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“Not today,” I reply. I don’t have my weapons on me, but I don’t need them. I have the power inside of me, the strength that is all mine. I’ve been sleeping, waiting, but I won’t wait any longer.
This is my home, my city, my woman.
I will fight, and he will weep his regrets to his father, my brother.
He takes another step, and my hand lifts, fingers spread, and his body tenses, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do this, but I have to try, and Cyrus can get Katy away, and—
“Enough,” a female voice booms, and there’s a bright flash, the scent of ozone filling the air. I’m blinded for a moment, and Cyrus roars. Katy’s scream is high-pitched and cuts off when I grab her, pulling her into me. There’s a crackle of thunder, and when the light dies down, the wind picks up, blowing cold and frosted. The temperature plunges, and Ares, always more of a hot-blooded god, gives a visible shiver.
“You align with other deities, our enemies?” He asks me, looking incredulous. “Against your family?”
“My family betrayed me,” I flash my teeth at him in something could never be mistaken for a smile. “I aligned with those who had my back when you turned yours to me.”
“It’s the little sun-god,” Shay’s voice sounds deep, echoey, bouncing off the surrounding walls, and thank goodness there’s nobody out down here right now. Nobody human except Katy, and she’s more precious to me than the whole city combined.
I’ll need to consider that later. What this little fight has done to expose the people of Detroit to godly powers.
“What made you think you were invited?” Ares stiffens, looking offended as Shay mocks him so casually. She comes up from behind us, and Katy breathes a sigh of relief — making jealousy bite at me for a moment before I ignore it.
Shay arrives as if joining friends waiting for her at a restaurant. Every footstep she takes is preceded by the spreading of frost along the pavement.
The temperature continues to drop and Cyrus looks around, giving Shay a confused look. My old friend and companion is playing with powers he doesn’t understand, and I only hope that he chooses to stand this battle out. I wouldn’t want him getting hurt. Either that, or he needs to choose who he’s backing. I’m still not sure which side of the coin that’s going to land on.
And Katy... Katy is not running, but she is behind the three of us, held fast in my arm, as we face down my nephew.
I let her go and trust her to make the right choice. She should run, but even then, Ares is fast. There’s no way she would out-pace one of his lightning strikes. She’s safer close to me.
“The old gods,” Ares shakes his head, glaring at me again, and I know he has to be worried and recalculating his plans. “You would really align with one like her?”
Shay hisses out a breath, and I know those are the wrong words, and my nephew is about to come down with a serious case of Regret-itis.
Young idiot.
“One likeher?” Shay’s tone is low and dangerous. “And who are you, the God of Fucking Around? How many children do you have now that you’ve abandoned? I look over and watch out for all of my charges as the autumn fades. Even in the summer, I am waiting for them. Do you even know where the last son you sired is? And his mother?”
Ares growls and bands of lighting across his bare chest ripples, and he seems to swell from it, growing larger, more powerful.
“What the fuck?” Katy whispers under her breath, shocked, and this is why she should have stayed back at the club, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Cyrus tenses next to me, shifting his weight, ready to fight.
“You dare threaten me with the powers that I was made from, before you were even a thought the stars had?” Shay’s voice echoes again, the scream of a thousand winds in it, and Ares narrows his eyes.
He’s an idiot, but he’s notthatstupid. Shay, like so many of the older gods, is practically elemental, made of the base energies that form whole planets.
We, Ares and I, might rule over the planes of existence, but Shay is made up of them. She walks through every energy, every world and sphere in the universe all at once. I should be grateful that she lowers herself to be my friend, but I do give her free alcohol whenever she wants. That counts for something.
“Useless puppy,” she growls, and the cement under our feet turns pale as it thickens with sheer ice, lifting us up on more than three inches of it, the pavement cracking from the sudden temperature change. Behind me, Katy yelps, and I hear her feet skid on the ground. I turn, just in time to grab her by the wrist,pulling her against me to keep her from falling.
“You alright?” I ask, and she nods.
“Yeah,” she breathes, and there’s fear in her eyes. “I’m fine.”
Fine is relative.
“Stay close to me,” I tell her. Behind me, Ares is arguing with Shay, bandying words when he should be running.
“You think you frighten me, old woman,” he taunts her, and even Cyrus recognizes that for the mistake it is, cursing quietly at the war god. He shifts back toward me, putting himself between me and Shay as he decides whether she is a greater threat than Ares is.
