Bonds of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #2)(105)

Nyx slithered up my forearm, head resting against my palm. “It’s warm,” she hissed with awe.

We both watched, entranced.

I blinked—the light was gone.

“Do it again,” Nyx demanded.

Scrunching my face, I tried to concentrate, but nothing happened. Sweat beaded across my forehead as I remembered the anglerfish. A hideous deep-sea creature.

“Make it glow,” Nyx ordered.

“I can’t.” My hands (antennas) continued to stare back at me, the skin a normal innocuous hue.

“False. Failure is not an option—believe in yourself,” Nyx hissed, scales sliding around my throat as she tightened.

I gasped as I tried to yank Nyx away from my neck. “How … suffocating … helping?”

Nyx constricted violently. “I’m motivating you,” she said calmly.

This was officially the worst pep talk I’d ever received (why was I kinda feeling inspired?).

“Uh—madam?” A short man—a creature with curling horns on his skull—stopped in front of me. “Do you require help?”

I didn’t need a mirror to know my face was turning bright purple.

The man’s eyes widened as I gasped and asphyxiated in front of him, mouth gurgling unattractively.

“Wait,” he said as he looked down at my short exercise toga like he was seeing it for the first time, and his face paled. “You’re one of the psycho Chthonics.”

I smiled at him.

The man turned, running into a siren and tripping over himself in his haste to get away from me—leaving me to die.

Nyx burst into laughter, finally loosening her grip. “Did you see how scared he was of you?”

I held on to the pillar for dear life as I choked. After a while, the imminent sense of certain doom passed, and I chuckled along with her. It was a little funny.

“Is there a reason we just had intense pain around our throats—” Augustus loomed over me, dark eyes flashing.

“What the fuck was that?” Kharon asked coldly, holding the two glasses of ambrosia that he’d gone to get for us. “Did someone attack you?”

My skin prickled as I remembered how he’d recently squeezed my throat.

I grabbed both shots and threw the contents back swiftly.

“Why are you out of breath?” Augustus asked, undeterred. “What was that pain in your neck we just felt? We know it was yours. Explain.”

I tried to shrug casually but ruined it by having a coughing fit that ended in me gagging with my hands on my knees.

Finally, I came up for air. “Nyx and I were just playing.”

Augustus stared at what was most likely a vibrant mark around my neck. “Did she just … strangle you?” His tone had the deceptive quality that it always did before he absolutely lost it.

“Calm down,” I said.

“I am very fucking calm!” Augustus slashed his hand through the air.

“Convincing,” I said.

“Do you need us to protect you from Nyx?” Kharon asked, his voice deepening. “Are you feeling unsafe?”

I choked, this time from disbelief.

Are these men for real right now?

“We were just playing.” I overenunciated each word. “It was funny.”

Nyx twined lazily around my shoulders. “They do know I could just kill them right now if I wanted to—right?”

Kharon’s face was turning purple.

I sighed; men could never understand what it was like to have a venomous snake bestie. They just didn’t get the lifestyle.

Long moments passed as Augustus closed his eyes, muttering a prayer to Kronos in Latin under his breath.

Finally, Augustus opened his eyes, shoulders relaxing. “Okay,” he breathed out.

“Okay?”

“I trust and respect your judgment.” His face flushed.

Badump-Badump-Badump.

My heart raced, and it wasn’t from fear.

“Would … you like to dance with us?” Kharon asked through gritted teeth, then he bowed to me, holding out black-painted fingernails.

Augustus also held out his hand.

Badump-Badump.

Dazed, I reached out.

Their hands grasped mine. It felt lewd.

The symposium faded out of focus.

No one else existed.

“Let’s dance, darling,” Augustus said, his voice velvet wrapped in silk. He pulled me forward, our chests brushing together.

Kharon moved at my back.

Once again, I was pressed between the two of them.

We twirled around the dance floor.

Augustus held my hand, while his nails dug gently into the small of my back. Kharon clutched my hips from behind.

Four points of contact.

Their fingers flexed, tightening to keep purchase as we spun—stars sparkled in my vision.

Kharon chuckled deeply behind me as Nyx glided off my shoulders onto his.

She was dancing with us.

“Alexis.” Kharon’s breath fanned against my temple as he leaned closer, his voice rough. “If you don’t want to … we’ll make sure you don’t have to compete.”

Augustus held my gaze. “I’d rather go to war—than watch you suffer in the arena sands. Just say the word. We’ll wage it.”