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The war god’s powerwas graded ten.
Every fiber of the air sang with his divine yet violent magic.
Ares was the infamous conqueror, the incarnation of bloodlust and carnage.
Lucifer had brought Hell to half of Earth and started the era of the Great Merge. The God of War ruled the other half of the planet. The four demigods also reigned over the region and they each had a throne, but they were still under his command.
His arrival was anything but good news. I could tell that by noticing how tense all of the demigods suddenly became.
They’d wanted to keep me as far away from him as possible. They’d worked with Esme, allowing her to run things at the Academy while they were in the territory, to keep me under his radar. Despite all their efforts, the God of War had popped out and stopped me from leaving.
Alarm clanged in my head, louder than when I’d sensed Loki’s presence. It could only mean that the god was an even bigger threat than the demon prince.
There was a reason that he’d showed up just now; I didn’t believe in coincidence.
My heartbeat ratcheted up and I commanded myself not to panic.
“Father?” Axel called. “Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here!”
He didn’t step toward his father but toward me, positioning himself between us to shield me from the god’s view.
But Ares was over seven-feet-tall and towered over everyone. He could see me just fine.
“Why shouldn’t I be here, Axel?” Ares asked, his golden eyes, like the purest flames in the universe, never straying from me.
Héctor growled. “What the fuck, Ares? Why did you intercept me?”
“Take care how you talk to your better, Héctor,” Ares hissed. “I’ve been giving all four of you brats free rein for too long.”
Héctor didn’t back down. His massive, black wings whooshed out from behind his shoulders, moving to form a second shield around me.
Ares didn’t seem to be bothered by the death demigod’s antagonism. He just sneered. “I’m taking back control,” the god declared. “This new situation requires my undivided attention.”
Despite the viciousness rolling off him, he was the most gorgeous male I’d ever seen. He was more than perfection, clad in black and white armor that made him even more magnificent. It seemed even the universe itself would bend its knee before him.
But not me. Just as Loki had said, my knees weren’t weak.
Ares didn’t look surprised that I didn’t kneel or bow before him like the others, even though I wasn’t in the ranks of the demigods.
How much did he know about me? I bet that he’d read my files.
And what did those files say about me?
I made a mental note to get them from the headmistress’s office. She’d reviewed my case and seen how the demigods were around me.
But how much had she told the God of War? Was her true loyalty to him or us? Like the demigods, she’d tried to keep me from the eyes of the god. Why would she want to protect me?
Hundreds of questions wheeled through my mind, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on any of them.
My eyes darted to the god. Axel took after his father in every way. When I’d first spotted Axel, I thought he’d descended from the glorious Heavens. I had stared at his feet to see if he rode on an actual chariot of fire.
Now that I’d met Ares, I believed that the God of War had often ridden on a chariot of fire to go to war. This god, the son of the king and queen of the gods, had power as mighty as Lucifer’s.
“What’s the new situation you mentioned, Ares?” Zak asked, his expression neutral and controlled.
Paxton was the only one who hadn’t shouted his opinions. He’d barely pulled himself together, though he tried to hide his pain. Why didn’t he just leave for the healing chamber? We didn’t need him to be here and suffer like a stubborn fool.