by Linsey Hall
The current traveled through the water, and Hecate’s dogs gave a joyful yelp. There was no other word for the sound, and I shouldn’t be surprised, given their love of the acid water.
As the sea monster sank beneath the surface, I looked over at the dogs, who were now swimming faster than ever. They’d used the electricity as fuel, and they were smoking my butt.
Damn it.
No way I could beat them. Especially not without an oar.
Hecate grinned and waved at me, now twenty feet ahead of me. She was only about fifty feet from the shore, and if she kept going at that rate, I didn’t have a chance.
I stared down at the broken oar in my hand. Even if Maximus could conjure me a new one all the way out here in the middle of the lake, I wouldn’t be able to paddle fast enough to catch her.
Think. Think.
The dogs. They were my only option. To win, she had to stop moving forward, and I had to start moving—fast.
If I could get inside Cerberus’s mind, I could do the same with her dogs. Two dogs wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t have a choice.
I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes, focusing on the hounds. I could feel them, almost like I had radar inside my body and they were popping up, just ahead and to the left.
I called upon the gift that Artemis had given me, imagining my consciousness melding with the hound closest to me. I envisioned what it would be like to be him, and after a moment, my consciousness seemed to leave my body and join the dog’s.
Boy, was he happy.
He loved this game. The acid pond was his favorite, so this was basically Christmas.
Okay, weirdo. You do you.
Except, wouldn’t it be better if you were pulling the other raft? I asked him inside our minds.
He stopped abruptly, clearly confused.
Yep, I’m in your head. You’re such a good boy. The best boy. Go push that other raft. It doesn’t have ropes, but you can push it with your nose. It’ll be so much fun.
He huffed a bit.
Come on, fella. You’ll love it.
He huffed again, but finally dropped the rope clamped between his jaws.
Jackpot.
“What the hell?” Hecate’s voice sounded, but the dog was already paddling away.
The dog and I were about twenty feet away. He was nearly to the raft and was so excited to get there that I felt confident enough to allow my consciousness to leave him. He’d keep going.
I allowed my consciousness to leave his and to join with the other dog’s, and man, was this one confused. He kept looking between the shore and his buddy, who was paddling away toward my raft. My body stood stock-still on the raft in a state of stasis.
I’d better hurry, before Hecate figured out what was going on. It was dangerous to be out of my body like this. She could send something at me that I wasn’t prepared to fight.
Good boy, I said to the dog from within his mind.
He perked up, and I could somehow sense—or feel—our tail wagging. He, too, liked to swim. But he really liked being called a good boy.
Hecate might be a bitch, but she was nice to her dogs. These guys seemed really happy.
“What the hell is going on?” she screeched.
Crap. I needed to pick up the pace.
Good boy, wouldn’t it be fun to pull the other raft?
I could almost hear the dog shout Yeah!
I would have bet one million dollars that this dog was literally the worst guard dog in the history of time. If someone was nice to him, he loved them.
The dog dropped the rope and paddled off after his friend, making quick work of cutting through the acid water.
“Brutus! Judas! Get back here!” she shouted.
I rejoined my body just as the first dog reached the raft and began to push. The other joined shortly after. Hecate was scowling at me, her face so fierce that I thought she’d tear my head off if she could manage it.
“What have you done to my dogs?” she screeched.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I grinned at her as we passed, the dogs pushing my raft quickly.
She had no paddle, so she was just standing there, staring. Her fists tightened, and I could all but feel the impotent rage. “You better not hurt them!”
Clearly, she wanted to smite me. Or command her dogs. But she was afraid to mess with whatever spell I’d cast. I didn’t tell her it wasn’t a spell, just a bit of suggestion made to two sweet but dumb dogs.
“Arghgh!” She conjured a paddle and began to row. “If you hurt them, I will tear you limb from limb and devour your entrails!”
I looked back at her. “I’m not going to hurt them!” I grinned. “But they do like me more.”
Her face turned so red that I thought her head might pop right off her neck. Oh, fates. I probably shouldn’t have said that.
My raft touched the other side of the lake and stopped abruptly. I stumbled slightly, then leapt off.
The dogs turned around and swam back to Hecate, who was nearly to the shore. They grabbed the ropes at the front of her boat and pulled her toward the shore, finishing their original job.
She jumped off and shot me one evil look, then bent and stared into her dogs’ eyes. “Are you guys okay?”
Their tongues lolled out and they grinned, panting.
She stared hard at them. “You seem normal.”
“They’re fine. I just asked them for help.”
She straightened and gave me a death glare. It would have withered a weaker person.
Maximus joined me, having walked around the edge of the lake while I was competing. “It looks like Rowan won.”
Hecate hissed. “Fine. Come.”
She stalked off, and I looked at Maximus. “She is pissed.”
He grinned, then pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “You did great.”
“Thanks.” I smiled, then turned and followed Hecate. She stalked off like she was going to kick some rowdy kids off her lawn.
Maximus and I followed her away from the lake, heading toward a darkened archway. Unlike the previous archways, this one was filled with a thick black smoke. The dogs bounded through, and Hecate followed at a more sedate pace, sailing through like a queen, leaving just a wisp of smoke behind her.
I looked up at Maximus. “She’s a piece of work, eh?”
He nodded. “That’s the truth.”
I held my breath as we passed through the smoky arch, and it burned my eyes enough that I closed them. A few seconds later, I opened them and gasped.
I was in a library. And a graveyard.
What the heck?
I blinked, looking around with astonishment.
It was a massive round room, and with the exception of the space just in front of me, the entire perimeter was covered in loose black dirt and gravestones. Right ahead of me, at the far end of the room, a massive fireplace crackled with emerald fire. Tall bookshelves towered on either side, stuffed full of green- and purple-bound books. The chandelier hanging from the ceiling flickered with purple flame. Large green leather chairs were scattered through the space, and Hecate stalked toward one, then collapsed into it in a dramatic fashion.
She sighed heavily as she stared at us with bored eyes. The dogs bounded toward her, stopping briefly for a quick pet, before running right into the emerald flames in the massive fireplace.
“Well?” she said. “Can I offer you a drink? A snack, perhaps?”
I’d never heard anyone sound so annoyed in all my life. “Um, no thanks.”
“Don’t want to eat in the Underworld?”
“Not that it’s not lovely here”—it wasn’t—“but I don’t think I want to stay for eternity.”
She nodded. “I can’t believe that idiot Persephone fell for it when Hades gave her the pomegranate seeds.”
Eating the seeds had been the act that had gotten Persephone stuck here, but I’d thought Hecate was her handmaiden or something.
I resisted huffing out a dr
y laugh. It was silly of me to expect someone like Hecate to actually be respectful of her boss. Definitely not her style. And I doubted Persephone was a dummy. She probably knew the deal, but found Hecate to be useful.
“Well, what is it that you wanted to know?” Hecate twirled her dark hair around one fingertip, clearly trying to let us know that we were boring her.
“We’re looking for the Stryx,” I said. “We understand that they worship you, and Tiresias said that you would know where to find them. And maybe what their goal is in raising the Titans.”
She nodded, an annoyed glint in her eyes. “Tiresias.”
“He’s never wrong.” So don’t try to fake that you don’t know.
She scowled. “Fine. Yes. The Stryx worship me, as everyone clever does. And I’ll tell you where they are, but I don’t know that it will help you. Now that they’ve raised the Titans, they’re impossible to defeat.”
“We’ll take care of that,” Maximus said.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“They have a fortress on the island of Lektos, sixty miles off the coast of southern Greece. It is located directly beneath the Mage’s Star. It’s a place they built long ago, specifically for the Titans.”
“They’ve been planning to raise them for a while?” I asked.
“Planning?” She laughed. “The Stryx aren’t the ones in control, dear. The Titans are.”
Cold fear raced down my spine. Until now, I’d considered the Titans to be weapons. Powerful weapons. Basically, nuclear weapons. But not the masterminds.
“What do you mean, exactly?” Maximus said.
“Just what I said. The Stryx are powerful witches. The Titans are essentially gods. And as they grow stronger, they take their rightful place.”
Okay. Okay. Chill.
I should have expected something like this. I’d been so obsessed with the Stryx that I’d developed tunnel vision, but I didn’t have to stay that way. Obviously, the Titans would be the bosses. They’d come out of Tartarus weak from their time in captivity, but their strength was growing.
“This fortress on Lektos, what’s it like?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Big. Impossible to overtake. The walls are impenetrable.”
She was so delighted when she said it that I believed her.
“By an army, you mean,” Maximus said.
“Of course.”
“But a smaller group could sneak in,” he said.
“Perhaps. I’ve heard there’s a tunnel under the water.” She shrugged. “Could be an old wives’ tale. But what is a small group going to do in there? They can’t fight the Titans. Not as they continue to grow stronger. They’ll be invincible soon.”
“Their dark magic is growing,” I said.
“Oh, yes.” Hecate grinned. “So many more supernaturals and humans are turning to the dark side than ever before. Why, in the last few days, the number of my worshippers has tripled.”
Damn. “So you don’t want me to stop the Titans or the Stryx.”
“Of course not.” She waved her hand dismissively. “But you won’t be able to. I’m giving you your answers because you won our race, but I also don’t think you’ll actually be able to stop them. So no harm.”
My jaw tightened. She’d be wrong about that. I’d make sure of it. “How is the Titans’ dark magic growing? Where is it coming from? Is it because they’re no longer bound by Tartarus?” That was Jude’s running theory, at least, though we didn’t really know.
“You’re asking a lot more questions than we agreed to.”
“We didn’t agree to a specific number.”
She sighed, her eyes flashing in annoyance. Her lips tightened. Yeah, she was getting peeved. She’d started out pissed, and it was only getting worse. When she spoke, it was reflected in her voice. “There’s a common understanding of how many questions one gets to ask after succeeding in one measly challenge.”
“So, if I wanted to ask more questions, I’d have to beat you at more challenges?”
“If I agreed to them, which I won’t. Not after you stole my dogs. You may have won, but I don’t like how you did it.” Anger flickered in her eyes.
I needed to tread lightly. Pissing her off when we were this deep in her domain was a bad idea.
“How did you do it, by the way?” Hecate leaned forward. “Convince my dogs, I mean.”
I grinned. “Artemis. She has the most amazing magic. I can communicate with animals.”
Hecate huffed out a breath and sat back. “Oh, Artemis has the most amazing magic? Artemis?” She sounded pissed. Was there a history between her and Artemis I didn’t understand? She shook her head. “Coming into my home. Taking my dogs. Then insulting me.”
“It wasn’t an insult!” Uh-oh.
“Oh, it wasn’t? You come in here and say to my face that Artemis has the most amazing magic?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you.”
“Not like, more amazing than yours,” I said. Oh shit. I’d forgotten how fickle the gods could be. How obsessed they were with status and their petty grievances.
And Hecate’s thing was her pride. I’d been told.
And still, I’d put my foot in my mouth. Shit.
Anger was vibrating around Hecate now, and we’d definitely reached a turning point. I glanced at Maximus, whose muscles were tense. He was ready to move.
He met my gaze and nodded.
Time to get out of here.
“Thank you for the answers.” I stood. “We should be going now.”
“Oh, I think you should be.” She stood, raising her arms. The emerald fire flared bright behind her, and the purple-flame chandelier popped with light. The two colors were reflected in her eyes, and her face took on a crazed expression. Her dark hair began to float around her head, and in that moment, she looked a hell of a lot like the Stryx.
I backed up. “Right. Thanks again!”
I turned and ran, but not before I caught sight of the dirt at the edges of the room moving. We were surrounded by the ring of earth in the large circular room, and the crumbly black stuff was shifting. Hecate’s magic was filling the space. It reeked of rotten vegetables and sulfur, making it hard to breathe.
All around, a loud groaning noise sounded. The dirt in front of the gravestones shifted more. Wait, was that noise coming from inside the graves?
“Necromancy,” Maximus said.
Oh fates. One of her powers was freaking necromancy.
As soon as the thought formed, a hand shot out of the dirt closest to me. We were almost to the smoke-filled archway that acted as the exit, but we were too slow.
Bodies began climbing out of the graves, half-rotted corpses that clawed their way out of the dirt.
Oh, hell no. Not zombies!
12
The zombies rose out of the dirt around me, and I shuddered.
I hated zombies.
They groaned and staggered toward us, moving quickly. None of those slow, old movie zombies. Nope, these were as fast as humans.
Side by side with Maximus, I sprinted through the smoky archway. Hecate’s laugh was the last thing I heard, and it turned my skin to ice.
We spilled out into the huge cavern with the acid lake. It glowed blackly under the diffuse light coming from the ceiling.
“Left!” Maximus shouted.
We ran left, sprinting around the side of the lake. I looked back, spotting the zombies following us from Hecate’s lair. There were dozens of them, and they were fast. Their clothes and bodies were in every stage of decay, but all of them seemed to have their eyes.
They watched us, ravenous and evil. Maybe they hadn’t been evil in life, but now that Hecate had gotten her claws into them, they definitely were.
And they were gaining on us.
Shit. No way we could fight them all. And they were going to overtake us. They were faster than humans.
We needed to stall them.
I glanced at the lake, and an idea popped into my head.
; I reached for Poseidon’s magic, letting it fill my chest with bright, sparkling magic. The water called to me, and I commanded it to rise up as a giant wave. As the lake surged upward, I could feel it like it was part of myself. It formed a massive tidal wave, headed straight for the zombies.
The water crashed down on them, and the creatures hissed. As the wave receded, some were sucked into the lake. Others writhed on the ground as the acid ate at their decayed flesh.
“Nice work,” Maximus said.
We sprinted faster, and I glanced backward to check on the zombies. My stomach dropped when I spotted a dozen of them climbing to their feet. They were in way worse shape than they had been, but they were still fast.
“They’re coming!” I shouted.
Maximus looked back, then drew his sword and shield from the ether. “I’ve got this.”
He turned and sprinted for the zombies, weapon raised. He moved like a train, so fast and strong that he was nearly to them by the time I processed what he was doing.
He reached three zombies first and swung his sword. It was so long and his strike so fierce that he beheaded them all in one fell swoop. I wanted to whoop like I was at a sporting event, but we’d be better served if I actually got into the fight.
I drew my blade from the ether and ran for him. He’d already cut two other zombies off at the waist and was moving on to the others. Before I reached him, three zombies crawled from the water to my left. I spun to face them, but they were fast. One was on me in an instant.
Fear tightened my muscles.
The creature’s skin was hanging from its face, and its eyes bulged as it clawed for me. I swung my sword for its arm and took it off. The zombie reached out with its other arm, and I went for the head this time. It toppled to the ground and splatted like a melon.
I’d have gagged if I’d had the time, but another zombie was already on me. I swung for its neck, taking it out easily. The third was harder, coming up so fast that I barely spotted it. The creature reached for my waist, getting its claws hooked into my jeans’ pocket.
It yanked, trying to pull me toward it.
No way in hell.
I heaved backward, using all my strength to break away from the monster. My jeans tore, and I watched with horror as a tiny black stone flew out of my pocket and into the air.
