The Warrior God (The Ares Trials #1) - Eliza Raine Page 0,75

the heat inside me as I fell through the air, willing anything to break my fall. I let out a gasp of relief as I hit a cushion of soft air, and then rolled off it, landing on the sandy ground.

“How did you do that?” growled Ares’ voice, but I barely heard him over the roar of the crowd and the blood pounding in my ears. I launched myself to my feet, whirling to face him.

“You asshole!” I screamed at him, rage like I had never experienced filling me. I was glowing again, bright and fierce, and I was holding Ischyros at Ares’ chest. “I trusted you, and you were going to do it again! You were going to leave me empty and broken!” I was furious. And I knew, deep-down, that the betrayal was worse because of whatever we shared. Telling myself over and over that nothing could happen between us had not changed the longing in my core, the belief that something was meant to exist between us.

But his actions had shattered everything.

“It was the quickest way to win the fight and get it over with,” Ares said, only just loudly enough for me to hear him. “You would have recovered.”

“No! I don’t give a shit about your excuses, you know how it feels to be stripped of your power! You know!” I could feel hot tears of rage and frustration welling behind my eyes, burning. Please gods, don’t let me fucking cry in front of him. I drew harder on the rage, and my skin glowed brighter.

“I didn’t know you had the power to defeat him yourself. I didn’t know you were this strong. How were you hiding it from me?”

“Hiding it from you? Are you fucking serious? You don’t get to accuse me of anything, you lying bastard!”

Fire was dancing in his eyes, but there were no drums. And rather than call to me, I felt nothing but the need to douse the flames.

“I made a strategic decision.”

“I fucking hate you.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I loathed how much they made me sound like a petulant teenager. Or a betrayed lover. “I will never, ever share my magic with you. You don’t deserve a fucking drop of power, you selfish, arrogant-” My tirade was cut off as the Lords of War flashed into existence around us, Terror clapping his marble hands together slowly.

Pain’s voice boomed through the pit. “Ares and Bella win the first Trial! We’ll find out what my esteemed brother, Panic, has in store for them shortly.” The crowd continued to roar and cheer, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Ares. How could he? After fighting alongside me, nursing me, fucking kissing me, I genuinely hadn’t believed he would leave me unconscious and drained in the ring a second time.

“Shall we continue this elsewhere?” said Terror silkily. “Much as Olympus loves a bit of drama, we should keep some things to ourselves.”

Yet more light flashed around us and we were all in the box at the top of the pit.

“Stop fucking doing that!” I yelled, rounding on Pain. “I’m sick to death of being flashed all over the place without anyone telling me!”

“It looks like you’ll be able to do it yourself soon,” Pain answered with a smile. “You’re a fast learner.”

“And you’re as much of an asshole as him. Send me back to the caravanserai, now.”

I needed to be somewhere I could let off this rage, immediately. My temperature was at fever pitch, my blood feeling like it was actually boiling. One more minute in the company of these dishonest maniacs, and I would lose my shit completely. And now that I was glowing and had a big fucking sword, that seemed like a seriously bad idea.

“Do you not want to see your friend before you go?” asked Terror.

I froze. “What?”

“Well you’ve done so well already,” he said smoothly. “We feel you deserve a reward.”

Alarm bells rang in my head as I stared at his stone face, the black swirling across it. There was no way these men wanted to help or reward me.

“We’ve decided that as you weren’t the one challenged to the Trials in the first place, you should be given the chance to catch the demon yourself. You don’t need to compete.”

They were trying to separate me and Ares. They knew he would lose if he didn’t have me.

I looked at the God of War. He stared back at me from under his helmet, and I couldn’t identify the emotion churning in his eyes.

And I didn’t care.

“How?” I demanded, turning back to the Lords. Terror waved his hand, and a large circular part of the air between us shimmered and rippled. As I stared, the rippling cleared, and the room full of stone beds came into focus. The beds were all empty, but I was sure it was the same room.

“Just step though. If you catch or kill the demon yourself, I suppose Ares can’t complete Oceanus’ quest and won’t get his power back. But you’ll be able to save your friend before something happens to him.”

My heart was galloping in my chest, a million emotions crashing into each other in my head. I looked back to Ares. If I stepped through that portal I was basically signing his death warrant.

But hadn’t he just been willing to do the same? To leave my life to chance? He might survive the Trials without power. He wasn’t exactly weak. I looked through the portal. I could see blood, dried onto the stone beds, and a vision of Joshua with his glassy dead eyes and bleeding chest filled my mind.

If I had the chance to save him now, I had to take it.

I opened my mouth, the impulse to tell Ares I was sorry rising in me fast. But as I looked at him, the rage swelled again. He had tried to drain me. Again. After swearing not to. He cared nothing for me.

And I owed him nothing.

Gripping Ischyros tightly in my hand, I stepped through the portal.

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