50 BILLION REASONS FOR REVENGE

AGNES DEATH

The moon hung low and pale as Zeus rode away from the camp. His body was a map of pain, and his heart felt like a stone in his chest. But the sound of galloping hooves behind him made him pull the reins. He turned, his hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of his sword.

It was Agnes. She was breathless, her hair flying wildly behind her as she pushed her horse to catch up.

"Zeus! Wait!" she cried out, her voice cracking in the cold night air.

Zeus sighed, his shoulders dropping. "Go back, Agnes. Toby is in a murderous rage. If he finds you gone, it will only make things worse."

Agnes pulled her horse alongside his. Her eyes were red from crying. "You don't understand why he is doing this. You think it is just about the soldiers or the money, but it is about me. Toby has loved me for years. He has offered me everything a woman could want, but I never saw the fire in him. I only saw it in you."

Zeus looked at her coldly. "I told you, Agnes. My fire is for revenge, not for you."

"I know," she whispered, looking at the ground. "And that made me desperate. Last night, when Toby saw me in your tent, he asked what happened. I was angry that you rejected me. I wanted to hurt you, and I wanted to make him stop pestering me. I told him... I told him that you had laid with me. I told him you took me as your woman."

Zeus felt a surge of anger that almost eclipsed his physical pain. He gripped the reins so hard his knuckles turned white. "You lied to a jealous man about his brother? You signed my death warrant for a whim?"

"I was wrong!" she sobbed. "I see now that my lie didn't bring you closer to me, it only turned the world against you. You must go back, Zeus. You cannot leave with Toby thinking you betrayed his honor. If you apologize and I confess the truth, maybe the peace can be restored."

Zeus looked toward the dark horizon where the city lay, then back at the camp. He hated the idea of turning back, but he was a man of honor. He could not have his name dragged through the mud of a lie, especially one that broke a brotherhood.

"Fine," Zeus said. "We go back. You will tell him the truth. And then, I am gone forever."

They returned to the camp under the cover of darkness. But the camp was not quiet. Instead, it was filled with the roar of a bloodthirsty crowd. Torches lined a circular pit dug into the center of the camp. It was the night of the "Open Fight"—an ancient, brutal tradition where slaves fought for their freedom or their lives.

Toby was standing on a platform, his head bandaged, his face pale but determined. When he saw Zeus and Agnes return, his eyes flashed with a lethal light. He didn't wait for an apology. He didn't wait for a confession.

"So, the traitor returns!" Toby bellowed over the noise of the crowd. "You want to prove you’re a man of the people? You want to earn your way out of this camp? Then enter the ring."

Toby beckoned a massive man forward. This was Tiger, a slave who stood nearly seven feet tall. His muscles were like knotted ropes, and his face was scarred from a hundred previous battles.

Toby leaned down and whispered loud enough for the front row to hear. "Tiger, there is a bag of one million Naira and a chest of gold waiting for you. But only if you leave this man’s body in the dirt. No mercy. Use the steel."

He threw a jagged, curved blade into the center of the pit.

Zeus looked at Agnes, who was trembling. "Wait! Toby, I have to tell you—" she started, but Toby silenced her with a roar.

"In the ring, Zeus! Or I have my archers shoot you where you stand!"

Zeus stepped into the pit. He didn't take a weapon. He stood in his battered armor, his ribs still aching, facing the giant known as Tiger.

Tiger didn't wait. He lunged forward with a roar, swinging a massive fist that could crush a horse’s skull. Zeus stepped to the side, his movements fluid despite his injuries.

Thud. Zeus delivered a lightning-fast blow to Tiger’s midsection, followed by a sharp hook to the jaw. The giant stumbled back, his eyes wide with shock. He had expected a weak, poisoned man. He found a wall of iron.

Zeus moved in again. He didn't want to kill Tiger; he knew the man was just a pawn in Toby’s game. With a powerful roar of his own, Zeus delivered a second, crushing blow to Tiger’s temple.

The giant collapsed. The crowd went silent. It had taken only two blows to bring down the strongest slave in the territory.

"Is that it?" Zeus shouted, looking up at Toby. "Is this the justice you offer?"

But Tiger was not finished. Fueled by the promise of gold and the fear of Toby, the giant rolled over and grabbed the jagged blade Toby had thrown into the ring. He scrambled to his feet, his eyes bloodshot and crazed.

"Die!" Tiger screamed, lunging at Zeus’s back while Zeus was looking at Toby.

Agnes saw it first. She saw the glint of the steel. She saw that Zeus was distracted by his anger toward Toby. She realized that her lie had brought them to this moment—that the man she claimed to love was about to be butchered because of her words.

"No!"

Agnes leaped over the edge of the pit. She ran between Zeus and the charging giant.

The blade was already in motion. Tiger couldn't stop his momentum. The sharp, jagged edge meant for Zeus’s heart buried itself deep into Agnes’s side.

A sickening silence fell over the arena. Agnes gasped, her body jerking as the steel bit deep. She fell into Zeus’s arms, her blood staining his already battered armor.

"Agnes!" Zeus cried, catching her before she hit the dirt.

Tiger stood back, his hands shaking, dropping the bloody knife. He hadn't meant to hit her.

Toby’s world shattered. He leaped from his platform, ignoring the pain in his own head, and scrambled into the dirt of the pit. He pushed Zeus aside, grabbing Agnes and pulling her into his lap.

"Agnes! No, no, no!" Toby wailed, his voice breaking. He pressed his large hands against the wound, but the blood flowed through his fingers like water.

Agnes looked up at him, her breathing shallow and ragged. She reached out a trembling hand and touched Toby’s scarred cheek.

"Toby..." she whispered. "I lied. He... he never touched me. He is a good man. I was just... I was selfish."

Toby shook his head, tears streaming down his face. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, Agnes! Stay with me! Someone get the healer!"

Agnes looked at Zeus, who stood over them, his face filled with a mixture of pity and grief. She smiled a small, tired smile. "I saw the flame, Toby," she whispered, her voice fading to a breath. "I saw it... too late."

Her eyes drifted shut. Her hand fell away from Toby’s face and hit the dirt.

Toby let out a sound that wasn't human—a howl of agony that seemed to shake the very torches in their sockets. He hugged her lifeless body to his chest, rocking back and forth in the dust of the fighting pit.

The soldiers and slaves stood in stunned silence. The "Open Fight" had turned into a funeral.

Zeus knelt beside Toby. He placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Toby didn't pull away this time. He just sobbed, his head hanging low.

"I killed her, Zeus," Toby choked out. "My jealousy... my pride... I killed the only thing I ever loved."

"No," Zeus said softly. "The world is broken, Toby. Gabriel broke it when he killed my family, and the cracks just kept spreading. This isn't just your fault. It’s the poison of the city reaching out to us."

Toby looked up, his eyes hollow and destroyed. He looked at Zeus, then at the dead woman in his arms. The envy was gone. The anger was gone. There was only a cold, hard realization.

"She’s gone," Toby whispered. "Everything is gone."

Zeus stood up and offered a hand to Toby. "Not everything. Gabriel is still sitting on a throne of blood. He thinks he’s won because we are fighting each other in the dirt."

Toby took Zeus’s hand. He stood up, still holding Agnes. He looked around at his men—the soldiers he had been shooting just hours before, the slaves he had treated like animals.

"The fight is over!" Toby shouted, his voice echoing with a new, dark authority. "Bury her with the honors of a queen. And then... prepare the horses."

Toby turned to Zeus. The two men stood in the center of the pit, surrounded by blood and shadow.

"I don't want your mercy Zeus," Toby said. "And I don't want your apology. I want to see that palace burn. I want to see the man who started all this rot pay for every drop of blood in this dirt."

Zeus nodded. The bond that had been shattered by a lie was being forged again in the fires of tragedy.

"We ride at dawn," Zeus said.

"No," Toby replied, his eyes turning toward the city with a terrifying focus. "We ride after mourning my love."

As they rode out of the camp, Zeus looked back one last time at the fresh grave being dug for Agnes. He thought of Maria. He thought of his children. He thought of Lord Mathew.

The servant was no longer just coming home. He was bringing the end of the world with him.