Chapter 58
Lucie opened her eyes to the darkness of her mind. She’d been here before. She looked around expectantly. Sure enough, a familiar glow appeared.
“I didn’t think you actually cared,” Lucie spat out angrily.
“Not now, Lucie. This isn’t the time. Where are you? What does it look like?” Selene asked quickly. “Hurry, there isn’t much time. I can’t find you. I’m barely able to visit your mind now.”
Lucie’s breath caught. She was trying to help her. “I’m surrounded by the ocean in a tall stone tower. There’s only one window, but all I can see is water.”
The light of the goddess flickered and vanished. Did she hear her? Was she able to make out what she said? It seemed that Erebus had really sealed this area well, especially if even Selene was having a hard time getting in.
Lucie blinked her eyes and was no longer in the dark.
The sunbeams from the window streamed onto her face.
She winced as she tried to sit up. It had been two and a half weeks since she was taken, and yesterday’s lesson had been incredibly painful.
She was pretty sure she had a couple of broken ribs that weren’t healing because of whatever he was giving her.
When she first found out he was lacing her food, she refused to eat.
But that only led to him forcing it into her mouth.
She didn’t have a choice. She would ingest it by choice or he would force feed her.
Easing herself back against the cool brick wall, she listened to the water crashing against the tower walls.
She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly because of the pain in her side.
She wondered if that was a desperate dream or if Selene really did try to reach out to her.
“I’ve decided today is the day,” Erebus said as he appeared in the room with an arrogant smirk on his face.
“The day for what?” Lucie snapped her gaze up at him indignantly.
“Today is the day you’re changing your clothes. Your dress is disgusting.” Erebus sneered at her dress in revulsion. It was getting hard to find her appealing in her stinking dress.
“I told you. I don’t want to wear anything that smells of you.” She growled as she stood on shaking feet, holding her side to support her broken ribs.
“Oh, what fun … that’s what I hoped you would say,” Erebus said as he walked up to her. He slapped her across the face, making her split lip start bleeding again. Yet, she snapped her defiant gaze right back at him. “It’s like this. You’ll wear these clothes … or none at all.”
He grabbed the fabric of her dress, and with a quick downward movement, he ripped the material, exposing the strapless bra she was wearing.
He ripped it again, this time shredding the lower half.
The tattered gown lay shredded around her waist. Her bare legs trembled slightly, but she continued to stand against him defiantly.
“We can do this the hard way, or the easy way. Either you take the dress off or I will. Of course, the hard way is more fun for me …”
Lucie saw red and swung her fist up, connecting with his chin. She knew she shouldn’t have done it, but this man had disrespected her in more ways than one. When his dark eyes settled on her, she knew she was in for it.
He kicked her in the stomach and she slammed against the wall. She heard a crack … another broken rib. She coughed out fresh blood and spit it onto the floor. He marched toward her to hit her again.
They heard a thunderous noise. The next second, the whole top of the building was gone. Pieces of stone crumbled around her, and a gray cloud of dust blurred her vision.
She watched as someone crashed into Erebus, sending his body into the stone floor, creating a hole beneath him. A young-looking, muscular man with brown hair and green eyes stood over him, breathing heavily. His malicious glare bore straight into Erebus.
“So, you’ve finally found us. I’ve been entertaining your mate here for you,” Erebus said as he looked up at the man.
“What exactly do you think you can do here? You think YOU can beat ME?” Ken scoffed with an arrogant smirk. “You’ve lived among the demons for too long. But I can remind you which one of us is stronger.”
“I don’t need to be stronger than you, Ken. I just need to be stronger than your weakness.” Erebus gave him a smug look and nodded toward Lucie.
Ken’s expression softened as he met her weary emeralds.
His gaze trailed over her, and his jaw clenched.
He took his shirt off and marched over to Lucie, gently placing it over her body to cover her exposed skin.
She whimpered slightly as he pulled the shirt on her, and he clenched his fists.
He stared at her battered face and felt his anger rising.
“You’ll never be able to touch her again, Erebus.
Do you have any idea who you’ve just provoked?
You didn’t just mess with me, moron.” He turned and faced Erebus.
“Selene has gone to Rogio because you’ve interfered with the vampire prince’s promised bride.
Why do you think I haven’t claimed her as my mate?
” He smirked as he watched Erebus’ eyes widen in fear.
“He’ll be hunting you now. He will kill you when he finds you.
But why should he get the honors?” Ken glowered at Erebus and watched the nervous reaction of the despicable deity.
“No … I have a better idea. I’ll just kill you now,” Ken snarled and shot a powerful wave of energy toward Erebus.
The air detonated.
The blast hadn’t even settled before Ken was on him, closing the distance in a blink, driving his fist into Erebus’ jaw with a sickening crack that echoed off the stone walls.
Again. Again. Each hit landed with the weight of a collapsing building, snapping Erebus’ head back, splitting the skin above his brow.
Erebus snarled, catching the next blow in his palm.
The shockwave from the block rippled outward, shaking the tower beneath Lucie’s feet.
He retaliated with a devastating strike of his own.
His fist wrapped in swirling black energy connected with Ken’s ribs hard enough to send a thunderclap rolling across the sky.
Then they launched upward.
Both men rocketed into the air, leaving nothing behind but the violent gust of displaced wind that nearly knocked Lucie off her feet.
She stumbled, catching herself against the stone ledge, and craned her neck toward the sky.
They were already very high, their figures shrinking as they tore through the clouds.
Bursts of color exploded above her like a war being fought between storms. The clouds lit up from within, flickering with each collision, each detonation of power meeting power.
She lost them behind a thick bank of gray. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She couldn’t see them. Could only hear the distant, bone-rattling booms reverberating through the atmosphere like thunder that refused to stop.
Then Erebus broke through the cloud cover.
She saw him land a devastating punch that sent Ken spiraling backward, a trail of white energy bleeding from his body.
But Ken recovered mid-air, twisting and righting himself with terrifying grace.
They collided again. The impact sent a shockwave screaming downward, and Lucie threw her arms over her face as violent winds hammered against her, whipping her hair into a frenzy, pressing the breath back into her lungs.
She forced her eyes open in time to see Erebus hurl a massive surge of black energy toward Ken.
The darkness screamed through the sky like a living thing, coiling, spiraling, hungry.
Ken twisted out of its path at the last possible second.
The blast missed him by inches and the dark energy plummeted.
It struck the ocean below with a sound Lucie felt in her bones.
The water didn’t just splash. It parted.
A gaping, churning hole ripped open, the waves recoiling as if the sea itself was afraid.
She could see the ocean floor for a brief, impossible moment before the water crashed back inward, swallowing the void with a roar that shook the air in her chest.
Lucie’s legs went weak.
This was a deity’s strength. This was power that existed on a scale she couldn’t comprehend, let alone fight. She was nothing down here. Helpless. A spectator watching gods try to destroy each other while the world trembled beneath them.
Ken recovered instantly, gathering a blinding sphere of energy between his palms. He hurled a column of pure, searing light that screamed toward Erebus like a falling star.
Erebus didn’t dodge. He planted himself in the air, thrust both hands forward, and fired his own darkness directly into the blast. The two forces collided with a sound that split the sky.
The white energy fractured, cleaving into two arcs that spiraled away from Erebus and detonated somewhere in the upper atmosphere, leaving scorched trails of light across the clouds.
But Erebus was already moving. He’d used his own darkness as a smokescreen, charging behind the wall of black energy while Ken’s vision was still washed out from the collision.
He burst through the dissipating shadows at full speed, his fist loaded with every ounce of power he had, and drove it into Ken’s chest.
The impact shattered the air.
Lucie flinched at the sound, her stomach lurching. Her eyes shot to Ken, dread flooding her veins, but the expression on his face stopped her cold.
He was smirking.
The blow that should have caved in his chest hadn’t even shifted his posture.
He hung in the air, utterly unmoved, looking at Erebus with the calm, detached amusement of someone who had been playing a game this entire time.
There was pleasure in his eyes now. Dark, predatory satisfaction.
He’d been testing him. Measuring him. Letting Erebus believe this was a real fight.
It wasn’t.