The Uni's Secrets: The Lost Mother

Chapter Thirty-Four: Realization

Hey!" someone yelled. Before I knew what was happening, Ares's face twisted in shock and he fell to the side, the sword falling out of stabbing range. I leapt up and grabbed it before it was out of reach. Now I had two swords, which was an awkward fight, but I could do it. I didn't want to give him the opportunity to get another sword.

I stabbed at Ares, but he dodged. Only now, I had my mysterious savior to help, who I now realized was Lexie.

"Here!" I called. I tossed her a sword, and Lexie caught it by the hilt as she lunged at Ares again.

"Don't stab at me," Ares growled.

"We can do whatever we want," I snapped back. I didn't need to look at my sister to know what he would do next. We'd trained together so much that we knew each other's movements by heart.

We moved as one, and somehow, Ares was able to fight both of us. However, it was still a stalemate. Somehow, with Lexie aiding me, Ares got better, even with the loss of his sword. If he had been fighting like this when it was just me, he would have won with a single slash of his sword.

"We have to get out of this," Lexie gasped, knocking Ares out of the way. He was back in a moment.

"Agreed." I didn't have a moment to analyze the fight and figure out how best to leave, but all we had to do was distract him for a moment. "You aren't much of a god of war, are you?" I asked Ares as I ducked out of reach. The best way to distract gods was to taunt them. "You keep losing."

Ares growled, his eyes flashing. His assault paused for a moment, and that was all we needed. I ducked and rolled, jumping up as soon as I was out of his reach. Lexie did the same, and we turned and ran as fast as we could toward the fortress.

"Hey!" Ares yelled. He ran after us, and Lexie and I picked up our pace.

We raced up the front steps, and I pushed the button to open the gates. We ran through as soon as they opened the slightest bit, and then Lexie took a slight detour to close them again. There were more protective spells on the fortress, so Ares was unlikely to be able to follow us in once the gates were closed again. But we still needed to run.

Lexie took a slight detour to close the gates, and then we raced off toward the dungeons. We were halfway there when someone stopped us in our tracks.

"You shall not pass!" an unfamiliar voice yelled, blocking the hallway.

I slid on the tile as I tried to stop. I blinked. "Apate?" I asked, shocked.

The Olympian smiled. "Hello, Lady Artemis."

"Um," Lexie said nervously. "Who is this?"

"Apate," I said grumpily. "The Olympian goddess of deceit, if she was telling the truth."

"I was," Apate interrupted. She gave me a sickening smile. "Have you met my brother, Dolos?"

"No . . . Should I have?" It was very difficult not to sound too snide.

Apate frowned. "Yes. He is the Olympian goddess of trickery."

I rolled my eyes. "There's a goddess for both deceit and trickery? Seriously, how many gods does there need to be?"

Apate glared at me. "We are all essential to the workings of the Uni."

I decided not to contest the point. They weren't necessary, really, considering that the Queens had created them, and the Uni had worked perfectly fine before the Queens created the gods, but I had a feeling pointing that out wouldn't be a very good idea.