Chapter 179: Ashes at my feet
AYLA
The sound of clapping rent the air.
My entire body went still.
Ares was standing in front of me, his sword already drawn, his body positioned protectively between me and the guards surrounding us.
I turned to see Lucius step out of the corridor from behind the guards.
He looked completely relaxed, almost amused... as though he had been waiting for this exact moment.
He continued clapping as he approached us.
"Alpha Ares." His smile widened. "Fancy seeing you here."
Ares immediately shifted in front of me. "Ayla, stay behind me."
I grabbed the back of his clothing, my fingers trembling.
Lucius’ eyes moved to me, the smile dropping from his face.
"You fooled me well, my love," he said. "Pretending you remembered nothing. Playing the dutiful Luna. I almost believed you."
My jaw tightened.
"Go to hell."
Lucius only smirked before his eyes shifted back to Ares.
"You know how this must look, don’t you? Coming into my pack, sneaking through my corridors like a rat, trying to take my Luna."
"Your Luna!" Ares barked in fury. "How dare you. Ayla is my mate. You have the audacity to kidnap her, to imprison her, to..."
Lucius raised a hand, gesturing to the guards.
"Take them." He ordered.
The guards moved.
Ares pushed me backward just as they advanced toward him.
The first guard went down before he could raise his weapon.
Ares’ sword caught him across the throat, and the man fell with a wet gurgle, his hands going to his neck. The second guard lunged, and Ares sidestepped, his blade twisting, punching through the gap in the man’s armor. The third came at his back, and Ares spun, catching the blow on his guard, shoving the man back with a grunt of effort.
I watched it unfold like a nightmare I could not wake from. Ares moved with a grace that was almost beautiful, his sword a living extension of his arm. He parried, thrust, cut, each motion.
Three more guards fell... then four.
The bodies piled at his feet but there were too many.
They kept coming and Ares’ breath began to come in harsh gasps. His movements lost some of their precision, the edge of desperation creeping in. A blade caught him across the forearm, and he hissed, but did not slow. Another sliced his side, and blood darkened his tunic, but he kept fighting.
"Ares!" I screamed.
"Stay back!"
I backed away, my heart pounding violently.
Ares drove his sword through a guard’s chest, then wrenched it free and turned to face the next. But as he turned, a guard came at him from the side and the pommel of a sword crashed into the back of Ares’ skull.
He staggered.
The guards swarmed him. Three of them, four, five. They drove him to his knees, and I heard the crack of bone as a boot connected with his ribs. His sword clattered across the stones. A blade pressed against his throat, and another against his back.
He went still, his chest heaving, blood running from a cut above his eye.
"Ares!" My heart cracked.
He looked at me.
"I’m fine!"
He wasn’t.
He was bleeding.
"No," I breathed.
A heat began building in my chest, spreading through my veins like molten gold. I felt Nyx stir, felt her fury coil in my gut, her teeth bared, her growl a vibration in my bones.
I would not let this happen. I would not let them take him. I would not let Lucius win.
I reached for the power.
It came faster than I expected, faster than it ever had in training. Amara had taught me to find it, to pull it up from the well inside me, but she had always warned me that it would be wild, untamed, a storm I could not control. I did not care. I let it flood through me, let it fill every hollow space in my body until I was nothing but light and fury.
Everything seemed to move farther away and yet, somehow, I could see everything.
As the power inside me grew, a low rumble sounded above us.
Both Ares and Lucius’ eyes shot up as thunder cracked across the sky.
The sound shook the palace. Even the guards paused in alarm.
I could feel the energy moving around me... through me... under my skin.
My fingers tingled and my hair lifted slightly from my shoulders while the thunder raged louder.
Lucius slowly turned toward me and for the first time since he had appeared, his expression changed.
He looked surprised.
Ares looked at me too.He was on one knee now and even through his pain, I saw the look in his eyes. It was one of shock and awe at what I was.
My eyes were burning, and I knew they were glowing.
"You will let us go," I said.
The guards took a step back, their weapons wavering.
Lucius’ face went still. For a long moment, he simply looked at me, and I saw something flicker in his eyes...fear, perhaps, or calculation.
Then he moved.
He was faster than I expected. He crossed the distance in three strides, snatched a sword from the hand of a frozen guard, and drove it into Ares’ side.
I felt the blade enter him as if it had entered me. I staggered, my hand going to my own side, and I felt nothing there but the fabric of my gown.
The power inside me disappeared just as it had come.
"Ares." I gasped as Lucius pulled the sword out and Ares collapsed forward.
"Ares!" I screamed, reaching for him.
Hands caught me, pulling me back. I fought them, twisting, kicking, scratching. I heard myself screaming as the hands pinned my arms behind my back, forced me to my knees.
Lucius stood over Ares, looking down at him with an expression of mild annoyance, as if he had stepped in something unpleasant.
"Bind her hands," he said. "Bind her eyes. Bind her mouth. She should not be able to use her powers without them."
Cloth went over my eyes and a strip of rough fabric was shoved between my teeth and tied behind my head.
I could not see nor speak but I could hear and I heard Ares groan.
It was a sound of pure agony that tore through me.
"Take them inside. Lock him in the deepest cell we have. Put her in her room and double the guard." Lucius ordered.
Hands lifted me and I was carried, slung over a shoulder like a sack of grain. I screamed into the gag for Ares until my throat burned.
I had failed him.
I had reached for the power, and I had not been strong enough and I had failed Ares.
The footsteps carried me deeper into the palace and I was tossed into a room.
My shoulders burned as it slammed into the ground.
Tears slipped beneath the cloth covering my eyes.
This was all my fault... If Lucius did not want me for my powers then this would not be happening.
You cannot feel sorry for yourself, Nyx shunned me. We are going to get out of this and we will make them pay.
Yes, I agreed.
Lucius Veyr would pay for this. Every drop of blood Ares had spilled and every second of pain suffers.
I would make him pay and I would not stop until he was ashes at my feet.