We never did finish sorting the herbs.
Circe shot up and stomped around the table to yank me to my feet. I stumbled out of my chair, and it tipped over backward to clatter on the ground as she pulled me toward the door with a hand clamped around my wrist. When we were nearly there, however, I saw Ares rise from the shadowed corner and bare his teeth in the beginning of a snarl. His red eyes flickered with a strange, wavering light, and his great, hulking form bowed low to the ground as if preparing to lunge at us. We both froze at the rumbling growl that began to fill the room.
“Down,” Circe hissed. She was still holding onto me with her left hand, but with a swirl of her right, she summoned her staff out of thin air. Her fingers wrapped around it just under its bejeweled head, and the g
