“Do you think the Fates will tell me the future from your entrails?” he asked. “Either way, it’ll be a fun night for me.”
He raised his hand, his claws yellow in the street light. I slammed the palm of my free hand into his face and let the fire roar. His screamed echoed through the night as the flames licked his flesh. He threw me away from him as if I was a pebble and not a hundred-and-something pound girl.
I flew through the air and hit the pavement on my shoulder, forcing my breath out of me in a rush. I wheezed and gaped in shock as I pulled myself to my knees. The ker was holding my car with one hand. With a sneer filled with malic on its melted face, it tossed my freaking car at me. Metal groaned as it came rocketing my direction.
There was no way I was dodging this one.
Chapter 25
The wind battered against me, filled with the scent of patchouli and olives, and the world blurred into an array of colors. When everything came into focus, I found myself in Hermes arms on the other side of the parking lot. My car crashed into the pavement where I had been with a boom that shook the foundation.
The screeching of crunching metal reverberated through the air, drowning out all other sounds. Fire bloomed in the air and eclipsed the pale light of the streetlamp. I winced and pressed my face into Hermes’s shoulder. As his arms tightened around me, my pulse sped up faster than it had with an evil spirit possessing my dead ex-boyfriend and trying to kill me. His emerald gaze pulled me in, and I felt like I was falling.
“Can you stand?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I yelled and winced. “Sorry.”
He set me down with his hands resting on my hips as he held me close to the length of his body. I took a deep breath to calm the pounding my heart and spun away to face the ker, or should I say where the ker had stood. Flames ate away at the corpse that lay in the asphalt.
I glanced at Hermes with a raised eyebrow. “Was that you?”
He stared at the space beyond the wreck of my car. “No.”
Serenity stood near the sidewalk leading to the dorms with her arms crossed. She looked from the car to me with wide eyes as the color drained from her face. My aunt wheeled herself into the light near one of the undamaged cars in the back of the parking lot and glared at both of us. A small ball of flame formed in her right hand as her jaw tightened as her gazed locked on Hermes.
“Move, girl,” she said. “I need to clean up ya mess.”
Hermes held his hands out. “I haven’t done anything to you.”
“Yet,” she said.
I stepped in between them and spread my arms. “Hold up. He just saved me from being crushed by my own car. I really don’t think he’s doing this.”
“Were ya listenin’?” Aunt Jo snapped. “It practically said it was workin’ for him.”
“The ker mentioned a he, but he never said who.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Just how long were you listening in?”
She snorted. “Long enough to see how out of practice ya are. Now move so I can finish this.”
I crossed my arms. “And you really didn’t feel the need to, I don’t know, step in and help?”
“I was tryin’ to see how good you were.” She shook her head. “Piss poor.”
Hermes cleared his throat and put a hand on my shoulder. “As much as I appreciate it, I don’t need you to block me.”
I turned my glare to him and held a finger up. “Just go. Take Serenity and get out of here. I’ll deal with you later.”
“I look forward to it.” He smirked and gave a small bow to my aunt. “Take your time with your argument. No one is going to come investigate.”
In a rush of wind filled with the scent of olives, he vanished, leaving behind a chill in the warm fall air. I wrapped my arms around myself and walked to the remains of my Honda. Glass crunched with every step I took, shredding the little control I had. My car lay upside down with the top crunched to where the whole top bent backward. The front bumper was smashed into the car with the entire front nose bent upward.
My fingernails sliced into my palms as I tightened my hands into fists. “How in Tartarus am I going to explain this?”
“That’s the least of ya worries.” My aunt wheeled up behind me. “Ya let both of them get away. All three if ya count the girl.”
I spun around. “I wasn’t the one who burned the body. Don’t put that on me.”
“What was I supposed to do? Least now it has to find a new one.”
“Yeah, about that. You said that we were being hunted.”
She sat up straighter. “Well, ya can see that now.”
“Whose body did the ker use to chase you?” A cold pit settled in my stomach. “Was it one of my cousins?”
She snorted and waved her hand. “Like the Pyrrha would let that happen to her children. It was one of the Millers from up North.”
“So, you knew. You intentionally brought that thing here and didn’t tell me.”