The Warrior God (The Ares Trials #1) - Eliza Raine Page 0,37

Lords around her, aroused and hungry, filled my head and a hissing snarl escaped my mouth. I changed direction, heading for the large doors of the tower. I did not care if Pain had the satisfaction of causing me to leave my own feast. I was done for the night.

16

Bella

“Oh dear. The goddess of love has upset my brother. Again.” Eris gulped down more of her drink as I watched Ares storm out of the tower doors.

“Are they friends?” I asked, as casually as I could.

“Why? You interested?”

I gave a slightly too loud snort. “Hell no. I mean, he’s hot. Like really hot. But so is everyone here.” Too much delicious fizzy wine had followed too much delicious rich food, and I was feeling dangerously talkative.

Joshua. Lords of War. Manipulative goddesses with massive boobs. Remember what’s at stake. Keep it together, Bella.

“Well that’s true. Folk are either gorgeous or half wild-animal in Olympus. Although I suppose some men are a bit of both.” She waggled her eyebrows at me and I laughed.

I knew I shouldn’t, but a large part of me couldn’t help liking the Goddess of Chaos. I mean, I wouldn’t tell her my secrets, but I’d sure as hell party with her.

“Do you have a partner?” I asked her.

“Many.”

“Oh.”

“One of the perks of being immortal.”

“I’d have thought that would make it harder to find love,” I said.

“Love? Gods, I thought you were less naive than that, sweetie,” she exclaimed. “Love is a concept best left to those less... volatile. And anyway, it’s dull.”

“How can you find anything in a world like this dull?” I asked her. She gave me a long look.

“Sweetie, I thrive on discord. Shit going wrong. Look around you. With Hades and Poseidon in charge and ‘Oceanus the long-lost Titan’ playing nice, there’s not a lot for me to do. Zeus fucking things up for a while was excellent, but now he’s gone. You, and these new Ares Trials are the most exciting thing to have happened around here in a while.”

“Well, I can’t wait to see the rest of Olympus,” I said, draining what was left in my glass. When I looked back at Eris, she had a strange, almost pitying look on her face.

“I’m starting to hope you get the chance,” she said eventually. “Tell me about your world, where you grew up.”

“Sorry, I’d better follow armor-boy,” I said. “He may be a giant asshole, but we’re kinda bound to each other until this is over.”

“He’ll just be sulking in his room; stay and have another drink.”

I eyed her, her smile too wide, her eyes too narrow. I wasn’t drunk enough or stupid enough to trust her, no matter how much I liked her company. “Thanks, but no. See you later.”

Before we had left for the feast, my bag and new leather armor had been left in a plush room in a small but grand tower I was informed was called a caravanserai. Basically a Erimosian hotel. As I stepped out of the tower to make my way back there, I saw that the bright sunlight had disappeared completely, and although I could see no actual moon above me, a cold blue light that could easily be assumed as moonlight glinted off the embedded gems in the buildings around me. The streets were busier now than they had been earlier, many more young men and women leaning against walls of buildings, offering ‘exotic delights’ or ‘magnificent returns’ or ‘wild rides’. The buildings I had assumed to be drinking establishments earlier had humans and creatures alike streaming in and out of them, some looking elated, more looking desperate. I channeled my best ‘back the fuck up, I’m a badass even though I’m not dressed like one’ energy. Everyone I was passing was armed, and all either wore clothing appropriate for a desert, or barely anything at all.

“Well if you don’t have it by this time tomorrow, we’ll have to find another way for you to pay,” snarled a voice from the darkness between two buildings on my right. There was a loud slapping sound, and a gurgled shout. I forced myself to carry on. I wasn’t there to meddle in other’s business.

But the knowledge of an impending fight called to me, and my feet slowed of their own accord. Someone screamed, shrill and loud, and a man’s laugh accompanied it.

I stopped walking.

“This is no business of yours, little girl,” rumbled a voice far too close to me, and I leaped to the side, away