Page 18 of Deadly Games
I looked back at the portal as she stared at him in confusion and realized the light was dimmer than it had been moments earlier. “We should go back.”
It took her a moment to look over at me, but she nodded. “Yeah, we should. Goodbye, Ares.”
“For now,” he said, touching her cheek. I told myself it was just my imagination that the stone around her neck seemed to grow lighter, but stranger things had happened in this place. “Safe journeys.”
Ares paused, his gaze settling on me. “Take care of her, son of Fenris.”
It was the first time in so long I’d been addressed that way, and the contradicting pride and disdain it stirred within me were as confusing as they had been back then. “Always,” I said, putting a hand on Kore’s shoulder to lead her through. “Ready?”
She glanced back at Ares one last time and nodded, turning toward the looming portal. With a deep breath, she stepped through and I followed her.
Ares’ words the moment the others had come out were still at the forefront of my mind, and as I walked through the portal, I felt them carving themselves into my soul. I hadn’t understood what they meant at the time, but in the eternal instant I spent inside that timeless space between the Ether and reality, I understood perfectly.
“You are a product of two worlds, and in the end, you will have to choose one.”
As soon as the realization settled in, it fled me. So did everything else.
Chapter 9
Kore
I opened my eyes with a gasp and as the night air filled my lungs, it felt like coming back from the dead for the second time. Was this what it felt like to be born? The trauma of being ripped out of a transient state of being and thrust into a world that was cold and bright and relentlessly solid.
As I caught my breath, I was vaguely aware of a blanket being wrapped around my shoulders and someone talking to me. There was a flurry of chaos and I looked around, realizing I was back on the arena stage, surrounded by my classmates who’d taken the same elixir that I had.
Dionysus was still asleep on the cot beside me, and judging from the troubled look on his beautiful features, he was experiencing a strange world of his own.
It occurred to me as reality began to creep back in that I was the only one who was awake. Hades, Fenrir and Loki were still unconscious on the other side of the stage, and the sight of them here in the real world made me doubt everything that had just transpired.
Before I could fully process what was going on, I became aware of someone standing right beside me and jolted when I saw that it was Odin. I could tell from the look of displeasure in his eyes that he’d been hoping for an entirely different outcome. Any other outcome, really, but he was professional enough to keep his disdain to himself.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have our victor,” he said, grabbing my hand and thrusting it into the air for all to see. “The winner of the Games is Kore.”
The stunned audience erupted in applause and cries of celebration at the permission his words gave. For the first time since I’d come to this school, I was the center of attention for a non-malicious reason.
I couldn’t even respond properly. The lights were still too much, and I could hardly see anything more than the hazy blur of the crowd. My ears were still ringing, and if I lingered on my dismay for too long, I was sure I’d be sick all over the stage.
I turned back at the sound of a familiar voice and saw Hades sitting up from his cot. He pushed away the medics who tried to assist him, of course, and seemed to have a much easier time of standing than I did. Daphne and Fenrir were starting to stir as well, but everyone else was still out cold.
Hades’ gaze met mine and in that one silent moment, I knew everything that had happened in the Ether was real. Meeting my father, discovering the truth about his banishment, the night of passion I’d spent with Hades and Loki… Most of all, the plan we had agreed to undertake that now seemed all the more possible in the cold dawn of reality.
I was sure that losing to me was just about the last thing Hades had ever wanted to happen, but I couldn’t even enjoy the victory. Not when I never would have made it back without him and the others.
Maybe Ares was right. Maybe we needed each other more than we thought, and the connection between us ran deeper than any of us knew.
Everything that followed the Games happened in a blur. I was taken backstage along with the other newly awakened contestants and when a stagehand gave me a bottle of water, I drained it in record time. It seemed I’d overcome my aversion after the whole drowning incident.
I wanted to go over to Hades, to confirm that he and I shared the same bizarre memories of the Ether, but I didn’t get the chance between the school photographer snapping photos and the medics asking me to count how many fingers they were holding up.
Just as I thought I was free from the circus, a familiar voice sent a shiver down my spine.
“Kore,” my mother cried, pushing her way through the crowd backstage. She looked as regal as ever, even in her panic. When she approached me, taking my face in her hands, I realized the golden wreath had been placed on my head without realizing it. It felt strangely heavy now that I was aware of it. “Darling, are you alright?”
For a long moment, all I could do was stare at her. Seeing Ares had somehow made me see her in a different light, even though I didn’t yet understand what it was. She seemed like the one who existed in another world out of reach, and in a way, as short as our time had been together, I felt like I knew him more than I’d ever known her.
I wanted to ask her so many questions. To demand her to confess whether she knew the true reason Cronus had banished my father, and how she’d kept the truth of his identity from me for so many years. Most of all, if she did know everything, I wanted to ask how she ever could have deigned to marry me off to the treasonous god’s son.
All those questions were on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them. Even if she told me the truth, as unlikely as that was, I wasn’t sure I was ready to handle it.
