Chapter 6

6

SELENE

T he oval amphitheatre rose from the craggy hillside. The salt-worn stone cast the scent of petrichor into the warm air, and a brief flash of the dying sunlight illuminated the faded ancient markings carved by the Titans who had roamed this earth centuries ago. The markings spelled out the covenant sworn to the goddess who had created them. To Gaia, who the Olympians hated now.

I slowed as we passed. Though the markings were faded, the words they spelled—in the long-dead language of Doric—were embedded in my mind. Scholars from centuries past had copied them, word for word, so that they would never be forgotten. For a moment, I paused, reached out, touched the stone. A drumbeat of power pulsed against my fingers.

Inwardly, I flinched, but I forced my hand to remain steady. That power was like thunder, roaring through me with a terrifying sound. It felt like it wanted to beat its way into my skin and steal all the blood from my veins.

“Careful, you don’t want anyone to see you touching that thing. They might think your loyalty lies with Gaia,” a voice came from behind me.

I tensed, and this time, it was entirely beyond my control. Because I knew that voice. I’d heard it on the worst night of my life. And then I’d heard it in my dreams for days and weeks long after.

Tugging on my sleeve, I steeled my spine and turned. And there he was. Ares, the vampire king who’d tried to murder me after tossing my mother’s ashes at my feet. He looked just as I remembered him. An ebony cloak whipped around his powerful legs, held in place by a golden clasp beaten into the shape of a boar. Windswept silver hair curled around his ears, and his crimson eyes were vibrant against the sea of stone and graying skies surrounding us.

“Your boat wasn’t in the cove.” I said the first words that sprang onto my tongue.

His gaze roved across my face, but his expression betrayed nothing. “I thought I’d surprise you.”

A moment passed in tense silence. A cough sounded from behind me. Orpheus, trying to get me to remember who I was and why I was here. Ares had no doubt ambushed me on the path to make me feel unsteady before I’d had a chance to enter the palace.

“Move aside, Ares,” I said. “Even if we didn’t have the peace treaty, we’re under the Hellas Agreement during Nekros. No violence is allowed on the Isle of Aiaia. You can’t kill me here.”

“Not unless you were in league with your mother.” He strode toward me, and the guard stepped to the side to let him pass. Ares’s eyes were narrowed, and the looming walls to our side cast ominous shadows on his face.

“I already told you I wasn’t,” I said, dropping my voice into the lowest tone I could muster. I could not show fear, but my heart began to pound anyway. Coming to Aiaia, I’d known the monarchs would play their little games, but I didn’t think it would happen within moments of my arrival.

Ares stepped closer, invading all my space until he was only a breath away, the edges of his cloak rustling against my legs. I swallowed and tipped back my head, forcing myself to keep eye contact.

Do not show weakness. Do not show fear. Do not look away.

“You’re a liar,” Ares murmured, so low only I could hear him. “And I’ll prove it. You’ll end up just like your mother.”

I lifted my chin. “You might not find it so easy to kill me. And the others will not allow anything to go off course for Nekros—”

“The other Olympians? You are nothing to them. Nothing but a stain on our rule. The thirteenth crown should belong to one of us, not to you.” He shook his head and laughed, but there was only darkness in the sound. No light.

“Then go ahead and try,” I hissed.

A pained cough sounded from behind us. Orpheus wanted to help, but he couldn’t. No monarch worth her salt would need her advisor to protect her from an enemy. Not that Orpheus could do much if it truly came to a fight. He only wielded instruments or pens, not swords. Fighting was not his duty.

“Tell me. If you are not like your mother, then what do you plan to do with that sacrifice?” For the first time since we’d come face-to-face, his eyes briefly shifted away from mine. They flicked toward Orpheus and the human.

Time seemed to slow as my vampiric instincts flared to life. My fingers tensed. The weight of the wooden dagger strapped to my thigh seemed to anchor me to the spot. Orpheus had instructed my seamstress to sew a slit on one side but to keep the fabric hanging heavily enough that most would never notice it. I could toss the skirts aside, grab the dagger, and stab Ares in the heart before he had an inkling of what was happening.

If he planned to kill me, I could kill him first.

His crimson eyes rushed back to me, and a low chuckle rumbled in his throat. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the slit in your skirts, where you no doubt have a weapon hiding. Tempted to stab me, are you? I thought you came here to demonstrate that you’re one of us now.”

“Being ‘one of you’ means arming myself. The twelve of you have made that more than clear.”

He arched a brow. “And the sacrifice?”

“I am here to fulfill my part. The sacrifice’s blood will be spilled.”

He nodded, though he didn’t look convinced. “You look just like her, you know? Your mother, I mean. All that ginger hair. The little nose and the sharp chin. Those freckles that defy all odds. She played her part during Nekros for nearly two hundred years, but she turned against us in the end. And she died for it. I have no reason to believe her daughter would want to commit to peace after that. I know I would not.”

My heart pounded. “Move aside, Ares. I will not say it again.”

The vampire king didn’t move. For a moment, I couldn’t tell if he meant to fight me here in the shadows of the amphitheatre. Would he try to eliminate me before I could step foot inside those ancient walls? The birthplace of the Titans, the source of all vampiric power. I braced myself. I was ready to fight him if I must. He was bigger and stronger, but I’d trained for this.

Tension pounded between us. And then his hand flinched toward his back. Hissing, I moved with preternatural grace. I swept my skirt aside and grabbed the wooden dagger, but I wasn’t fast enough. Ares already had me pressed against the wall, my cheek scraping the rough stone. Something sharp pressed against the back of my neck. My veins pulsed, and a heady, intoxicating anger pumped through me.

I palmed the stone and started to shove, but Ares wrapped his hand around my head, pushing my face harder against the wall. And as he held me there, the prophecy of my death echoed in my mind.

“I should kill you now and be done with it,” he murmured into my ear. “I’m certain you’re guilty, and you have no place on this island with us.”

I clenched my teeth and shoved, but I didn’t budge. I couldn’t. Ares was far too strong. Tears of burning anger filled my eyes. He could think what he wanted, but if he did this, it would ruin him. Even if the other monarchs did nothing to retaliate, Erebus would never accept it. His rules were clear. No murder during this fortnight. Not of vampire monarchs, at least.

And so I began to laugh, a low hum that came from the depths of my soulless heart. It was more a curse than a laugh. “At least my ruin will bring about the death of my greatest enemy, and your fate will be far worse than mine when Erebus is through with you. Who do you think will take your kingdom when you’re dead? Without an heir, your crown will be ripe for the taking. I heard Hera, in particular, really hates you. Maybe she’ll take it.”

Ares tightened his grip on my neck and leaned forward. His breath came hot on my cheek. “It is not your crown. And it is certainly not your kingdom. I’m only taking back what is rightfully ours, what your family ruined.”

“It has never been yours. And it never will be.” I smiled against the stone. “I cannot wait to watch on from the halls of Elysium when you lose everything.”

His fingers tensed against me, but then they vanished from my skin, along with the rough bite of the wooden blade. My heart roared through me, and when I turned, Ares was gone. The only thing that remained was the silent guard, the trembling sacrifice, and Orpheus’s steady gaze.

“Your Majesty,” my advisor murmured, his face blank but for the third crease between his brow. “This delay has been quite draining, I must say. We need to make haste for the palace.”

I could read between his words in a way I couldn’t with anyone else, not even with my mother when she’d been alive. He was shaken. And he was worried. Despite everything he’d done to prepare me for Nekros, he’d never warned me of this. If his trembling hands were any indication, it was because he hadn’t expected it. From the beginning, this island had been free of fatal violence between monarchs.

If Ares yearned to rebel against the Hellas Agreement, I’d have to watch my back every hour of every day here. All my life, I’d relied on my immortality, but Zeus had somehow taken that away from me, just as he’d taken it from my mother.

“All right, let’s go,” I called over my shoulder. “It’s time for me to meet the rest of them. And if this all goes wrong, I need you to be prepared to run.”