From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(60)

“But that’s not the point.” Dita put one hand on her hip, gesturing dramatically with the other one as she ranted. “She is knowingly putting both players in danger when we’re supposed to keep them safe. I’d expect this from Ares, but Artemis?” She shook her head. “I didn’t agree to this.”

Apollo slipped his hands in his pockets. “She doesn’t see it like the rest of us. She thinks Josie’s got everything under control, that Josie’s as invincible as she is. Just give it a little bit of time. Is there an expiration date on bitching her out?”

“No, my rage will keep.” Dita sucked in a breath through her nose. “I’m so, so mad. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t slept in eleventy billion years, but I’m pretty sure I would fuck her up in a serious way right now.”

She wondered if she could somehow turn Artemis’s move around and found consolation in the potential. The look on Artemis’s face when Dita played her would be even better than the sight of her bloody grill.

“Maybe you’re right. I’ll leave her alone. For now.”

Everyone relaxed a hair, but Dita was so wound up, she couldn’t stand it. It was like every molecule in her body was trying to fight its way out.

“I think I need to punch something.”

Heff stood with a smirk. “It would probably make you feel better.”

He made his way around the furniture and into the foyer, stopping in front of her. For some reason, she sometimes forgot how tall he was, and when he flexed his torso, her eyes followed the lines and shadows his forearms and biceps made. She could see his pecs under his T-shirt and chased a fleeting thought about pulling up the hem to get a good look at his abs.

When she realized her mouth was slightly agape, she closed it and pursed her lips.

“Go ahead. Take your best shot,” he said.

“You sure? I mean, I don’t want to hurt you,” she joked.

He laughed, his teeth flashing white and bright against his dark beard. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“You asked for it.” She felt her face screw up as she wound up and nailed him in the stomach, which was rock solid.

He didn’t even flinch.

She smiled as she shook out her fingers. “My hand hurts, but I feel better.”

“This is why men fight when they’re mad. Go on, knock yourself out. You’re not gonna hurt me.”

Dita took a deep breath, feeling her anger wind around every muscle in her body, and she let it go, let it all out like steam off boiling water. She pictured Ares as she threw all of her weight behind her fist, wishing she could hurt Ares in the ways he’d hurt her—with betrayal and her bare hands. She thought about Adonis, and her grief and guilt washed over her in a wave. She’d killed him with her choices, by her words.

She didn’t realize that she wasn’t as mad at Artemis as she’d thought, not until tears blurred her vision and wet her cheeks, not until her fists no longer flew but clutched Heff’s shirt as she lay in his arms on the floor.



Ares hung an arm on the back of his couch, looking in on Rhodes, who moved through his house with intention as he packed a large duffel bag. He trotted down the stairs of his basement and to his crawl space where he retrieved his jewelry box. Then, he knelt down to lay it inside his bag. Everything he owned was secondary to that box.

Rhodes was implementing his contingency plan and would be long gone before anyone came looking for him. Ares didn’t know what was going on in the game, but he suspected that someone had interfered. He wondered briefly how it would all end, if there would be blood. It could end that way if Josie chased him.

Rhodes wouldn’t go quietly.

Ares didn’t know how the game would be affected, but Dita would adapt. She always did.

He pictured her face as he’d seen her last, saw the dark circles under her wild, fearful eyes and her lip pulled back, baring her teeth. He hadn’t even known what he wanted to say to her. That he was sorry he’d hurt her. That he loved her and wanted her. Wanted her to forgive him. To let him fix it. To prove it. But he wasn’t sure she would believe him, and he didn’t blame her.

He didn’t even know if it was true.

All he knew was that he wanted her. He’d tell her anything she wanted to hear if it brought her back. They belonged together, and they would be together again. It wasn’t a matter of if, only when.

She needed time and space, but he would find a way to edge back into her life as he always did. He would have to work harder than ever to get her back, but once they got through it, there would be nothing left to stand in his way.

Ares thought about how to classify his feelings. He couldn’t call it guilt. He was mad, that was certain, but more over the fact that everything had fallen apart. He felt no remorse for killing Adonis. In fact, the memory still brought him satisfaction. And he didn’t feel bad for lying because it had been his only shot at ridding himself of the human.. But if she hadn’t found out, he would have her still, and that fact made his blood boil.

Rhodes was in his office, flipping through his file cabinet in his desk. He pulled out an unlabeled folder, laid it open on his desk, and thumbed through the contents—a birth certificate, license, a new Social Security card. He’d gotten them just after he killed Anne, knowing he would need a plan. He’d also purchased an ’80s model Civic with cash from a junkyard, a car that sat in his garage, gassed and ready to take him away. He had enough cash to get him to Seattle where the dead man whose identity he’d stolen was from.