I would slay him with the judgment of thousands of girls used against their will and stripped of their free will and dignity.
Poseidon would die.
Today.
Ares moved to stand next to Nix and about half of the gods followed him. The teams were evenly divided and the only surprise game-changer was Hera.
She took steps toward Nix before turning around to face Smith. Her eyes turned black and she screeched at him until her face turned red and her hair rose off her shoulders with a life of its own. “You had a child? That’s where you’ve been for the last two decades? You’ve beenraising a child?”
Lightning stabbed the ground right next to her. She didn’t flinch. The sky overhead continued to darken, more lightning flashing across the wide expanse, displaying the intentions of the gods on the ground.
“To protect you, my love,” Smith ground out, not even trying to make his excuse sound sincere.
“Another affair!” she shouted. “Another whore! Your heirs must number the stars by now. How lucky the world is to have so many descendants of Zeus running around, causing trouble,cutting off people’s heads!”
“That happened once!” Smith yelled back at her, losing all of the careful control I usually associated him with. “You won’t let that go! You’re going to nag me about it until the end of time!”
Hera’s lips curled into a cruel smile. “Lucky for you, the end of time seems to be nigh.”
Smith’s shoulders deflated and behind his sparking brown eyes, he seemed… lost. “You would side with him? You would choose to stand with a child abuser and debaucher over your own husband?”
Hera’s mask of hatred slipped for just a moment. I wasn’t sure if anyone else saw it, but I had been watching her closely. “It is an insult to call you my husband. You are nothing more than a stray dog that has come to the back door for scraps. I would no sooner side with you than I would a man that sells children and exploits women for his own twisted pleasure.” She glanced back at Nix. “You are one and the same to me.”
With that final blow, she turned on her heel and walked away from the fight.
For a few moments I felt pangs of sympathy for the mistreated queen. No wonder she was as hard as granite and impossible to crack.
Then I remembered she had just sent a Fury to kill me and I got over feeling sorry for her.
Weapons appeared from everywhere. Gods and goddesses of every kind brandished fiery swords or huge sparking hammers or flexed their fingers in promises of lethal pain.
The air crackled with tension and aggression that seemed to originate beyond time. These were ancient hatreds, ancient grudges. Ryder and I had been thrust into something that had been going on longer than we could comprehend.
But I was the catalyst that finally set this war into motion.
I could live with that. As long as I was also the final piece that ended the conflict.
Kill Nix, end the war.
Kill Nix, save the world.
Kill Nix, be free.
I met his fatal gaze from yards away. His black eyes glinted with promise and victory. My green ones must have whispered something equally as confident because he cocked his head with bemusement.
“Come get me,” I mouthed to him.
Then everything exploded.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
It should be said that I had never been an athlete. Not a day in my life.
I didn’t exert myself physically, because I wasn’t allowed. I didn’t play sports. I didn’t run. Hell, I didn’t even walk fast.
But if there was ever a time to see what you were made of, it was running from the god of the sea.
Ryder and I were ripped apart in the sudden turmoil and thrown into battle on opposite sides of the plaza. He fought to get to me.
