Everyone stops where they are. My eyes dart around. No weapons are drawn. No one is shouting. It looks like we’re standing around for a friendly chat when that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Betrayal and heartache reign here.
I wrap my arm around Kaia’s waist, laying claim to her in any way I can. “Thanos. I mean, Ares. You can’t take her. Please don’t take her.” He’s one of the only people I’ve ever pleaded with, mostly for inconsequential things. A child’s whims. Other times, I asked him to not retaliate against someone who’d hurt me, although he never offered to punish my mother, who hurt me most of all. “Can’t you just waive the rule? Not take someone this time?”
He finally lifts his gaze from Kaia, and the look he levels on me is somber to the core of his power-charged eyes.
My stomach sinking, I swallow all pride for my new family, for Kaia, and beg. “Please? For me?”
Griffin lays his hand on the back of my neck. He squeezes my nape, his arm sheltering Kaia between us. I grip her waist, grounding her to me. Kaia raises her chin and stares straight ahead.
“You think she can’t handle war?” Ares asks. “Traveling the worlds with me, she would see many novel things.”
Or she might die in her first battle and see nothing but blood.
I look again at Kaia. She has intelligence, courage, and a warrior’s soul, and with a little training, likely a warrior’s skills. She’s long and lithe and strong. I’ve always thought Jocasta was a little softer and more prudent than Kaia, and yet Jocasta threw herself into the Agon Games and participated in a hostile takeover of the Tarvan throne. Jocasta acquitted herself more than well, with honor and bravery, surviving against all odds. I have no reason to think Kaia couldn’t follow the same path as her older sister. In fact, I think she’d do it better.
“I think she can,” I answer honestly. “But I don’t want her to.”
Ares’s solemn gaze returns to Kaia again. He cocks his head. “I think you’re right.”
My heart clenches hard, and I can’t move. I can only stare in horror and disbelief. Did he just miss the part about my not wanting her to go to war and be lost to us forever? I begged.
A small bleat leaks from Kaia, like the cry of a frightened lamb. It’s heartbreaking and fills me with dread.
Griffin moves so fast I can’t stop him. One minute he’s beside us both, and the next, he’s right in front of Kaia. “Try to take her, and you’ll have to go through me.”
Oh Gods. He means that.
“No!” I shout just as Ares sends Griffin flying away from us with a simple swipe of his God-powerful hand. I run to him, dragging Kaia with me. Griffin gets up again quickly, reaching for his sword.
“No, don’t!” I step into his path, trying to block him. “You’ll just make things worse.” I’ve seen Thanos—Ares—when he’s threatened. He’s never scared, and he can be cruel.
Griffin slams his half-drawn blade back into its sheath. His face thunderous, he stalks forward, forcing us both into a stumbling retreat. “He can’t have Kaia. I won’t let him.”
I let go of Kaia to hold up both hands. “He’s not a man. He’s a God. You can’t defy him without incurring the wrath of Olympus, and you can’t win.”
Griffin glances down at me, his jaw hardening to marble. His eyes are stark and as dark as the storm clouds brewing on the horizon. I see the exact moment he decides to disregard my warning, and I push hard, putting my whole weight against him.
I don’t even slow him down. Even counting Little Bean, we don’t weigh half of what Griffin does.
Words tumble from my mouth. Anything to stop him. “Your immunity to harmful magic doesn’t extend to the Gods. Remember how Selena—Persephone—yanked out your life force to heal Carver? Now that mystery is solved, and Ares could probably do the same. Or take you.”
“Then so be it.”
So be it? So be it! “He’ll kill you!”
Griffin looks over my head rather than at me. “I can’t choose myself over Kaia. What kind of brother would I be?”
The kind like Piers? Fear scrapes down my spine. I could lose Griffin. Oh Gods, I could.
Griffin lowers his voice. “Maybe a fight will satisfy him. Besides, I’m…vital to whatever is going on with you.”
“You’re vital to me.” My heart twists sharply. I’m not sure Griffin’s reasoning is sound. “But I’m here. Alive. With an heir…”
A tiny muscle contracts under Griffin’s eye.
Sudden tears spike my lashes just as Griffin looks down. He winces, clearly hating my pain. Our pain. He grips my upper arms, squeezing hard and looking at me with all the passion and devotion a woman could ever hope for. I wait for him to pull me into his arms. His eyes fill with longing.
He lifts me up and sets me out of his path. Gasping, I whirl around and see Griffin take the final few steps to confront Ares.
“Fight me for her,” Griffin demands. “If I can’t best you, then it’s me you’ll take.”
My heart forgets to beat. Griffin’s sword arm flexes and lifts. He slides his blade from its sheath and then shifts his weight into a fighting stance. He looks like a force of nature. To me, he is one. Strong and brave and an earthquake in my world. But Ares is a God. One of the twelve Olympians!
Ares leaves all his weapons in his belt. His arms swing loosely at his sides. “You did well,” he tells Persephone, completely ignoring Griffin’s challenge. “They’re a good match.”
She scoffs. “Of course they’re a good match. But it would have been nice if one of you males had told me you’d finally decided to point him in Cat’s direction. I thought she’d been kidnapped. Or run away.”
I blink. I had been kidnapped. Griffin did it.
“She had to figure things out on her own. Couldn’t have you influencing her,” Ares responds with a shrug.
“Oh, no.” Persephone’s sarcastic mock sincerity rivals my own. “Only you can do that.”
Ares preens, just to goad her, and Persephone looks like she’s about to attack. Ribbons of power race in circles around her dark-blue irises, brightening them from within.
She glares at the other God, her eyes terrifying. “She was impressionable when she was with you. Thank the Goddesses she had her sister to teach her compassion.”
My pulse speeds up at the mention of Eleni. My dead sister. Not my unborn daughter. A tight, hard lump lodges in my throat, and I feel my blood drumming against it. Eleni taught me to love. And protect.
“Thank the Gods she had me to teach her how to survive,” Ares shoots back.
He taught me to fight. And kill.
“Oh, I think her mother helped her with that.” Persephone’s tone turns biting. She looks at me, her eyes twin pools of radiant blue light. “Trial by fire.”
“It forges a heart of iron,” I whisper, echoing my words to Flynn when we argued about Jocasta taking part in the Agon Games.
She nods, her gaze still holding mine. “And sets it alight.”
I inhale sharply. I’m not sure what that means, and I can’t process riddles right now. My husband might get beaten and taken from me. And if not him, then Kaia. I can’t think about anything else. I can’t even think about that.
I reach for Griffin, but he shakes his head. “Stay back, Cat. They’re your responsibility now.”