Title: Fury Of The Gods
Series: Areios Brothers
Author: Amy Braun
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy
Release Date: 26th May 2020
BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours
Fate brings consequence.
Separated from his brother by curses and lies, Derek Areios is forced into
hiding. With rogue goddesses on his side, he begins his search for the Mind of
Cronus. But his plans come to a screeching halt when the Olympians send
nightmarish warriors to hunt him. Creatures even the gods themselves fear.
Liam Areios, lost without his brother and trapped in service for the Olympians,
continues the hunt for the Mind of Cronus. The remaining gods refuse to trust
him—or any human—and Liam begins to see just how mad power has made them.
Becoming entangled in the schemes of mortals and immortals, Liam will have to
fight or lose everyone he loves.
Deadly monsters, betrayal, and pulse-pounding action fill the pages of the
third novel in the AREIOS BROTHERS series.
PURCHASE LINKS
EXCERPT
Chapter
1
DEREK
THINGS
GO WRONG.
Sometimes
it’s from a small crack that crumbles the foundations. Sometimes it’s just a
string of bad luck that ties into a truly horrific end.
Today
was definitely the latter.
I
lay on my back and blinked rapidly against the rain pounding down on me and pooling
in the crater beneath my spine. My left hand throbbed in agony, broken again. I
curled my right hand around it and used my magic to heal the bones. I’d had to
do that twice already in this fight alone.
I
could hear Selena fighting the Crocotta on the hill above me—alone—after it
kicked its cloven hooves into my chest and knocked me down a hill.
Getting
close to a Crocotta was never a good idea, but I hadn’t been having many of
those lately.
And
bad habits were easy to fall into.
Get
up, Derek, my internal voice demanded. Have an existential crisis later.
Exactly
the kind of thing Liam would have said.
After
clasping my wounded hand and swiftly healing it, I rolled onto my stomach.
Water soaked through my armor. I grimaced as my bruises throbbed. This Crocotta
had not wanted to be disturbed but would settle for us being a late-night
snack.
Being
devoured by a twisted stag/hyena hybrid was not how I intended to end my day.
The cursed thing had imitated a man’s cry for help, and I ran into the Crocotta’s
trap without thinking.
Now,
my fingers clawed up the slope. The toes of my boots sank into the muck. I
slipped my way up, clamping my lips shut so as not to swallow more mud and
finally dragged myself to the hilltop.
Everything
ached as I took a moment to catch my breath. A moment that ended as soon as I
heard the Crocotta scream.
Instinct
kicked in and I rolled through the mud as fast as I could. The hooves stabbed
down inches from my head, splashing my back with muck.
I
twisted to my feet and called Ki̱demónas back to me. The spear
responded to my telepathic call and struck my hand a split second later. The
monster twisted to face me.
The
Crocotta was a ruddy brown stag with patchy fur and a knobby spine. It had a
shaggy, lion-like mane and cloven hooves. Its beady black eyes glowered at me
and my weapon. Saliva dripped from its frightfully wide mouth, filled with a
jagged bone ridge instead of teeth.
It
growled, a jagged hitching noise, like a hyena trying to cough. It was
amazing—and horrifying—that the same animal could mimic a human voice and even
call out names perfectly when they chose to hunt.
Which
they did often.
It
pounced and I Adapted, sidestepping to the left. I jabbed Ki̱demónas into its hind legs.
The Crocotta screeched as the steel tip pierced its thick hide. It twisted,
yanking Ki̱demónas from my hands, as its
front hooves kicked out. I leaned back and watched the split in its hooves pass
my chin.
The
Crocotta’s rear leg buckled, causing it to stagger on its right side. Selena
snuck out from behind the Crocotta and slashed her kukri along its flank once,
twice, three times, doing as much damage as she could.
I
couldn’t help but grin, my heart reveling at the graceful, effortless, and
brutal way Selena moved.
The
Crocotta roared and twisted, kicking at her. She nimbly jumped back and lifted
her free hand. Flames spooled out from her palm and struck the Crocotta in the
face. As it reared back from the intense heat, Selena darted forward and
chopped at its foreleg. It howled and leaped again to catch up with her.
I
ran straight for its back.
Selena
hurled a blast of fire at the Crocotta. It hunched its shoulder and took the
blast against its arm rather than its face. It swiped at her with its hoof. The
kick missed her, but it bounded through the mud and rammed its head in her
stomach. She toppled backward, striking a boulder before her head slammed hard
against the stone. The Crocotta opened its sneering, sliced-open mouth, leaping
at her slumped, dazed form––
I
Adapted my weight a split second before I slammed into the Crocotta. I made
myself heavier and swung into the beast like a wrecking ball. It jolted but I
hooked my hand onto the stark ridges in its spine. It wasn’t going to dislodge
me; I was ready to end this fight.
The
Crocotta wrenched its head left and right, but my magically added weight kept
me from rag-dolling against its body. I centered that weight while pressing my
back against its rough hide. I jabbed Ki̱demónas into its ear, pushing
deep. The Crocotta howled and thrashed, nearly throwing me off. I held on but
my grip slipped from the spear. I cursed and filled my free hand with aether.
Maybe I’d have luck with the second, more dangerous element.
I
swung my aether-filled hand up toward the Crocotta’s face. My palm brushed its
bony fangs, leaving a trail of black, corrosive smoke along its snout. The dark
magic crawled up its face, the smoky edges digging in like hooks. It howled in
agony, twisting guilt into my heart, but I couldn’t let it live. With our
friends vanished, Selena and I were each other’s only backup.
The
Crocotta roared again, its face now engulfed by the thick black smoke. I sent a
command to Ki̱demónas. Burn.
The
spear, still embedded in the Crocotta’s ear canal, exploded to life. My flames
brushed harmlessly against me. With my free hand, I closed my fingers against
the Crocotta’s throat and summoned aether––
My
left hand, the one I was using to hold onto the monster, exploded with pain.
Invisible glass shards splintered through my flesh. I hissed and let go
reflexively. My right hand scrambled to get another hold on its spine, just as
the Crocotta kicked me in the side. Pain exploded through my hip and ribs.
Something cracked uncomfortably.
Clapping
a hand to my side to at least set the rib, I sent another quick thought to Ki̱demónas. The spear tore from
the creature’s ear and flipped end over end. Seven feet of bronze and steel
stabbed through the monster’s leg. I reached for Ki̱demónas again and watched
as the Crocotta closed its ridged, bone-filled mouth over my arm.
Ridged
bone crunched down on my elbow, crushing the joint and breaking skin. Blood
gushed from the wound. A little more pressure, a little more tearing, and the
arm was coming off.
I
didn’t think about what I was doing. I slipped my broken left hand up and set
it inside the Crocotta’s mouth. I pushed a block of aether into its throat and
hardened it in place, cutting off its air. Every push of magic sent waves of pain
onto my shattered fingers, but I couldn’t lose my arm.
My
left hand turned slippery from saliva and blood. The creature widened its jaws,
freeing my right arm. I commanded Ki̱demónas and whip quick, it
flipped from my hand and smashed through the Crocotta’s skull, puncturing deep.
The monster’s coal-colored eyes rolled into the back of its head. I jumped away
from the Crocotta as it collapsed.
I
tucked my broken hand into my chest, trying not to think about the jagged pain
within it as I looked at the monster. It had fallen on its side, its one
undamaged eye glazed and lifeless, and its body entirely still. Even the rain
seemed lighter now.
We
survived, remained mostly unharmed, and were absolutely filthy. A winning
outcome, all things considered.
Selena
stumbled through the long grass toward me, one hand pressed against her skull.
I covered my left hand with my right––wincing at the pull of raw cuts at the
fold of my arm––and healed it again.
“Are
you all right?”
“Yeah,”
she muttered, wincing when she moved her hand. There didn’t seem to be any
blood or swelling, which I was grateful for. She looked more angry than pained.
Her eyes turned to me, noting the blood on my arm. “Gods.”
“Looks
worse than it feels,” I half-lied.
She
hurried over to me and pressed her fingers to my arm just below the wound. It
stung, but my arm swiftly filled with soothing, healing magic.
“Thanks.
Didn’t expect a Crocotta to be here.” Though to be fair, we’d wandered into the
wilds of Yosemite National Park. Artemis’s region. A huge risk for anyone,
given how many creatures roamed free in that verdant territory, but more so for
me, since Artemis likely wanted me dead for a crime I hadn’t––
My
hand splintered again. I hissed.
Finished
with my arm, Selena wrapped her fingers around my hand and healed it again. Her
eyes flitted to the creature.
I
tilted forward slightly to peer into her face, seeing the shadows on it. Her
ponytail, soaked and caked in mud, rested heavily against her back. Her pale
face glistened under the coat of rainwater, and her silver-blue eyes were just
as stormy as the clouds above us. She’d dropped her kukris somewhere and didn’t
seem to care about the smears of mud and grime on her neck, chin, and leather
combat uniform.
“It’s
not here,” she finally muttered. “All of this, crossing paths with a Crocotta
that nearly concussed me and almost maimed you, and it’s not godsdamned here.”
It
being the Helm of Darkness—the last of the three Trinity Weapons we had been
tasked to find by the Olympians. There were still two more Cronus Shards to
find, but we figured that finding the Helm took priority. Recovering the last
key to Tartarus was the best way to ensure that the mad Titan himself, Cronus,
couldn’t escape his prison.
Not
that we needed to look anymore, to be honest. I was on the outs with the
Olympians. They believed I murdered two of their own: Poseidon and Apollo.
Sneaking into Artemis’s territory had been a huge risk—if we were caught, she
would have my head on a spike.
Never
mind that my forefather had lied to her—possibly even mentioned I was the
Bringer of Shadow and Fire, the leader of an army bent on destroying the world
when the Titans were released.
Olympians
only saw things their way. Half their legends were born from their stubbornness
and pettiness. The myths had been true.
But
I couldn’t say these things out loud. I could barely think them, because Ares
had hexed me. Every time I tried to speak the truth, my left hand would break.
At
first, it didn’t seem like a debilitating curse. Painful? Absolutely. I’d had
more than a few broken bones in my twenty-five years of life, so I was
accustomed to pain and could use magic to heal.
But
the hex was changing. My hand would break on its own at completely random
times, and that sharp explosion of pain would drastically hinder me in combat.
I was ambidextrous, but the pain caused a split second of distraction and hesitation.
A split second meant the difference between surviving and maiming. The hex was
becoming slow poison putting mine and Selena’s lives in danger.
And
I wasn’t the only one who’d been cursed.
Selena
had endured a two-thousand-year-old curse because she did not want to bed
Apollo. At the time, Selena had been known as Cassandra, Princess of Troy. Not
only were her visions doomed to never be believed, but he cursed her with
immortality. Everything she Saw became muddled and skewed. It led us into
situations like these, where she was certain she had Seen the Helm’s hiding
spot, only to be greeted by a hungry Crocotta instead.
Selena
blamed herself for the position we found ourselves in, but I never had. How
could I, after the choices I had made?
“We’ll
find it,” I promised her. We had to, because what else were we going to do? We
couldn’t get our friends back, and there was no way to exonerate me, even if I
had an extremely powerful Farseer and two goddesses on my side. Zeus’ decrees
were law and he would never admit to making a mistake.
Selena’s
gaze stayed on my hand, our intertwined fingers. My broken bones were long
since healed. I wondered at her thoughts. Before I could ask, she sighed.
“We
should go.”
I
didn’t argue with her. Since learning about her past and how Athena tricked and
betrayed her, Selena had become closed off. It didn’t help that her
friends––and mine––were missing. We trusted and cared for each other, but I
told her the truth about my feelings. Namely, that I loved her.
We
hadn’t spoken about it, and neither of us seemed keen to. We talked as friends,
and we didn’t touch unless we had to. When we needed healing or brushed against
each other quickly turning around a corridor. I wouldn’t push for anything,
either. Finding a way to clear my name and help my captive friends mattered
more than finding a girlfriend.
But
my memory so often betrayed me, and I thought about those moments back when
things had been normal and Selena lived with Liam and me. We’d watched movies
until she fell asleep against my chest. She’d curled her fingers around my arms
or chest when I stood in the way of something she wanted to reach. She grinned
as we sparred, eyes bright with challenge and ambition.
She
kissed me to save my life.
I
wanted to go back to those things, to feel her comfortable against me, curling
my arms around her so we could be closer. I wanted to use my height to tease
her until I could kiss her frustration away. I wanted to make her laugh and
kiss her for the sake of it, not just because I was charmed or dying.
One
day, we’d have to face this question. And if she wanted to remain friends, I
would step back.
Right
now, I just missed normality. Things were different now between us, distant and
unsure, but I could no sooner change my feelings than I could tell the
Olympians that Ares was manipulating them.
“Yeah,”
I conceded, glancing at my blood- and mud-soaked body. “I’m ready for a
shower.”
Selena
just nodded and followed me as we trod through the forest, saying little.
It
had been this way for three months, both of us silent and moving straight
forward, trying not to think about the four people missing from our lives.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy is a Canadian urban fantasy and horror author. Her work revolves
around monsters, magic, mythology, and mayhem. She started writing in her early
teens, and never stopped. She loves building unique worlds filled with fun
characters and intense action.
When she isn’t writing, she’s reading, watching movies, taking photos, gaming,
struggling with chocoholism and ice cream addiction, and diving headfirst into
danger in Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.
AUTHOR LINKS
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