Kieran’s blade flashes.
One second he’s standing on the other side of the deck, and the next steel’s arcing toward Logan’s throat in a blur of deadly intent.
I open my mouth to scream—to warn him—to do something?—
The blade cuts through empty air where Logan’s neck was half a heartbeat ago, wind exploding from Logan’s palm in a concentrated blast that catches Kieran mid-swing.
Kieran slams into the mast with a crack that makes my teeth ache. Wood splinters behind him, and for one horrible second I think he’s dead, that Logan killed him, that we’ve gone from revelation to murder in the space of a heartbeat.
But Kieran’s struggling against the invisible force pinning him to the shattered wood, his feet dangling six inches off the deck.
This is what a Revenant can do. This is what Logan’s been hiding. This is what he’s capable of.
The realization hits me like a punch to the chest. Because according to the Geryon—who’s farther away now, watching us as if we’re everyday entertainment—Kieran’s the son of Ares. He’s a demigod. And Logan pinned him on the wall like a bug in a collection.
“Jade!” Evie screams through the chaos, and I spin toward her, and she’s looking at me likeI’mthe monster here.
She steps toward me, and heat rolls off her skin in waves. Flames flicker in her irises, and I remember how she almost killed me in the Fury Loop.
If she tries to kill me now, I might let her, because maybe I deserve it.
“You knew about Oliver.” The temperature around her keeps climbing, heatwaves rippling through the air. “And you didn’t tell me.”
Electricity crawls across my skin, sharp and prickling, and my eyes are burning with tears I can’t blink away fast enough. I owe her an answer, but every explanation I could give sounds like an excuse, and she deserves better than my excuses.
“That’s what I thought,” she says, colder now. “You’re just as bad as Logan.”
The words land like a slap.
Then there’s movement at the edge of my vision as Callie positions herself next to Logan, her chin raised in defiance.
“Nobody touches him,” she says, and I think she’s trying to stay steady, but her hands are shaking. “Not until we figure out what’s actually going on here.”
Kieran’s still pinned to the mast by Logan’s air magic, but his voice carries across the deck. “What’s going on is that your ex-boyfriend is a Revenant, and you’ve been feeding him your blood for months while the rest of us trusted him with our lives.”
Callie flinches, but the hardness returns to her expression a second later. “He’s still Logan.”
“He’s not.” Kieran’s eyes find mine, and the accusation in them makes me want to crawl out of my own skin. “Ask Jade if the thing that just kissed her felt human.”
Everyone looks at me, and I don’t know what to say.
Because that kiss didn’t feel human. It felt desperate and wrong, like pressing my lips against a beautiful lie. But it also felt like the person I love, even if I don’t know who that person is anymore.
“Let him down,” I say, steadier than I expected. “Logan, let Kieran down.”
“He’ll attack again the second I release him.”
“Maybe.” I meet his eyes. “But we need to figure out what happens next, and we can’t do that if you’re holding Kieran hostage.”
A muscle in Logan’s jaw twitches.
For one long, horrible second, I think he’s going to keep Kieran pinned there forever, because he can, because he’s a Revenant and apparently that means he can toss around demigods like ragdolls.
Or—even worse—that he’s going to kill him.
The scariest part is that I believe he can. That he would. That hemight.
But then, and maybe it’s because I’m staring at him like I don’t recognize him anymore, he lowers his hand.
