Page 94 of Flame and Fury

“No. I might be the last champion standing, but I haven't completed the final challenge.” Right. She needs to get one of the women from the last challenge from the minotaur.

“Lucky for you, we're headed in the same direction.”

Another of those earth-shaking roars barrels down the tunnel. I don't think we'll have to find the minotaur. He's coming for us.

CHAPTER46

ATLAS

Irefuse to say that Wren looks like a goddess when she's in full Fury mode because that would be a slight. She's magnificent. Her midnight wings have a slight shimmer to them, like there are veins of silver threaded through the black feathers.

Someday soon, I want to see them in the light of day. None of this hiding away in dark places, keeping the world from seeing how incredible she truly is. Right now, though, we have bigger problems.

There's a minotaur hunting us down. I don't know if the beast can smell us or what, but he's headed our way. I saw the minotaur once. Poseidon brought him out for a battle to settle an argument between him and Hera. Hera had insisted some poor human was strong enough to defeat any being of the gods choosing. It was a massacre, and Hera laughed the entire time. The minotaur ripped the man’s head off and ate every piece of him in less than two minutes. My father forced me to come to the spectacle, insisting it was good character-building.

The minotaur isn’t some mindless creature. He used to be a man. A man that betrayed Poseidon, who then cursed him to become half man, half bull. He was tossed into a labyrinth that served as both his cage and domain. It sounds like a sad story, but the beast isn’t some poor soul who’s been punished unjustly. He doesn’t deserve to be set free. The minotaur revels in the death he causes. What may have started as a punishment has become an ascension into a more powerful being.

I smell him before I see him. We still have our flashlights on. There’s no point in turning them off. The minotaur can see us in the dark, but none of us have night vision. It still won’t be an even playing field, even with six against one.

“Get ready,” I murmur quietly, but the grunt and snort not twenty feet away tells me the beast heard.

The minotaur charges, bringing himself into the beams of our flashlights. He’s massive. The minotaur has the body of a man, the head of a bull, hooves for feet, and massive horns with very sharp ends. His fists are boulders, and his eyes are blood red. The gem of the soulstone amulet winks from around his neck. It’s a black diamond the size of a golf ball.

I have my sword, Nico has his knives, Lark has her staff, Wren her whip, and Greer has a bow. Drake picked up Preston’s flail after Greer liberated him from his head. The minotaur’s entire body is a weapon.

“Bring it, heifer.” Greer kisses one fist and then the other. I think she’s missing some critical gene that houses fear.

The beast dips his head and swipes at us with his horns. The side of the bull’s head connects with Nico. He goes flying, crashing into a wooden half-wall that separates two tracks. It splinters, and he plunges through to the other side, kicking up a plume of dust that pollutes the air. I swing my sword, slicing through the minotaur’s belly. The animal bellows and charges forward. He runs straight into a pipe running along the top of the tunnel, ripping through the steel. Water sprays out, turning the ground into a muddy mess and instantly soaking us.

Greer shoots off her arrows with an astounding speed as the beast goes after Lark. She’s ready for him with her staff. Lark attacks the creature, slamming her staff into his stomach, then cracking it against his knees. The minotaur bellows and Lark slams the staff under his chin. His head snaps back. The beast's horns scrape against the ceiling, and cement rains down.

Wren’s whip doesn’t do much but offer distraction. She’s trying to snap the chain around the amulet, but all she’s doing is pissing him off. Drake swings the flail, smashing it into the creature’s shoulder. I slide through the mud, slipping between the minotaur’s legs. I hook my hand around the creature’s leg, spinning my body so I can slice behind his knees. Only, they’re not really knees. Now he’s really angry.

The minotaur lifts one hoofed foot and kicks it back, connecting with my chest and sending me flying toward that mother fucking third rail.

“Atlas,” Wren cries out, her body crashing into mine from the side. The force changes our direction, propelling me away from the live rail. Wren lands on top of me with a grunt.

“You don’t have to tackle me to get on top. All you have to do is ask.”

Wren huffs, but presses a kiss to my lips, regardless of the fact that there’s blood on the corner of my mouth. “Now is not the time to develop a personality.”

I bark out a laugh. No one has ever made me laugh like this woman. Even in the most inappropriate situations.

“Can you two snuggle later? We’ve kind of got a situation on our hands here,” Greer snarls at us as she shoots off another arrow. With a frustrated sound, she lifts her bow and flings the whole thing at the minotaur. It smacks him right in the face. “I ran out of arrows.” Greer shrugs.

Wren hops up and holds out her hand to pull me to my feet. I rub at my chest where the beast’s hoof connected. Fuck, that hurts, but nothing is going to keep me from getting this amulet.

A couple of months ago, I never would have imagined myself here. Yes, I was working with the Underground, and we were fighting daily to help people and to figure out how we could wrestle some power from the gods and the clerics. Secret food drops, smuggling families out of Zeus and Hera’s territory and into safer spaces like Athena and, ironically, Ares’s territory. These were small things I could help with, but it was never enough. We never had the ability to create lasting change. To really have an impact.

Then Wren was thrown into my life. She may not have wanted to be in the amphitheater that day, but the fates came together and brought her there. They put in motion a series of events that could end up changing the world. The whole godsdamn world.

I never even imagined a Fury would fall into our laps, but for it to be Wren? I have to believe the fates had a hand in setting up the pieces on the chessboard. Because this woman has become so much more than a means to an end, a tool to help the masses. She’s become the world that I’ve been trying to save. The life I’ve longed to live. The reason I have to fight when shit gets hard and giving up is so much easier. She’s everything I never knew I was missing in my life. Everything I never dared to dream of.

“How bad are you hurt?” Wren darts a glance at me and then back to the minotaur who’s about to charge Greer.

“I’m good.” I can’t stop staring at this incredible woman. My Fury, my fate.

“You look like you swallowed a fistful of glass.”

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