Page 113 of Crown of Olympus
Ialmostmissed the slight dip of her chin — if I hadn’t been watching her at that precise moment, I would have. Perhaps Fate intended for me to see it. Perhaps it was simple coincidence.
Leander bellowed and lunged again, but something in his face had shifted. Gone was the humiliated champion seeking a second chance — for his father, for himself. The god that stood before me now was all lethal predator with a singular, deadly focus.
And his sights were set on me.
Leander was no longer satisfied to see me yield — if he ever was in the first place. No, now he wanted me dead. I could practically taste his murderous intent, sharp and metallic in the air. His swings and jabs were more forceful now, less calculated. He did not pause for breath, did not hold any reservations. He was just a force of raw and wild aggression, chipping away at my defences with every landed blow.
Finally, perhaps inevitably, his trident connected with devastating impact. The force of the strike knocked me to the ground, its silver prongs digging into the edge of my ribs. Pain and panic stole the breath from my lungs. Terror held me in its grip, and a gurgled whimper escaped before I could stop it.
The sky roared — maybe in warning, maybe in anguish. Or maybe it was a white-haired god. Rain pelted down as Leander flashed a sinister grin, stalking towards me. He used his powerto shape the droplets into fine needles, sinking into my skin like tiny barbs. Hundreds of them.
Caelus was unwittingly arming him.
Every breath became a battle; every inhale, a tiny victory — until Leander drove his knee into my chest and ended the war altogether.
He huffed with ragged breaths as sweat and raindrops beaded along his brow. From his belt he withdrew a small bronze dagger and pressed it against my throat. He leaned in closer, the blade cutting in.
“This is from Hera,” he whispered, for my ears alone.
Leander pressed harder. The blade sank in.
Fight!Velira screeched into my mind.
Fight.
The word triggered something in a hidden part of my unconscious mind. Something deep. Ancient. Something I locked away years ago.
With a raw, wordless shout, I conjured my shadows. All of them. They slithered from my open palms, my parted lips, my hollow eyes — coiling around Leander’s hand and the dagger he held.
His eyes widened. His head jerked back. I felt my skin tighten — my skull, no doubt, shining through.
Good. I hope he pisses himself in fear before I’m through.
I grasped his fingers and drove my power through his skin. It delved in — deeper than flesh, deeper than muscle, deeper than bone — down to his core. It was easy to find his festering soul, curled up like a starving beast in a cage. Emaciated. Twisted. Furious. Bottomless black eyes starving for his pound of flesh.
My power coiled around it, winding and wrapping until naught but those eyes were visible.
Then, I pulled.
It was scary how effortless it was — as instinctive as blinking.
I tore Leander’s soul right out of his body and devoured it whole — my own black soul inhaling his — ingesting his power, his life force. Erasing him from any plane of existence.
His body, now devoid of life, froze mid-breath. His pupils were blown wide, golden tears leaking from his sockets. His skin was drained of any colour, his face frozen in a portrait of fear.
And then he toppled over.
I was being crushed beneath the weight of a dead god. All I could hear was the racing thrum of my heartbeat pounding through my ears — even the crowd had gone silent, broken only by the desperate cry of a sea god.
At last, I shoved Leander’s body aside and rose to my feet, my laboured breaths weaving around the cries of Poseidon.
I retrieved Nightbreaker from where she’d lain next to me, gasped my broken, ichor-slicked breaths, and turned to face my last adversary.
Athena was unscathed from her tousle with Diana. She stood firm, sword at the ready, watching. Waiting.
But before I could even fall in her direction, the goddess of warfare and wisdom sheathed her weapon and bowed gracefully.
“I yield,” she said loudly, her declaration echoing through the arena.
