Page 165 of Blood of Olympus

“No!” a male roared, and I felt, more than heard, him leap at me.

I twisted sharply to my right, hoping to avoid him. A satisfied smirk curved my lips when I heard him hit the floor instead of me, and the scent of honeyed-whiskey followed in his wake.

Aros.

Sorry, big guy. It won’t kill me, but not doing this might.

Again, I jabbed that finger at my face.

A different set of fingers reefed my hand back — smaller, not belonging to any man — and a different aroma filtered in. Cinnamon and citrus. And something sweeter.

Jasmine, I thought. Just like my mother’s vines back home. Home. A choked sob worked its way past my lips and I crumpled in the arms of the woman. I want to go home.

“It’s alright, Nyssa. It will be okay.” The soothing tones of Evadne’s voice reached past the glaring static — and I almost fell for it.

“No!” I screamed, swinging so hard and fast she couldn’t have expected it. I felt my fist hit something bony, heard her sharp inhale, and still I fought to remove my eyes myself.

They might grow back. They might not. I only sought to end this horrific white misery.

Her hands locked around my arm and this time, Aros snatched at the other so that I was forcibly restrained between the pair of them. No matter how hard I thrashed or how loud I screamed, neither relented.

Trapped.

I was trapped.

No no no no no, I cannot do this, I cannot, I cannot, I cannot.

My whole body shook as I rocked back and forth between them — flitting between agonised screams and heartwrenching sobs.

A loud shriek tore through the walls, and for a heartbeat, I was rather impressed at the sound I’d managed to make. But then logic tapped on my forehead and I realised I was incapable of such an inhuman sound — and that it had come from outside the walls.

It sounded again, more urgent than before, and then I felt her. Velira’s consciousness clawed at the thick obsidian walls I’d thrown up around my mind in the middle of the battlefield, lest they feel the torture too. The second I allowed a crack to appear in the wall surrounding my mind, Velira rocketed through it, followed swiftly by him.

Caelus was fainter, but still overwhelmingly here. Velira was here. And I was not alone.

All at once the fight fled me and I crumpled in a heap on the floor. The unsuspecting twins dropped my arms, and somehow the hot palm of Aros managed to slip beneath my head before it crashed against the floor.

I knew not where I was, but I knew that Velira was close. So close I could touch her if I only reached out far enough. And I knew that I needed her.

Weakly, I stretched my arm out in the direction that I could feel her soul. “Vel,” I whispered, my voice scraped raw and unusable. A second later, two beefy arms slid beneath my tired body and hoisted me into the air.

“I’ll take you to her, darling,” Aros murmured softly, in a tone I didn’t think I’d ever heard from him before. At least not directed at me. He sounded tired, sad… utterly defeated. And I didn’t like that at all.

Wearily, I reached my hand up again and felt his muscles tense beneath me, no doubt certain I was about to attempt another eye-gauging while his arms were busy holding me aloft. Instead, I curled it around in the general direction of his face, feeling blindly until the gentle tickle of his long, fiery mane tickled my fingertips. I followed it further left and my fingers grazed against a stubbled cheek and the heated skin of the fire-wielder. My palm curved to cup his cheek and I felt a breath hitch in his throat as he paused mid-step.

He sighed deeply, his breath leaving a string of goosebumps across my skin in its wake.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed. “I’m so sorry, Aros.”

His arms pulled me tighter for a moment and then he set me down on something cold, hard and granular. Sandstone, presumably.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. Unlike me.”

Almost immediately, a grating sound occurred — like metal on stone — and I flinched, fearing another attack, freezing only when I heard the snap of a leathery wing extending above my head and the soothing tones of my dragon in my mind.

Godling, Vel murmured, using her foreleg to drag me close. Oh, I’m so sorry for leaving you, godling.

I latched onto her with a sob, somehow free to release all the unshed tears safely within the cocoon of her wing and her unconditional love.