Kyra

Chapter Thirty-Five

Slamming the portal jumper down was a rush Kyra didn't know she was needing. It offered escape from suffocation. Escape from the gruesome war from mere days ago. Escape from memories of the past. Escape from thinking about old feelings, the future, the present, the blood on the floor and the hellfire daggers scattered about the place.

Escape from Ares.

She didn't know what to make of him.

She had ammo for now. Things to use in her brain to ward herself away from him. All the bad things he'd done in his life should've been enough to turn her off him forever. But damn it. Everything she knew didn't cut. She needed more. Something so horrifying she'd never want to look at him again.

Feelings she had no business feeling were rapidly starting to arise and, honestly, Kyra wasn't living for it.

Alone in the only enchanted forest of Romania, she took a moment to catch her breath and shake her body free from everything stressing her out.

She didn't feel right without her makeup and braids. Going forwards, she'd set time aside to sort those out. Anything to help her feel more like herself.

One look around said everything she needed to know.

The rogue witch had expanded her anti-portal jumping barrier since Kyra had been here last. Fair enough. It'd been a thousand years since Kyra had seen her. Kyra's assumption the woman was still out here at all was an enormous stretch. But so was connecting her to the woman in Nadine's journals in the first place.

Here I am on a leap of faith.

Lord, she prayed she wouldn't return to the group empty handed. Eros and Ares wouldn't let her live it down. Combined, she couldn't think of a more irritating duo.

Please be something here for me. Please, let this be something worth following.

She could do with a win right now.

A crunch came from behind her. A sound so quiet she nearly missed it.

Kyra hadn't been in Romania since she and Fallon drove the vampires from these woods. Was there a chance they'd come back? That was no problem. I could do with the stress relief.

She pivoted too fast for her threat to react, pinning the mounting figure to the nearest tree. Hand at his throat and ready to savage, she paused to groan.

So much for thinking things were looking up for me.

Ares had followed her out here. Maybe he deemed her incapable of completing a simple task—a lead he didn't even know the details of. Maybe he'd come here to keep annoying her. To keep hounding her. To keep rubbing the past in.

"Do you plan on lowering your hand sometime today?" He asked, her palm still curled around his throat.

Eyes narrowing more by the second, she flexed her fingers against the skin of his neck.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't strangle you right now."

She had her chance. She had him vulnerable. She had him out where no witnesses would be around. Besides, it wasn't like he'd die. No, she'd leave him passed out here and get a head start. By the time he woke up, she'd be too far ahead for them to do this together.

"Go for it," He answered swiftly. His gaze on hers was intense. Had Kyra had less confidence in herself, she might've struggled to hold it. I won't give him that pleasure. With his hands free, he lifted them up to her hold on his throat. He didn't try to pry her fingers away. Nope, not Ares. He forced her to squeeze his throat tighter. "Who's to say I don't enjoy that sort of thing? I'd give anything for a moment of your attention."