Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Weapons clang as we form a circle with our backs to each other. I reach to touch my lightning bolt charm, but something tells me I should wait for the perfect moment. My sword is perfectly balanced, pointed at the leader’s throat.
“You threaten my mate and my friends? Back the fuck off or I will gut you,” I say with a snarl.
“You are trespassing and dare threaten us.” The man’s accent is strange but I still understand his words.
This close to him I can see the points of his ears poking out from beneath aqua hair. It would be fascinating if he didn’t have a sword to Jayden’s neck at the moment.
The men around us stiffen, taking steps forward. The one directly in front of Raven steps extremely close to her and she twirls her blade tauntingly while Greyson growls.
“If you think you’re going after weak females, you are wrong,” Greyson growls. “The females are our strongest warriors.”
The man with my blade to his throat scoffs, “What does that say about you men that you believe your females to be great warriors?”
“You want to find out?” I ask. “I have a fucking mission to complete and you’re in my way.”
“You dishonor yourself by pretending to be a warrior when you’re a female. Females are meant to be cherished and protected.” The man appears truly confused.
“Maybe here but we aren’t from this place and we need to get out of here or our world is going to end.” I dig the point of my blade a little deeper into his throat and he winces.
Gold blood the same color as ichor drips on my blade and I gasp, taking a giant step back. “No, fuck no. I’m not getting that on me again.”
“Where the fuck are we?” Raven whispers.
“I don’t know but fighting these guys just became a lot more complicated,” I say. “Nobody get their blood on you. It’s like the monster blood that turned us into this.”
I wave a hand over myself like it changed my appearance when it didn’t. I’m not thinking clearly obviously. This situation is a lot more complicated than I previously thought. What were the fates thinking orchestrating this bullshit?
I reach for the charm, releasing my whip into my other hand, and channel the white-hot lightning into it. “Stand the fuck back.”
I crack the whip at him and he staggers back. “Impossible. What magic is this?”
“Olympian magic and I have no problem electrocuting all of you if I have to.” I crack the whip again for good measure.
The men surrounding us take small steps back but they don’t lower their weapons. Jayden is glaring at the man who still has the blade at his throat.
“I suggest you remove the blade from my mate’s throat now before you get to see what Olympian magic can really do,” I say with a growl.
“What do you intend to do, female?” another man with fuchsia hair asks, stepping forward.
I hold up a glowing white hand and pool a ball of lightning in my palm. “You really want me to answer that? I promise you won’t enjoy the outcome.”
Jayden’s shadows pulse around him in a dark promise of pain and death.
I don’t particularly want to hurt these men but they aren’t giving us much choice with their weapons on us and antiquated beliefs on the roles of women.
They even called us females which is slightly insulting, like we aren’t even women or good enough to have names.
If this is the way all people in this realm are, I already don’t like it here. A bunch of sexist jerks who don’t think I can take them down. Bullshit.
“Hey, B?” Raven calls. “Should we show him what we can do?”
“I don’t think they get the gravity of the situation they’re in. Maybe we should go easy on them.” I shrug.
“We outnumber you two to one,” the man with his sword at Jayden’s neck growls.
“Oh no, I’m shaking. I have seen odds much worse than this.” I glance at Raven.
“It was ten to one at the battle for Artemis easily.” She pulls a battle ax from the ether as well.
The man standing in front of her gulps and glances between the rest of his group before taking a huge step back.
“Raven, call your power and shield yourself.” I grin. “Jayden, can you shield the others? I think it’s time to play.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Jayden asks but his gaze is locked on the man in front of him. “She won’t go easy on any of you for threatening her friends.”
“Go easy on me?” He laughs.
“All right, baby. I got the others. Show this sexist jackass what you’ve got.” Jayden nods but the sword at his throat nicks his skin and a growl tumbles from my throat.
“You cut him,” I scream. “You will pay for the blood you spilled.”
I lunge for the man and launch the ball of white lightning at him. He dodges, just barely missing the lightning ball. It hits a tree at full force. The bark turns black instantly as it explodes with electricity and the men scatter to avoid chunks of the tree hitting them.
“Fall back,” the man who cut Jayden says and raises his hands in surrender. “I apologize.”
“You think I give a fuck about your apologies?” I laugh. “You hurt my mate and you think you get to live?”
My control over the power pulsing angrily in my veins snaps. My entire body lights up with white-hot electricity that crackles down my arms and a voice that doesn’t belong to me purrs in my head, seeking retribution.
End him. He doesn’t get to live for injuring ours.
What the actual fuck is that? Power leaks off me in crackling waves as I stalk closer to the odd-looking man who injured my love.
“Baby, what are you doing?” Jayden asks. “Something’s wrong. You’re losing control.”
“I have complete control,” I scoff but it’s not me.
I didn’t force those words from my mouth. I stalk closer to the man who hurt Jayden, who has threatened and harassed us. The man who scoffed at Raven and me being the strongest warriors we had and I grin. The man glances around as I approach.
Am I unsettling him? He deserves that and so much worse for the way he’s treated us. Wait, are those my thoughts or something else? He hurt Jayden yes, but does he deserve a worse fate for it? What is wrong with me?
“Jayden,” I whisper but my head aches as I do.
Whatever this lack of control is, it’s difficult to do anything else. I’m a puppet. A shudder rolls through me at the thought. Fuck no. I will not be a puppet to my own magic. Not going to fucking happen.
“Baby, you need to wrestle control back from your magic. I’m okay, it’s just a scratch. I’m fine.” Jayden grips my arms in both hands, turning me to face him.
“I… can’t,” I whisper.
Jayden points his sword at the man as he reaches for me and pulls me into his side despite the fact that I’m crackling like a lightning storm.
Jayden shudders as my electricity shocks him.
A groan escapes him as he adjusts his grip on me and moves me in front of him to presumably hide his raging erection that’s pressed into my back.
“Dial it back, baby. I don’t want to fight a battle with an erection,” he whispers in my ear.
Taking a deep breath, I attempt to center myself and push back whatever dark entity inside me has taken control over my magic.
“I’m trying.” I grit my teeth.
Lightning crackles even brighter along my skin as I wrestle for control. The man attempts a step forward but Jayden throws out a hand and his shield blocks him.
“I promise you don’t want to do anything to anger her again. I have never seen her lose control like this before and I promise you that she will destroy you if you take a step closer,” Jayden says with a growl.
“She’s feral,” another man says. “She needs to be put down.”
Raven slams the hilt of her sword into the man’s gut and he doubles over coughing and wheezing. “She is not feral and she will be put down over my dead body.”
“What is wrong with you Olympians,” the first man asks as Jayden’s shadows wrap him in chains.
“There is nothing wrong with us. Had you not attacked us, we would not be reacting poorly,” Jayden says.
“Attacked you?” the man scoffs. “You show up in our territory and expect us not to react? This is our home and you’re trespassing.”
“We didn’t have a choice. We were transported here against our will because one of our gods is under attack. He is going to cease to exist if we don’t stop it. So, no, I don’t give a fuck. We aren’t supposed to be here. We need to go home. Now,” Jayden says.
“You’re like the others,” the man in front of Greyson says, furrowing his brow.
“What others?” I ask. “Where are they?”
A woman steps out from the trees. She’s beautiful with green hair the color of moss. She reminds me of a dryad only not like a tree. She has pointed ears like the others. Dryads don’t have pointed ears. They are treelike, though.
This woman most definitely isn’t treelike. “What’s happening here, Axel?”
“Oh, wise one,” he says, bowing at the waist. “These people who say they are Olympians have trespassed on our borders we were investigating.”
I lunge forward, magic crackling at my palms in warning. He dares tell her that we trespassed and they were just investigating?
“Convenient how you left out the parts where you actively threatened us for being dropped into a realm we have no idea about,” I snarl.
“You are on the edge of control,” the woman says to me.
“He injured my mate. I want retribution.” I glare at the male.
“It was but a scratch, the female is overreacting.” The man shrugs.
I lunge for him but Jayden’s shadows catch me and caress my arms and shoulder in an attempt to calm me. I glare at him but he shakes his head.
“He calls me that again and I will unleash the full force of my gods touched power on him. I’m a woman. I’m not a female beneath his misogynistic ass.” I glare between him, Jayden, and the newcomer.
“I have told you lot that other realms may take offense to that term,” the woman says, shaking her head. “They’re so locked in the past they have no idea women want to be viewed as strong and not cherished and protected at all costs.”
“We protect ourselves and the ones we love,” Raven says with a glare. “Even if we are women.”