Eryx paled. Fury? Fear? Then he turned on her and lunged.
Bellanca spun out of the way of his blade and came back with her own. Metal clashed on metal. They only exchanged a few heavy blows before she knew she’d lose without magic. Eryx pushed hard. She pushed back, sending a surge of fire over the crossed swords that forced them both to drop the searing metal.
Eryx hissed, shaking out his scorched sword hand. Panic flashed in his eyes. He drew a dagger and threw it. Bellanca sun flared it to ash. He backpedaled, water bubbling out of him. She sun flared it away. He drenched himself again, and she dried himoff. He burned a little more each time, blisters painting his skin an angry red-black to match the anger in her heart. She burned him again. He grabbed the Shard of Olympus and tensed, his damaged face puckering as he dragged enough moisture from the air to send a big wave crashing over her.
She gasped as cold water tainted with Eryx’s essence slammed into her. Bellanca stared at him, dripping and enraged. She curled her hands into fists, sparks fizzling between her wet fingers.Smart. But unpracticed as he was, he’d never be able to do that without the shard bolstering his magic.
Eryx’s eyes gleamed. The smug bastard knew he’d won a round. She tried to dry herself, steaming and sizzling. It was too slow. Eryx had drenched her, so they were down to blades again—a fight she’d lose.
She glanced toward the altar. She wasn’t the only one who might lose. Dex hunched over Lilika, his panic obvious, strain contorting his face. Bellanca turned away from the blood on the ground, from her unmoving friend, keeping emotion at bay by sheer force of will and the promise to herself that she’d make Eryx pay for this.
Still hovering on the edge of her fight with Eryx, Carver caught her eye. He nodded reassuringly. She could do this. Magoi to Magoi. It was the Power Bid she’d wanted since arriving in Atlantis.
She turned back to Eryx. His sword was still on the ground several paces away from him. He hadn’t drawn another dagger. He was going to rely on magic, on his still-dripping hands, and for the first time in her life, she’d rely on metal.
In a burst of speed, she abruptly ran straight at Eryx, reached out, and grabbed the amulet off his wet chest. She drew a knife with one hand while she jerked the cord tight with the other. Grunting in surprise, Eryx shoved hard against her upper body,his hands gushing water. She used her grip on the amulet to brace herself and sliced through the medallion’s leather strap with one sharp cut. Just as Eryx pulled back a fist, she sprang away with the amulet.
His brutal punch thumped the air in front of her face. Eryx’s eyes widened in horror as she leaped back another step and produced a sun flare to dry herself instantly. Eryx gaped, and her triumphant smile turned vicious.
“I was raised to terrorize and kill.” She gave him a hard, cold look, even though she knew magic burned from her. “For the first time, I can’t wait to do it.”
Paling, Eryx pivoted away from her and dashed for his sword.
She whirled and ran toward Carver. Reaching him, she shoved the amulet into his hand. “Give this to Dex. Tell him to go slowly—like repairing a fishing net. Thread by thread. No rushing anything, or it’ll hurt her more and could kill him.” If a healer poured too much healing magic into someone too fast, they risked draining their own life force and never getting it back. Carver knew this. He could walk Dex through the process. “The shard will make all the difference.” It had to Eryx.
“You’re sure you don’t need this?” Carver tried to hand the amulet back to her.
“Dexneeds it. Just…keep it away from Eryx.” She gave him a slight push toward the altar.
Nodding, Carver raced toward Dex and Lilika with the amulet. Bellanca advanced on Eryx, shaping a burning sword out of her magic. A flaming blade would serve her better now than a metal one. Eryx might still have water, but it could never rival her fire. Magic built inside her. It poured from her skin, her hair, her eyes. She hoped she petrified him.
A sweat sheened Eryx’s reddened forehead. He struck first and she countered, her fire-forged blade burning his until hebacked off, wincing at his heated fingers. Circling to keep her away from him, he kept a wary eye on her as he ripped the hem of his tunic and wrapped it around his hand. With a modicum of protection against the hot metal, he came at her again. Bellanca fought back, dredging up every bit of the training she’d ever received in swordplay and trying to envision what Carver would do and mimic his fluid movements. Every hit, every parry, every twist of her body… She’d seen Carver fight so many times that it somehow came naturally, and she matched Eryx strike for strike long enough for confidence to swell inside her.
She went on the offensive, and he seemed to like it. He bared his teeth, almost a grin, then lunged unexpectedly. She barely blocked his attack, her arm trembling under the weight of his hit. Their swords locked, her blade sizzling. He shoved hard, and Bellanca skidded backward. Eryx drew a shorter blade faster than she could blink and swung at her neck. She narrowly evaded, his blade whistling past her face. Twisting, she dropped low and spun, conjuring a fire whip in her free hand and lashing out at Eryx’s leg. He leaped back with a yelp, his pant leg sliced open and smoldering, the skin underneath burned.
His nostrils flaring, he charged at her again. She cracked the whip, but he sliced through it and chopped off the end. Pressing his small victory, he attacked so hard and fast he broke through her magic and cut her sword in half. She dropped what was left of the burning blade and pushed out an instant blaze. He spun out of the way. She didn’t give him a second to recover and made him leap back and forth like a toad as she stalked him, throwing fire. Eryx flung his knife at her, missing in his haste. Scrambling out of her path, he thrust his bare hand out, clearly thinking it would produce a surge of water. It didn’t, and he shook his hand, ground his teeth, looked at his barely dripping fingers, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief.
“Not so easy without the amulet.” She smirked. Little in life had given her more pleasure than watching Eryx realize his budding magic wasnothingyet without the Shard of Olympus.
He sidestepped toward the altar, trying to put the marble slab and the people around it between them. Dex still bent over Lilika as Carver guided him, his gray eyes flicking up to check on her. Bellanca angled herself between them and Eryx, blocking his path and forcing him toward the high wall and away from the altar.
“You’ve done enough damage over there.” Her gaze slipped sideways, and hope suddenly yanked inside her as Lilika’s eyes opened. She didn’t let the flood of relief weaken her, though, and quickly turned back to Eryx, an icy stone of vengeance still lodged in her chest. It would live and die with Hera’s puppet. “Let’s see what damageIcan do now.”
Cold washed through her. Her magic stayed hot. She advanced, a focused but nonlethal sun flare forcing Eryx backward toward his murder wall. He tried to escape, and she widened the magic, making it so searingly hot on either side of him that he had no choice but to stay in the center and stumble back against the sandstone barrier.
“See what it feels like to be pushed up against the wall? The harbor behind you? The fall so far?” She pressed more heat against him. “That wide stone walkway around the water the only place you can land? The next high tide just ready to wash you away like you’d never even been?” She exchanged the sun flare for her original fire, weaving burning bars around him that caged him to the wall. Forming the bars was more complicated than conjuring a weapon, but she was motivated and finished fast. The wall was still at his back, and Eryx shrank toward it, trying to escape the heat. He sliced his sword through her flaming bars, but the currents of fire remained intact. She keptpouring magic into them, making sure to maintain a constant, sizzling tide. “Feel it, Eryx.The fear.You deserve to scream in terror before you die.”
His voice panic-rough and heat-dry, he croaked, “You can’t. You swore. I know it was you under that helmet, and you swore to let me live. A binding oath.”
She laughed the cruelest laugh of her life. “I swore to let you livethatnight. But I shouldn’t have. Cleito might still be alive. Lilika would be happily at the taverna right now. Atlantis would have magic, just as Zeus planned.”
Theophania’s sob drew her attention to the altar again. Bellanca kept her magical focus on Eryx and her fire on maintaining an unbreakable cage, but her gaze swept toward her friends. Theophania wept, shock still blanching her features, but it was a different kind of pale. She shook with relief, tears streaming down her face. Spiro did, too, crying silently beside his wife. Dimitri’s face crumpled as he curled over Lilika, holding her head in his hands.
“You scared me so much.” His voice broke like a wave. Shuddering, he bowed his forehead to hers.
Lilika’s arms slowly lifted, coming around him. “I promised to grow old with you.” Her fingers slid into his hair, holding him close. “I will.”
Smiling at Dex, Carver gripped his friend’s shoulder and squeezed. Pale and wobbly, Dex staggered back from the altar. Then he grinned, so proud, so relieved.
