The Warrior God (The Ares Trials #1) - Eliza Raine Page 0,53
most beautiful woman in the world was not even comparable to Bella. Clearly what I was feeling was a product of my situation. When I had my power back, my mind would strengthen again, and Aphrodite would love me again.
“Why don’t the fighters live under here anymore?”
“They chose to live in their own camps.” For once, I was grateful for her questions distracting me.
“Huh. I can understand that,” Bella nodded. “If I was a slave, I wouldn’t want to live under rock. You’d feel more trapped wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know,” I answered.
“What do you mean you don’t know? Think about it, if you were told you had no freedom at all, and you had to do everything someone else told you to, including fight for your life, you’d already be pretty miserable, right?”
“I- I don’t know. I have never considered it.” She gaped at me.
“Your realm allows slavery and you’ve ‘never considered it’?”
“Well... No.”
“Then consider it right now! Consider a life where you are somebody’s damned toy! How can you never have put yourself in their shoes?”
“I don’t need to. I’m a God.”
“You’re a ruler. These people are your responsibility.”
“That is not how my world works. I let every King or Queen rule as they wish. It is not easy to earn a kingdom and it is even harder to hold on to one. They deserve to rule as they like.” I folded my arms, satisfied with my answer.
“Survival of the fittest,” she said thoughtfully. “I think it’s wrong.”
Anger surged through me. “You have been here two days! How can you possibly think you know more than me about my own world?”
“I don’t, but it appears you’re incapable of empathy. So you’re not fit to rule.”
Red tinged my vision. “You dare to tell me I am unfit to rule?”
“Until you consider what it is like to live the life your subjects do, yes. If you can imagine what they go through every day and still decide to rule that way, then that’s different. I mean, you’d be an asshole, but a better ruler.”
“Stop calling me that.” Every time she used that word a frisson of energy moved all the way down my spine. I thought it was anger, but somehow the fact that she felt strongly enough about me to use such a word was oddly satisfying.
I didn’t like it at all.
She shrugged and finished her drink. “I’m just saying, in a world like this you wouldn’t have a problem filling the fighting pits with people who actually wanted to be there. Slavery is not necessary. You’d see that if you could understand what it would be like to be someone’s slave.”
Her words buzzed loudly in my mind. Sometimes, on my dark days, I did feel like someone else owned me. And I hated it. I instantly dismissed the thought though. Aphrodite loved me, she did not treat me as a slave. I made her happy when we made love. That was not the relationship of slave and master. I shook my head.
“You are infuriating,” I said.
“I’m feeling better,” she answered.
“Knock knock,” called my sister’s voice from the open doorway, before she strode in. “Not interrupting, are we?”
“How do you make your hair stay up on top of your head like that?” asked Bella, cocking her head at Eris’ mountain of curls.
“How is that important?” I asked her incredulously. The girl was insane. “Will you ever stop asking questions?”
Eris laughed. “I’ll show you one day. If you survive this.” I heard the undercurrent of nerves in her voice. And she was right to have them. Bella didn’t seem to be aware of how unlikely it was that we could defeat a magical creature without any power at all. More guilt and shame trickled through me. It was my fault. Getting so caught up in that blissful feeling of her magic might cost us our lives. And now I had asked her to join me in a fight I wasn’t sure we could win. If she died, it would be my fault completely.
But I’d seen her fight and the truth was, I had a better chance of winning with her than without her.
When I’d had my power I would not have mourned the loss of one human in a bid to strengthen myself. I had to be strong, like I used to be. I had to win back Aphrodite’s respect.
And besides, if Bella found out how she became human, I would have to kill her anyway, before she killed me.