“Get to the point,” I said, my patience waning. I was still furious with this asshole, and I needed to know what any of this had to do with Joshua and the demon.
“Yes, it upset Zeus. His plan failed, as Hades and Persephone managed to keep Cronos imprisoned. The rest of us confronted Zeus and... You know what happened after that.”
“He took your power and fucked off.”
Ares exhaled angrily. “Yes, if you must be so crude about it. I don’t know what Zeus would want with Guardian magic.” He lapsed into thoughtful silence.
“Why would he need so many of them? There were hundreds of tables in that room.” Saying the words brought a painful reminder that I had completely failed to find Joshua. I took a swig of nectar, swallowing down my shame and disappointment.
“Of course!” Ares’ exclamation made me jump, and I cursed. “That is why none of the gods can find Zeus. He’s using Guardian magic to hide himself!”
“What?”
“Guardians hide magic from mortals. It’s what they do, they mask power. I think Zeus is using the demon to steal Guardians’ souls, and then he’s using their masking magic to keep himself hidden from the other gods.” There was admiration in his voice.
“If what you just said is true, Zeus won’t want to give up the demon. So why have the Lords of War been offered it as a prize for the Trials?”
“I do not know what connection this has to the Lords. But if Zeus has enough souls, he no longer has any need for the demon.”
“Oh.” I took another sip of my nectar. Ares had not touched his drink. He couldn’t. His helmet was still on. At the thought of the face I knew was under the metal, fresh pain panged through my middle, a pain born entirely of emotion.
“Why did you do that to me? Why did you try to drain my power?” I asked, my voice barely audible. I dropped my eyes to my hands, unable to look at his eyes in case I lost my temper again.
“I told you. I thought it was the fastest way to win.”
“You are really so selfish? So cruel?”
There was a long silence, so long that I could not help myself from looking up at him.
His eyes were filled with emotion, brimming with sadness and doubt. But as my eyebrows shot up in surprise, they drained completely, as though cold walls had slammed back down around him, dousing out his burning irises. “Yes.”
My own hope was doused out just as fast. “Then I won’t help you.”
“If you want your friend back, you have no choice.”
“I always have a damned choice,” I said, my voice rising. “Always!”
But I didn’t, and we both knew it. He was right. I couldn’t flash, I didn’t know how to get back to that ship, and I knew deep down that I couldn’t best the demon alone. She was far too powerful.
Ares was right. I had no choice.
4
Bella
Before the God of War could say another word, and I could lose my shit again, I leaped to my feet.
“Where is the washroom?”
He pointed mutely to one of the two doors in the room and I marched toward it, still clutching my nectar. I slammed the door behind me as soon as I entered the tiny space, and leaned my back against it. Hiding from the God of War in bathrooms was becoming a habit. I groaned.
I couldn’t forgive Ares for what he had tried to do in the fighting pit. He had betrayed my trust too brutally. But nor did I have the commitment to hate him any longer. I’d seen his eyes when I asked him why he’d done it, and I was sure that I hadn’t imagined what I had seen in them, when he thought I wasn’t looking. Just as I hadn’t imagined the fire, the drums, or the heat when we had kissed.
I couldn’t believe that he had acted purely out of selfishness or cruelty. If he had, the coldness would have been there from the start when I looked at him, not called upon to hide something deeper when my eyes had met his. There was more to the God of War than he was showing. He did care. I was almost positive of it.
Maybe I was putting too much faith in one look. Maybe I just wanted him to be better than he was.
I pushed myself off the wooden door, setting my drink down on the tiny lip around the porcelain sink, and peered into what I assumed was the shower cubicle. As soon as I got close, water began raining down from the dark ceiling. With a sigh, I began stripping out of my leathers. I took a moment to heal the remaining blisters on my hands, my racing thoughts slow enough now to do so. The act calmed my anger, my wonder at being able to do such a thing too awe-inducing to ignore. I didn’t even know where the blisters had come from.
As soon as I stepped under the warm water my tense muscles began to relax and my thoughts calmed enough for me to start separating facts from emotion.
By the time I had finished scrubbing myself clean, my list of “shit I know to be true” was depressing in both content and length. I’d failed to rescue Joshua. And worse, the god who had taken him, be it Zeus or the demon, was more powerful than I was. The Lords of War had deliberately sent me to my death, presumably in an effort to kill or dominate Ares.
There seemed to be no escaping the fact that Ares and I would have to work together to beat the Lords. Like it or not, the only way to save my friend was to complete their damned tests.
There were lots of things missing from my list, and now that my rage had subsided, I needed to ask more questions. I needed to find out where the hell we were, for a start, along with where the hell Zeeva was, how Ares had found me, and how I was able to do what I had done back in Pain’s fighting pit. The memory of my power kicking in during the last fight had come back full-force and I had to know how to do it again. Zeeva had said I needed magic to stay in Olympus, and now I’d had a taste of how powerful I could be, I definitely wanted more.
So many questions. And I was dreading facing the man who had the answers.
I wrapped my newly long hair in a towel and dressed, downing the rest of my nectar and taking a few long breaths before leaving the bathroom. I had to give Ares the benefit of the doubt. I couldn’t trust him, but if I had to work with him, I’d rather do it believing he was worth helping.
“May I have another drink?” I asked, strolling as casually as I could into the room. Ares stood up immediately, and I faltered. His helmet and armor were gone, the gold band across his forehead the only remaining metal on his body. His soft hair was pulled back behind his shoulders, the hard planes of his face only accentuated by the loose strands. His lips parted and a bolt of something totally beyond my control hit me in my core.
Don’t blush, don’t blush, I told myself fiercely.
Mercifully, he turned away from me, moving to the counter.
“Where are we?”
“Panic’s kingdom, Dasos.”
“Right. Where is Zeeva?”
“I have no idea.”
I slumped down on the pink couch. “How did you flash to the ship?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, someone helped you. And given what I know about your willingness to ask for help so far, it has to be Zeeva or your sister. And if you don’t know where Zeeva is...”