Page 108 of Bonds of Hercules
“I’m fucking sorry,” Kharon said belligerently. “I demand you forgive me, Alexis.” He paused. “Right now!”
I choked.
Does he really think that’s going to work?
How I’d managed to find a manmoresocially inept than myself should be studied.
“Tell them that you’ll accept their regret,” Nyx hissed. “Butonlyif they give you a sexual favor. Woman’s choice.”
I looked longingly at the gun.
Kharon swore viciously in the hall, like he’d just realized verbally attacking his wife was not yielding a positive result.
I crawled into the attached bathroom.
Fluffy Jr. whined (neighed?) in the bedroom, too large to fit, but the skinnier hellhounds followed me inside, the blue flamesin their eye sockets flashing red—I blinked—they once again flickered an innocuous teal.
Did I imagine it?
I blew a kiss to Fluffy Jr. and shut the door.
Kharon yelled something, but it was blessedly muffled.
Dozens of flickering pink candles, wrapped with white bows, sat along the rim of the bathtub, dripping wax.
Nyx slithered off my shoulders as I climbed into the tub, reached up, and yanked on the spray.
Fully clothed, I looked down.
“C+A” was stark across my forearm—I traced the letters of the messy tattoo.
Sparta was a tangled web of politics and power.
Kharon shouted something louder.
Do it for Charlie.
I dug my right fingernail into the palm of my hand.
Blood trickled out of the shallow cut as a prickling sensation tingled my fingers.
Water fell around me in slow motion.
I raised my arm higher and imagined the bloody streaks forming a protective shield or hovering in the air like fog.
Claim your power, daughter.Hades’s voice echoed in my head.
Nothing happened.
Everyone else in the Assembly of Death controlled their abilities—mine was inert—it was wieldingme.
Even Drex could tap into his stamina at will.
“Don’t panic,” Nyx hissed as I did just that. “Let’s play the alliteration game.”
Nostalgia hit me. Nyx came up with it when I was a young child, and we’d continued the tradition through high school. We used to play late at night when the hunger pangs were so sharp that I couldn’t sleep, and there was nothing to do but wait for the sun to rise.
“Audacious anguines annoy Alexis,” I whispered.
