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Nine: Mal

Alchimia's belligerent fists pounded out the rhythm of her fury into my back as we left the club, but people ignored us for the most part. She wasn't the first person to get dragged out of a club in Echelon and would not be the last. I could feel Nero trailing behind us, though I couldn't see him. He was perfect at his job, and I was grateful for that because I was quickly losing my patience.

Once we were safely back within the limits of the palace yard, I dropped her in the grass in the gardens. Floating orbs cast colorful swirls of light all around us, and the partying that was happening around us began to die down as guests of the Palace noticed us and stopped to stare. I knew, in the very back of my mind, that I was exposing both of us to ridicule by not grabbing her and bringing her upstairs, but this was ridiculous. She'd put herself in danger in ways she couldn't even fathom all because she saw me with someone else.

"Your mother did you a disservice in sending you away to grow soft and spoiled. Did you stop to think for a second that if something happens to you, I also face the consequences of your childish behavior?" Her silver hair had been dirtied and her dress was working extra hard to maintain even a bit of her dignity where she sat, trying to get her bearings, on the ground.

"Did you stop to think that I'm not a child?" she spat back. "I can defend myself if I need to. Fen is one thing--he's my friend who pledged his servitude to me because of what was in his heart. Naming you my guardian in his absence is a formality more than anything else."

I gritted my teeth and pressed my shoes into the Earth at my feet as if I could anchor myself to the world and prevent an outburst that way. "What makes you think you're so powerful? Because of Zeus? Zeus favors you because you're untouched, koritsaki. He designed you for himself, but you think you've impressed him. You have no title. No reputation. No connections here. You don't know anything about this city. Stop being so arrogant." I'm just trying to help you, was what I really wanted to tell her. I couldn't understand why she couldn't see that. After everything that had happened between us, why did she still think I wasn't on her side?

Her mother had done nothing with her reign but eat, drink, and fuck. The Gods she so badly wanted to impress hadn't been here in millennia to even know what was really going on, yet Alchimia had been here for a week, a part of the court for just a day, and thought I was the problem? She had been equally irritating when we were schoolmates, making up a rivalry in her head when all I'd wanted was to get close to her. If Zeus had come to me then and told me he'd arranged for us to be married, I would have understood immediately. Alchimia and I were in a league of our own, walking the same path with the kind of potential that only comes around once in a few hundred lifetimes. There was a part of me that was so deeply disappointed in her, who'd wished to see her show up at the Palace the strong, confident lioness I'd always thought lay dormant within her.

But now? Now I was tied to her, intended to spend an eternity chasing after her putting out the fires she started.

Something about what I said sparked a new energy in her, and she picked herself up and adjusted her clothing, pushing me out of her way with her shoulder.

"I was designed to return this city to its former glory, Mal. To the days when Olympians were happy to be seen walking this street. Don't you remember how your parents met?" A glint of something bigger than anger appeared in her eyes, and the force of it had me taking a step back from her without thinking. It was as if I could see her pressing a button, turning off the emotions she'd been burdened by since her arrival. "Your mother secured your station for you, and that's why you're here. To prove that you earned it. Mine did everything she could to get rid of me, yet here I stand."

She was so close to me that I could feel her fire. There was nothing I could say. I just watched, entranced by the flames dancing in her colorful irises. What a life I'd lived that I'd ended up here, standing in the courtyard of Echelon, the wicked city of turpitude, facing the mate Olympus had chosen for me, torn in two over the double-fisted horror fate had handed me. My first option was to tell her who we were to each other, to end this fighting and see her become the greatest Queen Echelon had ever seen and, in doing so, to throw every hope I'd ever had of leaving this place into oblivion. She and Zeus would have me chained to the throne room here, to live out my days in servitude to the both of them, reduced to nothing but a battered bull.

"Your doubt is just fuel to me, Malfizan. The more you underestimate me, the stronger I will grow. You think you're the only one who could flatten this place if you wanted to?"

On the other hand, I could wage war against her. The chances of losing were great; I'd be disgraced, locked out of Olympus if not destroyed altogether for betraying the "gift" I was given. But there was a bit of hope in my still that I could win, that I could do a better job at fixing Echelon than she could, and that Zeus might see that and have mercy on me for defying his wishes.

Either way, I stood to lose everything.

This was no moment to make that decision, though. Something was wrong with Alchimia, and I wasn't the only one who could feel it. The people who had been watching the spectacle around us began to back away, widening the circle they'd formed. I felt Nero walk up behind me, ready to help with whatever was going on. Alchimia's eyes had changed color, and her energy seemed to radiate from within, illuminating her like a lantern as her feet lifted from the ground and her face morphed into something I'd never seen before.

"Wait, Chimi," I said. "Let's just go inside; I'll bring you up to bed. We shouldn't be fighting out here, like this, in front of everyone over a--"

"SHUT UP," she shrieked, throwing her head back as a burst of light came forth from her. A split second later, she locked her eyes on me again. Slowly, almost automatically, we made our way back toward one another. "You started this and now you don't want to see it through? I could care less where you stick your cock." Her voice was altered, almost doubled, and my heart pounded loudly in my chest. I'd seen Chimi mad before, but this was something altogether different.

"You have to calm her," Nero whispered from behind me. Even he was panicked. I could hear it on his breath.

"Good, wonderful," was all that came out. My brain was blank. I could think of nothing to say in this situation. She was right. I was the one who had started this fight, and now I was trying-uselessly-to end it. "I didn't think you cared in the first place, I was just angry in the moment, Chimi. Come on, you're right. You win, let's go in."

"That's. Not. My. Name."

The glow surrounding her body seemed to burst, almost explode outward as soon as she finished her sentence, and a piercing shriek filled the air all around us. The entire gardens were in chaos, and I could only imagine that the rest of the city had to be able to hear and see...whatever it was that was going on. As hard as it was to maintain, I didn't break my gaze from her, and I was glad I didn't because she suddenly collapsed and fell from the air into my arms. Her form was burning hot and it was all I could do not to drop her again. I felt like my flesh was melting where she touched me.

Abruptly, Alchimia froze, her body rigid against me, and a flash of white-hot heat overloaded my system and sent searing pain rocketing through every inch of me. All I could feel was torment.

All I could do was scream.

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