“You think you can keep these bastards between us and Heracles?” I ask Draven.
“I’ll stay as wide right as I can so they can’t get on the other side.” He grips the reins.
“We can both block the left side to take them out faster,” I whisper.
The men in the chariot next to ours are leering at me and Raven and licking rotten teeth. That’s just outright disgusting. I glance over my shoulder at Jayden whose shadows are swirling around him in a chaotic mess of anger.
“It’s okay, baby,” I yell to him. “They won’t have eyes in a few minutes.”
Jayden smirks at the men who scoff and chuckle like what I said couldn’t possibly be true. I crack the whip experimentally and sparks swirling black and white bounce from the ground outside the chariot. Shit. That’s new.
“They won’t have tongues either,” Raven says. “That display was revolting.”
“You think you can play chariot race with real warriors, girl? I’ll show you what we do to women who think they can handle a real man and win,” the defender closest to us jeers. “I’ll make you use that tongue for other things.”
Jayden lunges as Adrian and Thad grip his arms to hold him inside the shield Apollo made for them. I shake my head at him, begging him to stay where he is and not lose control. I roll my eyes at myself as I remember our mind link.
Stay calm, baby. You know I’ve got this. My whip will pluck their eyes from their ugly skulls. Or I can electrocute him in his tiny dick.
Make them suffer, my love.Jayden smirks as the others glance between us, but he finally calms and Adrian and Thad release him.
“On your mark,” Apollo bellows.
Raven and I take our positions shoulder to shoulder, hiding Draven completely on the left side. If he can keep us against the wall of the arena, we can completely defend him on both sides. It’s the perfect positioning and the perfect plan.
Heracles nods and I take that to mean he knows what we’re up to and is willing to herd the competitors to us so we can keep the right side blocked. At least for now. Once the others are out of the way, all bets are off.
“Let the mayhem begin,” Apollo cackles.
The man in the chariot next to us lunges for me, anger and something else in his eyes as he makes a grab for me. I lash out with my whip and swirling sparks slash across his eyes. He screams, loses his balance, and falls to the ground beneath the wheels of his own chariot. There’s a sickening crack and the body dissolves.
“The driver isn’t fully protected,” Raven says with a grin.
“Shove the end of the javelin into the spokes of their wheel. It might throw them off-balance enough to go flying out of the chariot,” I say as I ready my whip for my attack.
I flick my crackling whip and it wraps around the driver’s throat. I pull it back with all of my strength, even as the man screams and gurgles. He claws at the whip to get free and the reins slip from his hands.
The horses rear and unsettle the chariot. The man defending the other side crashes into the other defenders’ chariot and is impaled on their defenders’ sword. He dissolves into nothing, going back to Hades.
“First blood and the first losing chariot goes to Beth, daughter of Zeus,” Apollo shouts.
“Well, they aren’t underestimating us anymore, B. Thanks, Apollo,” Raven grumbles.
I shoot the other competitors a savage grin and flick my whip at the ties to the horses, cutting them loose. The chariot stops as the horses run off the track and through the door at the end of the arena, vanishing from sight.
The chariot next to us is giving us a wide berth, not closing the gap left by the previous chariot, which gives me a few seconds to breathe before Heracles’ chariot driver swerves to his right, forcing the others to either crash into each other or close the gap.
The chariot swerves and the right defender curses as he holds up his sword to block my strike, either forgetting what I did with my whip before or just not thinking.
My whip flies toward his sword arm and he shouts in pain as sparks dance along his skin where it wraps around his forearm. I yank him forward, and his sword clatters to the ground beneath the chariot.
“Oops. Looks like you lost your sword,” I say.
“Beth, look out,” Draven yells as a ball of magic hurtles toward me.
I throw up my shield at the last second but my concentration shifts from the opponent in front of me and that costs me. A small blade glints in the man’s other hand, and he slashes it at my stomach. I twist but the blade still knicks my skin, sending a trail of fire across my nerve endings.
“Fuck,” I yelp and stumble back, clutching my stomach.
