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I’m about to respond when he says more firmly, “I will go retrieve her. Stay here.”

“Ares—”

He cuts off my protest. “I’m serious, Persephone. There are some things a good soul should never see, for there are darknesses which hold the power to taint even the purest of souls. That darkness can and will spread like poison until the good that once lived is slowly, completely eroded.” He holds his hand, palm out. “Stay.”

I want to argue, but I can’t. He’s right. I’m not prepared to see that and I’m not sure the wreckage of my heart could survive it.

I promise. “I’ll wait.”

Chapter

Thirty

Persephone

The soundthat comes from the room is terrifying. The screams, this time from a man, is nearly enough to peel the flesh from my bones. The only thing that keeps me in place is the fact that I’m certain those screams are being pulled from the gladiator who’d slain the girl’s father, only to claim her innocence and life in the terrible hours following as his reward.

My knees quake, my body trembling with a violence that rattles my bones. Unable to manage standing on my own, I sink against the wall for support. I’m not certain that I would even hear someone approaching through the wild thundering of my pulse between my ears and the battle on the other side of the door.

A loud crash, like a body being thrown into metal, sounds a moment before all is harrowingly quiet.

My palms are slick with nervous sweat as I wring them into knots.

I’m so focused on the door that my heart leaps into my chest when, for a moment, my vision of it doubles. Then Aresslips from the room, and I realize it hadn’t been doubling at all, simply opening.

The breath of relief that began its escape stalls as my eyes drop to the lifeless girl in his arms. She is devastatingly battered, her body bruised beyond recognition.

My soul weeps and hot tears spring yet again to my eyes. I refuse to let them fall as I hurry closer. “Wh—what happened in there?”

Ares’ eyes slide to mine, the shift filled with lethal danger. They are almost completely red.Bloodlust, I realize.

There is a moment where I honestly don’t know if he recognizes me through the haze of it. My heart pauses its beats, as though it senses even it must stand silent amidst this lethal predator. My muscles seize, burning hotly.

He steps toward me and the fear that burns in my muscles seeps into my blood. His nostrils flare, as though catching the scent of prey.

I’m moments from running when there is a quiver deep in my belly, a soothing warmth.

Ares cocks his head to the side, dark brows slanting sharply inward. The menacing scowl smooths from his lips and he gives his head a single shake, as though to shake off the rage that clings to him, anchoring him to the dark rage that swirls inside him.

I watch curiously as the warming in my belly grows hotter, and the blast of red in his eyes is threaded with veins of gold. The scent of a bloody battlefield dulls to a fresh citrus.

Ares speaks around the gravel in his throat. “I killed him.”

“But—” I frown.

“He will rise again, and I will kill him again.” Ares’ eyes drift down the length of me, snagging on my stomach before rising again to my eyes.

I gesture to the girl in his arms, wanting to draw attention away from the life inside me. One in which he seems far too aware of. “When will she—um—rise again?”

He frowns, as though just remembering that he holds her in his arms. And that’s when I flinch, noting the blood that stains the flesh of his hands, deeper around the bed of his nails where it has dried. He’s splattered with it.

“Her soul will wander for a time, but the realm will call it back to her body.” He begins to move down the hall, and I hurry to follow.

“How long?”

“It depends on the death,” he grunts. “Some souls fight the return.”

“And her death?” The man has long legs and for every one of his steps, I have to take two, sometimes three of my own.