21. Nyssa #2
She would soon learn what happens when you attempt to poison, maim, and kill death herself. A devious grin twisted my lips as I plotted silently.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked drily.
“Good morning to you too, Nightshade,” he returned, equally sarcastic.
But then Caelus dropped the pretence of joviality, his face falling into something resembling sincerity.
“Ally with us.” He gestured to Aros and Aphrodite, who had their heads drawn together, whispering urgently. “You can’t do everything on your own. And besides, we could use a death-wielder on the battlefield.” He shrugged, a smirk flitting across his face.
I pursed my lips, considering. The dragon had nudged me towards him — without knowing he’d formed a team of his own. But could I trust the judgement of a six-pound creature I’d only just met?
“I’ll join you on one condition,” I said slowly.
His brows lifted, wariness creasing the skin between them.
“And what’s that, dare I ask?”
“You tell me why you keep calling me Nightshade .”
Caelus huffed an amused breath. “Join us, and I’ll tell you after we win.” With a grin, he walked back over to the duo, who were watching the exchange with curiosity. He cocked a brow, crossed his arms, and waited expectantly for me to join them.
Scowling, I trudged after him, my dragon humming happily next to my ear. At least one of us was content with this development.
“Darling!” Aros yelled, throwing an arm around my shoulders. “Welcome to Team Heroes!” I shrugged his arm off, raising a brow of my own.
I was no hero.
“Oh, come now. We were just discussing tactics.” He turned back to the group, his tone shifting. “What are the tactics?”
I almost laughed. He was the son of war — if anyone should have a plan, it ought to be him.
“I’m really starting to pity your childhood, Aros.” He turned to me, eyes gleaming with confusion. “First, the alphabet issue, and now I find out Daddy didn’t teach you war tactics either?” I shook my head mockingly.
He smirked. “At least my Daddy didn’t give me corpses to play with.”
“Oh, on the contrary, darling . Daddy gave me knives — and showed me how to use them.”
I winked and summoned that familiar shadow dagger in my palm.
Tossing it into the air and catching it by the blade, I flicked it at him.
Aros reared backwards. Just before it could pierce the skin between his eyes, I let the darkness dissolve.
A cloud of black dust exploded in front of his face, sending him into a coughing fit, like a fish on dry land.
Then, incredibly — or maybe psychotically — he grinned and started clapping slowly.
The air shifted. The smell of honey and whiskey curling into my nose. Caelus scowled a second before I realised what we were all detecting.
Aros was turned on.
Of course. Violence was his love language.
Aphrodite giggled — a delicate, airy sound. The kind reserved for polite company. When it was just us, she cackled like an old wench, and it was one of my favourite things about her.
“So, how are we going to go about this?” Caelus asked, albeit grumpily, steering the group back onto the task.
Time was ticking. We were the last group still standing in the field.
Leander was sprinting towards the cliffs, Tychon nipping at his heels; Diana and Apollo opted to try their luck with the mountain, while Archimedes — arguably the boldest of all — was heading straight for the castle’s main gates.
“We go straight,” I said. “Pick the best route once we get closer. We have no idea what Athena has lying in wait for us.”
“She has a good point,” Aphrodite agreed.
“Straight it is,” Caelus declared.
We unsheathed our weapons. Aros passed one of his daggers to the goddess of love with a quick tutorial on how to use it, “Stick ‘em with the pointy end.”
And just like that, we crept across the field.
Four unlikely comrades.
Team Heroes.
I smiled softly to myself, willing my darkness to the surface. I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d need it.
Athena’s first obstacle had been lying in wait halfway across the plain. One second, everything was calm. The next, Aros took one step on exactly the wrong patch of earth.
The movement triggered a singular mechanical adversary to spring to life. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before — something Hephaestus had definitely had a hand in. The small silver contraption looked unassuming, until it began shooting arrows in every direction.
“Fuck!” Aros growled, rolling aside just in time to avoid copping a wooden projectile to the thigh.
Aph sidestepped graciously, her dove squawking and launching skyward.
“Get back!” I shouted at her. I didn’t wait to see if she listened, jerking my head around just in time to see Caelus — goddamn fucking Caelus — catching an arrow with his bare hand. Simply plucking it out of the air like it was nothing.
Somehow, I’d avoided being targeted, which was refreshing, considering the last arrow aimed my way had been poisoned. The memory still stung. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was, however, short-lived.
The little silver machine, having run out of projectiles, whirred and began to shift. Its pieces rotated and contorted, transforming into a slightly bigger contraption with a pipe-like cylinder poking out of the top. The pipe flicked down, perpendicular to the ground, where it paused.
Aphrodite whispered, “Is it… empty?”
“No,” I replied softly. “It feels like it’s waiting. Like it’s watching.”
Aros scoffed, just as the machine began to buzz. Louder and louder the sound grew until I thought it might explode. Instead, flames erupted from its barrel shooting straight for me. I dove out of the way, as my dragon screeched, her claws digging into the fleshy part of my shoulder.
The machine tracked my movement, its nozzle swivelling to follow me wherever I ran. I ducked and wove, constantly in its line of fire. Caelus attempted to strike it down, his wolf pacing behind him, but the invention was proving impenetrable.
The beasts kept their distance, sensing that the flames would be their downfall.
Aphrodite stood nearby, helpless, scowling at her freshly burned hands. Her dove cooed mournfully.
But it was Aros who defeated Hephaestus’ creation. Aros, who leapt in front of the flames meant for me.
Aros who shielded me with his own body.
He grunted as the flames slammed into his broad chest, searing through leather and linen alike.
He seemed to expand, inhaling deeply from where he stood in front of me.
Not one flicker of pain crossed his face.
The fire had not hurt him at all. In fact, his energy had grown stronger. I could feel it.
Aros absorbed the machine’s flames. The more it spat out, the more he drew into himself. His body began to glow, fire dancing beneath his skin in mesmerising whirls, heat radiating off his back in waves.
The machine clunked, then the fire sputtered out.
“ Now it’s empty,” Aros grinned.
His body had been transformed into something otherworldly.
This was as much his true form as the exposed skeleton was mine.
He stood taller, wider, his hair flickering like candlelight in the breeze.
It was… beautiful. I reached out and grazed a finger across his shoulder blade — only to sharply pull it back with a hiss.
The pad of my finger had already blistered.
Aros winked.
“Sorry darling. Guess I’m just hot for you right now.” He turned back to the mechanical creation. “And unlucky for you , I eat flames for breakfast.”
Caelus groaned. Aph and I shared an exasperated eye roll.
Aros clenched both fists and roared, fire shooting from his eyes .
No fucking way.
My dragon huffed, and the larger beasts finally stopped pacing. We all watched as the machine burned, then melted, then collapsed into a puddle of molten silver. Aros returned to his normal form, his smirk firmly in place — despite being completely naked.
My eyes widened as he grabbed my hand, gently placing a kiss upon my injured finger.
I yanked it back, scowling, desperately trying to keep my eyes above his shoulder level. He grinned widely, and his manticore chortled.
“See something you like, darling?” His grin turned wicked.
Caelus interrupted before I could reply. “Alright, if we can get back?—”
A series of metallic clangs rang out, one after the other, each one sounding further and further away. I met his look of concern with one of my own before the air filled with the whistle of more arrows.
Caelus threw his hands upwards, summoning an enormous gust of wind to blow the projectiles off course. Then we heard the telltale whir of more nozzles flicking into place, swivelling towards us with eerie precision.
We were about to attend a barbecue — not as the guests, but as the main course.
Fire roared towards us from multiple directions. I barely had time to throw up a wall of shadows — first to our right, then to our left — as the flames poured in from both sides.
“They’re cutting us off!” Aphrodite yelled. “We need to break through!”
Aros grinned devilishly. “Let’s dance, tin cans.”
And dance we did.
Aphrodite drew the machines in, twirling and weaving as though she were actually waltzing — drawing their fire — while Caelus fried them with bolts of lightning.
Aros threw projectiles of his own — balls of pure fire — like a godly catapult, hitting them squarely in their centres, while his cock waved to and fro.
They exploded on impact, sending shrapnel shooting into the sky.
And I finally used death-wielding for good; weaving close enough to touch the machines and draw out whatever life Hephaestus had imbued within them. Their whirring and clunking slowed, then ceased altogether, collapsing into piles of rusted metal.