• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Roughly, Ares dragged Than away from the human. “Let me see your Seal.”

Than’s hand shook as he reached inside his armor and pulled out the gold coin on the chain. Everyone was still and quiet, the anticipation in thipation e air as thick as fog. The only sound was the ruffle of clothing in the icy wind and the gurgling breaths of his stallion. At least Cara’s healing waves were working, and Styx’s wounds were closing up with amazing speed.

Ares palmed the Seal, his eyes filled with worry and hard, icy resolve. Ares would do what was necessary to keep Than from heading out into the world as an evil entity, and Than didn’t blame him. Still, his gut twisted when Ares’s hand dropped to the hilt of his sword.

Thanatos met Ares’s gaze. “You have Deliverance.” It might not kill Pestilence, but hopefully, if Than’s Seal broke, it would kill Death.

“We won’t need it,” Ares said, his words clipped with the force of his conviction. But truthfully, Than wasn’t sure Deliverance would make a difference. If any Seal broke after the first one, they’d all break. But maybe if Ares could nail Than in the heart before his Seal completely cracked in half…

“How long did it take for Reseph’s to break?” Limos asked.

“It vibrated for a few seconds, then it cracked,” Ares ran his thumb over the scythe on the front of the Seal. “From what Sin said about the timing of the event that caused the breakage, I figure it was almost instantaneous.” He shot Than a look. “How long ago did you have sex?”

Than spoke between clenched teeth. “Half hour, maybe.”

“Wait.” Arik stepped forward. “Are you saying that sex is what will break your Seal?”

“Yeah,” Limos said. “At least, we thought that’s what it was.” She glanced at Than. “Maybe all this time you could have been having sex?”

Five thousand years wasted? No way. There had to be another answer. He snagged Arik by the collar and ignored Limos’s snarl.

“Why would The Aegis send someone to break my Seal? It makes no sense.”

“Exactly,” Arik’s voice was pretty damned calm for someone who was in Death’s grasp. “It doesn’t. Which means they didn’t think sex is what would break it. And apparently, they were right. So let go of me and go make up for thousands of years of celibacy, asshole.”

A veil of crimson fury slammed down over his vision. Limos and Ares flanked him, moving in slowly, and he prepared to fight. Somewhere in his hate-sodden brain, he knew he was gone, knew he shouldn’t be wanting to strangle the human in his grip. But it didn’t matter.

“Than?” Cara’s voice penetrated the lethal soup clogging his head. “Styx needs you.” Dropping Arik, he whirled around to Cara, who was stroking the stallion’s blood-caked neck. “He’s fine, but he needs to rest—”

“To me.” Instantly, the horse dissolved into smoke and shot inside Than’s gauntlet.

“Thanatos…” Ares’s voice was low, edged with warning. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to kill the Aegi who betrayed me.”

Ares grabbed his shoulder. “We can’t start another war between us.”

“Then they shouldn’t have betrayed us!” The shadow souls spun around him as if in a blender.

“Than,” Limos said, a note of desperation in her voice. “You need to calm down. You’re getting that crazy look, and we don’t need a repeat of Roanoke.”

Roanoke… he’d lost his temper after being shot, and… he couldn’t remember. A black haze had worked its way into his brain, the death haze, the one that signaled no return and a desire to slaughter.

“Than… we’ll figure this out…”

“Than, calm down…”

There was a shimmery flash, and he thought he saw an angel, but his body was vibrating out of control and he couldn’t trust anything he saw or heard.

“Reaver… thank God… where did you come from…”

“Ares… do it…”

The words jumbled in his head until he couldn’t figure out who was talking or what they were saying. He only wanted to kill. He’d start with Regan, and then he’d work his way through the entire Aegis organization. He’d rend limbs from bodies, rip open throats, kill, kill, kill…

“Limos! Get Arik out of here!”

Too late. With a roar, he let loose, consequences