me, Rayna thought.
If she left, the threat would simply follow her. Hale hadn’t exactly said as much, not in so many words when they’d had a brief talk at the infirmary. And she definitely hadn’t summoned her to the no-secrets-allowed office. That was telling enough for her.
But when Rayna point blank asked if Apollo attacked because of her, Hale had cleared her throat and claimed there was no way to be sure.
Evasive woman.
“Right, for those of you intending to transfer, you may remain here and we’ll begin the process,” Hale called through the hall. “The rest of you are dismissed for now.”
Rayna spun on her heel and headed for the infirmary, past the blackened trees near the stables. Some of them still smoldered, little plumes of smoke wafting around the scorched earth.
She practically ran down the cobble path, up the stairs, passing the golden statue and through the huge wooden doors.
Instead of going down to the administration department, she went upstairs—three flights she ran up at high speed—and into the infirmary. She waved at the nurse she’d cleverly made friends with earlier.
All the better to get visiting hours whenever she wanted.
If she could, she’d never leave Asher’s side, not for one second while he healed from the bite the Winterhound had taken from his shoulder. The man healed at a seriously accelerated rate, but the beast had ripped through his carotid artery and it was taking longer than usual for the blood flow to stop.