ARES
It hurt me to walk back into Hella’s room, open the cage, and willingly get back inside it. I wanted to see Aurora so badly, but I couldn’t let Marcel dwindle away like this. If we wanted to win this war, we needed someone from the inside. We needed Marcel and his strength.
Since I had been out of the cage, my scars and the wounds on my body had healed significantly. Not entirely, but enough for me to feel like I actually had some of my innate strength back.
As I listened to Hella’s footsteps down the hall, I cursed at myself and placed the chain around my neck again. I didn’t lock it on purpose, wanting to be able to get out of it as soon as I needed to. I refused to let Marcel go down like this.
Hella walked into the room, dragging Marcel in with her. The burns on his body had gotten worse within the past twenty minutes, the skin completely peeled off and the muscle a blazing red underneath the chains.
“Good,” she said, glancing over at me. “You’re awake.”
Marcel snapped his head toward me and widened his eyes, as if to ask why the fuck I hadn’t left yet. He had risked his life to get me that key and to give me any sort of information about how to get out of here.
Now, I would risk mine to save him.
After shoving Marcel up onto the bed, Hella crouched by the front of the cage and stuck her finger between the bars to brush them against my cheek. “I know I promised that you’d get to have me next, but Marcel has been so bad tonight. I need to punish him. But you can have me after. Don’t worry.”
I wasn’t fucking worried about having her or not.
I wanted her dead.
She turned away from the cage and peeled off her blouse, leaving her top half bare. Marcel tore his gaze away from me and looked down at his lap, tears welling up in his eyes. All the times before this, he had been so strong. Tonight, he looked so broken.
Charolette would hate to see him like this.
“Stay strong,” I said through the mind link. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
Marcel didn’t respond to me; I didn’t even know if he could hear me. Either way, I sat in my cage and let my rage build higher and higher. As far as I knew, the only person who could kill another god was Nyx, but I would try tonight.
I would do everything in my power to end Hella’s life. And if I couldn’t, then I would take her as prisoner, wrap these silver chains around her body so she couldn’t do magic, break Marcel out of here, and find Aurora.
“Do you want to tell Ares what you did today?” Hella asked Marcel, shimmying out of her pants and crawling up onto the bed with him. She straddled his waist and placed her hands on his dwindling abdomen. “Hmm?”
“No,” Marcel said.
One single word that fucking engaged Hella.
She wrapped his hands around his fragile throat and grasped it hard. “You know what will happen if you disrespect me again. I didn’t have to accept your wishes. I could’ve let that mate of yours die in the Sanguine Wilds. And I still can.”
Marcel squirmed underneath her, that golden fire back in his eyes.
“One more slipup, and I’ll kill Charolette.”
That was the last straw. I yanked off my chain from around my neck, took it in my hands, threw open the dog cage door, and jumped onto the bed with them. After wrapping the chain around Hella’s neck, I squeezed as hard as I could, my muscles feeling like they would burst out of my skin.
Hella continued to struggle underneath me and continued to choke Marcel harder, but I refused to let her have him. He wouldn’t die tonight, and Charolette wouldn’t either. I closed my eyes and thought about everything that had led to this moment.
About Mars dying.
About us leaving our baby.
About Hella capturing me.
Her hands slipped from around Marcel’s neck, coming up to the chains to pull on them. But it seemed like these magic chains also stopped her from using her strength. She’d said that she had made chains strong enough to hold me back, but she’d failed to mention that these chains also affected her too.
“Ares!” she shouted. “Stop it!”
But I refused to stop. I tugged harder on them, so hard that she fell limp on the bed on top of Marcel and stopped struggling completely. I cocooned her in the chains and shoved her into the dog cage, and then I looked over at Marcel.
“Get your clothes on,” I said. “We’re getting out of here.”
“But she’ll kill Charolette.”
“She can’t use her powers in these chains,” I said. “I couldn’t. Charolette will be safe for now. She has more life in the Sanguine Wilds to enjoy because of you. Now, hurry, Marcel. We don’t have much time.”