Chapter 38 Crash and Burn #2
Sloan cocked the gun again, aiming at me. He glanced towards my pocket, and his grin widened. My hand shot to my pocket where the coin rested, heavy with fate.
“So, you’re going to kill me now?” I breathed.
He tilted his head, almost amused. “Oh no, Miss Blumenthal. You’re not my target today.” His gaze slid over me like I was a specimen under glass. “We have much bigger plans for you.”
The words hit like ice water.
Leo snarled, slashing his hand through the air again, trying to rip open space. The runes held firm. His face twisted with frustration. Another sound cut through the alarms. Heavy footsteps. The line of soldiers parted, and out of the shadows stepped—
“Xavier?”
But it wasn’t him. Not the Xavier I remembered. His grin was feral, his eyes glowing red. Runes crawled up his bare arms like veins of molten steel.
“Fun-Size,” he crooned.
Behind him, Sloan spread his arms. “I see you are familiar with our latest success. Ares, god of war, reborn and remade.”
Xavier—no, Ares—rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck. He wasn’t holding a weapon; he didn’t need one.
Leo paled. “Oh, hell.”
May tried to push me back. “Stay behind me—”
Ares lunged. The impact rattled the walls.
May blocked the first strike, her forearm meeting his like hitting steel.
A pale, useless glow flickered across her knuckles, doing nothing to amplify her strength.
The runes pressed down harder. She gritted her teeth, trying to summon more, but the weight was crushing.
The force of Ares’s blow sent her sprawling back.
She barely got to her feet before he was on her again.
Leo darted in, aiming a strike at Ares’s temple. Ares caught him mid-motion, fist clamping around his wrist and slamming him into the wall so hard the plaster cracked.
“Pathetic,” Ares sneered, throwing him down.
“Leo!” I cried. He groaned, rolling onto his side.
May roared and launched herself at Ares again, bringing her fist to his jaw. Her knuckles sparked with faint light, a ghost of her power straining against the lattice. He let her land the blow, unfazed. He backhanded her across the face, and she collapsed, blood smearing her lips.
“Stop it!” I shouted, pressing myself over Candace’s limp body to shield her. I reached for my vines again. The runes pushed back. My power strained, twisted, and went nowhere.
Ares turned toward me. His grin widened. I scrambled back, dragging Candace behind me. Ares stalked forward to grab a fistful of my hair, yanking me upright. I screamed and clawed at his grip, but he only laughed.
He dragged me across the floor and flung me to my knees in front of Sloan. My scalp burned, tears stinging my eyes, but I forced my chin up.
“The goddess, delivered,” Sloan murmured. He lifted the pistol again, aimed at my head. “Now then. Let’s invite our final guest. He’s been throwing himself at our wards this whole time.”
A terrible realization settled over me. Kian…
Sloan raised his hand, and the wards fell. The temperature plummeted. Frost crept across the walls. The lights died, swallowed by a darkness so absolute it felt alive.
And then the shadows moved. They didn’t creep—they surged, pouring through the corridor like a flood, devouring light and sound. The air turned to ice. Soldiers stumbled back, weapons trembling.
A voice rolled through the facility, low and resonant, shaking the walls.
“You dare touch her?”
And out of the void, he stepped. Not Professor Ward. Not Kian.
Hades.
Dark robes poured from him like smoke. His skin glowed with obsidian and gold.
His eyes were endless pits of fire, and his face was a mask of barely controlled rage.
The floor cracked beneath his feet. Shadows writhed around him, hungry and feral—but restrained.
The runes flared brighter, pressing against his power like chains.
I could barely breathe, terror and awe flooding me.
Sloan’s smile widened. “Welcome, Lord Hades.”
The soldiers surged forward, rifles raised, bullets blazing.
Runes ignited along the barrels. Hades didn’t flinch.
He moved like shadow and flame, his hands lashing outward, twisting darkness into whips that tore through armor and bone.
But the shadows were thinner than they should be, fighting against invisible resistance.
He had to work harder for every strike. Shadows yanked soldiers into the air, hurling them through walls.
Screams echoed and cut off. The floor cracked under the force of his presence.
Then Ares charged at Hades. Ares dodged a lash of shadow and delivered a bone-crushing blow to Hades’s shoulder. A shockwave tore through the corridor.
They clashed, divine power against enhanced godly strength. The corridor shook with every strike. Hades’s shadows coiled and struck, but the runes bent them, slowed them. He gritted his teeth, forcing more power through the lattice. It gave, but only a little.
Leo continued to frantically attempt to open a portal, hands slashing through the air again and again. His face was slick with sweat. The runes held firm. “Come on, come on—”
Hades grunted as Ares landed a strike that shoved him back into a wall. Dust fell from the ceiling. His shadows surged, straining harder against the suppression. The runes flickered. Hades began to gain the upper hand, Ares staggering under shadow strikes that finally broke through with full force.
Without warning, a cold hand pressed against the back of my neck, yanking me up. Sloan’s pistol pressed hard against my temple.
“Stand down, Lord Hades,” Sloan stated. “Or I scatter her across the floor.”
The world narrowed to the barrel at my skin. Hades stopped mid-strike, eyes snapping to me. Pain and fury flooded his expression, but he obeyed. Ares’s red eyes glowed brighter. He unleashed a brutal kick that sent Hades sprawling, blood streaking the tiles.
“No!” I screamed, clawing at Sloan. My vines strained again—so close, pressing against the barrier on my power. The runes pushed back harder.
Ares drove into Hades’s jaw again and again. Each blow sounded like thunder. Hades’s knees buckled. He spat blood and tried to rise, but Ares wrenched his arms behind him. Shadows unfurled from Hades like a tide, coiling to lash back.
He glanced at me, and the shadows stilled.
“Let her go, Sloan,” he hissed. The voice rolled and echoed, the Underworld speaking through him. Sloan cocked the gun and pressed harder into my temple.
“What are you willing to trade for her safety, Lord Hades?” Sloan purred.
My throat closed, and I couldn’t breathe. Hades’s shadows trembled like feral dogs on a chain, straining against the runes that still held them back.
Sloan’s laugh was contemptuous. “Shall we make a deal? Or shall we end this here?”
Horror shot through me. No, not a deal…
Hades’s shadows pushed at the edges, living darkness that wanted to rip the world apart. The runes bent, groaning under the pressure. His voice was threaded with iron. “If you harm her, I will tear you to shreds and throw you so far into Tartarus that even the Fates will forget your name.”
The threat hung like a storm front. Sloan tilted his head, finger hovering over the trigger.
“Kian, don’t…” I begged, tears hot on my cheeks.
His eyes had so much sorrow packed into a single look.
“Take me,” he said. “Let them go.”
“No!” I cried out, my lungs seizing with anguish.
Sloan’s grin widened. “Predictable, but it’s a deal.”
The air fractured. That was the only word for it, as if reality had cracked down the middle. The shadows around Hades convulsed, recoiling inward as if something invisible had seized them. His divine form flickered, the burning embers of his eyes dimming as he let out a quiet gasp.
Then, with a growl, his shadows flared, black fire racing across the walls. They burned out the runes, collapsing the lattice. The suppression shattered like glass. Leo gasped, power rushing back. He ripped the air apart with shaking hands, forcing open a blinding golden portal.
“Go! Now!” Hades shouted.
Leo scrambled to get May and Candace through the portal. May staggered, half-dragging Candace towards it with Leo’s help. Her magic sputtered back to life, flowing over my mother’s limp frame.
“Mel!” Leo called.
I slammed my elbow back into Sloan’s ribs, breaking free.
I reared around to bring a fist to his nose, pain exploding through my hand as something cracked.
Biting back a yelp, I pulled my hand away, turning back toward Hades.
His eyes widened as he ripped out of Ares’s hold, shadows slamming Ares back into the wall.
“Kian!” I stumbled toward him, reaching.
He met me halfway, catching me against his chest. He kissed me desperately, his hand trembling against my cheek.
“Don’t do this, you promised—” I begged, tears streaming.
“I know. I’m sorry,” he whispered against my lips. His burning gaze met mine, flooded with despair and love. “I can’t let them hurt you. Not when I can save you this time.”
Then his shadows surged, coiling around me and pulling me from his arms. They shoved me through the portal despite my protests, and I screamed his name. I reached for him, vines forming to try and grab him, but they withered into dust as soon as they got close.
The last thing I saw was Sloan raising the gun.
A shot cracked through the air.
Hades faltered with a gasp, shadows peeling off of him in ribbons, leaving only the man behind, collapsing to his knees. Golden ichor pooled down his arm. His eyes found mine one last time—
And then the portal snapped shut.
We landed hard, concrete scraping my palms. The physical pain was a distant echo drowned out by the gaping wound that tore open inside my chest.
Kian was gone.
Gone.
And I was here.
Without him.
I couldn’t breathe, a crushing weight on my chest. The world tilted, then blurred. Candace lay beside me, coughing. Leo was already at May’s side, his hands pressed over hers as she tried to stem the bleeding in her shoulder.
But I couldn’t move.