Page 38 of Blood of Olympus

Velira growled. You and I have a prior commitment.

Diana paused, brow quirking.

Oh?

Oh, she mimicked scathingly.

“One week,” I grinned.

Diana’s lip twisted into a lopsided smirk. “Deal.”

“Artemis — I want you to take Aphrodite and Hestia, and anyone else with minimal combat experience.”

The goddess nodded. “What am I to do with them?”

I met her steely gaze head on.

“They, more than any other, need to learn to defend themselves. I wouldn’t put it past Kronos or his army to target them… to use them for other nefarious purposes,” I said quietly.

The goddess understood my meaning instantly. Her dark eyes hardened at my insinuation, her teeth ground together audibly.

“I will train them,” she replied, equally as soft though doubly as lethal. “Never again will women pay the price for a man’s greed — not if I can help it.”

“Thank you.”

She responded only by spinning on her heel, bee-lining for the pair currently under Aros’ tutelage. She spoke quietly with him, and his gaze flicked up to meet mine across the field. Pain flashed briefly over his features. He, better than any, knew the price of masculine greed — and I was counting on that to save our friend from ever experiencing it.

I eyed my enormous purple furnace. And what exactly are you so eager to do?

Climb on.

You can’t mean…

She narrowed one golden eye. If dragons had brows, I’d have sworn she’d raised one.

Surely you can’t mean... Velira — tell me you don’t mean you.

Well, I certainly don’t mean the lizards.

My body thrummed in equal parts fear and elation.

Dragons hadn’t existed in Olympus for millennia. I didn’t think they existed in the mortal lands at all. They were a race we had long thought extinct, lost to the woes of time.

And then came Velira, hidden deep within Artemis’ Forest, on the precipice of becoming a hydra’s lunch. Velira, who had chosen to bond with me.

As she grew, I learned that her ferocity only matched mine — as did her tenacious sarcasm.

Climb on, godling. Or I’ll eat you.

You wouldn’t dare.

She made a noise that could only be described as smoky laughter curling in the back of her throat.

Hmmm, maybe not. But I can drag you along for the ride, willingly or otherwise.

She tapped one long, dagger-sharp talon on the ground in wordless threat.

Tap. Tap. Tap.