Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(103)

“Please!” Diana shouted, throwing her arms out to shield Alia. “Listen to me! This girl is no danger to you. The river is sacred. It can purge the Warbringer line and end this madness forever!”

“I’m sorry,” said Jason from behind them. “I can’t allow that.”

He seized Alia’s arm and yanked her tight to his side, backing away up the banks.

“Jason,” said Diana. “We just need to make them understand.”

“They understand just fine.”

Alia tried to break free of his grip, stumbling in the soft sand. “What are you doing?” she said, the voices of the girls’ song lost, fading on the wind.

“It’s okay,” her brother said gently—his voice as steady, as familiar, as controlled as ever. “You are just as you were meant to be. This is all as it was meant to be, and no one will hurt you.” His eyes were bright. His dimple creased his cheek. She realized he looked happier than she’d ever seen him. “You must live, Alia. And war must come.”





Diana stared at Jason, at his fingers digging into Alia’s arm, at the soldiers fanned out around them. Their eyes were alert, scanning the area, but they kept returning to him—not as if assessing a target, but as if awaiting a command. They looked a bit like the boys Jason had spoken to at the gala—paler, sterner, but with that same smug ease. The Humvee rumbled to a stop half in and half out of the river, and only then did Diana realize that aside from the rhythmic whir of the helicopter blades, the air was still. Eris and the twins had gone. Had they retreated in defeat or because their victory was secure?

“What is this?” said Diana. “What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry,” Jason repeated. He sounded sincere. “I didn’t really believe we’d get this close. I hoped I wouldn’t have to intervene, that we could just let the clock run out and the sun set.”

“Jason, man, what are you talking about?” said Theo. “You got us on the jet that brought us here.”

“I know. It wasn’t what I wanted. But you have to understand how hard it’s been to keep Alia safe.” He turned to his sister, his grip still secure on her upper arm. “First you run off to Istanbul and board a boat before I can send anyone to intercept you. When the Thetis went missing…I nearly lost my mind.” He expelled a long breath, and his brows rose in that bemused look that had become so familiar. “But then you show up in New York, safe and sound, with an Amazon in tow.”

Diana flinched. “You knew?”

“From the first moment we tangled in that hotel hallway. Did you really think you could pretend to be an ordinary mortal, Diana? There’s nothing ordinary about you.”

Anger unfurled inside her. That was why he hadn’t asked about where she came from or what she was. Not out of respect, but because he already knew.

“What better bodyguard could I dream of for my sister?” Jason said. “An immortal warrior willing to stop at nothing to keep Alia alive.”

“So we could reach the spring,” Alia said, her dark eyes dazed and lost, as if she was waiting to be told this was all a joke.

“The spring.” Jason said the word as if he wanted to rinse its sound from his mouth. “You two were set on trying to reach it, so why fight you? We’d go to Greece. I’d let you chase your tails, and all the while Diana would be using her strength and skill to protect the Warbringer.”

Diana’s hand inched toward her lasso, and Jason held up a scolding finger. “Easy now. There are snipers on the ridge. You might survive a bullet to the brain, but I doubt Nim or Theo will.”

Alia winced. “Jason, have you lost your damn mind?”

“I’m just being cautious,” he said softly. “The way I always have.”

Nim planted her hands on her hips. “But you helped us! You could have flown us anywhere on that jet and—”

“My team was waiting for us on the ground in Araxos, but our enemies had other plans. After the crash, there were too many hostiles in the area. If I’d called in my forces, they might have led Alia’s pursuers straight to us. So I had them track us and follow at a safe distance.”

“The tracker for the parachute packs,” said Theo suddenly. “It wasn’t just receiving signals. It was transmitting, too.”

Jason lifted a brow. “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out before now.”

Nim pointed her finger at Jason. “That’s why you didn’t want Theo to use his phone to start the car. You weren’t afraid of us being found. You were trying to slow us down.” Her eyes widened. “Oh God…That first day driving, you were handing me soda.”

Diana remembered Jason digging through the medical kit on the jet, pocketing pills. “You drugged her?” she asked incredulously. Could he have done such a thing to a girl he’d known his whole life? Who was this boy standing before her? This boy she’d whispered secrets to in the dark?

“I’m not proud of it,” he said, and he sounded ashamed. “But I had to do something. You were all so determined.”

“To stop a war!” shouted Alia, her voice fraying.

“Humans aren’t made for peace,” said Jason. “We’ve proven it again and again. Give us the chance and we’ll find something to fight over. Territory. Religion. Love. It’s our natural state. Ask Diana why her people turned their backs on us. They know what humans are.”