The Warrior God (The Ares Trials #1) - Eliza Raine Page 0,52
to work with me, instead of getting us both killed, we could likely give them a show to remember.
“After this test, we need to talk properly about my power. And you are never, ever to drain me like that again.”
I saw him bristle at being spoken to so authoritatively, the muscles in his jaw working. “It was an accident,” he said eventually.
“Is that you swearing not to do it again? ‘Cos it didn’t sound like it.”
His eyes locked on mine and a new intensity burned in his irises. I couldn’t tell if it was anger or regret or something else completely, but whatever it was he was feeling it hard. I resisted the urge to look away.
“I swear,” he said, through gritted teeth.
“Fine. I... I’m very tired,” I said, tearing my eyes from his uncomfortable gaze and swinging my legs awkwardly over the table. I tested my weight on them. My thighs felt like I had run three marathons and my feet throbbed, but I could stand. “I don’t actually know how much help I can be.”
“Have more nectar. It should take effect before the next fight, though it will probably not have time to restore your magic.” He moved toward me, leaning close to pick up my empty stone cup. It was impossible not to notice that he smelled of fresh sweat and sand and metal. I closed my eyes a second, getting a grip on myself, then pivoted to watch him move to another table in the long room, where a jug stood.
He poured me a drink and passed it over, and I drank, relieved to have something to concentrate on. My stomach was tying itself in knots. Residual adrenaline, anticipation for the next fight and lingering shame at my public display of weakness all crowded for space in my head. But the thing that was taking up the most space in my fuzzy brain, the thing stamping around and sending my rational thoughts scattering?
Bone-deep confusion over the mountain of muscle kicking at the sand before me.
What he had just done was selfish, dangerous, and made me so angry that I thought I was going to explode. But I was connected to him somehow, in a way that made everything else lose its sense.
22
Ares
“What is this place?” Bella asked me, as she sipped more nectar.
“It is where the fighters used to eat when they lived under the pits,” I told her. The remnants of her power were still coursing through me, and just keeping my voice level wasn’t easy. To feel the blissful elation of speed and strength and movement when I’d been fighting the cyclopes and drawing on her magic... I had told her the truth. I had never meant to drain her of all her power and energy.
But now I was worried that my lack of power was doing something else to me. This girl meant nothing to me, yet an alien feeling was gripping my entire chest every time I looked at her now.
Guilt.
I felt guilty about what I had done to her.
Before Zeus stole my power, I would not have given a second thought to it. I didn’t kill her, I just left her weak, so that I may demonstrate my power. Bask in glory. That was what I did best. So why did I feel like I had done something wrong?
Because I knew the shame she would have felt, collapsing weak to the ground. I knew the thrill of the fight that I had denied her. I understood it in a way that only she and I could.
I shook off the thought, disliking what it might mean. My lack of power must have been affecting my head, as well as my body. It was making me weak everywhere. I could not afford to worry about others, when I had such a difficult goal to achieve.
But that was exactly why I did have to worry about her. As much as I hated it, I couldn’t do this alone.
I just wished it wasn’t her. I wished that the fire in her eyes didn’t linger there in my memories for hours after each fight I had with her. I wished that I didn’t hear the drums of war every time she lost her temper. I wished that her fierce tenacity didn’t spark respect inside me.
No, my feelings were wrong. So wrong. She was a human. An annoying, tiny human. I compared her to Aphrodite in my mind, picturing the two side-by-side. The Goddess of Love and