Kharon chuckled deeply behind me as Nyx glided off my shoulders onto his.
She was dancing with us.
“Alexis.” Kharon’s breath fanned against my temple as he leaned closer, his voice rough. “If you don’t want to … we’ll make sure you don’t have to compete.”
Augustus held my gaze. “I’d rather go to war—than watch you suffer in the arena sands. Just say the word. We’ll wage it.”
Those words from anyone else would have been over-the-top.
The eldest heir to the House of Ares and the Hunter meant what they said.
My head was spinning, and it wasn’t from the dancing.
Badump-Badump-Badump-Badump.
They were speaking of treason—a lifetime incarceration in the most dangerous prison in the world—just because they wanted to spare me from the cruelty of the Spartan world.
Dangerously out of sorts, I leaned forward, resting my head against Augustus’s chest. He jolted at my touch. His heart raced, matching the beat of my own.
Music played—it was Beethoven.
A phantom pain scorched the shell of my left ear,Kharon’sear.
It would be so easy to accept what they were offering. Of course I didn’t want to fight. Iyearnedto sit in a dark room solving esoteric mathematical equations that most likely had no practical implications.
But Ceres was back in a villa, waiting for me to return. She believed in me.
And I didn’t want husbands who tore themselves to pieces just to keep me whole.
“No,” I said calmly as we spun. “I can do it myself.”
Being afraid wasn’t a good enough reason not to fight.
Augustus’s chest vibrated beneath my ear. “We’re here for you. Please don’t forget … we’reyours, Alexis. We’ll do anything for you.”
Kharon made a noise of agreement, his hips brushing against me intimately.
Flushing, a thought struck me—a ridiculouslyinappropriatethought.
I glanced up at Augustus nervously. “Actually … there is something.”
Midnight eyes twinkled. “What is it, my sweet carus?” he asked.
Kharon’s fingers bit harder into my waist.
“If I’m going to die in battle, I want to have sex,” I blurted before I lost my courage.
We stopped spinning.
I studied the floor.
“You’renotgoing to die.” Augustus’s fingers tilted my chin up, so our gazes met. “We don’t want you to do this because of some misplaced fear of perishing in combat—”
“It’s not that,” I said in a rush. “I’mready.”
“Carissima,” Kharon whispered against my temple. “You’re playing with fire.”
I cleared my throat, a weakness washing over me.
