“How so?”

“Best way to think of Vampires somewhere along the lines of a Senator when it comes to power and reach. They’re not Crowns by any means, but they’re much, much more powerful than, say, a Goblin or a Loupgarou. Having a Vampire on your back would be like having half of a hemisphere gunning for you.”

Leta gulped. “Why would he want to go after me? I’m three days into this bullshit.”

“Exactly, for that reason.” Allister shrugged as if they weren’t discussing monsters trying to kill her, “In his eyes, you’re a fledgling Queen. You donna know your strength yet. Be smart, wouldn’t it, to kill a weed before it has enough time to truly infest a garden, no?”

“As a Queen, you’d have the potential to be a threat.” Atreus added. “Crowns are famously known for being able to boost their troops in all out war. Legends past say a Crown could take a handful of simple farmers and turn them into a deadly fighting force with a wave of their hand. As a corpse, well, you’re not much of a threat.

“Which brings us to our next topic.” Atreus uncrossed his arms as he gave Leta a serious look. “Apologies, your Majesty, but to be completely frank The Athens Sect is understaffed to properly defend you and yet I am concerned about sending you to another Sect at this time. I believe that it is best that you stay within the confines of the Athens Sect until we have more information for your own safety or until we’re able to get you to a safer location.”

Her lips pursed at his matter-of-fact tone. “So, what then? I’m just supposed to sit here twiddling my thumbs until we get attacked or a group of old farts decide what to do with me?”

Allister let out a breath, tapping his foot as he thought for a moment. “Best guess, I’d say you’ve maybe a few weeks before Crowns summon you. But make no mistake, we can do nothing to protect you when that time comes. One minute you’re here, the next you’re with them. There’s no warning or buildup like when Hayato’s makes a Shadow Gate - that’s the kind of power they wield.”

“If they’re so powerful, why haven’t they taken over the world?” Leta said flippantly.

“Well,” Atreus answered, “because of the rules, they can’t do it themselves, or at least they can’t make a spectacle of it. It’s all very ‘man behind the curtain’, but with a lot more ‘Annoy me and suddenly you’ll find out who invented the Screaming Eagle’.”

Leta felt a little bile in her throat at the mental image of someone’s organs being pulled out of them while they watched.

“Noted. So, sit tight till my blind date with destiny comes knocking. That could be weeks from now, though, and my mother is still out there.”

Atreus frowned. “First of all, we’re outside the city limits, and our Priestess has placed runes around the Sect, so no one is getting in. Second, your mother was taken by a Gargoyle, and I lost four men last night. I don’t have the manpower to go out on the wishful thinking that she might still be alive. I need people here, in this Sect, defending who we have left until our reinforcements get here.”

Leta felt her jaw clench. She wanted so badly to tell him off, to shout and curse him for abandoning her mother. Several explicit words were on the tip of her tongue, but she ground her teeth instead and let her anger simmer.

In a way, she could understand where he was coming from.

He was in charge of people, and several of them had been killed defending her.

Atreus’s priority was his Sect, not investigating if a human kidnapped by a Gargoyle had survived.

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It didn’t mean she had to like it.

Taking a deep breath, she vowed to secure her dad before heading out on her own to look for her mother.

Leta didn’t care if she had to cover one mile or a hundred; she’d go to the ends of the Earth to find out if her mother was alive.

Taking a deep breath, she focused on the here and now.

Obviously, she’d never win in a straight-up fight against the likes of Tariq. He’d proven twice now that he was not to be taken lightly.

Not only that, the Blessed had shown last night the lengths they’d be willing to go to in order to kill her, and unfortunately, both of her parents had gotten caught in the crossfire.

If she was going to rescue her mom and bring the fight to the Blessed, she needed to know how to fight.

She needed to be a killer.

Someone who wouldn’t hesitate or freeze up when the fighting started.

Someone willing to do the frightening things and make the hard choices to achieve her goals.

She wasn’t that person right now. Not yet, anyway.

‘But I could be.’

After killing that Minotaur, she knew she had it in her to be ruthless.

That was probably the most freeing part of the whole situation. Leta had tasted the fear in the creature’s eyes and liked the flavor.

There was that tiny voice again, absolutely panicked about her situation, but the louder voice railed against those who had wronged her and her parents.

It promised retribution.

It vowed to scorch the Earth where those who hurt her stood so that nothing would grow - an eternal reminder of who she was.

What she was.

But Leta wasn’t ready yet, not in battle prowess.

She had to be forged into a weapon—one that was elegant in its grace yet lethal and precise in its strike.

Like a blade to the fire, she needed to burn in the crucible of battle before she could destroy Tariq and the Blessed.

Her firey gaze lifted to the men in front of her who might be up to the task.

“We have a common enemy though.” Her words were low but full of certainty, her eyes shining with a lethal fury as she embraced that now familiar anger bubbling in her stomach like an old friend. “They took my mom. They hurt my dad. I want them to suffer.”

The word came out like the hiss of a viper. Her teeth bared as fury wrapped her in its embrace as she raised her chin. “I want them to bleed. I want their bones to snap while I watch them burn till they’re nothing more than dust on the wind. What do I do to make that happen?”

Atreus blew a breath out through his teeth, his expression showing his annoyance, “I’ve not the time nor the patience to make you a soldier, Leta.”

“We’ll be holed up until we get reinforcements, right? We could make time.”

Allister chuckled, then smothered his humor at the harsh looks of disapproval from both Atreus and Leta.

Leta turned back to Atreus with a defiant stare, her blue eyes burning with the heat of a supernova. “Teach me. Show me what I must do to make them suffer for everything they’ve done. Make me into something that will be fared, and I’ll let that fury loose up those that killed your men with a smile on my face.”

All her life, she’d wondered at the ancient world and marveled at its grandeur. Now, the monsters of the past had risen from the depths, intent on ending her.

Her old life was over. It ended last night on the roof of a hospital.

Her new one would start here, in this room, among inhuman strangers in a land far from home.

Atreus stared at the young woman so confident in her convictions as she leveled a burning stare at him.

She was frail and little more than an infant lost in the woods.

But the fire in her eyes… that rage. He’d seen it before in war, a spark that could light the flames of revolution or burn the world to cinders trying.

‘She could do it, too.’ The potential was there. Her clenched fists and the point of her chin said she’d become the most terrifying thing in the world to meet her goals, with or without his help.

She was a wild card, and the last thing anyone needed in battle was a wild card.

The girl needed to understand herself and her limitations to be effective. Like an ingot of iron, she required the beating that comes from training and the burn of her rage to shape her into the deadly weapon he could glimpse lying dormant within her.

Resigning himself to his choice, he pushed off from the table to stand before her. “You want revenge?”

“Yes.” Her response was immediate, almost reflexive.

“I will not treat you with any leniency, Leta. If you go this route, you will train and bleed as hard as the rest of us, sometimes harder. You will probably have every bone in your body broken several times. You will freeze. You will burn. You will be so intimate with pain that it will be all you know. Once you go down this road, there is no turning back. You will be Chosen, whether you like it or not. Is that clear?”

Leta swallowed, but her gaze didn’t waiver as she nodded. “Understood.”

Atreus let out a breath. “Fuck. Alright.”