Chapter 6 The Challenge #2
He shot a glance at Callista, actually daring to pretend he cared. “Look at her. So beautiful, so precious. She should be treasured by someone who truly deserves her.”
That, I couldn’t ignore. Flames poured from my skin, casting orange light across the black stone. The temperature rose around me like a forge coming to life.
I dropped into a combat stance, my muscles coiling with eager anticipation. “She deserves the person who is her true match.”
“On that, Theron, we concur. Except you’re not that person. I am.”
The arrogance in his tone made fury roar through my skull, but I didn’t get the chance to answer. Up in the arena, Clotho clapped her hands. “Begin,” she ordered. Just like that, the time for words was over.
Phonos exploded into motion, launching himself skyward with a speed that blurred his form. His wings caught air currents with deadly precision, carrying him in a wide arc around the platform’s edge.
Smart move. He knew I was stronger on the ground, but at a distance, he was far deadlier than I could ever be. His feathers hardened into razor edges, black plumage becoming weapons in seconds.
A volley of hardened feathers shot toward my chest, each one sharp enough to punch through bone. I rolled aside, feeling them embed in the platform where I’d been standing. If I’d been just a second slower, the projectiles would have torn me apart.
“Running already, Theron?” He called from above. “How disappointing.”
“I’m not the one who fled skyward.”
Flames erupted from my hands in spiraling torrents.
The attack forced him higher, singeing the tips of his wings.
More feathers rained down in response, turning the platform into a killing field of steel.
I wove between them, feeling edges whistle past my ears close enough to part fur.
One grazed my shoulder, opening a clean line across muscle.
The Keres had perfect aim, flawless timing. Each volley drove me toward the platform’s edge. He was herding me like prey, using his superior range to control the battlefield.
But he’d made one mistake. He was underestimating what a cornered Hellhound could do.
I feinted right, then dove left toward the barrier that marked the fighting circle’s boundary. “Hiding behind barriers?” he taunted, adjusting his flight path to maintain visual contact.
“Who’s hiding?”
I launched myself upward, planting my feet against the wall and using the barrier as a springboard. Power erupted from my feet, propelling me higher than any normal jump could manage. His eyes widened and he tried to climb away from my reach.
I caught his ankle, and my momentum carried us both across the platform in a deadly arc. We crashed into the ground with a bone-jarring impact.
He rolled away immediately, but I was already moving. We grappled across the slick stone, his superior speed matching my raw strength in a contest that shook the arena walls.
His talons found my ribs in rapid strikes, each blow precise and vicious. I answered with flames that blistered his skin wherever I touched him. Neither of us gave ground, neither showed mercy.
Then, Phonos opened his mouth and released his death screech.
The sound tore through my skull like molten metal, bypassing my ears entirely and burrowing straight into my brain.
Every rational thought dissolved under waves of compulsion.
My vision bled crimson, ancient Keres magic already seizing control of my mind.
Kill. Rip. Burn. Destroy everything that moves.
The rage wasn’t mine anymore. It belonged to the screech, to centuries of Keres power designed to turn thinking creatures into mindless killers. My claws extended without my conscious command, flames erupting across my skin in wild, uncontrolled bursts.
I lunged at him with pure animal savagery. No technique, no strategy, just raw murder made flesh. He danced away from my wild swipes, using my blind fury against me as I stumbled over my own feet.
“There’s the real you,” he panted, staying just beyond my clumsy reach. “Nothing but a rabid beast. An inferior weave.”
The trance demanded I chase him, but somewhere deep in the red haze, a deeper power resisted.
Callista’s face flashed through my mind, the way she’d been in my arms. We hadn’t gotten the chance to entwine our threads, but the memory of her choice, her trust, her love was stronger than any death screech.
Just like she’d been from the moment we’d met, she became my lifeline. I focused on that image, fighting off the brutality that wanted to consume me whole.
The rage refused to relent, clawing at my consciousness like a living thing.
It whispered that killing was easier, that surrender felt good, that Thanatos would welcome my bloodlust. But I was more than my fury, perhaps more than Theron of Asphodelia.
I was Callista’s mate, and I wouldn’t let Phonos’s magic steal that from me.
The crimson haze cracked, then shattered.
I straightened, rational thought returning just as Phonos moved in for another attack.
He expected me to still be lost in mindless violence.
Instead, I grabbed his shoulders and drove him backward into the stone.
Flipping him around, I slammed him down and pinned him beneath my weight.
He’d gambled everything on his screech lasting longer. But he’d failed, and now he would pay the price.
It took me seconds to find his biggest weakness. His right wing where it joined his spine. The base was thick with muscle and cartilage, designed to support his entire body weight in flight. But even Keres anatomy had limits.
“This is what happens,” I snarled, feeling delicate structures flex under my palm, “when someone tries to steal my mate.”
“Tear it off if you dare, Theron,” Phonos growled. “But know this. It won’t change the truth. She is meant to be my mate, not yours. Even wingless, I won’t stop until I prove that.”
I saw red and pulled. Wet tearing sounds filled the arena as the cartilage started to separate. Even when his wing began ripping away from his spine, Phonos didn’t scream. Blood spurted from the widening gap, and in seconds, he would be left earthbound forever. But he showed no sign of pain.
Perhaps that should have given me a clue that something was wrong. It didn’t. The next thing I knew, his free wing swept around in one final, desperate strike. His hardened feathers sliced through my abdomen, tearing through muscle and organs, shredding everything vital inside me.
I roared in shock and pain, and my grip on his wing loosened as my body fought to keep functioning.
I staggered back, and he got up to face me.
We stared at each other across heartbeats that felt like hours, both poised at the edge of ruin.
His wing hung by threads of torn flesh, partially detached and pumping blood.
I was literally gutted and could barely even stand.
Another second would destroy us both forever. But neither was willing to yield.
“Halt!”
It was a single word, but when spoken by Clotho, it carried absolute authority. We froze in our tracks, our muscles responding to the Moirae’s will even if our minds rebelled. We couldn’t have continued the battle if existence itself depended on it.
Iaso manifested out of nowhere, having no doubt been waiting nearby in case she was needed.
She pressed her glowing hands against my shredded abdomen, her death energy working desperately to weave me back together.
Then she moved to Phonos, her touch reattaching his nearly-severed wing with careful precision.
The Moirae spoke with one voice, their combined power shaking the arena foundations. “The combat ends in a draw. Both fighters came within heartbeats of permanent harm. The decision returns to she who was fought over.”
Perfect. The moment I’d been anticipating since this farce began. Even being almost disemboweled couldn’t erase the sweet taste of my success.
She would pick me again, just like she had at the bride market. The brand would blaze back to life on her hand, proving our connection to anyone who dared question it.
I turned toward her, waiting for her declaration, ready to hear my name on her lips. But something terrible happened. She hesitated.
Her eyes moved from me to Phonos and back again, confusion written across her delicate features. Not the careful weighing of a difficult choice, but genuine bewilderment.
“I...” She petted Zoe’s scales, as if seeking comfort from the only familiar thing in sight. “I don’t know… Who am I supposed to choose?”
The words shattered everything I’d believed about our bond. She didn’t remember me. Somehow, impossibly, she had no idea who I was or why she should care.
“The woman shows uncertainty,” Lachesis declared. “When the contested prize fails to decide, ownership falls to the party with superior legal standing. Phonos of House Keres claims Callista of Agrion.”
“No!” I lunged forward, but guards intercepted me before I could reach the platform’s edge. “She chose me! She chose me at the bride market!”
“And yet, she can’t remember that now.” Phonos limped closer, triumph glinting in his eyes. “How unfortunate for you, Theron. But you should know, the threads always lead where they’re meant to go. Besides, if it had been me, I would’ve protected her from anything. Even Charon.”
His words hurt more than every injury I’d taken from him in our duel put together. Of course. This was because of Charon’s memory extraction. The price for entering the bride market.
It was supposed to be a single happy memory, chosen by the ferryman himself. But clearly, that hadn’t happened. Clearly, something had gone wrong.
“Callista!” I struggled against the guards holding my arms. “Remember what we shared! Remember our ceremony!”
It was pointless. The woman who’d trusted me from the moment we’d met now looked at me with empty eyes.
I had lost everything to politics and memory, and the cruelest part was that she’d never even know what she’d forgotten.