Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Alexander
“I told you. I warned you! We should’ve killed her in the forest and left her body to be eaten by nymphs!”
“Futile,” I breezed. “Forest nymphs aren’t carnivorous.”
Castor bristled. “Is this funny? Is it a joke to you, Xander? Nico is dead!”
Sidestepping him, I headed out of the courtyard, taking the dawn-lighted path to the jail. Castor had been yelling and bitching me out since he burst into my room, shouting that the traitor murdered Nico. What I had to do with this, I hadn’t the faintest idea. I told him to kill the girl. Wasn’t my fault the man still took orders from Jason even though they were the same rank.
“What do you expect me to do about it?” I tossed over my shoulder. “You want someone to bring Nico back from the dead, call a child of Asclepius.”
Flame-broiled fingers clamped my shoulder, searing a print in the leather that reached for my skin. “Damn, you’re a cold bastard,” he hissed, hauling me around. “Nico’s served your father for ten years. Show some—”
My power spilled from my hand like a river rushing off a cliff—surging, unstoppable, unforgiving.
Castor seized, mouth open in a silent scream as I burned five, ten, twenty years off his heart’s lifespan.
“That’s right. Nico did serve my father for a decade and I could give a pile of minotaur shit about him. I’ve dealt with you following me and secretly reporting my movements for months. Imagine how little I’ll care for your death.”
I released him. Castor fell, shaking and twitching on the ground. Pure hatred shone in his eyes.
“Only a medusa’s glare kills. Want to do something about that look in your eye?” I held out my arms. “Now’s your chance.”
Castor clenched his teeth, face purpling a concerning hue. Then he looked away. “No, sir. Forgive me for stepping out of line. It won’t happen again.”
Scorching rage surged behind my calm mask. For a second, my fingers twitched to finish the job. Explode yet another sycophantic bootlicker on the pavement.
I strode off, hanging on to the urge. Why kill him when Castor ended up doing me a favor? Offering up someone I could take my rage out on.
Rounding the final corner, their voices hit me before they saw me.
“—what he said. He ordered me to stay at my post and not enter no matter what I heard. I had no idea that those screams— those screams were...” The jailor trailed off, his words and his pallor deserting him.
Jason was the composed soldier turning to face me—if not for the pronounced wrinkle between his brows.
Jason showing an emotion? Just what exactly did this girl do?
“You’d better see for yourself,” he said, answering my unasked question. He pushed open the door and gestured for me to go ahead.
I eyed him, wondering briefly if this was a trap. Castor, and now Jason, were being oddly tight lipped about how exactly Nico was killed. What was waiting down there that they wanted me unprepared for?
The warning came and went. Can’t know it’s a trap until you spring it.
I pushed in, clomping too-heavy steps that echoed eerily among the stone. Stepping off the staircase, I found Nico waiting for me... or at least, one piece of him.
My steps slowed, but didn’t stop as I walked past the fingers. No, what ground me to a halt was the heart that lay in the middle of the pathway like a lover’s gift. A distasteful way of putting it, but I couldn’t think of another. There were mangled parts of him absolutely everywhere, so why was his heart whole and intact like she plucked it gently from his chest and offered it up like a present?
I stepped over his ear, coming to a stop in front of the cell. Seafoam eyes stuck me through the shadows, pinning me where I stood. There was no denying she was lovely. From the first glimpse I caught of her, outrunning the Artemis watchers through the open-air market. She bumped into a stall owner and actually stopped to apologize.
When she turned around, I laughed. Us humans truly were the gods’ joke. Say one good thing about monsters, they looked as vile and deadly as they were. But not us. The blackest hearts were always wrapped in the prettiest paper. There was no fun in it for them—
I gazed at the gore that was once Nico.
—if we saw this coming.
“He was in the cell with her,” Jason spoke up, appearing at my side. “Nico went in and cuffed her. The key was in the lock.”
That peaked my brow. “Keys in the lock? Why didn’t you escape?”
Jason answered since her lips remained sealed. “She couldn’t get past the door and jailor upstairs.”
I was shaking my head before he finished. “Now we know that’s not true. If she could do this to one of the most powerful sons of Zephyrus, a little door and one overweight guard weren’t going to stop her. If she can do this,” I said slowly. “Why aren’t you, me, and Castor rotting bits on a forest trail?”