Chapter 21
THANE
A haunting, melancholy tune echoed through the low-lit theater. I stood alone in an empty viewing box across from Apollo's, where six beautiful women vying for his attention surrounded him. I allowed my gaze to trail to the woman center stage, her chest heaving with the tune.
The play was a good one. The drama unfolded into a tragedy that had drawn my gaze despite my best efforts to keep my attention on Apollo.
The curtains closed, taking more light with them, and the audience stood to clap.
I returned my focus to my target. My identity was protected with a delicate mask of iron snowflakes rising in spikes over my cheekbones.
It shifted with my movement, so I gripped the cold metal's edge and returned it to its proper place.
Apollo stood, though his harem swarmed him and stopped his progress toward the door.
It was typical, I supposed, and the reason there were so many so-called demigods in Olympiara.
People were desperate for the protection and freedom that came from associating with an immortal.
I didn't blame those women, though their efforts would be fruitless.
I exited my booth to make my way to the staircase.
Access to the viewing boxes came from the same staircase, which was a failure on the architects' part to account for the safety of the high-value clientele that would be using this space.
No matter, it benefited me. Chain twisted around my wrist, I took the first steps on the marble staircase lined with plush blue velvet.
My mind ran through my methodical internal checklist. This capture needed stealth, efficiency, and finesse. I couldn't draw the other patrons' attention. Based on my calculations, I had about five minutes to neutralize Apollo and his gaggle of whores.
Sultry chatter spilled into the hallway, and I tuned it out to continue through my list. The chain was the primary plan of attack.
If I hit him across the temple, it should stun him long enough for me to wrap his wrists.
Hades assured me it would contain him. I also had my trusty Beretta on my hip, and I could use my powers as a last resort, though that meant dropping the chain.
The stairs were the only escape, which would be a benefit and a liability.
The voices grew louder, and my nerves sparked with steadying adrenaline.
My last battle with an immortal did not go in my favor, but this time had to be different.
There was a world where I created a new life for myself, better than the one I had called my own during my living days. I wasn't fucking risking it.
The light dimmed, and Apollo and five other figures consumed the stairwell. Giggles filled the air, broken by the deep monotone of Apollo's voice. Laying the chain over my shoulder so it didn’t touch my skin, I waited until they took their first steps on the stairwell to launch into action.
I stepped into the stairwell and shot out a spray of ice with a wave of my palm.
Frozen spears plunged into the entire entourage, and the space filled with agonized gasps and falling bodies.
A blonde woman crumpled and fell forward down the stairwell, ice and blood smearing over the velvet steps with her descent.
The mass of death provided me a few precious moments amidst the distraction to snap the chain from my shoulder.
I danced out of the way of falling bodies, then pranced up the steps and hurled my chain-wrapped fist into Apollo's temple.
The god stumbled and hit the wall with a sickening groan.
The familiar, terrifying scent of charred flesh filled the stairwell, sending every nerve in my body on edge.
Golden blood dripped from the hole in his stomach from my ice and the burned injury to his temple, gilding the floor.
"I will destroy you—” he snarled. I hit him again.
Allowing the god to use his powers would mean my end.
He crumpled to the floor, body shuddering from the impact.
His injuries started to stitch together, but I wouldn't give him time for that.
I kicked him in the side so he fell over, then wrapped his wrists with the chain as fast as my hands would move.
The smell of burning flesh, where his skin bubbled and burst from the contact, consumed my senses.
His golden-hued form dimmed, and a soft, ever-dimming groan left his lips when I unhooked the lock from my belt and clicked it into place around his wrists.
The stairwell filled with the ragged, desperate gasps of the dying.
The women's bodies shuddered and jerked against their mortal wounds.
There was no curing what ailed them now.
A pang of guilt deep in my gut bubbled forth for causing their demise, but it had to be done.
Witnesses could endanger Hades, and that was unacceptable.
However, I could at least end their suffering.
I pulled Apollo up by the cuffs before turning my attention to the blood-soaked bodies at my feet.
Something clicked in my mind. An inconsistency, like a puzzle piece placed in the wrong position, throwing off the entire image.
I was missing a woman. Five women left the viewing box, but I was certain there had been six with Apollo.
Though I remained expressionless, my mind twisted into knots.
I spread frost through the minds of the people around me, including Apollo, though it wouldn't kill him, while retracing my steps in my mind.
The soft click of a heel was the only warning I had before the lancing burn of acid blossomed through my neck.
My hand went to my throat and tugged out a syringe, the plunger tapped.
I stumbled, my fuzzy vision going to the woman standing behind me.
Her hair was as black as night, her eyes a shocking green that reminded me of Hades.
"You have no idea what you've done," I sputtered. The world spun. My skin burned in a way it hadn't since my death, and I felt like I was going to throw up. What the fuck had she injected me with? I lifted the needle to my nose, but I couldn't smell anything in my haze.
"Apollo promised to save my sister. I will not let you kill him," she responded, her tone cold.
A ragged cough tore from my lungs, resulting in a splatter of blood that sprayed her in a fine mist. I collapsed to my knee.
I had become too soft. Never would I have made such a fundamental error.
It was a loose end that had put me and Hades in danger.
I would suffer for it, certainly. "Thousands are going to die now," I managed.
She shrugged. "That's not my problem."
The world went black.