“We also know how the last time ended when you refused.” Ares spared a quick glance at Perses’ still-prone body. He laughed. “This time I know how to get what I want from you.”
“Do tell.” I took a measured step back, drawing on akasha once more. It whipped through my veins like white lightning, boiling my blood and burning my body from the inside. The urge to unleash it was almost too hard to deny, but it wasn’t time.
Ares’ lips curled into a sneer. “You will do anything to protect those you care for. I could go for that pure-blood of yours. Or how about your father? Both of them are outside, right?”
My fingers straightened. Behind him, Seth was on his feet, a Covenant dagger clutched in his right hand. “If you were going to use them, you’d have pulled that card by now, which tells me you don’t quite know where my father is. And you haven’t gotten to Aiden.”
“I will,” he promised. “And it’s only a matter of time before they make their way in here. Both will come to your aid, and I know, oh yes, I know you’ll do anything to keep them safe,” Ares said. “And I will kill one of them, and you’ll have to choose. I just need to bide my time.”
Seth was almost on him.
I allowed myself a smile. “That’s the funny thing about time. You never have as much as you think.”
Ares opened his mouth, but his words were cut off by Seth’s dagger. Shoved deep into Ares’ back. The god reared and screamed. “I’m going to kill you!”
“It’s a little too late for that,” Seth said, yanking the blade out of Ares’ back.
I snapped forward at the same moment Ares threw his arm out, sending Seth flying into the air. Seth hit a pillar with a sickening crunch I couldn’t allow to distract me. Akasha rushed through me, and my vision tinged with white.
Ares whirled on me, swaying to the side as I unleashed the purest power in and out of the mortal realm. Throwing my arm out, akasha flared from my shoulder, just like the cord that had connected me to Seth. Spiraling down my arm, it erupted in a burst. Ares tried to move, but he wasn’t fast enough.
The bolt of akasha hit him in the center of the chest, and I kept the stream of energy up, throwing everything into the attack. Light crackled and spit into the air. Wisps of fine smoke radiated above the cord.
Stalking forward, I kept on him, not giving him a chance to slip away. I could feel the energy in me waning with each passing second, but I gritted my teeth. This was it. There would be no second chances. When the akasha sputtered out, which it would, I would be down for the count.
But Ares…he was backing away, still able to walk, and I was weakening fast. I had no idea how much more I had in me or what it would take to truly kill an Olympian. But the stream of akasha pulsed, and then the light weakened. My breath expelled from my lungs harshly as an ache started behind my eyes.
Then Seth was beside me, grasping my free hand, and he squeezed. The cord between us reappeared, wrapping around our joined hands. Suddenly, it made sense to me. I drew in a breath, and Seth jerked as if a puppet master had pulled on his strings. The light from the akasha flared intensely, growing until it was too bright to look upon. Pulling from us both, the blast of energy became a white fire.
Ares’ fury-filled roar developed into a terror-filled scream. A loud popping sound, like a hundred guns going off at the same time, followed. The akasha faded out, not snapping back to me, but simply fizzling like fireworks vanishing into the sky.
I still held onto Seth’s hand, my body shaking as Ares came into view.
The gods’ eyes were wide, his arms stretched out at his sides. He tipped his chin down and his mouth opened, but no sound came out. A ball of crackling white light was embedded deep in his chest. The light spread out, following the intricate network of veins until his chest lit up.
I took a breath, but it got stuck.
Ares lifted his head as the white lines reached across his shocked face, covering his head within a second.
He disappeared under the white light.
The sound of deafening thunder cracked through the room. The air distorted and rippled, and I saw it coming a second too late. The sonic wave rolled across the room at frightening speed, slamming into Seth and me. It broke my hold on him, splitting us apart, and we flew backward, hit the floor, and slid. An explosion rocked the room, and fine, white dust poured into the air like snow. Starbursts flooded my vision like a thousand bombs going off.
And then there was silence.
Hands and arms shaking, I rolled onto my side and lifted myself halfway up. The wall across from me was gone. A hole had been blown straight through it, exposing beams and crumbling brick and sunlight.
I looked over my shoulder and let out a ragged breath.
The spot where Ares had stood was empty. On the floor, the blackened tile formed a perfect circle, like a brand. I knew in my bones that Ares was gone. The blast was a release of his essence, returning it to wherever it came from.
Shifting onto my butt, I winced at the ache that consumed my body as I scanned the room for Seth. The white dust had settled like a fine blanket of snow. Near the entrance of the ballroom, Seth lay face-down.
I stared at him for a moment, my brain slowly catching up to my surroundings, and when it did, my heart nearly exploded in my chest.
Seth wasn’t moving.
Oh gods…
I staggered to my feet and rushed toward him, ignoring the weakness in my limbs. “No. No. No.”
Dropping down beside him, I grabbed his shoulders and rolled him onto his back. “Seth,” I whispered, shaking him. “Seth, come on.”
His eyes were shut. Golden lashes fanned cheeks that didn’t move. There was a wrenching feeling deep inside me, a splintering and tearing in my chest that felt so very real.
He wasn’t moving.
I grasped his cheeks. The marks of the Apollyon—the beautiful blue marks flared under my fingers. No. No. No. I tried our bond to reach him. Seth? But there was no answer, nothing but a low hum. Panicked, I shook him again, and when he didn’t respond, a broken sob racked its way through my body as I dropped my head onto his chest.
Grief tore through me—the kind I hadn’t known would be possible to feel again, because I had felt this when I’d held Caleb as he died. No matter what Seth had done, the terrible things he’d started, he’d made it right in the end. And even if he hadn’t, if it had been my hand in the end that brought him down, the pain would’ve still been there. Seth was a part of me—my other half. And I was losing that part. Forever.
I can’t breathe.
“Neither can I. You’re squashing me.”
Jerking back, I let out a startled shriek. Seth stared back at me, his amber eyes slightly unfocused, but he was breathing. He was alive.
I smacked him. Hard.
“Ow!” Seth rolled onto his side, out of my grasp. “What the hell was that for?”
“Don’t ever do that again, you jerk!” I smacked him again, hitting him on the hip. “I thought you were dead!”
Seth chuckled hoarsely as he rose onto his knees. “I was knocked out, Angel. Please don’t do that again.”
I stared at him, caught between wanting to hit him and hug him. “I hate you.”
“I’m going to have to call bullshit on that.” Lifting his chin, he squinted as he looked around. “You did it, didn’t you? Ares is gone.”
Sitting back, I followed his gaze. Pillars cracked. Walls destroyed. I nodded slowly. “We did it.”
Our gazes locked, and a silly grin appeared on Seth’s face as he extended his hand. I took it, and we stood together.
Then I remembered a very important, currently MIA Titan. Dropping Seth’s hand, I turned around and scanned the room. Nothing. And Perses was kind of hard to miss, which meant he was gone. The gods weren’t going to be happy about that.
“Crap,” I muttered. “He bounced.”
“There’s nothing we can do about that now.” Seth pressed a hand against his ribs. A grimace shot across his face. “He’s their problem.”