MARS
One moment, we were gathered just outside of Hella and Nyx’s kingdom, planning on how we would separate Nyx from Hella, how we would get onto their property with the hundreds of hounds guarding it, and how the fuck we’d get Ares back.
The next moment, hounds and evil gods were running toward us at full speed. They were coming from all angles, all directions, everywhere.
I grabbed Aurora’s hand and watched them, my heart pounding inside my chest.
It was now or never.
We would kill them now, or we would never kill them. We wouldn’t get another chance.
A hound jumped through the air and latched his teeth into Hades, who sent his three-headed dog to rip it to shreds. As if they were ready for this, the other gods and goddesses sprang into action to fight off as many hounds as they could handle.
They either knew we were coming, had spotted us … or something had happened inside the castle with Ares and Marcel and they had become extra careful about monitoring the forest just outside their lands.
We had been cautious up until now, which meant …
Ares must have done something.
“Go!” Hades shouted. “We’ll hold off as many as we can. Take the harpies and find Nyx.”
Without having to be told twice, I grabbed Aurora’s hand and tugged her through a crowd of enemies fighting until their death. They were all mindless, under the control of Hella and Nyx, using their bodies as shields and weapons.
Hundreds of them pushed by us as we came to a clearing right before the castle.
“I can’t go any further, Mars,” Aurora said, grabbing my hand tighter. “If we’re going to win, then we need some of these hounds by our side. I hate seeing them so blinded and not in control, being used by these gods. I need to help them.”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” I said, my chest tightening. “You’re my mate. I need to protect you.”
She gently grasped my face. “Then, protect me by finding Nyx and having the harpies fly her the fuck out of here. We need to get her as far away from here as possible. Without you, they won’t know what to do with her.”
“Don’t you want to kill her?” I asked, tucking some hair behind her ear. “For what she’s done to you in your past life? She killed you with her bare hands. You deserve to rip her to pieces.”
Aurora glanced at the hounds fighting around us. “I need to help them.”
“Aurora,” I whispered, my heart fucking shattering.
After standing on her toes, she pressed her lips on mine and kissed me hard. “I fucking love you. I will always love you. Please, go protect us and our family. We can’t let the hounds kill us or else … our daughter dies. Don’t do that to me.”
Just hearing the heartbreak in her voice, I leaned down to kiss her one last time and then leaned my forehead against hers. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to leave her. But … I needed to do this for us. I needed to trust that she was strong enough.
When she dropped her hands from me, my entire body felt cold. I swallowed hard and stepped backward and toward the harpies. “I fucking love you, Aurora. And I will not lose you again. I will find you when this is all over, and we will go see our daughter.”
“We will,” Aurora said softly.
Once she disappeared through the crowd of enemies, I let out a deep breath, my muscles tense, and glanced toward the sky, where the flock of harpies flew around. Some had gathered above me, one swooping down and standing in front of me.
“We think that we’ve spotted Nyx’s wing of the castle,” she said, lifting her wing and pointing toward the north. “Do you see those birds, right across the way?”
Three birds who flew relatively close to the castle suddenly stopped flapping their wings and fell from the sky. My body froze, and I found myself swallowing hard again. If what I remembered from Aurora was true, then Nyx was in there, using her power against these harpies.
“We have to go,” I said.
The bird lifted herself into the air and flew inches above me, sinking her claws into my shoulders and pulling me into the air. “Hold on tightly. I’ll bring you as close as I can without getting into her range of magic.”
We flew there through the air, the wind whipping my hair back, and we scanned the forest from a bird’s-eye view to see if I could spot where Nyx was hiding in the building. A shadow moved from the farthest window toward the next one, heading through the building east to west.
“There!” I shouted.
“Catch her!” a harpy cawed to the group.
Five harpies flew into the building, smashing the concrete to pieces and demolishing the siding. Giant pieces of concrete fell from the castle, destroying the floor underneath it and making Nyx fall to the ground.
Almost immediately, she pushed herself up to her feet and continued to hurry toward where Hella must’ve been inside the building. She turned around, running backward, and lifted one hand to the sky, taking control of the birds and making them fall with a hard thud.
“Don’t let her see you,” I said to the harpy carrying me.
Nyx ran toward a building on the west that had some of the lights on, and in my gut, I felt that Hella was definitely in there with Ares and Marcel. I didn’t know what the fuck they had done, if they had done anything, but I wanted—needed—to protect my pack as much as I could.
“Get as close to her as you can. We need to stop her before she gets into that building.”
The bird swooped down and flew near to the ground while Nyx scanned the air and tried to control more of the harpies. But not us.
Today, we would destroy her and everything that she stood for.