Page 135 of Blood of Hercules
I ignored him.
He couldn’t seeanything; he was just an Olympian.
He would never understand what it felt like to be me. The power. The rage. The weight of responsibility.
Chthonics were an endangered species, and it was my duty as eldest to keep the next generation safe. They were all depending on me. I wouldn’t fail.
Alexis’s lips trembled.
I will not fall for her games.
Hatred and something unidentifiable burned in my gut. She was opening up the possibility of Helen having to take part in this depraved nonsense.
I wanted to kill her for it.
When Kharon had told me just what she was, the hatred had intensified exponentially.
How dare she.
She was a mockery of everything I stood for.
No woman, no matter how strong, should ever endure the crucible. It was dishonorable and wrong.
I didn’t fucking care if Aphrodite and Artemis said I wasn’t progressive. It wasn’t about women being as tough as men; it was about the fact that they shouldn’thaveto be.
Spartan women were rare and needed to be protected at all costs. The future of our society depended on keeping them safe.
Now Alexis’s two-colored eyes were wide as she stared down at the floor.
Cleandro and I stalked forward into the room.
At Alexis’s feet, Alessander was unconscious and bloody.
My jaw dropped as I took in the broken pieces of wood all over the boy, and the piece of wood clutched in Alexis’s hand. She’d smashed him with a chair.
Holy Kronos.
Fury warred with grudging respect.
Another figure moaned. Titus was on the ground, blood pouring off his face as he clutched at himself like a weak coward.
She destroyed the sniveling pussy. Both of them. Good.
Sharp emotions strangled me, and I didn’t know how to feel.
Everything about Alexis was confusing.
She was shy and timid, but also bloodthirsty and savage. She made idiotic comments, but according to Pine was a prodigy at theoretical math.
I hadn’t believed it when Kharon had told me what she’d done on the circuit—now I believed him.
She was clearly here to make a statement about women in Sparta.
Not on my watch.
It was completely fucking unacceptable.
My fingers itched, and I fisted them. The urge to kidnap her and lock her away, then break Titus’s mind into little pieces, was overwhelming.
