“Don’t mind me,” I said. “Please, continue eye-fucking one another.” Ares bared his teeth, but they went back to staring at each other.
“Where are you?” I thought the question as hard as I could whilst holding an image of my stuck-up cat in my head.
“By the closest palm,” came a reply a moment later. Giving myself a mental high-five for managing to make contact, I scanned the pool fast, and saw a tiny flicker of a tail behind the nearest tropical tree.
“How’d you get in here?”
“I followed you. People do not notice small cats here. Listen to me. The Lords of War are powerful, each able to inflict the power they embody with so much as a look or a word. Do not goad Ares whilst in the presence of the Lords. It is extremely important that they do not realize his volatility. Do you understand me?”
“Gods, you sound like my old teachers,” I answered, rolling my eyes.
“Bella, do you understand me?” she repeated, her mental voice hard.
“Yes!”
“Good.”
The air before me began to shimmer, interrupting us, and with a flash of red two more men appeared. Two men who could not have looked more different from one another.
One was a similar stature to Pain, tall and slender, but instead of being dressed like an Arabian sultan, this guy was dressed like Robin Hood. He was wearing leafy green breeches, had a white linen shirt on that was also open to his navel, and tall leather boots. Sandy colored hair curled over his ears, and when he looked at me his green eyes shone with something just as dark and unsettling as I saw in Pain’s eyes. The third man... The third man was so striking that once I started looking at him, I couldn’t stop. He had no features at all. He was a humanoid mass of something solid; smooth and hard and mesmerizing. Whatever he was made of was covered in a marbling effect, black and white swirling and moving and blending over what I guessed was his skin. His blank face fixed first on me, then on Ares.
“My Lord,” a hissing voice issued from him, like nails dragged down a blackboard. It made my skin crawl.
“Terror,” responded Ares stiffly, before turning to the Robin Hood guy. “Panic,” he acknowledged just as curtly.
So, these were Ares’ three Lords of War. I resisted the urge to stand up and introduce myself. I was going to do exactly what Zeeva had told me to do. For once in my life, I was going to behave myself. Avoid trouble. Not be a dick.
“Now you are a delectable little surprise,” said Panic, turning to me. “Where have you been hiding?” I bit down on my lip to stop myself responding.
“Aw, she’s shy,” hissed Terror. “Maybe we can find a way to liven her up.” Fear shot through me, his innocuous words laced with a threat I never, ever wanted to see fulfilled.
“Maybe you can find a way to back the fuck up,” I said, leaping to my feet and whipping out my knife. The two men with faces smiled.
“I see she is perfectly susceptible to our power,” Terror said. I clung to the words as my heart hammered. He was called Terror. He embodied fear. I wasn’t really scared of him, he was just using magic. I repeated the sentence in my head, drawing on it to calm the fear.
“I’m sure you’re perfectly susceptible to my foot up your ass,” I said, parroting him.
“Bella!” Zeeva’s voice hissed through my head. Shit, I was supposed to be keeping my mouth shut. This was Ares’ show. I sat back down as Terror cocked his head at me. The black and white swirled and swished across him, like black oil over a marble statue.
“Delectable was a good choice of word, brother,” he said quietly. Another stab of fear gripped me, and I bit down too hard on my lip this time, tasting blood. Pain let out a long, satisfied breath, his eyes widening as they focused on my mouth.
For the first time in my life, I did not want to be at the heart of the action. I very badly wanted to be anywhere but where I was. I wasn’t used to feeling afraid, or out of my depth, or weak. But power oozed from these three men, and it was dark and foreboding and just plain fucked up.
“You are here to tell me about the Underworld demon who is hiding in my realm,” said Ares loudly, and all three Lords looked at him.
“I must say, you’re rather dashing under all that armor,” Panic said to him. “Who’d have thought the God of War would be so pretty?”
Ares was hot as hell, but not pretty. The word had been used to rile him. But I felt no tell-tale pull in my gut, the indication that Ares was getting mad and using my power.
“Tell me about the demon,” he demanded.
“The trouble is, we don’t take orders from anyone weaker than we are. Nobody in this realm does,” Terror said slowly. “That’s the way you designed it. He who is strongest, rules. And by all accounts, you are no longer the strongest.”
Ares stepped forward, but not rashly or angrily. Deliberately. I felt my pulse quicken. “I am the son of Zeus, God of War, one of the twelve Olympians and most revered beings in existence,” he said, and thrills shuddered through me at the tone of his voice. When he wasn’t stamping around like an overgrown toddler, he was freaking fierce. “Make your decision carefully, my Lords. For I am eternal, and you only exist within my realm and my power.”
I could see the doubt cross the faces of Pain and Panic, fleeting but real.
“There is nothing in this realm that cannot be won in a fair fight,” said Terror eventually. He was clearly the ringleader of this little trio. “We know of the demon you seek. We know of their plan, and who they are working for.”
I opened my mouth, but Zeeva hissed loudly inside my skull and I closed it again.
“Prove that you are still our true leader. Pass a trial that each of us set for you, and demonstrate your dominion over Pain, Panic and Terror.”
“You will regret this,” the God of War growled.
“We are only living by the standard you have set,” said Pain, bowing low. Oceanus’s words came back to me, about Ares earning his power back by being a true ruler within his own realm.
“If you can pass the tests, then we will hand over your demon. All wrapped up with a bow,” grinned Panic.
Ares stared at him, then pointed at me. “The girl doesn’t leave my side.” Terror’s statuesque form turned to me, and I gave him the finger.
“Fine,” Terror said.
“Excellent!” exclaimed Panic, clapping his hands together. “As we’re already here in Erimos, would you like to start us off with your trial first, Pain?”
“It would be my pleasure,” the Lord grinned. “I’ve got just the thing.
“I believe something so heroic should not go unwatched,” said Terror, moving his hand to his featureless face thoughtfully. “We shall host a feast tonight, in honor of these...” He paused. “Ares Trials. Yes, I like that. Then you may embark upon Pain’s test tomorrow.”
“There will be no feast,” growled Ares.
“Oh, but there will, mighty one,” Terror said. His voice was harsh and sing-song at the same time, and I hated it. “Or we won’t allow you to take the girl with you. And we both know that would be a serious blow to your chances.”
Did Terror know who I was? And that Ares only had power around me? Or did he just think I was important to Ares somehow?