Today, I needed to sleep. Perhaps it was my war magic at play all this time, making sure my body got what it needed to be a good fighter. I thought about the laser focus that I now knew was actually called ‘war-sight’, and yawned. I forced myself to sit up and pulled my shirt off over my head, then reached down to untie my boots. Sleeping in boots was not cool.
A flash of curiosity whipped through me about what Ares wore to bed, and I rolled my eyes.
Joshua. Think about Joshua. You’re going to save him from whatever the fuck that rotten-handed demon was, kick his ass for lying to you, then see if he wants to be your boyfriend, I told myself firmly.
My jeans soon followed my boots onto the floor and I tipped backwards again, letting out a sigh as I hit the mattress. Where had all this sexy stuff in my head come from? I rarely thought about sex at all, writing it off as something I could only do with guys who meant nothing because they all bolted when they found out what I was really like.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. But I’d never understood why people went so nuts for it. My admittedly fairly limited experiences had left me pent-up and hyper, craving something I couldn’t get. I had to assume that I either wasn’t doing it right, or I hadn’t found the right person. Someone caring and patient like Joshua might be the exact sort of lover I needed to get me to wherever it was I couldn’t reach.
Someone hot and fierce and untamable could get you there a hell of a lot quicker, my confrontational inner voice quipped. I shoved it down. Maybe I was hormonal. Maybe it was avoidance. I probably shouldn’t underestimate the psychological impact of being told you’re a goddess and being kidnapped to a fantasy world.
Yes, that was probably it. Ares had turned my world upside down and awakened a possibility that I didn’t have to live the life I hated anymore. And my overwhelmed brain was confusing my excitement about everything I had yet to discover about magic and Olympus with him. Joshua would call it ‘projecting’ in our sessions. I was projecting my burning desire for a new life in a world where I belonged onto Ares, in a different form of burning desire.
I pulled the thin silk sheet over myself as I nodded. That was definitely it. And now I knew that, I could ignore it completely, and concentrate on getting through the Trials and saving Joshua.
But it wasn’t Joshua’s eyes that burned with promise in my mind as I drifted off to sleep.
Waking up in the softly lit Moroccan-looking room took me so much by surprise the next day that I was sitting bolt-upright, searching for my knife before I had even blinked the sleep from my eyes. The events of the last - I didn’t even know how many hours - tumbled through my head as I stared around at the beautiful room.
I was once the Goddess of War. I was meant to be like this. I finally had a reason for all the fuck-upery in my life. And there was power inside me that could make me even better.
Guilt doused out the excitement rippling through me as the awful image of that blackened hand on the girl’s face came to me, Joshua laid on the stone table beyond. This wasn’t about me. Once Ares had his own stupid power back I would be free to learn how to use mine, and then I could get excited. But first, I had to save my friend.
Guilt-driven determination settled over me as I swung my legs out of bed. If Ares was going to refuse to let me use my own power, I would have to find a way of working with him that wouldn’t get me killed, like it almost had at the fighters’ camp. I pulled on my jeans and unzipped my bag, looking for a t-shirt.
“It would be a shame not to wear that leather armor you were so excited about,” said a lazy female voice. This time I didn’t jump in surprise. I was starting to get used to Zeeva showing up in my head uninvited. Plus, she was right about the armor. I’d clean forgotten.
“Morning, Zeeva.”
“It’s in the closet over here.” I looked around for her, finding her sitting in front of one of two large dark-wood closets.
“Thanks,” I said. “Am I supposed to wear something underneath it?”
“That’s up to you.”
I thought about it as I opened the closet wide. There were dresses in there. Lots of very pretty, brightly colored flowing dresses, covered in sparkling jewels. I paused, cocking my head at them. I literally couldn’t remember the last time I had worn a dress. With a small shake of my head, I pushed them along the rail until I came to the brown leather corset.
It took me a full ten minutes to work out how the many metal catches and thick leather cords could be adjusted, but eventually I had the thing on. I stood in front of the mirror that lined the inside of the closet door and moved experimentally, watching as a massive grin overtook my face.
I looked like I felt, for the first time in my life.
My black skintight jeans were more like leggings anyway and moved with me, but my top half... The wide straps that had been added to the corset made it feel secure as well as protecting my shoulders along with my ribs and other important organs. I had chosen to wear nothing underneath the armor because the body of it came high enough that I wasn’t at Eris levels of cleavage, but it still made me feel... well, sexy as fuck. The material lining the inside was intensely soft, not rubbing or moving at all as I bent over and stretched, testing it.
“I look badass, right?” I asked Zeeva.
The cat flicked her tail. “Yes,” she said. My eyebrows shot up. I had expected her to mock me.
“Really? You really think so?”
“Yes. You are beginning to look as you are supposed to look.”
“I knew it!”
What would Ares think of it? The question was in my head before I could help it, and I replaced it quickly with, what would Joshua think of it? Probably that it would encourage my violent psyche, I thought with a frown. I gave a small shrug and closed the closet. My violent psyche might just be what saved his life, if I could survive Ares’ Trials.
A loud bang on my door told me that I was about to find out what Ares thought, whether I wanted to or not.
“We must leave,” his gruff voice hummed through the heavy wooden door. I grabbed my knife off the nightstand, pushing it into my pocket, and opened the door. The God of War stood huge and hulking before me, armor and helmet in place.
“Good morning to you too,” I told him, turning back into the room. He stayed put just outside the door as I grabbed my boots, pulling them on. “Do we leave all our stuff here?” I asked him. He nodded, his red plume bouncing. “I see you’re talkative as ever today,” I muttered, as I tied my laces.
“You are hoping for an apology?” he said.
“No. But if you’ve changed your mind about not letting me use my own power being dangerous then-”
He cut me off. “Hurry up, or we will be late.”
“Late for what?”
“The Trial announcement.”
Panic fired through me, not at the imminent news of our fate, but at something much more alarming. “I haven’t eaten yet!”
Ares let out a long breath. We’d been together five minutes, and the sighing had already begun.
“We will get something on the way.”
He got me more of the tasty meat skewers from a stall as we made our way through the stone streets toward Pain’s tower, and I tore into one as soon as he passed them to me. Now that he was in full armor, gleaming and gold, many people in the streets were staring at him. The hawker hadn’t even charged him for the food.