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Aphrodite gave Hera a dry look. "Why did you waste your time with this? They're such obvious liars."
"You'rethe liar," Kai seethed. I lurched at him to grab him, to cover his mouth with my hand, to stop him condemning us all to death, but he shook me off. There was a manic glint in his red eyes. He was panicking, whatever calm had held him together in Iarlon disintegrating. "You got that pin because you're Cronus's best buddy. You're fuckingthrilledhe's free, you're just good at hiding it. What did he promiseyou,Aphrodite? You've got your throne and your mountain, so what else do you want? Earth? Heaven? Hell? All of it?"
"Malakai," Hera warned, stalking closer.
"I can promise you one thing," Kai went on, staring directly at the goddess on the throne. "Cronus is the type to stab you in the back the second you stop being useful to him, so I'd watch out if I were you. You're right—youare the one in his way. So why would he keep you around?"
Aphrodite rose from her throne, and my heart skipped at the power that rippled from her, a soft, far-reaching glow. "So not only did you free the titans, now you're threatening the queen of gods?"
"I never threatened Hera," Kai replied with a smirk.
Hera laughed. She probably shouldn't have, but she did.
"You know what my father is capable of," she said, recovering quickly as she gave Aphrodite a no-nonsense look. "You know everything he did. He devoured my brothers; he almost killed me. Please, Aphrodite. End this insanity. Align with the right side."
Aphrodite tilted her head, staring at Hera with thinly veiled hatred—and jealousy. It burned inside her, consumed her, and she did a poor job hiding it. "You expect me to believe a single word out of your deceitful mouth? You helped those spiteful little ants kill Zeus!"
A wave of power struck me so brutally that I staggered back a step, gasping for breath. Silver-pink magic filled the room like daylight, certain and inescapable. We needed to get out of here, run while Aphrodite was distracted and find our family while we had the chance.
But when I lifted my foot to take a step, Aphrodite's dark hand lashed out and my foot slammed back into the floor. I froze.
The doors opened with a musical creak, and guards in polished silver flowed around us.
"These men conspired to kill me. Lock them on the western side."
I yanked on the feral magic inside me, willing my body to shift, but it ignored me, and the guards grabbed me so easily.Pathetic. You can’t do a single thing right, you waste of space.
"You're so smug, standing there by my husband's throne," Hera breathed.
Oh, shit.
Even the guard dragging me paused, like he felt the pulse of rage and wicked power go through the room. I wished I could turn my head to see Kai, but even my head was immobilised.
"You're right that I helped the demons defeat him. He was paranoid,irrational.So obsessed with losing his power that he couldn't see how foolishly he was acting. It makes me wonder who nurtured those irrational thoughts, because it certainly wasn't me. And look atyou,sitting on his throne, alive with power even though the rest of us survive on the scraps that remain."
Was that why she'd looked so ungodly in the palace in Hell? Her power had faded?
"How long has Cronus been planning his rise to power? And how long have you been helping him, you treasonous shrew?"
The grip of magic on my body slackened, and I used my sudden movement to elbow the guard in the stomach.Why?Oh gods, whyyyy?He was dressed in silver armour—why the fuck did I think I could hurt him? Pain blazed through my elbow and shot up my arm like a lightning bolt, and I grunted. But he let me get free anyway, stumbling back in surprise as he watched the fight unfold between the queen of gods and the pretender to the throne.
"Metreasonous?" Aphrodite laughed, her steps echoing around the room as she came closer. That laugh was as sharp as a whip’s crack and every bit as dangerous.
"You," Hera agreed, her voice deeper, darker. "It's convenient that Zeus's paranoid grasp for power led to his death, and here you sat in his throne. I know you orchestrated his death."
I turned to free Kai—and sucked in a sharp breath when I found the guard who'd restrained him fleeing out the door. Kai rubbed his arm, his teeth gritted and murder in his red eyes, hatred in his flared nostrils. There was a mean streak in Kai that I'd only ever seen in Alphaven, but I was seeing it again now. He'd tear Aphrodite apart—ifhe had the power to go up against her. Which he didn't. None of us did.
"I need you at my side," I bit out in a whisper, grabbing his arm where he’d rubbed it and hoping it hurt. Hoping it would clear his furious mind. "Not smeared across the floor because Aphrodite murdered you."
"Fuck," he bit out, teeth bared. Power thrashed around him, but he gritted his teeth and spat, "Fuck."
It was a surrender, that curse. An assurance he wouldn’t leave me alone.
"I challenge you," Hera announced, and Kai and I froze. This wasn't part of the plan. How would this help Haley, Wane, and Em?
But one glance at Hera told me she'd forgotten all about freeing my family. She'd fallen into the dark pit of rage and grief that must have been eating her up for months.
Aphrodite's smile this time was slow blooming and confident. Her skin shone with a golden light, brighter than Hera's. Far brighter. "I accept. Sunrise tomorrow, at the arena behind the castle."
