“Obviously it is because I am bleeding before your eyes.” I wipe the blood from my face with my sleeve. “You were lied to and set up to fail by your own people.”
“No, I may not be able to kill you because you’re a goddess now, but I can hurt your friends.” Aphrodite disappears and reappears a second later, holding Raven up by her hair. “Surrender now or your friend here will pay the ultimate price.”
18
“Don’t Beth,” Draven calls out. “She may be unconscious, but when Raven wakes up and finds out that you gave yourself up for her, she and Jayden will drag your ass back from the underworld, and you know it.”
Greyson roars, thrashing in the golden net to no avail. We can’t lose Raven. Greyson will become something far worse than the rogue king if Raven dies.
“But I can’t just let her die.” I shout over Greyson’s howling and snarling.
“As soon as we have the hammer, this ends,” Draven says. “Kira will be back soon, and then we leave just like every other time we’ve gotten an item of power back.”
“Ticktock, little godling. Your friend or your freedom?” Aphrodite sneers. “That’s what it comes down to. What do you value more? Your friendship with her or your freedom from the queen?”
“Don’t listen to her, Beth. She can’t beat you on her own so she’s down to bargaining your surrender. It’s pathetic.” Dravensmashes his fist into the ground. “It’s not like she’ll live up to her end of the deal anyway. We’re all on the queen’s kill list.”
“Are you calling my honor into question, child?” She sends a blast of glitter magic at Draven, but it can’t penetrate the net and bounces off in a puff of magic sparkles.
“You have no honor.” Draven laughs. “It’s hilarious that you think you do. What happened to make your husband capture you in this very net? You were dishonorable.”
“Draven, I don’t think this is a good idea,” I whisper shout at him.
“I disagree. Just watch.” He winks at me.
I turn back to the crazy goddess. Her face has turned an ugly shade of tomato red, and her hand is shaking in Raven’s hair. Maybe Draven is right. That was her most humiliating moment in her existence.
“I was forced to marry a hideous male who was disfigured because his mother dropped him out of Olympus as an infant. Me. The goddess of love and beauty was saddled with a freak. Of course I cheated on him. All men want me,” she screams.
She tosses Raven to the side as she raises both hands to attack Draven again. Hades’ shield sits heavy in my hand and I command the shadows silently to cover both me and Draven. I raise one hand and a blast of lightning hits Aphrodite, but she absorbs the blow, only twitching slightly as she lets loose a powerful blast of glitter that knocks me off my feet.
I roll with the blast over to cover Raven and transport us both behind the golden net.
“Draven, you good?” I ask.
“Yeah, I just wish Kira would hurry the fuck up so we can get out of here.” Draven shakes his head.
“Agreed.” I glance up at the cave still pulsing with Hephaestus’ power. “We need to keep her busy a little longer.”
“Wow, that was one self-centered rant if I’ve ever heard one. Don’t you think about anyone but yourself?” Draven asks. “You say you have honor.”
Aphrodite’s eyes blaze gold with fury and I pray to the gods that he hasn’t taken this too far. We can only push a goddess so far before they decide to incinerate us where we stand.
I hold up both hands, letting my magic build up as she splutters. I will only have one shot at her, but seeing as how she can transport too as a goddess, I’m banking on her forgetting that detail in her rage.
“Who else should I care about other than myself? Beauty is everything and I am the most beautiful. I should be at the top of everything but no. Everyone looks down on me.”
“Better than everything, huh? If you’re better than the queen, why help her overthrow Zeus? You should be queen, right? That’s what you’re saying.” Draven pushes.
My eyes widen as I whip my head in Draven’s direction. He’s sowing dissent among the ranks. It’s smart. I wish I had thought of it.
“Yes, I should be queen but since I can’t, I’ll help Hera win this war and overthrow the king. After I kill you all for getting in our way.” Aphrodite raises her hands, ready to blast fire at us again, but I’m a second faster and blast her back with all the electricity I’ve got left.
The goddess flies back, smacking a tree with a loudthwackso hard the bark breaks behind her. “You’re going to pay for that, you little whore.”
“That’s hilarious coming from you.” I chuckle.
“You stole the son of Hades right out from under my poor Mia,” she snarls. “He should have been with beauty. Instead, he chose you.”
