Page 54 of Flamesworn
She wouldn’t give up on them, either.
“My family has never treated me like I might be Strategos,” she said, and that was honest, because she would have to be in order to make him believe her. “I wouldn’t have thought it was a possibility.”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “They treated you like the strange black sheep of the family--you, who are Atreus Akti, who captivated War!”
I’m not Atreus, you sniveling cockroach, I’m Kataida. But Atreus wouldn’t believe you, either.
“I don’t want power and I don’t want glory,” she said, flatly. “I want my family safe and happy. But perhaps you’re right. Maybe I’m the only one who can see it done.”
Menelaus brightened, his whole body seeming to vibrate. “You are. I will accept that we’ve made mistakes in this, Kataida, but I’ve tried to turn our failures into successes. I learn from my mistakes.”
She wondered what he would consider his failures, his mistakes–was slaughtering the teenagers in the training center a mistake, or did he not care because Markos was a Mislian who’d come to Arktos with Elena and Aleks?
Markos had wanted to find a better life in Arktos. Hehadfound a better life in Arktos. Menelaus might not have been the man who had done, but he’d ordered it. For that alone, she would see him dead.
“Then I’ll learn from mine,” Kataida said, thinking about the long-ago day she’d disobeyed her father’s orders and gone running after a cultist, nearly losing her life in the process. She thought of Stavros sayingdon’t do anything impulsive, Kataida.
She wanted blood for what he’d done to her family, her country, herpeople,but killing him wouldn’t end the civil war. They wanted her? Fine. “You will kneel and swear on the Gracious One that my family won’t be harmed,” she said, dominance so heavy that she saw him wince, and tried not to smile. “You will take me to Damian Akti so I may know the truth of this for myself. And when I am your Strategos, you will answer to me and me alone.”
Menelaus swore his vows there amid the web of bridges that groaned in the wind. Kataida stared at him, sick to her stomach, wondering if he was even considering the idea she was lying. To make it convincing, she grabbed Menelaus’ hair and yanked his head back, leaning down close. “I hate what you’ve done, don’t get me wrong, but I love Arktos too much to let you be the one who decides who rules her. This isn’t me condoning a single thing you’ve done. When it’s finished, you’ll never speak to me again.”
Because I’ll have put a sword in your heart.
“I swear it,” Menelaus said, getting quickly to his feet. “Now, let me take you to Damian. Kataida, you don’t know what you’ve done here. This is the day our future changes for the better.”
Fuck you, traitor.“I will expect terms of surrender to be delivered without further bloodshed,” Kataida said, as Menelaus opened the door. He was clearly only barely listening, reveling in the victory he’d thought he’d earned, and gave her some inaneof course, Strategos, as you command,as if she were so easily swayed, as if she’d ever cared about titles.
He turned to her and held up a hand before she and Ares could follow him through the door. “Let me explain, and then I’ll bring you to Damian.”
She nodded, and he disappeared in the dark while her fingers twitched, itching for her blade. She was no actress, but perhaps that had served her well in convincing him.
“You’re lying,” Ares whispered, leaning in to whisper in her ear. “I knew you were lying.”
“Of course,” she whispered back. “As if I’d ever go along with any of that. He’s deranged.”
Ares came to stand in front of her much as Menelaus had done earlier. Then they knelt, palms on their knees, staring up at her with that intensity she loved so much, the twin flame of her own. “I would let you have it,” Ares said, and their voice rang with the somber, weighty intonation of the divine, “all of it, everything he offered--Arktos, my blade, my power, yours to command. If you want the sands to run red, I’ll help. Ask me, and it’s yours.”
She tipped his face up, gently, with her fingers. “I want you,” she said, softly, “not your power, not an army to lead to glory, not Arktos under my command. I want one man’s blood staining the sands, if not more, but I’ll see that done myself.” She smoothed her fingers over Ares’ face, their jaw. “I won’t use you like that, ever. I know you loved Atreus, and I know he didn’t feel the same. But I do, bright eyes. I do, and I always will.”
Ares' smile was so beautiful, it made her want to weep. Of course she was called to War. Look how sublime they were on their knees. How could she love anything else?
“But you should use me,” Ares said, turning their face like a cat into her touch. “I want to help.”
“Then help. But you’re not only a weapon to be wielded. Not to me, anyway.” She slapped them, hard, which made them moan, an ecstatic sound that settled her and helped steel her resolve.
“I love you,” Ares breathed. “And you don’t need to wield me as a sword for me to kill for you.”
Kataida smiled in the dark. “I know. Come on, bright eyes. I have an uncle to save, a rebellion to put down, and a traitor whose neck is long overdue for my blade.”
The suspended city stank of worship.
Ares had never minded it before, when cults sprung up in their name. They had walked among them once or twice out of curiosity, but they’d never lingered long—cults tended to corrupt the object of their worship, twisting it out of true. Ares could feel that corruption in the air as Menelaus led them into the building. The people here wanted to possess them, to use them as Atreus had, but even Atreus had stayed his hand, in the end. He’d known that if Ares didn’t rest, they could pull the world into a war that would spread into Katoikos, sparing no one. War had its seasons, but the people here seemed to want a war unending—an empire, like the one Ares had helped to bury long ago.
A young man approached them as they entered, dressed in a red uniform with a sergeant’s insignia on his chest. He bowed to Menelaus, and eyed Kataida warily. “General. We didn’t expect you for another week at least. The army only just returned after our defeat at the Needle.”
“It was a temporary setback,” Menelaus said. “We have the advantage now. Prepare the—Damian Akti for visitors.”
“The Beast?” The soldier drew back a step. “Sir, he’s having another one of his?—”
