“Not so strong, are you?” she taunts. And suddenly, there are two of her. No, three. No… I count at least a dozen Mandys circling me like a pack of wild, starving wolves. Her eyes glow maliciously as one of the Mandy clones rushes at me. I lift my knife protectively, but she simply glides through both the blade and my body like mist. Before I can even catch my bearings, the real Mandy jumps on me from behind and begins to slam my face repeatedly into the floorboards. Her knees rest on each of my arms, making moving virtually impossible.
With each new burst of pain, my power begins to grow and grow like a weed wrecking havoc. No amount of poison will be able to kill it.
“You. Stupid. Bitch.” She slams my face down a tenth time, and I swear I see stars dancing in my vision. I’m sure I’m a hot fucking mess, but right now, my power doesn’t want to focus on healing me.
It wants to destroy Mandy, the Goddess of Manipulation.
“You’re really not that special,” she sneers, wrapping my hair around her fist and tugging my head back. “When Athena contacted me about this job, I was a little hesitant. After all, everyone in the Realm of the Gods has heard of the great and feared Goddess of Pain. But you’re actually quite pathetic. Honestly. I don’t understand what those guys see in you. Oh well. I’m sure once you’re dead, it won’t be too hard to—”
Before she can finish whatever vulgar, idiotic thing she was going to say, my power explodes out of me. Literally explodes, like a burst of errant fireworks.
Mandy releases my hair, no doubt taking a few strands with her, and my face collapses once more on the floor, in a puddle of my own blood.
Her screams reach me from behind, and I slowly twist myself onto my back.
Agonizing pain is etched upon her beautiful face as my power eats away at her flesh. As I watch, mesmerized, her skin crackles like rivulets of lava are coursing through her body. A black, tar-like substance oozes from her eyes, ears, and opened mouth, but it doesn’t hinder her petrified screams.
Her panic-filled eyes meet mine, and then…she explodes. Literally fucking explodes, blood raining in all different directions.
Oh. My. God.
I’ve been alive for centuries, but never before has my power behaved like that. It’s almost as if, in that moment, it had a life of its own, as if it sensed that this woman wanted to take it from me. It exploded out of me like a churning volcano, decimating everything in the general vicinity.
Body shaking like a leaf in the wind, I stumble to my feet, placing a blood-soaked hand against the wall. I can barely walk, barely breathe, and I know that I have a few broken ribs. I squeeze my eyelids shut and attempt to call on the pain circulating through me, but before I can even mend my broken fingers, a familiar gasp reaches my ears.
“Don’t fucking move,” Athena hisses, and I wrench my eyes open to see the Goddess of Virtue standing in the doorway. In her arms, with a knife to his throat, is my older brother Henry.
Raw panic courses through me, overriding even the physical pain of my bruised and battered body.
“Let him go.”
“Emmy?” Henry’s voice is choked with emotion—fear and worry being the two most prominent. “What’s happening? Who did this to you?”
Fear sparks in my chest as I hold his icy blue gaze.
“You’ll be okay,” I assure him, my voice trembling. To Athena, I whisper, “Let him go. He has nothing to do with this.”
Athena makes a face as she shrugs her shoulders. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. You see, you killed my partner.”
“You would’ve killed her yourself after this was over with,” I scoff. Because I have no doubt in my mind that that was Athena’s original intention. She wouldn’t have wanted to share her powers with anyone, let alone a ditzy, power-hungry goddess.
“True.” Once more, Athena shrugs. “But you see, Emily, the ritual with the stone only works when you’re in intense pain. I believe that’s why it didn’t work before.”
“I’m already in intense fucking pain,” I hiss, staggering a step forward.
“But you can heal from that pain,” she counters immediately. “I know the way your powers work, believe it or not. I study my enemies, Emily.” She smiles cruelly, flashing teeth that are slightly too straight and perfect. Even standing in the blood of her dead friend, there’s not a blonde hair out of place. She looks as immaculate and as unperturbed as ever. Fucking psychopath.
“You don’t know shit about me,” I snap immediately, blood forming in my mouth and drizzling down my chin. Henry watches me in wide-eyed horror, and I realize then that his fear isn’t for himself, but for me. He’s worried about me,when he’s the one with a knife to his throat. “Why did you send the assassins after me?” I demand. “Especially since your goal this entire time was to take my powers.”
Irritation flashes across her beautiful face like a streak of lightning illuminating an inky black sky. “Because I thought it would tear you and your…men apart.” She hisses the word “men” like it’s a disgusting swear word. “There’s no greater pain than betrayal, now is there?”
“And then after?” I demand, thinking of the guy at the warehouse and the girl at the club.
Athena sighs, as if my questions are annoying her but she’s willing to indulge me just this once. “Well, that was to make you believe Rebecca had betrayed you. Obviously, I knew that the return of your memories would make the six of you nearly unstoppable. But I still needed to make you feel emotional pain, you understand. I thought if I framed Rebecca…” Using the free hand not holding the knife, she brushes away
