Haven loosens his stride and keeps his knees bent, ready to lunge. I try to mimic him, but I’m no warrior. Not like he is. I wasn’t raised on a battleground.
The figure nearest me steps forward and the dogs follow its lead.
My heart beats in the back of my throat and my mouth is dry and my stomach is in knots, but I know what my objective is—get out of this maze alive—and I’m willing to try anything to make that happen.
Come on, magic powers. Don’t fail me now.
The problem is, I’ve never known how to call on it. I don’t know where the magic resides when it’s dormant. Do I mentally reach for it? Do I wiggle my fingers?
One of the dogs snaps at me.
The figure stalks forward and hands solidify at its sides, then a sword in its hand.
In a blink of an eye, the sword is gleaming in the light.
Real steel born of shadows.
Steel that could easily gut me from the looks of it.
Think, Ana.
You can do this.
I imagine my hands glowing, the power burning through my fingertips.
But nothing happens.
The figure stalks closer. The dogs spread out and form a half circle around me. Their shadow lips pull back revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the other shadowman take a swing at Haven and Haven ducks beneath the arch of its blade. Behind it now, Haven plants his boot on the shadow and gives it a shove. But instead of falling to its knees, the shadow dispels and Haven stumbles forward with the unspent momentum.
The shadowman reappears ten feet away.
That’s not good.
Distracted, I don’t notice my shadowman coming closer until it’s too late.
He wraps a hand around my throat and gives me a shake causing my teeth to clack together. I flail in his grip as my feet come off the ground. He pulls his arm back and then tosses me through the air.
I crash into a hedge row, branches scraping at my face, tugging at my hair.
The air is slammed out of me when I hit the cobblestone and I lie there staring up at the stars gasping for a breath.
My chest is on fire. My vision is blurry.
I can’t do this.
“Get up, Ana!” Haven shouts.
The blade cuts through the air above me. I roll to all fours and the steel hits the stone with a clang, missing me by mere inches.
I rise to my feet.
The blade swings again.
I duck and barrel toward the figure. I only mean to make him disintegrate, but instead I slam into him.
We go down together, me on top of him. His face is an eddy of smoke and rage. His form shifts and swirls beneath me like he’s trying to break apart but can’t.
The dogs snap at me and when one bites into my arm, teeth sinking to bone, pain burns through my entire body. Tears immediately burn in my eyes, blurring my vision.
The shadowman bucks me off, rolls me and then climbs on top of me. His mouth widens into a dark maw. Though he has no solid body, his weight still presses into me, crushing me. And I swear I can smell his breath. It’s like swamp muck and decaying vegetation. Something that’s rancid and sulphuric all at the same time.
The shadowman’s mouth comes closer and inhales and… It feels like the skin is being flayed from my body one strip at a time.
There is pain everywhere.
Everything is on fire.
I scream and thrash and scrabble for purchase.
There’s only the burning in my veins and the driving need to go, go, go.
Golden light lifts from my skin and disappears down his dark throat.
In that moment, I realize what he’s doing and maybe what he is.
He’s feasting off my energy.
I have to get him off of me.
I have to get up.
I have to run.
The shadowman lets out a guttural roar.
The pain ebbs.
I open my eyes and find my hands have clamped over his wrists and my hands are burning red.
His misty edges shrink in on themselves like parchment that’s been held to flame.
Now it’s him who thrashes.
I tighten my grip. The stones beneath me tremble. The jarring force of him trying to escape vibrates through my bones.
But I’ll not relent.
He shrinks.
Smaller and smaller and smaller.
I can do this.
The Fates didn’t bring me to this moment just to watch me die.
So I won’t.
I’ll win.
I focus on that building heat in my belly and pull on it, forcing it down my arms and into my hands.
The shadowman’s roar turns into a high-pitched scream that pierces my ear drums with a sharp pop.
My hands glow like the sun. The shadowman coalesces into a ball in my hands. The tendons in my wrists stand out beneath my skin as every bone and joint and muscle in my body tenses to try to hold on to him. I grit my teeth. The acrid scent of him overwhelms my senses.
And then…
SNAP.
He explodes in a shower of light and mist.
The ground shakes.
The hedges rattle.
I lie there exhausted and breathless blinking up at the sky.
The dogs bark and snap.
Someone yells.
Haven. Haven is still in danger.
Why do I care?
Why does the thought of losing him make me sick to my stomach?
I roll over just in time to see a dog tear into his leg and the shadowman’s blade sink into Haven’s shoulder.
I’m up. Running. Cold sweat breaks out across my back as my stomach plummets and Haven cries out.
No. No no no.
He goes down on a knee.
My heart leaps to my throat.
The dog hunkers down and yanks back and the tangy scent of blood coats the air.
The shadowman pulls his blade out and cocks his arm back, ready to swing.
“Haven! No!”
There’s too much distance between us. Too much ground to cover. I’m not quicker than a cutting blow of a sword. I can’t reach him in time.
But I don’t want to lose him.
I hate him and want him and hate him more.
But to lose him would be to lose some part of myself.
Because when I’m around him, I want to be better than him, but also better than myself.
He makes me feel reckless and dizzy and bold and bigger than I’ve ever felt.
He makes me feel…
Powerful.
The ground cracks beneath my boots.
The dogs whimper and cower.
The shadowman turns to me.
I stretch my arms out.
“Get away from him!” I shout.
A blinding golden light shoots from my hands. My body quakes. The hair lifts along the back of my neck. A heady thrill zings up my spine.
Save Haven. It’s the only thought in my mind. The only ringing truth.
I clench my jaw and root my feet to the earth as the air splits open with a deafening crack. The light builds into a vibrant glowing spiral and I have to slam my eyes closed against it.
Blood runs from my ears. My skin goes taut and hot like it might break open and weep.
And then…
Silence.
Only the sound of my panting breath and the whimpering dogs.
Something drifts from the sky and settles into my hair. I open my eyes to pluck it out.
It’s a leaf from a hedge row.
I look up.
The maze is gone. Like gone, gone. As if it never existed.
There’re no torn branches or shriveled leaves. No shadowed paths.
It’s just...gone.
All that remains is one leaf, the Medusa fountain, two whimpering shadow dogs and—
“Haven!”
I rush to him. He’s lying on his back on the cracked cobblestone. Bl
ood has stained his shirt a darker shade of black. There’s more running from the corner of his mouth and from both ears.
His mouth is moving but I can’t make out his words. His voice is muffled and far away.
“What?” I shout.
He points at his ears. “Ear. Drum,” he says.
Right. Our eardrums are blown. That explains the blood.
“Can you sit up?” I mouth slowly and he nods.
With my arm behind his back, I help him rise to sitting. He grits his teeth and grimaces. More blood gurgles from the wound in his shoulder and the bite in his thigh.
I tear off my shirt, put a sleeve between my teeth and yank on the other end until it tears into strips. “This will probably hurt, I’m guessing,” I say, my voice sounding far away in my own ears, so I’m pretty sure he can’t hear me. I tie a strip around his shoulder and tighten it with two knots.
Haven’s face crumples with pain.
I move to his leg next. The flesh is torn into ribbons. I try not to look too closely at it as I tie a wider piece of cloth around it. When Haven groans this time, I can hear it. The world is getting louder by the moment.
“I think that will have to do for now.”
“I heal quickly,” Haven says.
“Can you walk?”
“I’m gonna have to.”
I sling his arm around my neck and then brace him around the waist with my arm. “On the count of three,” I say. “One, two, three.” We go up together and all of Haven’s weight falls to me. I stagger back, nearly lose him, and then tighten my grip on him, widening my stance until we’re steady.
He grunts, teeth clamped together.
The dogs come to heel at my side.
“What do we do with them?” Haven asks and I don’t miss the thread of fear in his voice.
“I don’t know. Leave them, I guess. Come on.”
With the maze gone, I can only guess where the exit should have been, but is it really necessary to get to the exit now? I think technically we won, so I head back to the east where we began and where I hope Monstrat and Hades might meet us as soon as they realize the maze has been obliterated.
We hobble along for a while. The dogs follow us. “Shoo,” I say, but they don’t budge. Their shadow forms vibrate beneath my stare and their tails are tucked between their back legs.
We’re about twenty feet from where I think the maze entrance had been when a carriage appears over the hill. It comes to a halting stop and Monstrat jumps out before the footman can open the carriage door.
Monstrat rushes over to us. “We had watchers on the maze,” he says. “I just got word. What happened?”
He makes no move to unburden me of Haven’s weight and I’m in no rush to hand him off. “We won,” is what Haven says. He doesn’t elaborate. I’m not sure if that’s for my benefit or his.
Monstrat frowns. “But what happened to the maze?” He gestures to the barren land. “That maze is thousands of years old. It has withstood innumerable monsters, countless blights, and many trials. And it’s just...gone?”
I make it to the carriage and help Haven inside. He collapses on the bench with a wince. I hurry in beside him.
When the dogs try to follow me, Monstrat claps his hands and says, “Go! Go on now!”
The dogs raise their hackles. Their lips pull back in a snarl, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
Monstrat edges away. “Where did the dogs come from?”
“From the fucking trial,” Haven says and then grimaces with a new flash of pain.
“Dogs weren’t part of the trial.” Monstrat backs into the carriage as the dogs snip at his feet.
“They weren’t?” I ask.
Safely inside, Monstrat slams the door shut. “No. It was two minotaurs.”
“What about the shadowmen?”
Monstrat frowns. “The what?”
Haven and I share a look.
“Speaking of which,” Monstrat says as the carriage lurches forward and the dogs bark at the wheels. “What happened to the minotaurs? We spent a lot of time and effort raising them specifically for these trials.”
The carriage hits a bump and Haven hisses. “Stop asking questions, professor,” he says. “You’re making me want to kick you out the fucking door.”
Monstrat gapes at Haven, but quickly clamps his mouth shut.
And for once, I’m grateful for Haven’s cruelty.
Chapter 34
When we reach Hades’s House, Haven and I are whisked up to the infirmary. Elena takes one look at Haven and immediately decides he’s the one who needs care first.
I collapse into bed and peel my boots off and then my pants. I curl beneath the blankets and fall into a dark sleep.
When I wake sometime later, the sun has risen and Haven is in the bed beside me blanketed in golden light.
It reminds me of the light in the maze and makes my stomach flip.
What happened there? Was it the power Hades gave me? The gift of Life that did it?
I roll over and slide my arm beneath my pillow. “Hi,” I say.
Haven looks at me. There’s no expression on his face so I don’t know what he’s thinking.
And I don’t get the chance to ask because at that moment the doors burst open and Nereus stalks in.
“Did you see him?” he asks.
“See who?” Haven asks.
“Cronus. We were tracking him and he led us right to the maze. Or what used to be the maze. Did you see him?”
The shadowmen. The dogs. Monstrat said they weren’t part of the trial.
All of it clicks into place.
They’re made of shadows and the shadowmen smelled sulphuric, like the Underworld.
They were Cronus’s men. He must have brought them up from the Underworld when he escaped.
And once that settles in, I realize what that meant—we nearly went up against a Titan.
A cold dread prickles over my skin.
We could have been killed. We nearly were killed. I mean, even the minotaurs were horrifying. They were nothing compared to the shadowmen though.
“We didn’t see Cronus,” Haven says.
Nereus scowls and rests his hand on the hilt of his sword. He too is in battle gear. Like Hades, he’s ready for war.
I know Cronus being out of the Underworld is a really bad thing, but I’m starting to get the feeling that I don’t truly know how bad it is.
“What did happen?” Nereus asks. “Why are you so grievously injured and she came away with hardly a scratch?” He gestures at me distantly, like I’m a trivial matter he needs to cross off his list.
I look at Haven.
I know this is going to be painful for him to admit to his brother, that he was the one who couldn’t stand against the shadowman and its dogs, who had to be rescued by the orphan, but I vow to have his back no matter what.
We’re a team.
We survived the maze—and Cronus’s minions—together.
We might not always see eye to eye and I might sometimes hate him a lot but—
“The orphan got barely a scratch,” Haven says, “because she hid in the hedge maze.”
“What?” Nereus and I say at the same time.
Haven scowls at me. “Come on, Hearthtender. There’s no one left to impress.” He looks at his brother again. “I fought the shadowmen alone and got the brunt of their ire for the trouble. Should be easy to win the last trial.”
I lurch to my feet. The world sways and I have to catch myself from falling with a hand on the bedside table. I might not be injured but I’m so exhausted, I can barely stand upright.
Haven’s expression softens. He tries to sit up and hisses with pain.
I go to his bedside, clamp my hand on his thigh, on the wrapped dog bite, and squeeze.
He curls into the pain and can only let out a garbled roar.
“You’re a fucking asshole,” I say and then turn and hurry from the room before I do something more I might end up regretting.
I’m halfway across the front foyer, cursing Haven’s name the whole way, when I hear shouting and barking wending up the stairwell from what I assume must be the dungeon.
For a second I think to ignore it. I’m in no mood to speak to anyone. I just want to climb into bed and plot a thousand different ways to gouge out Haven’s good eye.
How could he lie about what really happened?
And make me look weak and cowardly and stupid?
Unless he really has been playing me this whole time. Look how close he is to winning the whole descendant trial.
Maybe I’m stupid after all.
The barking grows in intensity. I hear Max screech.
“Oh hell,” I grumble and hurry across the foyer and follow the wide, curving stone stairwell down into a murky darkness.
The barking grows louder. A dog snaps its teeth at something and a man cries out.
“What are they?” I hear Max ask.
Hades’s voice echoes through the cavernous space as he answers. “They’re dogs that were supposed to be guarding the doorway to Tartarus. Somehow Cronus has called them to his side.”
I trail my hand along the stonewall until I reach the bottom and step onto the floor.
The dogs go quiet.
“What’s happening?” Max says.
I step into the light. The dogs whimper and then lie down, tails swishing over the stone.
The two men who’ve been trying to tame the dogs with chains and harnesses both let out a breath of relief.
Hades turns to me. “Ana,” he says. There’s a note of surprise in his voice. His eyes glow red in the darkness.
I come in between Hades and Max and crouch down beside the dogs. My heart is pounding in my chest and my tongue is suddenly dry and sticking to the rough of my mouth. But something calls me to the dogs. Something wild and bold.
The dogs crawl on their bellies to reach my outstretched hand. The one on the left bumps his head against me and stares up at me with black, bottomless eyes.
“Hey, puppy,” I say, with a calm I don’t feel. “What’s your name?” I scratch him behind his misty, shadow ears and in the span of a breath, the dog is solid, no longer a shadow thing. He pants, tail wagging, as he stands on thick, muscular legs with a dark, slick coat of fur covering his body.
Hades Descendants (The Games of the Gods Book 1) Page 16
