Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
“How about …” Blaine replies, swooping his long, dark hair over his shoulder. “No.”
“Fine.”
The guy pulls out his weapon.
BANG!
He shoots off the lock with his silenced gun, and the three boys jump back to avoid the shot.
“Motherfucker,” Caleb yells, enraged. “You shot at us!”
The gunman kicks open the doors straight into the boys.
“Move!” one of them shouts as they barge right through the boys like they don’t exist.
I should run.
As fast as I can, far away from here, before anyone sees me standing here.
But when the middle one of the three boys turns around, I feel frozen to the ground. Eyes gray and devoid of life, a face with features so sharp it could split mountains, and soulless pupils burning into the men’s backs as they run toward me. Pure, unfiltered rage hides deep inside, fueled by something far greater than just the intrusion into his domain. And it makes my heart pick up in fear.
Ares.
“Over my dead body,” he growls, his voice low and just as deadly as the gun he pulls out of nowhere.
BANG! BANG!
Two silenced shots. One blink.
My hand immediately slams into my mouth.
Just one blink between me and the one guy who lived a sliver of a second longer than the other. They both sink to the ground, bullet holes in their heads.
Oh my God.
“I guess they got it coming for them,” Caleb says, biting the piercing in his lip.
“Did you have to do that?” Blaine says as he stares down at the bodies.
“When you send a message, you send a clear one,” Ares says, his voice still void of any emotion.
But then he raises his head.
Piercing, haunting gray eyes stare straight into mine.
I swiftly turn and run as fast as I can.
I don’t know where I’m going. I just know I need to get out of here.
I go through the rose bushes and into the maze. But panic seeps into my veins the second I come across the courtyard. Any of these guys could be from Tartarus. If they realize what I saw …
I can’t risk it.
Bypassing the courtyard, I head straight into the other side of the maze up ahead, my heart racing in my throat. I keep running, despite the fear creeping further and further into my veins, crippling my muscles.
An overgrown path up ahead narrows quite a bit, but I still push through, desperate to get as far away from the scene as I can. But when I misstep, I fall sideways into the prickly roses.
“Ow!” I groan, retracting my arm covered in cuts from the thorns.
I rub my arm and face, smearing some of the blood on my dress before I continue. But the second I make a left turn, I come to an abrupt halt in front of a crossing.
Right as three guys approach from the left.
The same three guys I just saw murder two people in cold blood.
Ares. Blaine. Caleb.
Their stride is so frigid it makes my entire body shiver. I’m frozen to the ground as they come closer, unable to move a muscle except that damn heart of mine that beats uncontrollably fast.
I can’t even breathe.
It’s as though Ares’s rage controls my very soul with one piercing look, and I’m merely a puppet dancing to his command.
Caleb and Blaine move right past me without even throwing me a glance, the cold breeze that follows them making my blond hair drift in the wind.
But I notice too late that Ares has stopped right in front of me. He towers over my petite four-foot-nine-inch frame. He must be at least six feet and seven inches, if not more.
He takes a step closer, and I can literally feel the electricity zing through the air.
He’s a killer.
My eyes flick to the gun glinting in his belt buckle.
Take it. Steal it. Use it. Make him pay.
But my body refuses to move.
His hand rises to touch my face, and my eyes widen in shock. On his thumb is a single droplet of blood, which he inspects like it’s made of gold.
When his eyes connect with mine, a slow but docile smile spreads on my lips.
An actual smile.
I can’t look away from those haunting gray eyes sparkling with curiosity, even if I wanted to. Caleb and Blaine have stopped a few feet away and watch him with keen interest.
Ares’s eyes twitch and narrow as they lock in on my smile, and he aggressively wipes his finger on his sleeve and walks off, following the boys back to the party in the courtyard.
But I can still feel the prickle of his thorns.
Ares
I clutch my cup filled with vodka as I stare at the partygoers dancing away while I’m casually draped over my seat. But the people in front of me are like shimmers in a dream, fading into the back of my mind.
My thoughts have drifted off along with them, possessed by a certain blond-haired girl in a little beige lace dress with bloodied cuts all over her skin. A girl who watched me kill.