Page 138 of Bonds of Hercules
Now a dagger’s edge hovered behind my eyes. The point was slowly scraping across the front of my skull, demanding to be released.
Panting, I raised my head.
I didn’t recognize the man in the mirror.
The scar across my face was a deep maroon, dark circles rimmed my black eyes, and my hair was disheveled.
Pressure mounted and it felt like the invisible dagger was pushing through my forehead and cracking bone.
Unblemished skin mocked me.
The marriage bond zapped hotly inside my chest, and it was all too much.
With a shout, I pulled my fist back.
Crack.
Shards of mirror exploded outward. In slow motion, they flew toward me, a hundred broken versions of myself reflecting in glinting silver, each man more ruined than the last.
Abruptly, the pain in my head vanished,goneas if it had never existed.
The shards dropped to the floor with a clatter.
I stood amidst the ruin, chest heaving, as I waited for the pounding to start up again in my head.
It didn’t.
Equally relieved and horrified, I engaged my mental abilities. I felt the same, but my gut was telling me something was off.
My power was irrevocably changed.
I slowly turned, broken glass crunching beneath my boots.
The man who walked out of the bathroom was not the same man who’d entered.
25
A MASSACRE OF POWER
ALEXIS
Isprinted out onto the dark lawn.
Barbed wire fence glinted menacingly in the moonlight.
I turned the corner—straight into a warm body.
Kharon grunted with surprise as I bounced off him and stumbled right into Augustus, who grabbed my arms to steady me.
“Sorry,” I said as I tried to catch my bearings. “I didn’t see you—”
Kharon crowded me and Augustus until we were both pressed against the side of the villa.
The Milky Way glittered behind his handsome face, a cloud of stars in the night sky.
“Alexis,” Kharon said softly as he leaned forward, his arms on either side of my head. “It’s really you.” He inhaled shakily.
Augustus was hot against my back, and I melted into him.
