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Hedri called, “We have already told him to expect you. He is eager, as he wants to save his siblings from slavery.”
I shrugged as I reached for the door. “He will have to live with disappointment.”
“Let us fight for it,” Charos announced.
That stopped me. My hand fell from the handle of the door, and I turned. “You want to fight for it?”
This was an unexpected turn of events. We hadn’t fought since I was being trained as a youth, and I had to admit there was a part of me that wanted to teach them a lesson myself.
“If you can defeat one of us in combat—sword-to-sword, no titan or akari advantages—then you will not be required to train our savior. We will recognize you as our savior,” Charos continued.
I was unsurprised they were cruel enough to try to tempt me with that promise. But it was a lie. They would never recognize me as savior.
I laughed long and hard and bitterly. “Try again.”
Riseir’s lips pinched together, and he spoke through gritted teeth, “Whatever you were trying to take before you left here those years ago will also be yours.”
I hesitated. “You don’t know what I wanted.”
“We don’t.” Hedri grinned. “But it can be yours.”
While they would never recognize me as savior, I knew they would give me the sacred item I tried to steal, if only so they could see what I wanted and how to defend against it.
“If I train them?” I clarified.
Charos scoffed. “We are past that now. Now you will have to fight for it.”
“I’ve managed without it.” I shrugged. “I still don’t feel like there's enough incentive for me to fight my beloved fathers.” I restrained myself from pouting mockingly.
“You do not want revenge? The pleasure of teaching us a lesson?” Riseir asked.
I raised an eyebrow and smirked. “You seem to think I am more upset than I am. I promise I haven't been crying into my pillow at the thought of my fathers rejecting me."
Charos sneered. “No, you have always been a mother’s boy, hiding behind her skirts. She would be—”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “You can stop trying to get a rise out of me. It won’t work.”
“Enough talking.” Hedri rose, drew a sword from the arm of the throne, and pointed it at me with a manic grin on his face. “Fight me, Baelen.”
“I’d rather not.” I yawned, my fatigue genuinely catching up to me.
“Coward. Fight for your freedom!” Charos shouted.
I crossed my arms and stood my ground as Hedri stepped down from the pedestal. He sliced through the air as he approached, but I remained unmoved. “You don’t own me, and I don’t need to fight you for anything.”
“Fight me for yourself, Baelen. Your threads with us are damaged. Don’t you want to prove yourself?” Hedri taunted.
As the god of love, he could see the threads of love between people and even manipulate them. But my threads of love for them weren’t damaged by me. It was their actions that led us to now.
I chuckled as I lazily dodged his swipe. “You know nothing about me or my wants. We are strangers now.”
His movement stuttered as my words struck him. He lowered his sword, and his face flickered with emotion before an indifferent mask quickly hid it.
Charos jumped in to distract me from his god-brother’s falter, “If you won’t fight, then we can ruin you in other ways.”
“How exactly? You know nothing of my life. You cannot ruin what you don’t know.”
The clang of metal hitting stone drew my attention. Hedri stood facing the wall, his sword on the floor at his feet.
