Her eyes met mine with mirth and satisfaction.
She swallowed her bite, and then her full lips drew back to reveal perfect white teeth. Her booted feet slid off the table. The beings in the room turned to watch as she stepped onto the table and hopped down to the floor on the other side, striding toward us with a victorious gleam in her shining emerald eyes.
Her black hair was down in long, loose strands and thin braids decorated with bone beads and strips of leather. She wore a skintight black bodysuit. The light danced off the leather, revealing scales of some sort. No doubt another suit made from a once-living creature—or one that still lived in some way. The last one she wore moved around her body like a living parasite.
A shudder ripped through me.
Athena was gorgeous. Tall, stacked, and flawless. Perfect in every way on the outside, but on the inside she was ugly as sin. Rotted. Demented. Evil.
“I see you brought the Lamarliere brat.” She stopped in front of him, giving him a thorough perusal. “You look just like your father.”
I didn’t want her talking to him or noticing him in any way. The fact that he was here with me spelled disaster. Athena would use him in a heartbeat to mess with me. “Where’s Violet?” I asked.
She turned, studying me with a calculating look. “Violet. Intriguing little thing, isn’t she? Different. Like you. Tell me, Ari, did you really think you could come into my realm and take her back? That you could defeat me?”
“I did it once.”
“No,” she shot back immediately, leaning closer. “The Novem did, and only because I let them. But they’re not here now, are they?” She straightened. “I like Violet. I think I might keep her, groom her, influence her. . . . These are her formative years, after all.”
She was trying to bait me, prove that she was in control and I was nothing but an insignificant toy she could play with.
“Let Violet and my father go back with Sebastian, and I’m yours,” I said. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
I refused to meet the stunned gaze Sebastian was giving me. This was, and had always been, between me and Athena.
Athena leaned in. “A little news flash for you. You’re mine already.”
The sound of chains across stone echoed through the temple. The guests sat straighter. The grin that passed over Athena’s face made the hairs on my body rise. “Perfect.” She made a gesture toward the sound of the chains. “I give to you the mighty Theron!” she yelled to the crowd. They cheered and banged on the tables as she turned back to me with a smirk. “The evening’s entertainment has arrived.”
Two of Athena’s minions dragged a man by his armpits over the mosaic tiles. His legs were loosely shackled together and his feet slid limply along the floor. His head hung low. He wore black boxer briefs and nothing else. Patches of puckered red and pink skin—new scars—covered his sallow skin.
As they drew closer my gut started to twist in a slow knot. Damp blond hair stuck to his neck and face. He glanced up, his eyes burning hatred at Athena. And then they saw me and widened.
Oh God. I knew who it was. I’d never seen his face before, but I knew. I knew . . .
My father.
Instant tears shot to my eyes. I rushed past Athena, but she grabbed the back of my shirt and jerked me into her. One arm wrapped around my waist and the other came across my chest. Guards seized Sebastian’s hands before he could make a move against her. She held me, whispering in my ear as my heart pounded wildly.
“You cannot save him, Ari. Nothing can save someone who has betrayed me so completely.”
My father struggled, but he was so weak his attempt did little to stop the guards from forcing him down toward the pool. My mind raced, a chaos of so many thoughts that I didn’t know what to do.
Athena released me and clapped. “Menai!”
A young woman stood from her seat at the end of one of the long tables. She was tall and slim, oozing boredom and confidence. She had deep red hair that fell in long waves and wore brown suede boots laced to just below her knees and a short skirt to match. A bow was secured on her back, the string crossing over her chest.
“These two are yours to watch,” Athena told her, and then strode back to her seat.
The two guards by the gate stepped away from the wall and shoved us toward the archer as she went back to the table and made room on the long bench.
I sat down numbly, between Sebastian and Menai.
The guards backed away but remained standing behind us. Menai began piling her plate with food. “Might as well eat,” she said, looking at me through earthy green eyes. “This might be the only time she feeds you.”
Sheer terror had a hold on me as my gaze went to my father. “What are they going to do to him?”
“Throw him in the pool.” She tore off a large chunk of bread and shoved the entire thing into her mouth. “Just like last night and the night before.” She eyed the water, chewing and not looking at me when she said, “I suggest you stay in your seat. You get up, you try to help him, and she’ll kill him, understand?”
Athena jumped onto her table, stepped over the food, and plopped back down in her chair, putting her feet up. She never even glanced at my father; her eyes were on me the entire time.
The guards unshackled my father and shoved him in the water, ignoring his raw, desperate pleading.
The splash reverberated off the walls. Everyone held their breath.
The water rippled. My father’s head emerged. I grabbed the edge of the table and squeezed tightly. He made one stroke toward the edge of the pool before he screamed.
Panic flared, making it hard for me to breathe.
WHAT THE HELL IS IN THE WATER?! my mind screamed over and over.
The music started again, hard and pounding. A tail flopped in the water. The assembly cheered as over and over again my father screamed and choked on bloody water.
I surged up, but only made it an inch or two before Sebastian’s hand clamped hard over my thigh, his other hand coming across to hold my arm. A roar built in my throat. Up, I wanted up! Oh my God, I need up. . . . Tears streamed down my face. “Let me go.”
“You can’t help him,” he said. “Athena is waiting for you to run to him, Ari. Look at her. Ari. Look at her.”
I blinked, tears dropping off my chin onto the table, and turned my head in Athena’s direction. One raven eyebrow quirked up. She bit into her fruit, chewing and then smiling brightly.
My father’s screams echoed through the temple and into every crevice of my being. The smell of food became disgusting. I was going to be sick.
Menai continued to eat, her gaze on my father but her voice low. “Athena learned this bit of torture from the Romans. Moray eels. Flesh eaters. Especially brutal since they have a second jaw. Big jaw clamps down. Little jaw comes out, bites, and rips off flesh.”
My vision went blurry with shock and tears. “Shut up,” I forced out through gritted teeth. One of my father’s arms hung over the edge off the pool, but it was limp, his fingers twitching. . . .
“Theron is immortal. Unfortunately for him, he’ll live, repair somewhat, and be ready for more by tomorrow night.”
My nails dug deeper into the table, leaving impressions in the wood. “Shut up.”
“Like I said, you better eat now while you can. Might be you in that pool tomorrow. . . .”
Blinding rage ripped through my last shred of tolerance. “SHUT UP!”
My pulse beat out of control, so loud and fast through my eardrums, it drowned out the screaming and the cheers and the music. I moved without premeditation, hand snaking out, grabbing the fork by my plate, and shoving it into Menai’s hand, stabbing with as much force as I possessed in my body.
It pinned her hand to the table.
She shrieked, turned, and gripped me by the neck with her free hand. I kept my hold on the fork and jerked my other hand from Sebastian’s, propelled by frustration, fear, and fury. I grabbed her by the throat. Fat teardrops fell from my eyes. I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t care.
Menai’s face turned red. Her eyes bugged out. Veins enlarged along her temple and under the thin skin below her eyes. No one moved to help her. I heard laughter and shouts of encouragement thrown Menai’s way. They thought this was funny.
I squeezed harder. She squeezed back.
I felt it, the stirring of something monstrous inside me waking, uncoiling, hissing through my mind. My power shot down my arm and out my hand, the force of it surprising me and causing me to break contact. She followed my lead, both of us dropping back and gasping for air. I caught a glimpse of her neck as a faint trace of white disappeared back into a normal, fleshy color before her hand went to her throat, her eyes wide in surprise.
Somewhere in the rush of blood to my brain, I became aware of Sebastian tugging me back, speaking to me, but I couldn’t hear what he said. I blinked rapidly, trying to regain control. Breathe. In and out.
Finally, my vision sharpened.
The guards pulled my father from the now red water and left him on the floor.
Oh God. His body was torn—
I turned in the space between me and the archer and puked on the pretty mosaic tiles.
I stayed bent far over the bench, gasping as my stomach curled into a tight, sickening ball. Nothing, no amount of abuse in my childhood, could’ve prepared me for this kind of torture. I thought I’d seen my share of brutality, but this . . . this was beyond comprehension.
A napkin hit me on the side of my face. I glanced up as Menai turned away and resumed eating. I wiped my face, drew in several deep breaths, and tried like hell to regain my composure before I straightened. I almost laughed because the idea of even trying to be composed was a joke. Not here. Not when my father had been left on the floor in a pool of blood and hanging flesh while everyone ate and laughed.
Sebastian’s hands were on my arm. “Ari,” he said, leaning close to me. “Let me help you.” His gray eyes swirled with concern. His skin had gone a few shades paler, and his dark lips were drawn in a tight line.
My throat hurt. I couldn’t speak.