“Cat!”
I look up and see Griffin coming for me at a dead sprint. Piers wraps both his arms around my torso, squeezing and lifting me to my toes. My leverage is gone, and I can hardly breathe with my chest flattened under muscles that are thicker and stronger than I ever thought. I grab for my knives, but I have to reach over Piers’s arms, and my fingers just barely graze the hilts. There’s no way I’ll get them out of my belt loops like this.
“Stop chanting!” I claw at his arms, digging my fingernails into his skin. Blood slicks the backs of his forearms and coats my palms. “It’s not too late!”
The old words keep tumbling into my ears, fast and low. I bang him in the shins with my boot heels, but Piers ignores me, my thumping feet, and my scraping nails. He begins another repetition.
Part of me knows I’m not fighting him as hard as I could. Respect and affection for Griffin’s family hold me back. And Piers will stop. This is just to scare me, to get me to back off.Isn’t it?
I use my head to crack him in the jaw. His chant stumbles, but only for a moment, and I see stars.
Griffin is almost on top of us now, a look of absolute fury twisting his face. Kaia isn’t far behind.
“Run!” I shout to him. “Take Kaia and run!”
My voice holds enough of the panic I’m feeling to make him hesitate. He slows, his near-wild eyes swinging back and forth between his sister and me.
“Get her out of here!” I scream with the last of my breath.
Piers’s grip tightens painfully, and he starts backing away from them, dragging me with him. He shows no sign of abandoning his folly, forcing me to trade his safety for ours. I stop hesitating and try to muster the lightning that would definitely—and possibly permanently—shut him up.
Nothing happens. No lightning. Not even a spark. The Olympian magic in my blood has a fickle mind of its own, and it fails me yet again. Only panic leaps through my veins, along with an icy current of dread.
“Let. Cat. Go.” Griffin’s demand is low and furious. He stalks forward in a rage.
Horror floods me anew.Why doesn’t anyone listen to me? When I sayrun, you run!
Piers continues to drag me back. One step. Two. Crushing my lungs. I struggle to breathe.
“What are you chanting?” Griffin keeps advancing on us, but he holds out a hand to keep Kaia back. “What’s going on?”
I try in vain to reach my lightning again. Even though he doesn’t fully understand what’s happening, I know from Griffin’s expression that he’ll fight his own brother down to blood and bone in order to set me free.
As a last, desperate resort, I twist furiously in Piers’s arms and scream like a lunatic. It stops Griffin in his tracks and seems to startle Piers into loosening his grip. Feeling the change in pressure around my ribs, I stop thrashing and drop. My deadweight breaks his hold. I land in a crouch and then take off at a sprint, yelling for Griffin and Kaia torun!
Thank the Gods, they spin and run without question, knowing I’m not far behind. I’m fast, but Griffin and Kaia quickly outdistance me. Griffin looks back, hesitating, and I gesture frantically for him to keep going. I don’t look back, and I don’t slow down, even when my lower belly tightens, and the muscles there feel like they’re turning to stone. Piers is chasing me, and I’m guessing he’s as swift as the rest of his family. I run faster than I ever have in my life, my legs flying and my chest burning.
I’m halfway to the road when Piers hits my back. Everything tilts, I go weightless for a sickening second, and then we both hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud. I just barely keep my head up, and the ground scrapes my bare arms raw from palms to elbows as we skid across the dirt. Piers ends up sprawled flat-out across my back, and I wheeze a frightened sound, terrified of having knocked little Eleni loose, even though I know she’s been through worse.
Griffin shouts my name again, and every protective instinct in me rebels.Don’t come back!
Footsteps thunder in my direction. Piers is as heavy and solid as a Centaur. He’s somehow still chanting as he pushes me into the hard-packed earth. Fright chokes off what little air I have left. He’s almost done, and I can’t let this happen. Griffin and Kaia are too close.
I free an elbow and swing back wildly, hitting somewhere that makes Piers grunt the last word of the final repetition, sealing our fates forever.Ares.
He just summoned the God of War.
CHAPTER 3
Piers springs off me, spitting a curse as he backs away. I flip over and surge to my feet. Air flows more freely into my lungs again, but I still feel like I can’t breathe.
“What in the name of the Gods is going on?” Griffin bellows, charging the last few feet to me. He came back. He’ll always come for me, and Kaia is right behind.
I throw out my hands. “No, Griffin! Stop!”
A deafening roar sets off a series of explosions in my head, painful, like magic punches to the brain. Then the ground shakes as a man—no,Ares—drops from the sky like a meteorite, hitting the ground with a colossal boom.
The earth cracks all around him. Fissures branch out in an enormous web that tangles beneath our feet. We lurch, trying to steady ourselves as the ground rattles with the force of Olympus itself.
