Page 108 of Blood of Olympus

Ballsy of them — to send their actual reigning monarch.

No ballsier than attending yourself, Vel returned snidely, her voice faintly echoing through my mind.

Resisting the urge to look up and seek her out, I instead opted to stare the mortal king down.

Fair. My lady-balls are rather ridiculously huge, thank you for noticing.

Lykos approached, stopping directly behind Caelus and I, his enormous snout hovering just above our heads. Sniffing once, he growled — loud and menacing enough to rival Vel.

Their king did not so much as flinch — his companions, however…

“What fierce warriors you are,” the king snarled in a biting accent, tearing off each vowel with his teeth as if they personally offended him. “Terrified of a great beast’s warning.”

They jerked to attention, muscles tense, anticipating any attack — even a verbal lashing from their sovereign. It seemed his words had already landed to great effect, though — no further rebukes fell from his sneering lips.

“I am King Arius. And you are?” he enquired, somehow managing to look down at me despite the fact that we were the same height.

My lip tugged up into a mockery of a smile as I let a morsel of my darkest power slip free. Shadows flickered around my body and Arius’ eyes widened enough to see the whites around the perimeter of his irises. The skin on my arms flickered between transparent and corporeal and I knew my skull would be peering through as well.

“I am Nyssa,” I said in that eerie, otherworldly voice. “Daughter of Hades. Queen of all realms.”

I summoned the crowns for good measure.

Arius paled as he registered them. “Forgive me. We did not realise Zeus had relinquished his throne.” He dipped his head in a shallow nod — his warriors exaggerating theirs to compensate for the slight.

“My father relinquished nothing,” Caelus boomed from beside me, eyes sparking and dangerous. “It was forcibly taken from him” — Arius’ eyes flicked to mine in accusation — “by my mother, Hera,” Caelus drawled, letting the words stretch with deliberate emphasis. “She pierced his heart with a dagger before doing the same to mine.”

The Strathos King’s forehead wrinkled in evident confusion but he refrained from asking any further questions.

So, they can be trained.

Vel responded with nothing more than a drakonian snort.

“Take a seat. Your warriors may wait amongst the flowers,” Caelus instructed, indicating the abundant gardens behind the pavilion, in which the priestesses obviously took great pride in maintaining.

Arius dipped into the shallowest of bows and strode off to claim his seat. He faltered momentarily upon realising what the chairs were made of, but when his hand tentatively grasped something of solid substance, he dropped into it, sprawled in a way that only a man can, and sent a curious glance my way.

His warriors, on the other hand, seemed strangely at home within the flowers. One bent to sniff them, another tore one from its stem and plucked the petals, and a third began twining them into a crown.

“I guess they don’t have calendula in the desert,” I remarked with a small smile.

Caelus twisted just in time to see the curiously sweet juxtaposition, huffing a short laugh. “I guess not.”

Two rowboats were almost upon us now, racing each other for the honour of docking first. Both contained women dressed in varying finery, eyeing each other with competitive glee across the waves.

“Ten drachma on the left one.” I grinned as Caelus’ snow-coloured brows climbed his forehead.

He shook his head and crossed his arms, chuckling. “I might be Charon’s brother in blood, but you’re certainly his sibling in spirit. You’re on.” He winked a glowing eye as thunder rumbled in the distance.

“Hey, no cheating! Let’s see what they’ve got on their own.”

The thunder relented as he snorted. “Better get your purse ready, my love.”

“Better get your tissues, Golden.”

The boats remained neck and neck, their rowers urged on by their regal passengers. The sailors in each rose to the occasion, plunging their oars into the deep blue water, laughing at each other and the situation in which they’d unwittingly found themselves.

Then, one boat inched ahead. The representative sat alone, golden hair twisted neatly away from her face as she scowled in fierce concentration — as though her focus alone could see them through, surpassing the other boat bearing two bejewelled women.