“The nerve you have, girl,” Ares said softly.
Axel enhanced his shield around me. I could feel it caressing me. All the demigods were great at weaving shields, but I knew none of their shields could stop a god as powerful as Ares.
“Marigold is my chosen mate,” Axel said. “My mate is my equal. So pardon us that we don’t kneel, father.”
It was subtle, but I heard a tinge of fear in his hard voice. Either he feared Ares like everyone else, or he feared for me.
He’d battled his father to free me, and he would battle Ares again for me.
Ares’s golden eyes fixed on both Axel and me, the fire of a battle dancing in them.
The air crackled with threatening electricity.
Then a flash of light lit the room. Before it faded, Zak, Paxton, and Héctor popped up. All of them surrounded me, guarding me.
“Summoning all your cousins to fight your Daddy, Axel?” Ares frowned at his son. “I can’t say that I’m not disappointed in you.”
“You’ve always been disappointed in me,” Axel said without expression, but the other demigods had pissed-off vibes rolling off them.
“Not always,” Ares said. “But you once cared what I thought of you. What has changed? How could a mere woman drive such a wedge between me and my demigods?”
I darted a glance at the students. They bore confused, awed, and fearful expressions.
The air rippled and bounced between Ares, the demigods, and me. A realization hit me. Ares had put a sound barrier around us.
“What do you want this time, Ares?” Héctor demanded.
“Such hostility from a death demigod,” Ares said. “Even Hades doesn’t talk to me this way.”
“That was before you kidnapped my mate and tortured her,” Héctor said.
“How many times must I explain this to all you thickheads?” Ares said with exasperation. “I didn’t torture Marigold. I was merely trying to get to the bottom of this whole Loki-coming-for-her mystery. I just want to figure out what makes her so special.”
He couldn’t detect my essence either without seeing me use my core magic or feeling its pulse.
The demigods moved closer to me, obviously afraid that Ares would lunge at me, like he’d done last time, and snatch me again from under their noses, but I don’t think that Ares would pull the same stunt in the middle of a class.
With them all crowding me like this, I could barely breathe, so I shuffled around to get more room. When that failed, I added strength to my push and shoved them all a few inches from me to gain breathing space.
“Lamb, don’t fuss,” Héctor said. “We’re leaving this class.”
“Guys,” I said, bracing a hand on my hip. “I’ve told you numerous times that I’m not a paper flower. If there’s going to be a fight, I want to be in it. I want an equal share.”
An appreciative smile touched Ares’s lips. Dark lust appeared in his golden eyes before he suppressed it.
Then it hit me how I’d turned him on. The God of War loved a challenge more than anything. And right from the beginning, I’d been a fierce challenge to him, so he wanted me all the more.
I should change my strategy. I should appear meek and useless just to turn him off so the prick would leave me alone. But I knew it was too late now.
The demigods growled their threats, catching the lust rolling off the god. Each one tensed like a nocked arrow ready to dart toward its target. One wrong move from Ares and a fight was going to break out.
We wouldn’t win, and some students—possibly my friends—would get caught in the crossfire and become collateral damage. And I didn’t want to see my demigods injured again.
We don’t want a fight now,I said in their heads.Cool off.
We would take on the god when I could truly become their partner in power. Just as Paxton had put it, once my power rose, I would join them and the five of us would become an unstoppable force.
“I’ve decided to put Marigold through a second trial since the Trial of the Blood Runes failed to detect her house,” Ares said.