I remember once when I was really young, I had watched a huge storm brewing in the west. The dark clouds swirled around and came at me faster than I could take shelter. I had run as fast as I could while the wind howled around me, slapping at my face. Rain, lightning, hail. A torrential downpour of chaos all around. I remember that storm clearly and the fear that I had felt.
It was nothing compared to the storm standing before me.
My bravado has dissipated completely.
“You think you can try to kill me and get away with it?” he bellows out.
“You can’t expect me to go back in that cage and not do a thing,” I stammer, terrified at the fury I see in Apollo’s eyes.
I hate myself for it, but my words come out as a sob as the tears follow. I don’t want him to see my weakness. It makes me hate him even more.
He reaches out, grabbing a handful of my hair, pulling me mere inches from his face. “Do you think tears will work? Should I have mercy on younow? Now that you show fear in your eyes and remorse in the quiver in your voice?”
“I’m sorry,” I squeak. The sting from my hair being yanked by the man causes tears to well in my eyes even more. “What do you expect from me? Do you want me to just give up? I have to fight to the death. You know this.”
He tugs my hair harder, forcing my head to go back so I have to stare into his demon eyes. My throat stretches—so exposed. I wonder if he’ll bite down and suck from my blood like an ancient monster that tales are told of.
“I was fucking kind to you this morning, and you repay me by trying to throw me down to the foyer of my family manor? Did you actually think that would work?”
“I hate you. I always have.” The words shoot past my lips like a bullet before I have time to think them through. Before I have time to really ponder the consequences that will come from such a defiant utterance.
Apollo’s eyes darken. Fury is visible. Wrath is inevitable.
“You don’t know me.”
“I do. You pretended to be the nice guy. The hero to save me. But you’re the villain in the story.”
He smirks. “Yes, well… Villains are made. And you just created the worst villain of all.”
“All I wanted was out. To forget you and the Godwin name forever. But you refused.”
“No one forgets the Godwin name. Never. And right now… You’ll remember right now forever,” he snarls.
I want to apologize. I want to plead for compassion. I want to reach into the depths of his evil and pull out even an ounce of humanity.
And yet, I want to kill.
I want to decimate. To destroy. To rip his flesh from his bones with my teeth. Beg or kill. Plead or destroy. Fuck him. The powerful woman in me won this battle. The courageous queen in me takes full control.
I spit in his face, smiling when I can see the shock caused by my rebellion twinkle in his eye.
“Fuck you,” I say as my eyes lock with his, daring him to unleash the true villain inside.
Show me.
Show me the villain I created.
“Right now,” he repeats. “Right now, you will remember for the rest of your life.”
Without wasting another second, Apollo takes hold of my body and lifts me off the ground.
I try to fight him off, even though I know it’s pointless. He’s bigger. Stronger. Apollo will win this battle regardless of how hard I struggle.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t try.
“Don’t you dare fucking touch me!” I scream as I try to scratch out his eyes.
Gripping my hands above my head, he flings me back hard against the bed, only giving me a second to realize I’m completely nude at this point—and on a bed—with a man raging.