The crucible wasnothingcompared to the training at the Assembly of Death. They wouldn’t last a second.
Hell growled low in his throat and tipped his head over the boat as he stared at an initiate with his razor-sharp teeth bared.
“What is it?” I asked.
My protectors only ever growled at Augustus because hellhounds were extremely territorial—but only around other predators. Since they were top of the food chain, it wasn’t often that they got riled up.
Hell bared his teeth wider, and his head turned toward the lithe figure kneeling apart from the group with their head down. He let out a toe-curling sound of aggression.
I focused on the initiate.
Golden skin practically glowed in the sunlight.
Curls shone like silk.
The initiate looked up. A white and black eye stared directly at me—the different colors were shocking.
It washeragain.
Alexis Hert.
The abandoned girl everyone in Sparta was talking about. The one I’d played nursemaid to back at the shanty Patro and Achilles called home, after the massacre when they’d been called away to fight Titans.
I’d thought the hellhounds had been growling because they’d smelled Augustus on me, but it really had been the girl.
Interesting.
She’d been out of her mind with delirium and pain, but even writhing on blood-covered sheets, there’d been somethingintenseabout her.
It was a feeling without a name.
Whatever it was, as I held her chin and fed her pills, recognitionhad stirred within me. There was an energy about her, an aura that felt like I’d known her before.
She’d been so helpless, at my complete (nonexistent) mercy, and yet even half-asleep, she’d fought like a wildcat.
I smiled at the memory.
Sparta was small, and there weren’t enough Spartans and creatures on earth to keep me entertained, so it was rare that I was interested in anyone.
But with her, I wanted to play.
Even covered in sweat, kneeling in the dirt a few yards away, there was something arresting about Alexis. It went beyond her physical appearance, which resembled a wild thing.
The way she observed the world was intriguing, like she was constantly on alert and surprised by her surroundings.
The last person I’d felt this drawn to was Augustus.
But with him, it made sense, since he was scarred and tormented, just like me. The hardness in his eyes, the blackness in his soul, was what had enticed me in the first place. Like recognized like.
But Alexis looked weak and breakable. She was all long gangly limbs and wide, innocent eyes.
She came across as a naive.
How the fuck did she survive the massacre? She looks like she’s been starved.
Hell growled louder. Hound stood up next to him and let out a warning howl. Their canines flashed as they hunched low, like they were getting ready to fight a ruthless predator.
They were both fixated on her.
