Krystian notches an arrow and aims it at the God of War’s chest.
Zaid fades into incorporeal smoke, his shadowy form racing behind Ares.
All of this takes place in less than a few seconds, but I can barely process it all. I’m paralyzed where I stand, fear and anger running amok in my chest.
I can’t look away from Ares.
The monster who watched me while I slept.
Who breathed down my neck from the shadows.
Who whispered my name like a promise and a curse.
Who attacked me.
Who brutalized me.
Who no doubt locked me away for hundreds of years, erasing my memories of my guys and theirs of me.
Did the deep sleep my guys were put under truly cause their memory loss, or was that just a lie Ares told them to hide his wicked deeds?
Now I realize that…I’m angry.
Yes, the fear is still there, potent and stifling, but the rage flooding through my veins eclipses it. Shivers reverberate through me, and something solidifies in my hand.
My dagger.
The same dagger previously tattooed on my skin.
I sprint towards Ares, blade low, body fluid.
He’s fast—but I’m faster. My rage makes me so.
I feign left and drive the dagger towards his ribs. He blocks, but I twist and slide past him, carving a line across his back. He hisses, stumbling.
Krystian fires.
Ares deflects the first arrow, but the second finds a home in his thigh—and the magic goes to work immediately, eating at his flesh with a wet hiss.
Ares grits his teeth and raises a blade of violet flame. It seems to have materialized out of thin air.
I duck just as he swings, heat slashing the air above my head.
“Thea, move!” Rafe grunts, and I roll to the side just as my fae hurls a spear of hardened blood into Ares’s side, momentarily pinning him to the wall behind him.
Everett charges, all three jaws opened wide, and slams into Ares with enough force to break every bone of a mortal.
The wall behind Ares crumbles away, and the two of them fall onto the grassy field outside, nothing but a tangle of limbs.
One of Everett’s heads clamps onto Ares’s shoulder while the other two snap at his arms, holding him still.
Zaid appears beside me, solid again.
“Thea,” he breathes, pulling me into his arms.
“I need to finish this,” I whisper, pulling away and moving towards Ares.
He tortured me.
