Page 257 of Bonds of Hercules
Kharon worked his jaw back and forth, his eyes cold as he stared at my injured side.
Voices screamed all around, begging for violence. The greatest trick Spartans ever played was convincing humanity they were civilized.
I missed the nuclear wastelands of Montana.
“Alexis—lookat us.” Augustus’s voice was hard as steel.
I couldn’t. I was too busy shattering into little pieces.
Augustus’s combat boots stepped closer.
I flinched, eyes squeezing shut.
“Wait,” Kharon said slowly. “Alexis—do you think … we’re going to …harmyou right now?”
I took a shaky step back, and Augustus inhaled sharply.
Kharon swore.
Lethal emotions stretched between the three of us.
“You will face us,” a smooth masculine voice echoed inside my head.
It had come from within.
I’d officially made the final descent into evil—possession—only an exorcism could save me now.
As if in a trance, I looked up.
Blood covered Augustus’s face, streaking from both his eyes; Kharon stood unnaturally still, his jaw clenching and releasing.
“Why?” Kharon asked.
“You have to defeat me,” I whispered, the rightness of the words settling over me. “Iwon’tlet you get branded … not again. Not for me.”
“Did you really think—” Kharon’s lashes fanned across eyes so cold, they were more gray than blue “—that I was going to come out here andfight youwith my bare fucking hands? The woman I love?”
I held his gaze. “Yes. Because Iwon’tdo that to the men I love.”
Augustus stared at me in silence.
“Your pain is mine—you’re my fucking heart and soul,” Kharon said as he thumped at his chest. “Do you know what thatmeans, Alexis? I would sooner die than see you hurt. I’ve given youmyear … What more do you want from me? What do you need me to do to prove to you that I’m madly in love with you? Do you want my heart ripped from my—”
“Ihaveto be the one to lose!” I cut him off, terror and rage spreading like fire, leaving me desperate.
I spread my arms wide.
“Defeatme,” I begged, the wound in my side throbbing.
Kharon shook his head as he backed away. Augustus stood still, unmoving in the face of my desperation.
“DO IT!” I screamed.
Neither moved.
“Please,” I whispered with a broken rasp.
Darkness closed in as my injured eye filled with blinding tears.
