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"Going somewhere?" a sweet voice asked, not quite able to hide her sneer.
We spun as one, Wane and Em on either side of me, magic rising instantly—Em sent an arc of devastating power. It ricocheted off the solid walls, but Aphrodite sidestepped it like it was nothing, holding up her hand—with my bone pin clutched in her dark fingers. Wane's shadows met a solid wall of air, fracturing apart on impact. He winced, clutching his chest, and my rage grew big enough to swallow the world.
He gave it to me. His lover.
His lover? Wynvail had touchedthisthing? This sneering, spiteful, poisonous goddess?
I'd kill her.
Magic flashed from both my curses this time, but instead of looking intimidated, Aphrodite's eyes glimmered with amusement. She wore another beautiful dress, her hair perfectly styled and makeup flawless. It couldn’t hide the rotting thing inside her.
"There's no way out," she gloated. "You must think I'm especially stupid if I'd put your cell near an exit. This way out is obviously a trap. I'm actually impressed you didn't fall into it." She made a thoughtful noise, her eyes travelling over Emlyn's body like a physical touch. "Maybe you're valuable, after all."
"I belong to myself and my mate," Em warned, sending another destructive arc of magic. It did nothing, didn't eventouchher. "No one else."
Aphrodite tilted her head, brown-gold hair falling over her shoulder like a swath of purest silk. I wanted to rip it out of her scalp until she bled. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Emlyn Johahn."
"Don't speak his name," I breathed, taking a step forward and bringing so much magic with me that I should have blasted her apart. But she wasa goddess,and even though their magic had faded from immortal grace to limited power in the war, she was still a deadly threat. And armed with the bone pin that had fried my bones, prickled my eyeballs, and made the tip of my tongue burn … she was untouchable.
If it had amplified my ordinary power to that level, what the hell had it done to a goddess?
"What name?" she asked, all innocence as she blinked at me. "Emlyn Johahn? Or do you mean Wynvail Locke?"
It was like she'd slammed aragebutton inside me. Power and murder took possession of my body, and I flew across the hallway before I could stop myself. I'd choke the name from her lips, rip her fucking tongue out and make her eat it so she could neverneverspeak my dead mate's name—
My nose crunched, bones breaking, when I slammed into her shield.Fucking fucker!
My curse's magic might have been amplified, but it was nothing compared to hers. Even digging my fingernails into the solid shield, even gnashing my canine teeth into it and carving the claws on my wings through it, I didn't evenscratchher shield.
"Wasit that name?" Aphrodite asked coyly, justbeggingto be ripped into teeny, tiny gory pieces. She tapped her full bottom lip with a long fingernail. "Or is itWaneLocke? You really should be more specific, Halwen."
Wane went still behind me, his soul frozen but throbbing with pain. Trauma bled through him like ink through water, and I felt his fear—the old fear that had haunted him for ten years. It would never go away, would never stop stalking him.
But I could kill the bitch who triggered him on purpose.
I roared, my teeth bared and dagger raised, and hurtled myself into her shield, the wavy blade of my knife lighting crimson as I drove it into the invisible wall between us, over and over and over.
That pin wasn't hers. Wynvail won it from me through cleverness and cunning and stealth. It washis.Not hers. Never hers.
"Give it back," I spoke through my teeth, only distantly aware of shadows blacker than night slamming into the shield where I clawed at it, trying to weaken it with me. Hairs rose all down my arms as so much power built in this tiny corridor that it shook the floor below us. I tasted the acid bite of it on my tongue; it burned. "Give it back."
"Are you done?" Aphrodite drawled, her gaze flat and her perfect mouth pursed with annoyance. She needed to be screaming in pain, begging for mercy. Instead, she wasirritated.
"With you?" I seethed, my heart clamouring in my chest. Power drowned out my own heartbeat. "Never."
"This is tedious," she sighed, and waved her hand. The pin caught the light, the flowers carved into it both beautiful and devastating. The dagger Wyn gave me had been carved with flowers, too. I wanted him back. I wanted my hateful, spiteful, cruel mate back so badly it killed me.
I slammed my teeth into the shield again, but before I could draw back for another attempt, magic gripped my arms, stilled my hands, and forced my legs immobile. Light bled from around the beautiful, twisted goddess.
No!
I tried to fight, tried to carve through her power until all that remained were ribbons, but her magic swallowed me in light before I could do a single bit of damage. She ripped me away from that corridor and threw me through the blinding tunnel of light.
When I fell out the other side, I had to grab the wall to stop my body slamming into the floor. My head spun, blood rushed violently through my head, and I groaned.
It took me a moment to lift my head, to see Em and Wane slumped on the ground in this new cell. It took another moment for a solid glass window to snag my attention. There wasn't a sheer drop on the other side of it, but a shining golden palace built into the side of a mountain.
Oh, gods. No wonder my magic was stronger here, and no wonder Aphrodite was so powerful. We were at the seat of the gods. We were in Mount Olympus.
