Blood of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #1)

With the crucible nearing its end, the temperatures in the classroom are now unbearably cold. Maximum offers to warm Alexis by rubbing her arms, but she refuses. When Augustus sees them close together, he is once again furious. Cleandro and Augustus bring the initiates to the menagerie to bond with their animal protectors. They are given only an hour to do so, and Alexis fears that she will not accomplish the task. When Titus goads her, Fluffy Jr. comes to her defense. Titus tries to kill Fluffy Jr., but Alexis defends him by stating that he is her animal protector. She and the dog bond to prove her point, and the dog’s eyes mirror Alexis’s. Augustus is displeased by Fluffy Jr. but lets her leave with the other initiates. Alexis is unnerved by her physical attraction to Augustus.

No one is impressed by Fluffy Jr., but as they discuss their bonds, Alexis quickly realizes that she is the only one who feels her animal protector bond in her chest instead of in her head. Hours later, they are made to run the circuit again. Because Patro and Achilles are leading the initiates this time, Patro asks if Alexis has found Augustus’s behavior odd of late; he also asks if Augustus has given her anything. She tells him that he hasn’t, but she announces that her power is to speak with sentient creatures, and they approve of this. She asks them if they know who they’ll marry when they turn 26, and Patro answers vaguely that they have someone in mind. He thanks her for respecting their relationship. When they return to the library, Maximum confesses his feelings to Alexis and kisses her, and she hears an animal growl. In class, Augustus announces the results of their latest test, and Alexis is once again first. The initiates are sent to their mentors, but when they return, Maximum is said to have defected. When they next go to the library, however, Alexis finds another box containing Maximum’s eyeballs, his severed thumb and finger, and something shiny. Alexis places the box in a storage cubby, nauseous and shaking.

In Corfu, Helen helps Alexis choose a gown for her graduation ball and comments on her expensive (and borrowed) sweatshirt. Alexis doesn’t know to whom it belongs. Helen tells her that Alexis has inspired her to go through the crucible, but Alexis tries to dissuade her. Hours later, they descend in their dresses and masks and attend the masquerade ball. Patro and Achilles stare at Alexis for an uncomfortable length of time.

Arriving at the ball, Alexis finds herself speaking with Zeus again, who claims to have big plans for her. Alexis privately feels that she does not belong amidst such wealth and luxury. She is then approached by two men whose voices are modified. They insist on dancing with her and lead her to the floor. The dance turns erotic, and the men ask her why she is not wearing their gifted jewels. When she tries to disentangle herself, they block her and refuse to let her go. Patro and Achilles intervene, and Helen takes her away. Pine approaches her then, but before he can ask her any questions, someone screams that the Titans are attacking. A man with a jaguar mask grabs Alexis and leaps with her and Helen. Disoriented by the teleportation, Alexis finds herself and Helen in a hangar, bound by ropes. The man takes off his jaguar mask.

The man is Theros. He inexplicably tells Alexis that she and Helen must die after trying to usurp his place. Alexis realizes that the ground is covered by the bones of children from the House of Zeus. She asks him why he killed the siren and Maximum, but Theros denies responsibility for those deaths. Now, he calls for a Titan before leaping away. To free herself, Alexis is forced to dislocate and fracture her hands, just as she did when she was a child. Helen wakes and directs Alexis to the knife strapped to her inner thigh. Just as the Titan arrives, Alexis cuts Helen loose and slams the knife into the monster’s eye. She then incapacitates the Titan with a rock and attempts to leap for the first time. She manages to teleport herself and Helen to the Dolomite Coliseum. There, Kharon and Augustus find her and are enraged to see that she and Helen have been harmed. Alexis, however, focuses on finding Theros and lunges for him.

Theros tries to defend himself with his shield, but Alexis is too close to be repelled. She strangles him, and he tries to appeal to their House’s honor. When he gains the upper hand, pain explodes in her chest, and suddenly, Theros screams and convulses. Alexis thinks that she is having a heart attack, but Patro instructs her on how to calm her powers and let Theros go. Hades arrives, and Patro explains that Alexis and Helen disappeared during the ball and that Alexis unknowingly activated her Chthonic powers through her blood. Alexis realizes that she is Chthonic and has unknowingly killed people every time she has bled and felt pain in her chest. She realizes that she unwittingly killed her foster mother, the three boys during the massacre, Christos, and the female siren. She also realizes that Patro lied. Her blood doesn’t just harm; it kills, and it can even kill immortals.

Hades calls for Zeus, as the birth of a Chthonic girl wouldn’t have gone unnoticed, and the only possible Chthonic girl who would have been Alexis’s age was his own daughter, Hercules, who was believed to have been murdered as an infant. They call the witness who first confirmed the death of Hades’ infant daughter and find his account lacking. Alexis is reminded of the stabbing scar that she has had since she was a baby. She also recalls the Hercules-monikered clothing that she was wearing when she was found. It is confirmed that Alexis is Hades and Persephone’s daughter, and they claim her as their own.

Zeus immediately proposes that to save Alexis’s honor as an heiress after she has suffered the indignity of the crucible, she should marry someone from his House. Arguments ensue, and Kharon and Augustus intervene, claiming that they are already betrothed to Alexis through the established custom of sending betrothal gifts: the two boxes, a priceless blanket, and clothes from their backs. Alexis realizes that she has been tricked into this betrothal. Worse, she realizes that Kharon and Augustus have known her to be Chthonic ever since Christos died. They have been using her as a loophole to circumvent the marriage law. Zeus demands that Alexis join the Assembly of Death and kill Titans. Hades, Persephony, Augustus, and Kharon object to this, but Alexis accepts, hoping for death. They go through the graduation ceremony, and Persephone asks what happened to Alexis’s eyes. Alexis gives a vague answer and pulls away from everyone to teleport herself back to Charlie.

Alexis returns to Montana and finds Charlie in their cardboard home. They embrace, and Alexis notices that Charlie has changed. She apologizes for leaving him, and he tells her that Fluffy the husky died because he didn’t have enough food to keep the dog fed. She promises never to leave Charlie again, but that night, Kharon, Augustus, and the others find her. They are all troubled by her living arrangements, and Alexis talks Kharon out of shooting her brother. Augustus takes her away, carrying her on his shoulder, but she threatens to kill all of them if they leave Charlie behind. Patro reassures her that they were always planning on bringing him, but Alexis notes the tension between her mentors and Kharon before they leap back to Corfu.

Alexis walks down the aisle to marry Kharon and Augustus. She struggles with the knowledge of the many deaths she has unknowingly caused and balks at her new identity as a Chthonic heiress. Patro and Achilles are furious with the procession. At the altar, the old woman who originally brought Charlie to Alexis’s foster parents nearly a decade ago is now the one leading the ritual. Alexis makes her misery known and argues with Kharon and Augustus over their scheme. The old woman makes them repeat the binding vow of Spartan Bonds. Augustus and Kharon exchange rings with attached bracelets, which the old woman permanently seals on them. As Kharon and Augustus force a ring and bracelet onto Alexis, they notice the old scars on her wrists. Augustus demands to know why she has them, but Alexis refuses to answer. The old woman seals her bracelet, too, and then leaves them. Kharon demands that everyone leave, and eventually Alexis is alone with him and Augustus.

Back home, Patro rages at Achillies, furious that they allowed Alexis to be forced into a marriage against her will. Achilles reassures him that Alexis already belongs to them and that they will take her back.

Alexis, Kharon, and Augustus have sex on the stone altar, and Kharon and Augustus use their powers to heighten the experience. However, this also allows Alexis to perceive Kharon’s hellhounds, and she realizes that he sent them to follow her. She also realizes that her “dreams” of death and a demon were in fact of Kharon and were real experiences rather than dreams. When she realizes that Kharon and Augustus have both been stalking her, she tries to leave. They restrain her, and she loses consciousness.

The narrative shifts back to the scene of Christos’s death. Alexis’s eyes turn red as Christos is drowning, and Kharon realizes that Alexis is Chthonic. He guesses that she is Hades’ child, the lost Hercules. He decides to keep her lineage a secret so that he and Augustus can marry her. Knowing that she is ignorant of their customs, he creates a scheme in which he and Augustus will force her to become their betrothed and will therefore be able to overturn the Spartan Federation using their consolidated power. He commands his hellhounds to follow Alexis, and he watches her through their eyes.

Augustus and Kharon feel smug as they carry Alexis to their home, but the memory of her fear at the wedding and the sight of her scars dampen Augustus’s triumphant mood. He plans to find the ones responsible for hurting her, and he knows that when Alexis wakes, she will struggle against them. They promise her a love rich with honey and venom.

Alexis wakes up in bed, bracketed by her two new husbands. She hates them and uses the new bonds that link them to transmit pain to them. She vows that they will face dire consequences for marrying her against her will, and she deems herself a monster.