Kyra

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Alone, Kyra stood at the permanently open gates to the Amazon fortress, staring at it blankly. She felt the general emptiness of her home, aware that her sisters would be out celebrating tonight. Sure, they'd failed to put an end to Nadine—but knowledge surrounding that bitch was limited to a select few. As far as the masses were concerned, they'd freed the heavens and that was all that mattered.

Still, even as she felt the emptiness of her home, she could sense it wasn't completely empty. With her eyes closed, she let herself feel the power coming from inside.

There were Amazons here.

But not my Amazons.

These were old school Amazons. Women of their creator's first order. The half that had never left. The half that Kyra and several of her own branch of Amazons had battled on the last day.

She felt around for something more. That guilty look on Eros' face was one she wouldn't forget. The bastard's here. She felt it across their whacko bond. She sensed his smugness. He'd come looking her at long last. Did Eros consider telling me? Or was his loyalty to Ares too strong?

No matter.

Kyra wasn't the same person she'd been the last time she saw him. She wasn't scared of him. Nowadays, she could give him a run for his money.

Her home was cold when she entered it. It was strange not hearing the noise that usually came from her hundreds of sisters being home. She didn't like it. Not one bit. But Kyra wouldn't run. She didn't run from anything. She certainly wouldn't start now.

She let her feet guide her up the stairs towards her office. She trusted the bastard would've made himself at home up there. Anything to get under her skin.

And I'm not in the mood.

The sooner they got this over with, the better.

Her office door was already open when she reached it. The first sign that someone had been in. She took confident strides into the room, stopping short in the doorway.

Something's not right.

Her eyes landed on the thing out of place within a minute.

Behind her desk, the former painting of a landscape had been replaced with a much, much older painting. A depiction of a scene Kyra knew all too well.

The battle of the heavens. Her eyes skirted over the frame, landing on the metal plaque at the bottom. TRW, circa 998.

That bastard had cursed her with a memory.

A prediction.

She knew that painting all too well. She'd peered at it often a thousand years ago, wondering who that woman was in the background she'd resembled so deeply. And now she'd lived through the battle. She'd done the deed. That life of naïve curiosity was way behind her.

Why's he brought this to me now?

Why, after all this time, had her creator chosen today to visit?

She turned on the balls of her feet, heading back out into the hall.

I've got company.

She looked left, then she looked right, spotting no one.

It's going to be one of those days.

"Alright. Let's get this over with."

The air stirred to her side. Kyra ducked under the first punch with a scoff. An old order Amazon lunged at her, making a jab for her ribs.