Page 188 of Bonds of Hercules
Blood splattered.
Hades—contributor of half of my genetic material—didn’t have to lift a finger as all five of them tore themselves apart.
The whole thing barely took ten minutes.
Nyx slithered around my neck as the fog pulled back into Hades with a whoosh. “That was impressive,” she hissed.
I shivered because she was right—his power was magnificently terrible.
It was a startling, graphic reminder of what it meant that I was a Chthonic heiress. What it meant that he’d made me in his image.
The same lethal energy was dormant, waiting inside of me.
SGC DAY4
Yesterday’s symposium had passed in a blur. I didn’t remember falling asleep at night—one second I was out, the next I was awake, filled with terror.
My teeth chattered as sweat dripped down my back.
I was back in my seat in the coliseum.
Kharon and Augustus were yet again flanking me. Their thighs brushed against mine and I tried not to jolt each time.
Drums pounded and electricity hummed above the arena.
“Today’s competitor is …” Zeus paused, his voice echoing around the stadium as sparks leapt around his raised arms. He stood on the walkway that jutted out over the arena, an overseer—an emperor—commanding destruction. “EREBUS!”
The crowd lost it.
Chants echoed all around. “Primordial god of darkness … shadow hunter … nightmare harborer … bow before his shadowy plain, or YOU shall be slain!”
Erebus prowled out onto the sand, bone-white mask gleaming, tattered black cloak fluttering behind his tall figure.
He had no weapons; no visible protector; no armor. The edges of his figure blurred, as if he was transparent, and not a being of flesh and blood.
A man who was rumored to live with wolves.
“He’s so dreamy,” Helen said in the seat ahead of me as she covered her mouth. Charlie nodded in agreement beside her.
I tilted my head to the side.
I could see it.
“Oh, I could beat him,” Nyx hissed with awe as she twined slowly around my waist. “And I’mnottalking about in a fight.”
I choke-coughed violently (apparently, everyone was getting more sexually aggressive these days).
Augustus smacked my back.
Steel rattled as the heavy gate on the other side of the arena slowly rose up—five Cyclopes charged out, growling with their meaty fists raised.
Erebus casually raised his hand and pointed his finger at them.
Oversized shadows distended and morphed behind each Cyclops—pure inky darkness warped and rose from the sand—sharpening into five tangible, vicious-looking knives.
The black blades hovered in the air for a second.
Erebus pulled back his raised arm as if he was tugging on a rope.
