She wasn’t strong enough. She’d never be able to stop me, but she fought all the same. Fruitless.
I had her arms pinned to her body. One step and we stood at the mouth of the door, wind, green grass, hills rushing by.
It would be fast—a moment of free fall, a second of pain—then nothing.
She fought.Damn.She fought like a wild animal, trapped and cornered.
It was a beautiful day. Dark clouds contrasted with the green, green hills. A memory slammed into me.
Another enemy, another fighter—Hector.
I counted him as a brother, but once, I had thrust my spear where I knew his armor was weak. Because of my actions that day, Hector lost his wife, and his son was murdered. If I could go back, I would have taken my rage and my grief and bottled it up and left the shores of Troy.
Instead, I lived with the consequences of my actions and made myself come face to face—every single day—with the person who should have hated me the most.
But didn’t.
Act, Achilles. Act!
Why this hesitation?
Leonora went loose, her weight dropping to the ground, and I was thrown off balance. Dragged forward by the change in my equilibrium, I very nearly went head first onto the rails. It wouldn’t have killed me, but it would have hurt.
Instead, I fell backward, holding onto Leonora, who fell between my legs. This was it. My chance—one shove.
But again, I hesitated. And the outside door slammed shut.
What happened next could only be explained by shock. Leonora rolled, coming up to face me. Her hands landed on my shoulders, legs straddling one of mine.
Our eyes met, gazes crashing together. She had gold in her eyes. And green. Green like the hills outside. Her eyes were wide, but aware.
And angry.
Looking back, I would identify that very second as the moment I was bested. I wasn’t a soldier. I wasn’t a general.
I was a man who had fucked up royally.
And this woman was about to teach me a lesson.
Jerking her knee, she nailed me right between the legs. I might have been immortal, but I wasn’t impervious to pain, andby the gods,she got me good.
Then, because she was a genius, she reared back and kneed me again. Black spots dotted my vision as I tried to curl into a ball to protect myself. Scrambling to her feet, she nearly stepped on me, but somehow, I got a hand out and snagged her ankle.
“What the fuck?” I knew that voice.Shit.
The crack across my face was expected, just like the one to my balls, but it still cleaned my clock, as the saying went.
I tasted blood.
The world spun as Pollux grabbed my jacket, hauled me to my feet and slammed me against the wall. “I should throw you out the fucking door, you fucking fuck.”
It was the dead wrong thing to do, but a picture of just how ridiculous I must look hit me. Blood dripping down my chin. Gaze a little unsteady, legs too weak to lock. I grimaced.
Mistake.
It just made him angrier, and it had been a while since I’d come across an angry Pollux. He pulled me forward before slamming me into the wall hard enough he probably dented the metal.
“You’re going to draw attention to us.” He could beat on me all day, but it was going to get dicey when someone heard us.