Phanes met Ian’s stare. It hadn’t escaped my notice that Ian hadn’t deigned to look at me at all yet.
“Who are you, to think you can issue such a challenge?”
Was Phanes pretending he didn’t know Ian because he didn’t want to admit that this was his fiancée’s lover? Or did Phanes not remember what Ian looked like now that he was healed?
Ian certainly didn’t resemble the half-shriveled husk Phanes had first glimpsed, especially in his medieval-knight-meets-modern-warrior attire. His auburn hair brushed the shiny armor on his broad shoulders, and more armor covered his wrists, forearms, and calves before a larger piece covered his front like a breastplate. But the rest of him was clad only in black tactical gear, drawing several admiring looks from Phanes’s guests at how the form-fitting fabric accentuated his muscled thighs, biceps, and ass.
Ian winked at his most obvious gawkers, proving his peripheral vision was as sharp as ever. Was his power back to normal, too? Or was it still too soon after that terrible, body-ravaging magic? He’d only been healed six or seven hours ago . . .
“I’m a son of noble birth, which is all I need to be to issue such a challenge,” Ian replied.
Were those the rules? How sexist and classist . . . and how did Ian know this, let alone how was he here in the first place?
Ashael sidled up to Ian, wearing the same Greco Roman–style tunic as Phanes. That’s how Ian had gotten here!
I glared at Ashael. He flinched, and then spread out his hands as if to say, this isn’t my fault.
Oh yes it is! I wanted to snap. All you had to do was not teleport Ian to Phanes’s home base within hours of my leaving!
Phanes crossed his arms. “What was your father’s title?”
Ian smiled again. “Viscount Maynard, member of the peerage since his birth in the year of our Lord 1731. We’re on Wikipedia under ‘Viscounts of Great Britain,’ if that helps.”
Half true. He was Viscount Maynard’s son, but not a legitimate one. Ian’s real name was Killian, and he was the bastard child of Viscount Maynard. The Viscount had forced Killian to serve out his legitimate heir’s prison sentence back in the seventeen hundreds since Killian looked enough like his heir, Ian, that no one questioned the switch. Killian had kept the name Ian ever since, and I was the only person alive who knew that it wasn’t the name he’d been born with.
“I’m also the vampire offspring of Mencheres, former pharaoh of Egypt,” Ian said. “So, I have a noble lineage through my vampire side as well.”
I stared at Ian as if I could strike him mute by willpower alone. Why was he spoiling for a fight against creatures he didn’t even know how to kill? Sure, Ian was mad, but if he could only holster his rage until dawn, this would all be over!
He did glance at me then. A long, heated stare that made me feel like my clothes flew off and landed at his feet. But beneath the possessive lust, I saw a hardness that sent the wrong kind of shivers over me.
Ian was more than angry. Much more. I just didn’t know what else it was, or whether it was all directed toward me.
Then he looked away, giving Phanes his attention again. “Tell me she’s the challenger I must face,” he said in his most insinuating tone. “Would love some full contact with her.”
Let the mayhem begin! my other half thought as Phanes stood so fast, his chair upended.
I also shot to my feet. I didn’t even intend for my darkness to boil out of me until it transcended shadows and became a flood that drowned the opal lights in the floor, but it did. It also coated my entire chair, making it now resemble a liquid obsidian throne. The netherworld practically throbbed in invitation beneath me, the veil feeling so thin that I wouldn’t need much effort to break through it. No, it felt as if I’d able to brush it aside as easily as Ian had brushed away the fog he’d strode through.
Okay, perhaps I’d overreacted, but no one was allowed to hurt Ian for being this reckless except me.
“Stop,” I said in a voice that boomed with eerie echoes.
The guests at our table scattered. Even Phanes backed up, avoiding the liquid darkness around me.
Not Ian. His gaze raked me, taking in everything from the inky waters that surrounded me to the new silver beams lighting up my gaze, and his brows only flicked in suggestive invitation.
Ashael stepped forward, clearing his throat. “The daughter of the Eternal River is right. A formal challenge has been issued, and protocol must be observed.”
Protocol? I could care less about protocol—
“Long ago, the gods gave us the trials to honor them,” Ashael went on. “The challenger has shown his worthiness. Your champion must accept. Let the trials commence!”
Phanes glanced at me and then gave Ian a long look that made me think he did finally realize who he was, either from belated recognition, or my reaction.
Then, with an arrogant smile that made me even more concerned, Phanes clapped his hands.
“If the challenger insists, then bring forth my champion, Naxos, and let the trials commence!”
I tried to find a way to speak to Ian, but everyone started filing out of the room while chanting “to the stadium!” Within moments, I lost Ian in the enthusiastic crowd. Another surge of people later, and Ashael faded from view, too. Then all I saw was wings as Phanes encircled me within them.
“What game are you playing, Veritas?” he hissed.
I was too rattled to object to how he loomed over me. “I have nothing to do with this. If you would stop this challenge and let me speak to Ian—”
“Too late,” he cut me off. “As that demon pointed out, even I can’t refuse to honor the higher gods by denying a worthy challenger his right to the trials. Your lover insisted on meeting my champion in battle, so meet him he shall.”
Phanes was bound by the same traditions that had once led ancient Greeks to consider formal athletic competitions as part of their religion? Interesting, but why was Ian doing this at all? If he’d given me another half day, I’d be home!
“What happens if Ian loses to your champion?”
Phanes gave me a look that required no interpretation.
Ice climbed up my spine and fanned out until even my fingertips felt cold.
“For your sake, I am sorry that he did this,” Phanes said, and dropped his wings. “Come. You can watch the trials with me.”
My jaw clenched. Yes, I would watch, and if it came to it, I’d also participate, because anyone who tried to kill Ian was dead.
I’ll slaughter them without mercy, my other half swore.
For once, she and I were in complete agreement.
“You go. I’ll be there in a moment,” I said.
Phanes frowned. “You shouldn’t be alone now.”
I caught a glimpse of Ashael in the crowd. Oh, I wouldn’t be alone for long.
“I need a minute to myself.” My hard look stopped Phanes when he opened his mouth to argue. “Go. I’ll find you.”
Phanes sighed. “If you insist, but remember, this was not my doing.” He caught my hand, raised it, and brushed his lips over it. “I would never hurt you this way if I had a choice.”
Now Ashael ducked out of view. I pulled my hand away.
“I’ll see you soon,” I said, and headed toward where I’d last seen Ashael.