Page 81 of Curse the Flame

It’s not enough. Not yet, at least. Even from this distance, it’s obvious that power and magic pours out of them rather than blood. Every gesture from Oceanus sends torrents of sea water crashing through stone. Columns of white fire come from Hyperion. And it’s probably Crius who is responsible for the fragments of earth ripping loose from the mountain itself.

They’re not soldiers. They’re natural disasters wearing stone faces, and my heart beats triple-time when I dare a second to look away from them and I… I don’t see my husband.

And then it happens. Eros lands an arrow in one of the titans. In quick succession, Alex gets two. Add a pair from the goddess of the hunt and her companion and the first titan starts to crack. Instead of wounds, they’re fractures all over his marble body. He splinters, and then he explodes. Stone rains across the mountain, even making its way to the formation still on the ground.

Halfway up the mountain, the Spartan general leading the charge lets out a howl of rage. His skin glows red for a heartbeat and I know… I just know… he must be Ares.

He only has my attention for that heartbeat. Because, in the next, I see a black shadow dart across the mountain. I don’t know where he came from, but when he materializes on one of the cliffs, I instantly recognize him.

I’d know my husband anywhere.

Aiden is standing right where the first titan dropped. I don’t understand what he’s doing until I see it, and even then I’m not sure at first. Something twisted and pale rises from the shattered stone. It’s larger than Aiden, but he handles it easily as though it weighs nothing at all.

It’s in his hand, and then it’s on fire, and then it’s gone.

He took the soul of a fallen titan and used hellfire to… to…

Hades carries the Underworld wherever he goes. All of the flames come from the pits of Tartarus. All my husband did was return the terrible titan back to his cage.

Thank you, Persephone. Your color commentary could’ve come in handy a little earlier, but at least I know what I’m watching—and what I pay witness to as Aiden does it again and again.

It was inevitable. There are three of the Twelve on the mountain: Hephaestus, who is tucked in a cave somewhere, making it impossible for Ares to storm Olympus, plus Artemis and Apollo. With the added heft of Eros and Orion’s bows, plus the presence of the Lord of the Underworld himself, it’s child’s play to take out the other two titans now that they’re aware it’s possible to do so.

Aiden doesn’t have to fight. Without a bullet for his gun, it’s useless, but he doesn’t grab a bow and arrow or a sword of his own. He has his fire, but the only time he wields it is to send the titans where they belong.

And that’s when it hits me.

Death doesn’t wage wars. Death gathers the fallen. The titans first, then the Spartan soldiers that Ares is sacrificing in his quest to get to Aphrodite, Aiden is there to send them on their way to the Underworld while their numbers dwindle quickly beneath the onslaught of arrows and boobytraps, courtesy of Hephaestus.

I’d say that the battle is over before it truly begins, but I don’t think I really understood just how crazed Ares and the mortal soul that houses him is. Rather than admit defeat, Ares roars, then abandons his soldiers to his second-in-command—at least, I think that’s what he did—right before he charges the rest of the way up the mountain himself.

Aiden melts into the shadows, then appears right in Ares’s path.

The god of war raises his sword. In a voice that’s definitely more human than mythic, he howls loud enough that all of the Other can hear: “Nessa is my wife. I’ll gut you to get to her, and I’ll gut that giant fucker that stole her from me… I’ll kill the whole damn world to get what’s mine.”

In return, Aiden gives control over to Hades. His voice booms even louder as he says, “That was your mistake, Ares, son of Zeus. You threaten me, and I laugh at your insolence. But you threaten the world, and that means you threaten my wife. For that, I show no mercy.”

Uh-oh. For the god of the Underworld not to show any mercy…

Daphne and Jolie both ended up joining me at the edge of the tree line. Under my breath, I warn them both to look away in case they don’t want to witness Hades lighting Ares up on the spot.

I don’t know if they do or not. I do know, however, that I watch as Hades makes infinitely more of a statement by grabbing Ares’s human host by the throat with one hand. With the other, he reaches inside the man with one of his pale hands—and when I say inside, I mean it. He shoves his hand in, and when he pulls it back out again, he’s holding a red-tinged shade that oozes power and rage.

Just not as much as my husband does.

Aiden thrusts downward. At the same time, a shadow portal appears, and I know he’s thrown the soul of Ares into the Underworld to await judgement. I just… can you do that to a god? Why did he yank Ares out and not the mortal soul that either corrupted Ares or was corrupted by him… at this point, I’m not so sure what the hell was wrong with that Troy guy, and I can’t find it in me to ask.

Not when Aiden as Hades still isn’t done.

He tosses the human body—Troy—down onto the cliff ledge in front of him.

Proving that, whoever he is, he’s a violent idiot, Troy grabs his sword from the ground, hops to his feet, and swings it wildly at Aiden.

My heart leaps to my throat, but I shouldn’t have worried. Aiden looks bored as he sidesteps every wild thrust.

At the same time, another soldier—the one that I’m pretty sure Ares put in charge after he abandoned his men—stalks up behind them. Aiden doesn’t stop him. In fact, I think he encourages him. And when that man uses his sword to slice at the back of Troy’s leg, causing him to crash down to one knee, I’d bet anything that was payback for Ares/Troy being a super shitty general.

With a gesture from who has to be the new leader, the Spartan army—those who hadn’t been felled by an arrow or Hephaestus’s machinations—begin to retreat.