“The arrows are absorbed into your body,” panted Ares, as we both skipped to the side, staying under Cottus as he danced around, trying to expose us.
“You can’t defeat me from under there!” the giant laughed.
I got a stark visual of when I’d seen men in the ring go for the one area that was always out of bounds, and raised an eyebrow at Ares.
“Can we get him in the nuts?” I asked. We both looked up at the fabric-clad genitalia of the giant above us, and I swallowed a wave of revulsion and unease. Besides being gross, it wasn’t really a sporting thing to do. But he was trying to kill us.
Before either of us could say another word, Ares jumped at the tree-trunk-like leg of the giant. It was twice his height, and Cottus lifted his huge limb and shook it as Ares pulled himself up the rubbery flesh, reaching the bottom of Cottus’ shorts easily. Another wave of pain moved through my body and spurred me into action. I threw myself at the giant’s other leg and started climbing.
“Get off!” the giant bellowed, shaking and stamping both legs in turn. I clung on to anything I could get a grip on, trying to ignore how weird his skin felt. Once I reached his shorts it was easier, the fabric offering more handholds.
A hand swiped at me, and I only just ducked my head out of the way of it in time. I was in reach of his lower arms now. An arrow whizzed past my ear and I scrambled round, trying to get to the inside of his thigh and move lower, back out of reach of his freaky arms.
I felt a tug in my stomach and tipped my head back, trying to see Ares.
I knew at once something was wrong.
He was a few feet higher than me, on the front of Cottus’s thigh. Arrows were pinging off his armor, but a few must have been getting through because his body was flinching repeatedly. But I was focused on his eyes through the slits in his helmet. They were fixed on mine, and even from this distance, I could see that there was something wrong.
The pull in my stomach turned into a wrench, and Ares began to glow gold, moving so suddenly and so fast that he became a blur again. My vision wobbled.
The traitorous lying, evil fucking bastard was going to use all my power again.
Fury filled me instantly, hotter and harder than the waves of pain the arrows had left behind. The heat under my ribs exploded in a flash, and I yanked back on the invisible cord in my stomach as hard as I possibly could with a scream.
Ares fell. The gold blur whizzed past me, slamming into the ground with a grunt and a metallic clank. But I barely noticed. Because I was fucking glowing.
I stared at my arms, still clinging to Cottus’ shorts. They were glowing gold. Cottus raised his leg again, but it was like we were underwater, and he was moving in slow motion. I saw an arm reach down toward me, ready to take a swipe, but it would take an age to reach me, he was moving so slowly.
Seizing my chance, I launched myself up, the strength in my arms and legs, and the speed with which I found myself pulling my body higher astonishing me. When I reached Cottus’ waist I began pulling myself up his arms like I was a monkey climbing a tree, leaping from one slow-moving arm to the other like I’d been doing it my whole life. By the time I reached his neck, I was radiating gold light, and I saw the giant’s pupil contract, and his eyes widen in blissfully slow detail.
The Titan giant had underestimated me, and now he was paying the price.
I leaped up onto his enormous shoulders, grabbed hold of an ear the size of my head and yanked Ischyros from its loop on my belt. Holding the tip of the blade an inch from Cottus’ left eye, I spoke.
“Submit.”
The world around me sped up again, and I heard the crowd fall utterly silent as they took in the scene before them. Cottus took a heavy breath, his huge eye trained on me.
“You win this one, little lady,” he said, then vanished in a flash of green as a gong sounded.
31
Bella
I pulled hard on the heat inside me as I fell through the air, willing anything to break my fall. I let out a gasp of relief as I hit a cushion of soft air, and then rolled off it, landing on the sandy ground.
“How did you do that?” growled Ares’ voice, but I barely heard him over the roar of the crowd and the blood pounding in my ears. I launched myself to my feet, whirling to face him.
“You asshole!” I screamed at him, rage like I had never experienced filling me. I was glowing again, bright and fierce, and I was holding Ischyros at Ares’ chest. “I trusted you, and you were going to do it again! You were going to leave me empty and broken!” I was furious. And I knew, deep-down, that the betrayal was worse because of whatever we shared. Telling myself over and over that nothing could happen between us had not changed the longing in my core, the belief that something was meant to exist between us.
But his actions had shattered everything.
“It was the quickest way to win the fight and get it over with,” Ares said, only just loudly enough for me to hear him. “You would have recovered.”
“No! I don’t give a shit about your excuses, you know how it feels to be stripped of your power! You know!” I could feel hot tears of rage and frustration welling behind my eyes, burning. Please gods, don’t let me fucking cry in front of him. I drew harder on the rage, and my skin glowed brighter.
“I didn’t know you had the power to defeat him yourself. I didn’t know you were this strong. How were you hiding it from me?”
“Hiding it from you? Are you fucking serious? You don’t get to accuse me of anything, you lying bastard!”
Fire was dancing in his eyes, but there were no drums. And rather than call to me, I felt nothing but the need to douse the flames.
“I made a strategic decision.”
“I fucking hate you.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I loathed how much they made me sound like a petulant teenager. Or a betrayed lover. “I will never, ever share my magic with you. You don’t deserve a fucking drop of power, you selfish, arrogant-” My tirade was cut off as the Lords of War flashed into existence around us, Terror clapping his marble hands together slowly.
Pain’s voice boomed through the pit. “Ares and Bella win the first Trial! We’ll find out what my esteemed brother, Panic, has in store for them shortly.” The crowd continued to roar and cheer, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Ares. How could he? After fighting alongside me, nursing me, fucking kissing me, I genuinely hadn’t believed he would leave me unconscious and drained in the ring a second time.
“Shall we continue this elsewhere?” said Terror silkily. “Much as Olympus loves a bit of drama, we should keep some things to ourselves.”
Yet more light flashed around us and we were all in the box at the top of the pit.
“Stop fucking doing that!” I yelled, rounding on Pain. “I’m sick to death of being flashed all over the place without anyone telling me!”
“It looks like you’ll be able to do it yourself soon,” Pain answered with a smile. “You’re a fast learner.”
“And you’re as much of an asshole as him. Send me back to the caravanserai, now.”
I needed to be somewhere I could let off this rage, immediately. My temperature was at fever pitch, my blood feeling like it was actually boiling. One more minute in the company of these dishonest maniacs, and I would lose my shit completely. And now that I was glowing and had a big fucking sword, that seemed like a seriously bad idea.