“So this is how you fucking did it. I should have known it was that blade. It always is.”
Before I could wonder at what he meant, he made a grab for the weapon. His hand clutched my wrist, and his fingers tightened like a vise. Pain flared as he bore down as hard as he could. A bone snapped, and a wrenching pain rippled down the length of my arm.
I howled and broke free of Orion’s grip. He reached for the blade again. I drove my wings down hard and slammed my boot into his gut. It knocked him back, his body curving like a crescent moon in the dark sky.
From below us, a deep rumble shook the ground. The sound grew like an avalanche of tumbling rocks, like a stampede of horses bearing down on us. As Orion struggled to recover from my blow, I risked a glance down.
Kalen rose in a brutal storm of wind and mist. The ground below him cracked, spiderwebbing as it shook from where he focused his power. Awestruck, I watched as he climbed higher in the air. He was using his power to lift himself into the clouds, where Orion and I duelled. I’d never seen anything like it before.
He might not be able to launch it at Orion, but he could use it like this, focused on the ground. Unless Orion muted it, which he could.
Kalen’s sapphire eyes latched onto my face as the wind whipped his hair. Pure fury tightened his jaw. Rocks and dirt jumped against the ground as another crack widened from the force of his power. But he was too focused on me to notice. With a wicked glint in his eye, he pulled the sword from his back.
I was so distracted by the impossible beauty of him that I didn’t sense Orion’s approach. He grabbed my wrist and squeezed the broken bone.
Furious fire flared through my hand and arm, and my vision filled with darkness.
“Take your hands off my wife,” Kalen said in a voice that commanded all the hair on my arms to rise. They obeyed.
Orion responded by tightening his grip on my wrist. The pain took my breath away and nearly blinded me.
Kalen roared and swung his sword. The steel hissed as it cut through cloud and mist. Blade hit skin, and just like before, the weapon didn’t wound the god. It bounced off him, barely leaving a mark.
Orion released me. He wrapped both hands around Kalen’s sword. Soothing relief echoed through my aching hand, but it was short-lived. Orion gripped Kalen’s sword andshovedwith a kind of strength I’d never seen before. The hilt slammed into Kalen’s chest, throwing him backward.
He fell through the mist.
I cried out and reached for his vanishing hand, but Orion jerked me back.
I growled and spit into the god’s face, no longer caring what he tried to do to me next. I’d had enough.
Orion just laughed as my spittle dripped into his glowing crimson eye. “Fight as hard as you want, little pet. You and your lover king will never best me. I am a force of nature itself.Youare nothing but an insect.” He shoved Kalen’s sword into my hands and smiled. “How about a deal, eh? I know you like those. Try to harm me with that sword. If I win, you hand me those gemstones.”
My first instinct was to tell him to go fuck himself, but… “And what do I get if I win?”
He scoffed, then rolled his eyes. “You can say you’re the only mortal who has ever harmed me.”
“That’s not good enough,” I replied carefully. “You said it yourself. You’re immortal, so this sword can’t kill you. You’ll heal if I manage to wound you. Quickly, judging by what I’ve seen from you and the other gods. So, what exactly do I get by risking the gemstones in this little game of yours? Do I get to keep them if I win?”
“No,” he said quickly.
“Ah.” I backed up, my wings pounding the air. “Then I’m afraid wedon’thave a deal.”
He snarled. “I will kill you if I have to.”
Smiling, I lifted the sword, arms aching from the weight of it. But Kalen had trained me in this. He’d helped me build the strength I needed for this fight. “Go ahead, then. Try.”
I sounded a lot more confident than I felt, and my mind was partially elsewhere. Kalen had fallen far. I knew he was fae, and he could survive impossible things. But still, I worried.
Orion flicked his eyes toward the Mortal Blade, then toward my hands, before finally settling them on my face. There was something in the furrow in his brow that tipped me off. He was actually worried I might stab him with the Mortal Blade. Because even though Callisto was still alive, she was nothing more than an essence trapped in a gemstone. The same would likely happen to Orion if I could stab him with it, too.
Eventually, he said, “Fine. I won’t let you keep the gemstones, but I can agree to something else. You’re heading to Endir, yes? If you win, you can have an hour’s head start before I come for you.”
“I thought you wanted nothing to do with Endir. You said you’d leave my loved ones alone.”
“You’ll have the gemstones. So yes, I will attack Endir even if you win our little game. See, you’ve already won a prize. The truth.”
My heart pounded.
