Sirens continued to scream, and the whole time all Seolhyun could think was that Ares was back and trying to get past whatever wards Apollo had thrown down. It couldn’t be Jimin, because she didn’t feel her.

Her steps were slow, but Hyejeong’s were long, purposeful strides. She was ready to face whatever waited outside. Seolhyun wasn’t. Her palms were sweating again. The rush of nervous energy made her feel sick. An image of the shattered aquarium and the vibrant-colored fish flopping on the floor filled her head, followed by the sound of Ares’ cold, taunting laugh.

Seolhyun couldn’t do this again.

Air punched from her lungs in an unsteady rush as Hyejeong pushed open the heavy double doors. Battle was what she’d prepared for, and as a Linus, they could be walking into a fight at any given moment. That was why two Ephensy daggers were attached to Hyejeong’s legs, hanging from her black pants.

A Linus never left home without them.

Seolhyun had to do this.

Outside, they headed toward the front of the campus. Several Guards had taken up defensives stances outside the coloseum-style building that held the common rooms and cafeterias. Most of the campus would be in there right now for the feast, but as they rounded the building, Genuine students were being ushered inside, their faces pale and fearful.

Seolhyun wondered if she had the same look on her face. If so, she bet that wasn’t very reassuring to them.

“What’s going on?” Hyejeong asked one of the Guards.

The Myx shook his head. “Something’s going down at the wall. We’ve been ordered to get all the Genuines into one safe area.”

“It can’t be what they said,” another Guard said, eyes wide as he gripped the handle of his Glock, his attention being pulled toward a group of Genuines who appeared from the side of the building. “Hey! You all need to get inside. Now!”

“What did they say?” Seolhyun asked, happy to hear her voice didn’t crack, but there was no answer. The Guards were distracted with the lagging group of Genuines. “Never mind, then,” she muttered.

Before she could start forward, though, Hyejeong turned to her, putting her hands on Seolhyun’s shoulders. “You should stay back.”

“Huh?” It was the only thing she could come up with.

“Seolhyun, you’re not completely healed, and we have no idea what the hell is happening up there.”

A big, really irresponsible part of her wanted to say ‘okay’ and skip into the building to join the frightened masses, but no matter how scared she was, she would not fall apart. “I’m fine, Hyejeong. I–”

“You are a lot of things, Seolhyun. Strong. Brave. Beautiful. Incredibly y,” she said with a quick grin. “But you are not fine. You and I both know that.”

Okay. She had a point. And that was true. But she needed to face Jimin and transfer the power of the God Killer from her to herself, and that was going to require a major throwdown between them. Then she’d have to face Ares.

“I have to do this or…” Or she would hide again.

Hyejeong looked away, drawing in a deep breath. Shoulders tensed, and Seolhyun knew she was going to argue with total Hyejeong Logic. She let out the breath. “Okay. But stick close to me. If it gets out of hand, and if I think you can’t handle it, I’m throwing you over my shoulder. Do you understand?”

The sirens weren’t shutting up anytime soon. Seolhyun nodded.

“Deal?”

She sighed. “Deal.”

“Then let’s do this.”

Picking up her pace, Seolhyun forced her tired muscles to work as they jogged down the pathway. As they got closer, they were joined by several more Linuses, and Seolhyun could already see a couple dozen near the wall.

The sirens eased off, but the thick, unnatural tension hanging in the air like heavy clouds told her that whatever had happened hadn’t ended. Scanning the grounds, she felt her stomach dip. To their left, a small group of Guards and Linuses crouched, circling something. She recognized Jennie, Lisa, and Dawon, and she wasn’t surprised to see them. They didn’t hesitate. Even though Lisa hadn’t technically graduated, she was a Linus.

Dawon straightened, eyes focused. He turned at the sound of Hyejeong’s voice, and a faint scar stood out against his abnormally pale cheeks.

Seolhyun didn’t hear what he was saying. Her gaze was fixed on what the other Linuses were staring at.

A body was on the ground, totally unrecognizable. Male? Female? No clue. It had been a Linus, that much she could tell from the piece remains of the black uniform. The skin and clothing looked like they had been pecked away until only thin slices of flesh and muscle remained. Even the eyelids and eyeballs were removed.

Her stomach turned. “Holy Hades…”

Lisa rose, smoothing her hands along her thighs. That’s when Seolhyun saw the other Linus on the ground, knees bent and hands clenching over her stomach. Blood streamed across them. Deep, vengeful cuts tore through her cheeks. Her left eye was a bloody mess. softly, she was trying to stay still as another woman wrapped white gauze around her face, covering her destroyed eye.

“They were out doing rounds, down by the burnt-out cars. They’re saying they came out of nowhere,” Lisa told Seolhyun in a hushed voice. “She almost got taken out by them pulling him back to the gate.”

Seolhyun tore her gaze from the body. “What came out of nowhere?”

Lisa opened , but the eeriest high-pitched squawk Seolhyun had ever heard cut her off. It was a constant crescendo of harsh screeching.

Several shots boomed and her chin jerked up. Beyond the wall, a dark cloud zoomed across the horizon, heading straight for them. Except it wasn’t a cloud.

Seolhyun took a step back, hands going to the daggers.

The cloud arced up and shattered into hundreds of mother-freaking crows.

Her jaw dropped open. “Holy crows…”

“There’s a couple of eagles mixed in there,” Jennie commented.

“And a few hawks,” Hyejeong added.

Seolhyun rolled her eyes. “Okay. Holy birds of prey! Is that better?”

“Uh huh,” Lisa murmured.

The birds blanketed the sky, so thick they eclipsed the sun for a moment. Seolhyun had never seen anything like it. They swirled overhead, a dark, ever-expanding funnel. They changed course suddenly, flying down toward them like little, winged torpedoes with sharp claws and beaks. She thought of the flayed body and almost hurled.

“They’re possessed!” shouted a Guard. Dirt streaked his white uniform.

Seolhyun wanted to thank the guy for the obvious. She wasn’t an animal specialist, but she knew birds didn’t go psychotic for no reason, which meant there had to be Demons nearby… either them or a God. A God could influence their feathered friends. But her smartass response died on the tongue when the birds from hell swooped.

They were on them in seconds.

Dipping down, Lisa shrieked as she batted one away. “Ah! Birds! Why did it have to be birds?”

Seolhyun smacked one before it got its gross little claws in her hair. How in the hell were they supposed to fight a swarm of birds? Talons grazed the back of her hands, and the pain was sharp and quick.

Dawon spun around, his arm arcing gracefully. A dagger flew across the space, tip over handle, and embedded deep into the back of an eagle that had attached to a Guard’s shoulder.

Well, that was one way, a little time-consuming, but effective. However, Seolhyun had a better idea. Waving her arms, she darted toward Hyejeong. She’d grabbed a hawk off a fallen Linus. Tiny red scratches bled on her cheeks.

“Fire!” Seolhyun yelled. “Light the sky up!”

Jennie was swinging at the sky with her blades. “Lisa and I will cover you two!”

Sheathing the daggers, Hyejeong raised her hands, brows lowered in concentration and the line of her jaw tightened. Sparks flew from her fingers, and a second later, her hands were on fire. Seolhyun reached over, wrapping her hands around her wrist. She took a deep breath, ignoring the wings that came awfully close to her cheek.

Closing her eyes, she used the air element and pictured the flames moving up in a steady stream and then spreading like a ceiling of fire. Hyejeong could get the fire into the sky, but not as quickly and at the magnitude she could with Seolhyun’s help.

“That’s it,” Hyejeong said, her skin hot under Seolhyun’s fingers.

Seolhyun opened her eyes. For a moment, she was awed. Using the elements was still new to her. Fire, a vibrant shade of blood-red, pulsed over Hyejeong’s hand and exploded outward in a massive ball. Wind blew Seolhyun’s hair back from her face as the inferno into the air, rolling toward the wall and back to the campus, consuming the birds in its path. The blaze wasn’t natural, but a product of the Alch that Hyejeong carried inside her. It ate the crows up, leaving nothing by a fine sprinkling of dust behind.

When most of the birds were destroyed and only a few were left to attack them, Hyejeong closed her hands into fists and Seolhyun let go of her wrists.

“That was so cool,” awed Lisa.

Seolhyun cracked a grin, a little breathless. “I’m that awesome.”

Jennie started to nod but stilled when a Guard flew past them, arms flailing as he tried to get one of the remaining birds off his back. She frowned. “I’ll never look at a bird the same way again.”

Shooting her a look, Hyejeong stepped forward, snatching what Seolhyun guessed was a hawk off the back of the yelping Guard. The hawk twisted in his grasp, and she got a good look at its face. The thing’s eyes were all black… no pupils or irises, just like a Demon’s.

Seolhyun turned away from the sickening crack that followed. Once the animals were that far under the control of a Demon or God, there was just no undoing it.

Several Linuses staggered to their feet, battered and cut, but no one had gotten it as bad as the two who’d been by the burnt-out cars on the access road and were most likely blindsided by the birds.

A shiver s its way down her spine, and her hands automatically went to the daggers on her thighs. Tiny hairs rose on her body. All around her, Myxs and Genuines reacted to the peculiar tension seeping into their skin. Her glyphs swirled, changing patterns and forming new ones.

“They’re coming!” yelled a Guard near the top of the wall. His white robes flapped like wings in the wind.

Seolhyun was kind of expecting an owl to come out of nowhere, but that’s not what slammed into the iron gate with enough force that it rattled the massive structure and split open the skin of the attacker.

It was a Demon.

Face as white as the Guards’ robes and veins as thick as black snakes, the Demon backed up and charged the gate again.

Wiping blood off her hand, Lisa shook her head. “What is it doing?”

“Other than rearranging its face?” Seolhyun flinched as it slammed the gate once more. “Maybe it’s really hungry.”

Demons were Genuines that had become addicted to the Alch in the blood of Genuines, and only within the last year they’d learned they could also turn Myxs. They were what originated the whole vampire myth without the hotness. It started eons ago, something Dionysus had done, most likely when he’d been bored.

Most of their problems stemmed from the Gods’ boredom.

Another Demon joined in, then another, and another. Each time they whacked into the gate, Seolhyun flinched. Their exposed flesh was mangled and bloody.

Dawon was at the gate, able to pick off two of them by shoving daggers through the gaps. Demons were highly allergic to titanium. It cut through their flesh as though it were water. They burst into shimmering blue clouds, one after another, but more joined in, bouncing off the gate.

Seolhyun’s gaze went to the sides. The hinges were weakening.

She moved, seeing dozens and dozens of Demons behind the ones at the gate. Hyejeong summoned fire, catching several of them ablaze, but they kept coming at the gate until the fire consumed them.

This was so not good.

But a frightening realization occurred. The Demons could be here because of Ares, or they could be here because Jimin was coming. Either way, it was unlikely that this many would just show up in the middle of nowhere.

“We have to do something.” Dawon unhooked his daggers, eyes narrowing as he turned to Seolhyun. “Can you do your Elpis thing? Like you did with the automatons?”

Seolhyun unsheathed her daggers. “I can’t promise I won’t take the gate out in the process. Maybe if I could get outside, slip up behind them.”

“Not happening.” Hyejeong stalked forward. “They’d be on you in seconds.”

With all the Alch in her veins, it would be like ringing the dinner bell, but if Seolhyun did get out there, she could do something. She could end this before it got out of hand.

Linuses didn’t show fear.

All Seolhyun knew right then was fear.

More slammed into the gate, causing the center to bulge dangerously.

“Open the gate!” shouted Hyejeong, grabbing a shoulder of a Guard. “If they break the gate, then we will have an open wound to protect.”

“That’s insane!” argued the Guard. “If they get past us–”

“They won’t get past us. Have half of us form a line several yards back,” Hyejeong ordered. “The rest of us will stay here.”

Jennie shook her head and muttered, “That would be crazy.”

Beside her, Lisa snorted. Her fingers opened and closed around the handles of the daggers. “You know, this isn’t too bad.”

“It’s not?” Seolhyun asked.

She shook her head. “This could’ve happened during the funerals.”

The gate rattled like dry, angry bones once more, and then the Guard sprang into action, shouting orders. Letting the Demons in sounded crazy, but Hyejeong was right. Even if they stopped this attack, they would be vulnerable with a giant hole where the gate should’ve been.

Half the Linuses and all the Guards moved back, forming the line. Dawon, Lisa, and Jennie remained by the gate, ready for battle. Seolhyun forced her lungs to inflate as two Linuses volunteered for the near-suicidal mission of opening the gate.

Hyejeong stalked to her side, lowering her head and speaking low enough for only her to hear. “This is about to get crazy. I know you don’t want to hear this, but you should go back to the common area. Find your uncle and–”

“I can do this,” Seolhyun said, and then repeated it in her head about five times. “And you guys need my help. I can do my Elpis handiness without worrying about the gate.”

“Seolhyun, I really–”

“Too late,” she interrupted as the Linuses threw open the gates.

Hyejeong whirled, and before Seolhyun could take another breath, the Demons were inside the gate, swallowing the two Linuses in a massive wave. Hyejeong cursed and glanced back at Seolhyun.

Seolhyun didn’t need her distracted. Demons couldn’t kill her, but they could kill Hyejeong. “I’m okay,” she tightened her grasp on the blades. “Go do your thing.”

Hyejeong appeared to want to protest more, but there really was no time. Dipping down at the last possible second, she caught a Demon in the stomach with her broad shoulder. The force of the blow flipped the Demon over onto her back. Hyejeong spun, ing the dagger deep into the Demon’s chest. Within seconds, it was nothing more than a shimmery pile of dust. She whirled, shoulders taut and mouth pressed into a slash of a line. She took out another Demon and then another.

If Yonghwa/Apollo had been here, they would have been keeping count.

Seolhyun turned at the sound of pounding feet. A Demon was gunning for her, eyes as black as midnight oil and skin leeched of color. Her muscles tensed the way they did in the seconds before engaging in battle, but it was different this time. They locked up completely. dried. Her heart went straight into cardiac territory.

“You can’t fight. You can’t do this anymore. You’re broken.”

Her internal voice was such a -stirrer. She was frozen. Around her, the sounds of metal clattering and grunts of those fighting amplified until it was all she heard.

The Demon drew to a halt, sniffing the air, and then its mouth dropped open, revealing a row of shark-like teeth. It howled.

Seolhyun’s mind… something was wrong with it.

She knew it was a Demon before her, and she knew she didn’t even have to use her daggers. She could use fire or wind. She could tap into Ether, but she didn’t see the Demon. In its place, she saw one pissed off, seven-foot God. She saw Ares instead.

Her breath burst from her in short pants. She took a step back, swallowed. “No!”

The Demon slammed into her, knocking Seolhyun flat onto her back. The daggers flew from her hands, skidding along the dry dirt, kicking up plumes of dust.

“I gave you the easy way out,” ‘Ghost’ Ares said, digging his fingers into her shoulders. “But you chose this, and everyone you love will die because of it!”

Someone shouted her name, and the image of Ares blurred around the edges. Jagged teeth appeared behind a cruel mouth. A powerful shudder worked its way down her body, and the glyphs on her skin started to go crazy, like there was a God…

A flash of white light blinded her, and then the Demon exploded into cloud of blue dust. A silver arrow plopped down on her chest.

“What the…?” Seolhyun picked it up, squeaking as it stung her fingers.

“I’ll be needing that,” came a soft, musical voice she’d heard only once before. The arrow was plucked from her fingers. “Thank you!”

Seolhyun looked up and discovered why her glyphs were doing a cracked-out version of the electric slide on her skin. “I can see your s,” she told her.

Artemis stood above her, wearing a gauzy white tunic. A silver bow propped against a shapely hip. Static crackled from her all-white eyes. “Should I borrow your hoodie?”

Sort of stupefied by her appearance, Seolhyun pushed herself to her feet. “What are you doing here? Is Apollo–?”

“My brother is currently getting chained to some rock by our father because of Ares.” She loaded another arrow. “Zeus is mighty upset, and of course is blaming Apollo for the mess. Like how was he supposed to know what Ares was up to?” She let go of the arrow, and it zinged past Seolhyun’s head. A fleshy grunt told her Artemis had hit her mark. “It’s not our fault Ares got hit with the crazy stick about a hundred times.”

Another arrow flew from her nimble fingers. This time it blew past Seolhyun’s head, and she was pretty sure she was centimeters from having her ear pierced.

“And you need to head up, Elpis,” Artemis said, her full lips tipping up into a megawatt smile. “Lovergirl is about to be taken down for the count.”

“What the–?” Her words sank through, and Seolhyun spun around. Her heart dropped.

Hyejeong was surrounded, two Demons at her back and two at her front. No other Linuses were around. The Demons were going straight to the Genuines because they, like Artemis and she, were a fine dining of Alch. This was good for the Myxs, since it gave them the advantage. But not Hyejeong. Blood trickled from the side of her long throat. A female Demon in front of her had blood on her pink, chapped lips.

Hyejeong had been tagged.

Oh, that flipped Seolhyun’s switch from meh to pure ‘I’m going to cut a ’ rage.

Whatever temper had invaded her system was overshadowed by her fear for Hyejeong. Forgetting Artemis and her sudden, unexpected, and really bizarre appearance, Seolhyun launched forward. Her muscles and body knew what to do. Brain clicked off. Instinct kicked in. Finally.

She came up behind the two Demons and slammed her dagger into one of them. The other sensed Seolhyun’s Alchey goodness and whirled on her.

It screeched. “Elpis–”

“Shut up,” Seolhyun said, dipping down as it swung on her. She sprung up, kicking and swiping the legs out from underneath her. “I know I smell good. I’m sure I taste good, too.”

ing the dagger down, she took the Demon out, and then popped up. Slipping under Hyejeong’s arm, she went straight for the female with Hyejeong’s blood on her ugly face. Flipping the blade back, she swung her arm, catching the female Demon in the jaw. Its head smacked back, and the pleasure Seolhyun felt would worry therapist sunbaenims across the nation.

“Damn,” Hyejeong said under her breath, and then took down the other Demon.

The female Demon charged Seolhyun, practically impaling herself on the dagger. Blue dust blew into her face. “Gross.”

Artemis was making short work of the Demons and looking disgustingly beautiful doing so. With her cheeks slightly flushed and her lower lip between her teeth, she darted around, popping the Demons off one after another. And once the Linuses began to realize that a God was in the battle, everyone pretty much stopped what they were doing.

The legion of Demons wasn’t going to kill them. Nope. Because Artemis was here.

The Goddess sprang onto a tree trunk, spinning like a ballet dancer. Sun glinted off her silver bow. Three arrows flew from her bow, zipping between Linuses and smacking into Demons.

Holy Hades’ …

Seolhyun did not want to piss Artemis off.

Within a minute, over a dozen Demons were nothing but shimmery blue piles of dust, and Artemis hadn’t even broken a sweat. Not a strand of hair was out of place. Slipping the bow into the harness strapped across her back, she winked at Jennie before blinking out and reappearing like right in her face.

Jennie gasped, taking a step back. “Was that necessary?”

Artemis tilted her head to the side. “Ares is playing dirty, Jen. These,” she waved her around, “are from him. He led them here, and more will come. The First is on the move.”

“Jimin?” Hyejeong swiped her hand over her neck. “She’s coming here?”

Artemis’ creepy God eyes shot all kinds of static when she looked at Hyejeong. A fine shimmer surrounded her, like she’d been dipped in glitter, and then the playfulness from Mina’s facade disappeared.

Seolhyun’s eyes widened.

A true Goddess stood before them, dressed in white, nearly transparent linen that hugged her curves and revealed more skin than a thong. A silver band covered her upper arm. A moon hung from it, shining as if it had been dipped in light.

Her lips curled in a smooth, seductive smile. “Hey there, how about you ditch the little Elpis over there and get some little fun with me?”

“Hey.” Seolhyun folded her arms, trying to keep her own eyes on Artemis’ face. “Aren’t you supposed to be a Goddess?”

A soft, tinkling laugh came from her. “Sweetheart, have you ever heard of kiss and don’t tell?”

“Have you ever heard of a bra?” Seolhyun demanded. “Because we can see your… you know. Everything.”

Lisa blinked.

Jennie rolled her eyes.

Dawon choked on his throat.

Hyejeong cleared as she averted her gaze, brows raised.

Artemis laughed again as she turned her attention to Seolhyun. “I will aid you when I can, as will the others, until Apollo can return to your side. We cannot allow Ares to continue. You must transfer the power of the First to you.”

How she went from hitting on her girlfriend to all serious war-death-blah-blah talk was beyond her. “It’s at the top of my to-do list, along with– hey!” Seolhyun leaned back from Artemis’ suddenly outstretched hand. Her fingers grazed Seolhyun’s cheek. “Stop it!” She jumped back as she went to touch her again. “Man, you Gods are so weird.”

Artemis wrinkled her nose at her. “There is something wrong with you.”

“Uh…” That didn’t seem very polite. “Care to explain?” She asked.

Her eyes narrowed, and then her hand s out again. Seolhyun forced herself to stand still and let her feel her up, because seriously, the Goddess didn’t appear like she was going to stop until she did. She cupped her cheek and placed her other hand below Seolhyun’s s, between her ribs.

“Um…” Seolhyun was really starting to feel a bit wigged out. “I really hope this has a point, because the four of them are staring at us like they’re hoping we’re going to make out.”

Dawon coughed.

Artemis’ lashes swept up. “There’s something inside you.”

“Well, I do have organs and…” Seolhyun trailed off, remembering how Apollo’s son had said the same thing. Concern swelled. “Like something that doesn’t belong there?”

“I don’t know.” She removed her hands. “Anyway, you should do something with your hair.”

And then she blinked out of existence. Really gone this time, because the marks of the Elpis calmed down. Seolhyun reached up, self-consciously patting the jagged ends of her hair as she glanced at Hyejeong.

Hyejeong stared at her, looking like someone had punched her in the chest. She opened to say something, and then she pivoted on her heel.

Having no idea what that was about, Seolhyun took in the carnage of battle. Blood pooled over sparse grass and bodies littered the ground, some dying and others already dead. There would be more funerals.

Fighting was a desire and need that had been bred into her, as it was into all Myxs who didn’t go into servitude. Except somewhere between when Poseidon destroyed the Ephensy on Ephti Island and she woke up after Apollo returned her from Olympus, fighting had lost its appeal.

Everything was different now.

Her gaze found Hyejeong.

She was kneeling beside a fallen Linus, one who couldn’t be much older than her. The wind picked up strands of Hyejeong’s hair, tossing them off her forehead. She looked up, her somber gaze meeting Seolhyun’s, and Seolhyun thought she saw the same weariness in her stare.

They both were so… so over this.

The Next Day

Long after the sun had risen and the campus was calmed as much as it could be after a nearly disastrous attack, Seolhyun found herself in front of the closet. Freshly showered, she’d stolen a pair of sweats and a T-shirt from Hyejeong.

Hyejeong left in the morning to get some breakfast. She offered to go with her, but she insisted Seolhyun stay in bed and get some more rest. Nightmares had plagued her most of the night. Demons breaking through the walls. Ares finding a way in past the wards. Loved ones dying all around her.

Her constant tossing and turning had kept Hyejeong up most of the night, but it was more than that. In the back of her head, Seolhyun knew why Hyejeong had wanted her to stay.

There was still a 0,725892% part of her that believed Seolhyun could be pregnant.

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