“And I love you.” He kissed me long and hard and then we turned to face our enemies.
Artemisia and her men drew ever closer.
My pulse pounded, my breaths coming quicker. I drank two of Io’s fortification potions and Xander did the same. I ordered myself to calm down. I knew what I had to do.
Knew what I had to embrace.
It was time for me to do what I had been born to do.
Chapter Sixty-Five
It looked as if Artemisia planned to try and run us down. I had expected she might attempt something like that, so I enacted the next part of my plan.
I called down an air dragon. She immediately responded and flew directly to me, landing on my left and towering over us. Xander was on my right, his broadsword drawn.
Artemisia pulled her horse to a halt and the riders behind her also stopped. “So it’s not to be a fair fight?” she called out to me.
“No, it is.”
The air dragon roared on my command, which terrified the horses, and they began to buck off their riders and ran in the opposite direction. Artemisia’s horse remained somewhat steady while nervously shaking its head, and it gave her enough time to get down before it neighed and bolted.
Then I had the dragon flap its wings as hard as it could. It pushed Artemisia and her men back, but that wasn’t why I had done it.
The wing flapping cleared all the red soil away so that it wouldn’t interfere with my abilities.
Artemisia quickly realized what I had done. I had cut off her power source. She scowled at me. “I am going to kill you.”
“We’ll see.”
The air dragon roared again and flew up, heading for the Carian soldiers. It grabbed several in its claws and took off with them.
Xander yelled and ran into the fray of the soldiers who still remained—far too many for my liking. Thankfully, the guards on the wall noticed what was happening and started calling out to one another, “The king! Protect the king!”
Archers began to fire on the Carians, thinning out the group.
Artemisa stalked toward me, ignoring all of it. “I am the hammer of Arion. I will destroy every person who believes in his mother and bring him eternal glory.”
Then an Ilionian soldier ran toward her, with his sword over his head. He must have used one of the ladders to climb down. He was trying to protect me, but he was little more than a boy. Fourteen, fifteen years old.
“Stop!” I called to him.
But it did no good. Artemisia hit him square in the head and he went down.
Anger and fury pulsed through me so quickly, so sharply, that it made me feel sick. I was going to kill her. She was going to pay.
Then she slammed her hammer into the ground, and a shock wave headed straight toward me. I fell backward again, landing hard on my back, the wind knocked out of me.
“Dea Erinys,” I said, turning on my fury. I immediately got to my feet and dodged just in time as Artemisia swung her hammer at my head.
I also noticed that my aspect felt shaky. I wasn’t sure why—I had cleared out the dirt and taken a potion. I should have been strong.
But something was missing.
Or I was so angry, so filled with rage, that I was eating into my power. I was using it up too quickly.
I tried to tell myself to take control, to calm down, but I couldn’t do it. All I could focus on was the need to end Artemisia’s life.
I lunged at her but she met me quickly, using the handle of her weapon to block my blow. She shoved me back and I nearly stumbled.
