Furious

Chapter Eighteen

And we were back to sparring, as if nothing had happened at all. Alex's claim that Gregory wasn't all-powerful didn't stop me from approaching him with weary eyes. He took advantage of my hesitation and swept my feet from under me. Again.

It was easier on the floor. I should have stayed there and never gotten up. I should learn not to ask questions when I know the answers are just going to make everything worse. But some lessons are hard to learn.

At that precise moment, another player entered our game, sauntering into the mirrored room, the padded floor her catwalk. She had black hair and a soft face, with eyes of icy blue, so sharp I couldn't hold their gaze. I hadn't noticed they were blue the other night, what with her climbing up and down Hector like he was a pole and she a trainee firefighter. But the Fates were kind: she was mercifully dressed this time. Her black attire clung to her body. Show off.

The wings were missing. It threw off the whole atmosphere around her. She seemed smaller now. No less of a bitch, just smaller in stature.

"This is what I'm working with?" she asked the room, already silent from her arrival. Her eyes scanned me up and down, those cold irises peering into my soul.

"Ouch. I'm hurt." I dusted myself off as I stood, preparing to square off with Lindsay. I'd been beaten, frightened, threatened, and all in just the last hour. I wasn't in the mood for her. That's when the word vomit took over. "But judge all you want. Supposedly I'm the only one who can bring Hades to victory. I've also just been informed that you're a major disappointment who can't manifest an ancient Fury within her, so there's that."

The words just found themselves in my mouth and then I couldn't take them back once they'd escaped. Petty jealousy reared its ugly head. I didn't feel important, it's not like I was the only Fury he had access to; I had no reason to believe Jasper when he said that my loyalty was key and that my cooperation would tip the balance for good and evil.

Trying to cover up my folly, my confusion, the shock at my own reaction to her presence, I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly. Lindsay just laughed. My arms became a defensive shield—I'd be damned if I let her know how her disapproval got under my skin.

Still laughing, she said, "You believe that crap? They get dumber and dumber every year, don't they, Alex?" Lindsay clutched her stomach in a big show of pain from the incessant laughter. "I know all about you, Autumn, and Hades asked me as a personal favor to teach you how to be a real Fury, like myself, and not some myth that even the Fates can't predict. You have large shoes to fill so I suggest you try be a little more impressive."

Gregory choked on a laugh from my right. I'd never heard him laugh before and I didn't want to ever again. "Hades has her now, he has hope for the cause; what would he ever want from you?"

But if he hated her so much we might become friends yet. Can a Fury and a dragon be friends or was it like cats and fish, one always wanting to snack on the other?

Lindsay ignored him and smiled at me. Teeth shone through her lips, too many teeth. Without breaking eye contact, she transformed. It was the most beautifully horrifying thing I had ever witnessed.

Her tanned flesh radiated and the roots of her hair shone in a halo of heat emitting from her scalp, fire beneath the follicles. The rest of her body was far less angelic. She unfurled her wings, taut and fleshy like a bat's, from her back and her fingers curled into claws that ended in deadly talons. Her face continued to grin, knowing that I was watching her eyes shift from bright blue to a molten gold. Her teeth sharpened into points, just to top off the transformation finishing its way through her body.

This was a Fury; this was what I needed to—and couldn't find the strength to—become.

She was hideous but in a different way than Gregory's transformation had been—he had looked unnatural but she looked strong, powerful. The longer I looked, the clearer I saw the monster in front of me. Something about her was feral and dangerous; it was in the eyes, those eyes like fire scalding through her irises trying to escape. It wanted to eat me but take its time to savor the sweetness of the marrow in my tiny human bones. She was waiting for something.