Of Darkness and Crowns (Goddess Wars 2)

I swallow and clasp Lilly’s hand. “I want you to leave, Lills.” I glance between her and the others—they all have to go. “Get out. Get them out.”

I don’t let her voice the next words already forming on her lips. With my good arm, I hook it around her neck and bring her close. Hug her tightly the way I should’ve done before this last moment. “Make sure my mother stays on her meds. Take care of her…both of them.”

She trembles against me, releasing an audible sob, then I’m pushing her back. “Go.”

Now, I make sure they all have no choice but to leave me behind with my next action. And I don’t know why I do this, other than the overwhelming desire to see the fear in Bale’s cold silver eyes when she meets her long lost, rejected other half.

I’m sure this will kill me, but not before I’m able to summon some swift, powerful retribution first.

Closing my eyes, I breathe deep. Focus on the mercury. The cybernetic clamp filtering it and driving it away from my heart. I think of my mother’s words: you’re blessed. Trying to convince me for years the mercury coursing through me was the blessed blood of the goddesses. All the goddesses’ lies fed to her and me, and the sliver of doubt I always maintained. It was a curse, after all.

But it’s no longer my curse.

It belongs to Bale.

I grit my teeth and see the gears and wires against the backs of my eyelids. I hear the churning and grinding of the clamp. The pumping mercury. And I hear my heart. Beating. Stronger than the foreign cybernetics that don’t belong.

I believe that with my whole being.

You’re not a part of me.

I will the clamp to break. See it shutting down. Gears stop spinning, the piston stops pumping. The technology grinds to a halt.

Then I feel the rush of mercury hit my heart.

Gasping, I open my eyes wide. A blast of air expands my lungs. I’m shaking, my hands seize my chest, trying to reach past the glass casing and grab the boiling poison hitting my organs at lightning speed.

Tears fill my eyes. My heart aches at the pressure. And I’m sucked under with consuming emotions I can’t grasp. It’s too much…I want to take it back…make it stop.

But it’s too late. My eyes shut.

Then, I buzz, quaking with a pent-up need to unleash. No more restraint, my eyes fly open, and I’m pushing off the wall. I march toward the stone door and grasp the corner to throw it open wider, but it’s flung from the hinges.

Bax grabs Lilly, forcing her to stand. His eyes rake over me, his thin mouth parted in mute shock. Then, “What have you done?”

“I’m dying,” I say over his question. “Please, take my friends to safety. And take Caben…give him the proper—” I force the lump in my throat down “—give him the burial deserving of a king.”

Bale’s blazing eyes find and hold me, narrowing. She’s on her feet, bringing herself up in one effortless move. I try to look only at her and not Lilly’s tear-streaked face as she clings to Bax, or Kaide’s bowed head, or Kai’s arms cradling a trembling Whip. In my peripheral, I glimpse Lena leading Aurelia alongside the wall toward the others.

This is all I can offer them. A way to escape. They’ll be on their own from here, and I don’t know what will happen to them in the future—but in this moment, I want to see them live.

Rolling my shoulder, I work it back into place. The painful pop only a slight annoyance. Then I stare down Bale. “Come at me, you hell bitch.” And I’m running, my feet flying over the marble so quickly I don’t feel their impact.

I just need to get her away from Caben long enough for my friends to grab him and go. That’s it. A fraction of a minute.

Balling my hand into a fist, I haul back and land a hard punch to her face. I’m surprised she let me reach her, touch her. But I don’t stop once I make contact with her flesh. Flesh. Something in me registers that. Human. A goddess yes, but in the flesh.

She can be hurt.

Still, she’s as hard as stone. An ice sculpture that refuses to crack. My hands light up with pain as she merely turns her head to the side, my fists grazing off her. I grab her headdress and yank her head down. It’s a dirty move, but the Cage fights taught me I have to resort to any means necessary to survive. In a way, Bale taught me that.

A tinkling laugh falls from her lips. It crawls under my skin and stirs something primal within. Jerking out of my hold, she uses her forearms to break my grasp. I scream as her touch sears my skin from the quick contact.

“You think you can contain all that power?” she asks, linking her finger into the strap of my harness and pulling me up to her height. “There’s a reason you were given that…shield.” She spits the word. “And now you broke it.” Her frown is fake on her mouth. “You’re only human.”

Latching on to her wrist, trying to ignore the burn, I lock gazes with her. “So are you.”

Her smile drops, and as her eyes widen in the quick second it takes me to reach for her neck, I have my hands sealed tight around it. She laughs, and I squeeze harder, but it’s like trying to strangle a stone statue.