Blood of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #1)

In September, the remaining initiates are brought to the menagerie to meet with potential animal protectors. Nyx leaves Alexis there to explore, but every animal she encounters avoids her. Eventually, a mangled dog approaches her. Although he is clumsy and awkward, he keeps her company. She names him Fluffy Jr., in honor of the husky that she and Charlie adopted. As she leaves, Alexis promises to bring Fluffy Jr. with her next time. In the classroom, they go through more classes and take more tests, and Alexis places first. The symposium will take place that night, and the whole class is invited to attend. Augustus calls out to Alexis and tells her that Zeus wants to meet her at the symposium. For this reason, an exception to the usual rules will be made so that she can attend; women are generally forbidden to do so. However, once his message is delivered, Augustus urges her not to attend, stating that it would be dishonorable for her to do so. She decides to attend despite his warning. This infuriates him, and he tries to use his powers on her mind to make her stay. She averts her gaze and deflects his power. Rattled and confused, Alexis feels that she has lost control of everything.

Alexis and the others are led to the symposium. Alexis is the only woman there. Patro and Achilles welcome Augustus, and Alexis finds an empty booth. Zeus and Theros come to find her. Zeus criticizes her stutter and appearance, but he promises that if she maintains her record of high scores and successful fistfights, he may train her along with his heir after she graduates. Theros is not pleased by this announcement. Before Zeus leaves, he comments that he doesn’t remember dating a woman with heterochromia; this is a reference to Alexis’s discolored eye, which was injured when her foster parents abused her. Eventually, sirens emerge, and the symposium devolves into an orgy. Frazzled, Alexis looks around and finds that many sirens are vying for the pianist’s attention and failing. She overhears the sirens speaking to each other, and the sirens are surprised to learn that Alexis can understand and speak with them. Nyx believes that this is her power. Alexis doesn’t feel the tingling, euphoric sensation that is supposed to accompany the use of such power, but she is relieved and happy to realize that she is no longer powerless. She agrees to play a game with the sirens.

Alexis and the sirens discuss her experience in the human world and humans’ sexual habits. When Alexis reveals that she is still a virgin, the sirens are appalled. They play a card game in which the loser must complete a dare set by the group. As Alexis unknowingly drinks and eats ambrosia, she becomes inebriated. When she loses, the sirens demand that she strip naked. Alexis proceeds to do so, but the pianist—who is in fact Kharon—stops playing and comes toward her. Augustus arrives first and grabs her by the neck to stop her. He berates her and tells her that he is done pretending because he knows who she really is. The sirens push Augustus away from Alexis, and Oron, a male siren, takes her into his arms. The touch triggers a traumatic response in Alexis, and she moves to leave, but Augustus lunges for Oron and warns the whole symposium that anyone who touches Alexis will answer to him.

When Alexis tries to stand her ground and stay, Augustus picks her up over his shoulder and marches out of the symposium. As they leave, Alexis feels a sharp pain in her sternum, and a siren suddenly screams. Alexis struggles to break free of Augustus’s hold, but he threatens her and compels her to remain quiet. Back in the library, she opens a textbook and finds a note threatening her safety if she doesn’t leave the academy before graduation. She then finds a box containing Oron’s eyeballs and fingers, along with a shiny object that she does not investigate further. She pushes the lid back on the box and buries it outside of the mountain. When Drex returns, he tells her that the female siren died; poison is suspected. He blames the Chthonics, which Alexis finds an odd accusation because she believes that Drex is a Chthonic, but he denies this. Confused and disturbed, she tutors Drex as arranged, and in her next class with Augustus, she stares at him until he looks away first.

The narrative reveals Kharon’s perspective of the symposium. Kharon watches Alexis from his position at the piano and grows angry when Oron keeps touching Alexis. Kharon tries to distract himself by playing a song, but when Alexis gets up to strip, he stands up, intending to stop her, and then watches as Augustus grabs her by the neck instead. Kharon watches as both Augustus and Alexis reveal their mutual attraction, and his own arousal grows, as he and Augustus typically share partners. As the scene subsides, he kicks away lingering sirens and leaves to plot and scheme further.

Back in Corfu, Alexis worries about Augustus’s threats and tries to overcome the fact that vulgar language triggers her long-held trauma from her time with her foster parents. She overhears Patro, Achilles, and Kharon discussing the tabloids’ recent report that Kharon has a lover. When she goes to find food later, she finds the tabloid, which includes the media’s opinion on Kharon’s alleged lover. A girl comes to find Alexis and introduces herself as Helen, Patro and Augustus’s sister. Helen hopes to strike up a friendship with Alexis, as the Chthonics are overprotective of her and there aren’t many Spartan women her age.

Alexis returns to the academy, and Augustus stares at her while Maximum, a perky initiate, sits by her and strikes up a conversation about the tabloid article. He annoys Alexis by touching her, which angers Augustus, who makes them all run the crucible. As they run, they hear a Titan nearby. Ryax, the mentor leading the run, goes to notify the Assembly of Death and leaves the students alone to fend for themselves. As an initiate named Cassius flies to get Kharon, the others run. Leo trips, and Alexis goes to help him, but the Titan arrives and rips out his throat. Nyx tries to distract it, but Alexis resolves to fight it because she cannot outrun it. She bludgeons the Titan with a rock while Nyx bites it. Kharon arrives, quickly subdues the Titan, and then yells at Alexis for not running away. Fearing a beating, Alexis dissociates. Kharon realizes his mistakes and brings her to the library where she can receive first aid, but the doctor needlessly exposes Alexis’s chest to the room while she hovers on the edge of unconsciousness. Later, Maximum describes how Patro, Achilles, and Augustus saved the initiates. In the next class with Augustus, he humiliates Alexis for turning back and trying to save Leo.

Augustus goes home and chains Alexis’s doctor to the concrete floor. He screams at the doctor for needlessly exposing Alexis, and the doctor begs for his life. Using his power, Augustus commands the doctor to tear himself to shreds. Satisfied with the grisly results, Augustus leaves.

Kharon teleports to the dungeon after leaving his hellhounds in the library with Alexis. He offers to scatter the doctor’s remains so that the man can’t regenerate, but Augustus insists on torturing the doctor, who has since revealed that he exposed Alexis intentionally. Kharon then explains how Alexis disassociated on the mountain when he yelled at her; he theorizes that someone harmed her in the past. He expresses doubt about their plan, but Augustus insists that they move forward with it so that they can protect her. Kharon agrees, and they both vow to proceed—allegedly for the sake of all of Sparta.