She raised her glass and tossed the wine back into her mouth.
Idan arched a brow. ‘Salkia, for a moment I thought you were going to fling your drink in her face.’
‘It’s too good a vintage to waste on her, my love,’ Sheba smirked.
The goddess spluttered with rage.
‘Fokkyou, she hissed, leaning in to Sheba.
Sheba, undeterred, stepped into the immortal, brandishing her now-empty flute as a weapon. ‘Nada, you’re the one whoneeds to take a freakin’ chill pill. I’ve dealt with many wildcat women like you, and I can throw down hard.’
‘Sheba, nada,’ Idan warned in a deep, reverberating growl.
Artya’s hand darted in a blur.
She pulled a sapphire dagger from the folds of her dress, a blade tipped with a tiny syringe of shimmering green liquid.
Idan jolted, recognizing it as Vraxian Marrow, a neurotoxin that could paralyze and cause an agonizing death for a human.
She lunged for Sheba’s heart.
Idan moved faster than lightning as his eyes turned into pits of molten gold and silver.
Pushing Sheba away from harm, he let out a potent burst of psionic power that erupted from within him.
Artya’s arm froze mid-air, her muscles twisting against her will as Idan seized her mind.
‘Did Sulfiqar send you?’ he growled.
Artya spluttered, trying to deny his question, and he sent a psychic barb deeper into her mind.
She screamed in agony, her terrified eyes meeting his. ‘Naam, he wanted her out of the way.’
‘Why?’
Artya’s eyes dilated, and she stammered. ‘He thought he could use her to make you surrender to his cause, but he’s changed his mind as he is wont to do. He wants her dead, as an example of what happens if ever you and your brother work against his wishes.’
‘Fokkhim and his games,’ Idan rasped. ‘Fokkyou too, for seeking Sheba’s end.’
With a psionic push, he forced her to turn the dagger on herself.
Artya gasped as she plunged the dart deep into her own upper chest.
‘You will remember this moment for eternity,’ Idan growled, his timbre a terrifying thunderous storm. ‘With agonizing screams as you ceaselessly replay your betrayal and attempt on my woman.’
With a snap of his fingers, Artya glimmered out of existence.
Back in the alcove, Idan pulled Sheba into his chest, cursing under his breath.
‘Where did she go?’
Idan’s mouth twisted.
‘Right now she lies thrashing on the airless, regolith sands beyond the city, her lungs burning while the Vraxian poison burns her immortal cells with white-hot fire.’
‘Will she die?’ Sheba murmured, suppressing a shiver.
‘Nada,’ Idan rumbled. ‘Most gods outlive a Vraxian venom attack. But her nerves are shot to shit, and she’ll be screaming in agony for an epoch to come, perhaps for the rest of her perpetual existence.’
