Page 44 of Dark Gods
The instructor shrugged. "As long as you're both the only ones in the arena."
I realized Daphne and Helle had stopped sparring to watch us. They quickly moved from the arena and I grimaced, realizing there was no way I could get out of this and save face.
"Is something wrong?" Hades asked smugly. "You're not afraid to use your power, are you?"
He knew. The bastard fucking knew and he was trying to force me to have a meltdown in front of everyone.
So much for keeping Fenrir's confidence. He obviously didn't feel obliged to do the same.
I gripped the hilt of my blade as tightly as I clenched my jaw and tossed it aside. "Let's go," I said, letting the vines break through my skin and coil around my wrists. As long as I stayed focused, I figured I should be fine. It wasn't the first time I had used my power in a fight, and those were street fights where playing dirty was the expectation, not the exception. If I couldn't take out some preppy goth, who the hell even was I?
I was sick of not knowing the answer to that question anymore. This Academy, this prick in front of me, they were one and the same. Neither of them had a soul, but they were both content to suck in other people's.
I refused to back down anymore. I refused to keep suppressing and filing off the things that made meme.
An arc of blue fire formed around Hades, and twin tongues of it leaped into his palms after he'd discarded his own weapon. I held off, knowing he'd fire first. He couldn't resist.
The moment he did, I rolled to the other side of the arena and let him think he had me on the run. I had a sudden burst of adrenaline and I planned on using it to test the limits of his flame. I soon realized it grew weaker the further the attack had to reach, so I stayed back and danced around, making him expend all his energy just trying to keep up with me.
The look of frustration in his eyes told me it was working. It felt good to be the one pulling the strings for a change.
"Enough," he growled, throwing up a great wall of fire behind me. I barely stopped before I collided with it, but at least now I knew hecouldmount a stronger attack at a distance when he needed to. "You want to play, or you want to fight?"
"What's the matter? Running out of stamina?" I asked dryly, feeling the vibrations of the vine I'd sent under the ground travel toward him as it broke through the earth. All I had to do was keep him talking long enough. "If you wanted me to finish you off, all you had to do was ask."
His eyes narrowed in confusion and he raised his hand, presumably to create another wall of fire, when my vine broke through the earth. By the time Hades noticed it coiling around his ankle, it was too late. I relished the way his eyes widened as the vine shot up from the ground and dangled him a few feet in the air before his flame consumed it.
It stung. I was always connected to the vines I'd created enough to feel pain, but it was so worth it. Hades hit the ground and gave me a murderous look, letting me know the time for playing games was over.
Good with me. If he wasn't holding back, neither would I.
I felt the white hot heat of his flame building behind me and rushed out of its path, always just out of reach of the fire licking at my heels. It singed the hem of my skirt and a sheen of sweat formed on my forehead, but the adrenaline rush had me feeling alive in a way I hadn’t in… forever.
It was a shame the chemistry we had on the battlefield only spilled over into hatred in the real world.
He had me on the run and I knew if it kept up, I’d end up being pushed out of the arena, so it was time to pull out all the stops. It was clear that whatever had happened in the garden was triggered by my emotion, not my gift, and oddly enough, I’d never felt better. I turned to face Hades as his wall of flame danced toward me and raised my hand, sprouting a great oak tree from the earth. Power and adrenaline coursed through my veins, overflowing with ecstasy, and I felt something taking over as his blue flame died down on impact.
“Holy shit,” Daphne cried.
It was the first I’d remembered we weren’t alone, and as green vines whipped around me like Medusa’s serpents, I was hungry for more. “Is that all you’ve got?” I asked in a voice that didn’t quite sound like my own. It was rougher. More seductive than I’d intended, and Hades’ eyes widened almost imperceptibly.
He had been caught off-guard by the move, but he was ready now. Blue flames lapped in his palm and there was steel in his gaze. The lust that flared within me might as easily have been for his flesh as it was for his power, but I was losing track of the difference.
Something was taking over again, and I only realized it had the same aftertaste of the darkness that had claimed me in the garden when it was too late to turn back.
The only difference was that this time, I didn’t want to.
22
Hades
“Something’s wrong,” Daphne called from the sidelines as Kore came at me, sleek green vines shooting out in all directions. “She’s not herself.”
I failed to dodge one of the vines in time and it sliced into my chest. It was then that I realized all the vines were covered in thorns as sharp as any blade.
“No shit,” I muttered, jumping out of the way of another attack.
There was clearly something wrong, not the least of all because her eyes were glowing a vivid green that looked like flames. She didn’t sound like herself, either. I’d sensed the shift in energy the moment she threw that next attack and at first, I thought it was just another level of her power, but now I wasn’t sure.
