by A P Mobley
Several booms sounded from the left and shook the ground. Andy stumbled backward into Layla. His bleeding “wings” screamed in torment as they collided with the demigod. He cried out. Layla took hold of his shoulders and steadied him, his back throbbing with pain. Andy clenched his jaw, then looked over to find what was causing the booming and shaking, his breath catching at the sight.
Two pairs of men clothed in dirty rags and at least five times Andy’s height approached them, along with two centaur astynomia who carried bags that Andy assumed held the group’s things—including the Helm of Darkness. Zeus will want that, Andy thought.
Each pair of the gigantic men worked together to carry two large iron cages, their leathery skin drawn tight over bulging muscles. The tips of their ears were pointed like Diana’s arrows, their noses wide and bulbous. Yellowed, fang-like teeth poked out of their mouths in the nastiest underbites Andy had ever seen, and instead of two eyes, they had one giant eye in the center of their foreheads.
“Uh—those are Cyclopses, aren’t they?” Andy asked.
Violet laughed. “The correct word would be ‘Cyclopes,’ boy, and ‘Cyclops’ would be the singular term.”
“Uh-huh,” Andy replied. “I didn’t need you to correct me, but thanks for wasting your breath.”
Violet turned toward the Cyclopes and smiled. “Disgusting creatures, aren’t they?”
As the Cyclopes grew closer, Andy realized the cages they held were not empty. In the first pair’s cage, the group’s three pegasi stood cramped against each other in their confinement, no longer unconscious but blinking drowsily, as if they’d just awoken from deep sleep. In the second pair’s cage, Diana, Darko, Kali, and Prometheus sat together. However, their cage looked as if it had room left for more hostages.
“Lock the rest up,” Violet said. “And we’ll start for Olympus.”
The pair of Cyclopes holding Diana, Darko, Kali, and Prometheus dropped the cage. Diana and Kali clasped hands, while Darko and Prometheus hung onto the enclosure’s bars. The cage banged into the ground, making the earth tremble.
“Promise us first that if we do as you say, we’ll truly earn our freedom,” one of the Cyclopes said, his voice like boulders crashing down a mountain. “Promise us that Zeus will let us roam free in the forests—that he will let us feast on the flesh of any mortal outside the cities . . . We cannot go back into that pit.”
Violet scrunched up her nose as if she’d smelled something foul. “I already promised you those things and more. Now, you can get these two in their cage, or you can kiss any chance at freedom you may have had goodbye, and I’ll have some Cyclopes who are willing to follow my orders carry the traitors to Olympus. I think they’d love to frolic through the trees and cook people into stews just as much as you would.”
The Cyclops said nothing to Violet. Instead, he plucked open the cage’s door. The demigods shoved Andy and Zoey inside, and the Cyclops locked the door. Zoey threw her arms around Diana and Kali and the three girls embraced, but when Andy approached Darko, the satyr wouldn’t even look at Andy. He only hung his head.
“After Violet let me go, Kali told me what happened,” Darko said. “Why didn’t you just fight her?”
“If we fought her, she would have killed you,” Andy replied.
Darko shook his head. “That would have been better than all of us getting captured. I’ve ruined everything again.”
Andy grabbed the satyr by the shoulder and pulled him into a hug. “Don’t say that. None of this is your fault.”
From outside the cage, Violet laughed. “As much as I love watching reunions this touching, it’s time for us to leave.”
“We can’t go without Karter,” Layla said. Andy noticed Zoey perk up a little at the mention of the Son of Zeus. “The vision included him. It was centered around him, really.”
“I would never imagine leaving dear Karter behind,” Violet said. “Where did he run off to, again?”
“I’m right here,” Karter said from above. The scar-faced demigod descended from the night sky, free of chains and captors. If the demigods were out to capture him before and he managed to escape, then why would he come back to them now? Andy wondered.
Karter landed at Violet’s side, and Zoey furrowed her brow. “But what— I don’t— What’s going on?”
“He’s helping us take you to Olympus,” Xander sneered. “Does that upset you?”
Diana bolted forward, conjuring a sphere of sunlight. She chucked the attack in Karter’s direction. “Bastard!” He swerved out of the way. “We tried to rescue you from them, and this is how you repay us?”
“You didn’t succeed in saving him, so he owes you nothing,” Xander said. “Besides, even if you had, he’d still come back to our side. Destiny demands it.”
“What the hell do you mean?” Zoey asked.
Violet twirled her golden waves with her fingers. “Zeus saw Karter’s future. He is meant to publicly execute the Daughter of Apollo, which will end the war on the gods. As a reward, he’ll become an immortal god.”
Diana seized the bars of the cage. “That can’t be true. Andy and Zoey are meant to lead the war. My father’s prophecy says so.”
“They already tried leading the war,” Violet replied. “When they put Hades and Persephone in Tartarus and stole the Helm of Darkness. But now they’re in our custody. They’ve failed.”
“No!” Diana shouted, shaking herself against the bars. “My father’s prophecy says, When the sky is black and green, and the heavens cry, they will lead a war. A war on the gods. Has the sky been black and green lately? When was the last time it rained on Olympus? My father told me years ago that he saw them himself, riding on the backs of pegasi to Olympus with an army behind them. He saw it!”
“I don’t know when it rained on Olympus last, but I’m sure Zeus will welcome them into his arms with blasts of green lightning and a storm unlike any other the world has seen,” Violet replied. “They will ride up to Olympus when we take them there, their ‘army’ being everyone who’s present now. Honestly, Diana, it’s not that hard to piece together. Give up already. It’s over.” Diana let go of the bars and collapsed on the cage’s floor.
Violet, Karter, and the other demigods started for the gates, the two centaurs Andy assumed carried the group’s things clopping close behind. The pair of Cyclopes who had dropped the cage with the group inside it earlier lifted it off the ground and followed the demigods’ suit, shaking the ground with every step.
Andy looked over at Zoey to see her scowling in Karter’s direction. “Why would you help people working for the gods if you feel even an ounce of guilt for Spencer’s and Syrena’s deaths?” she asked. “I can’t imagine they’d be happy if they saw you now. I’d bet my life Spencer would regret giving you the golden apple.”
Karter continued walking, casting Zoey a quick glance over his shoulder. Andy couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw a trace of guilt in the Son of Zeus’s expression. “It doesn’t matter what Spencer and Syrena would have wanted for me. I have no choice. This is my destiny.”
“Everyone has a choice,” Zoey said. “No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
Before Karter could reply, Layla swung around to face Zoey, her eyes narrowed into tiny slits. “You don’t know anything about destiny. You don’t know anything about duty to the gods. How could you?” The demigod’s skin shifted from brown to the same burgundy shade as her hair. “Keep your mouth shut, unless you want me to gag it.”
They traveled out of the courtyard gates and into Hephaestus City, then toward the outskirts of the city and eventually into the surrounding forest. Zoey said nothing, and neither did anyone else.
CHAPTER TWELVE
FAREWELL
Long before dawn, the party reached a large circular clearing in the forest, where Violet decided they would rest until morning. Violet, Layla,
the Cyclopes, and the astynomia slept around a campfire, while Karter and Xander patrolled the surrounding area. The Cyclopes’ snores were so loud they reverberated through the air and shook the ground.
For the whole night, all Zoey had done was sit in this prison and glare at Karter, but he wouldn’t even give her the satisfaction of hating him properly. He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
How could he have chosen to help the people who had surely been plotting to kill him? How could he help cart Zoey and her friends to Olympus to die when he knew she’d risked everything to save him, and when he knew he would have been welcome to join their group?
What would Spencer have said had he been here?
Spencer probably wouldn’t have said anything, she thought. He would have just found a way to get rid of the asshole once and for all.
If only.
Andy and Darko sat on either side of Zoey, while Diana, Kali, and Prometheus sat across from her. Wind whistled through the cage, chilling the air. Goose bumps prickled Zoey’s bare arms.
Kali began shivering. Diana eyed Kali with concern, then pulled her cloak off over her head and offered it to Kali.
“Oh, I’m fine,” Kali said. “I don’t need anything.”
“Yes, you do,” Diana replied, then laid the cloak over Kali’s shoulders like a blanket. “You’re cold.”
Kali pulled the garment tighter around herself. “Thank you.” Despite their dire circumstances, Zoey smiled at Diana’s gesture.
After a few minutes, Karter and Xander made another round across the campsite and disappeared into the trees—they were as far from earshot as they’d been all night—and Andy leaned toward Diana and whispered, “If we’re going to try and escape, I think now would be the best time.”
“If I thought there was a way out of this, I would have already told you about it,” Diana replied. “But there isn’t.”
“We have to try,” Andy said. “We can’t give up now. After everything we did to get the Helm, after everything we’ve done to reach Poseidon’s palace, we can’t just let them win.”
Diana sighed. “I’m afraid this is a battle we can’t win, Andy.” Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Even if we did manage to break out, we’d still be forced to fight four powerful demigods, four Cyclopes, and two centaurs—with no weapons. Trust me, I’ve given it plenty of thought.”
Andy’s face fell, while Zoey shared grim looks with Darko and Kali. Diana is right, Zoey thought. A lump formed in her throat and tears trickled down her cheeks, the realization hitting her fully. There’s no way out of this one.
She thought of everyone who had placed their faith in the group to save the world—the citizens of Deltama Village, the nymphs who had saved the group from drowning, Jasmine, Troy, Marina, Syrena, Spencer . . .
How many countless others still hoped for a world where they would be free of the gods’ tyranny? How many people would fall into despair when they discovered the Chosen Two of the Prophecy had been publicly executed on New Mount Olympus?
Not only that, but what would happen after death? Before the world had ended, Zoey had always considered herself an atheist. But now, after meeting gods and traveling into the Underworld itself, she knew she had a soul. Would she go to Hades when she died, or would she travel into some other unknown land of the dead? Would Spencer and Syrena be there? What about the people she’d known from the Before Time? What about her mother? Her father? As Zoey contemplated the possibilities, her insides twisted into knots.
“This is all my fault,” Zoey said. “If I hadn’t tried to help Karter, we would never have been in this mess.”
Diana shook her head. “No. Even if we hadn’t helped Karter, Violet would’ve still found a way to take Andy and Darko and Kali. We would have had to go back to save them, and then we would have been captured.”
“It’s destiny, isn’t it?” Kali asked. “Just like those demigods said. It’s destiny that we failed today.”
Prometheus scowled, lifting his manacles and turning toward the bars of their cage. “You know what? Screw destiny.” He wrapped the links around most of the barrier on his side of the prison and pulled them back, his muscles bulging at the effort. “I have an idea. Back up, ladies.”
“What are you doing?” Diana whispered, her tone laced with panic. She and Kali scrambled to the other side of the cage.
The bars began to bend with the chains as Prometheus tugged harder. “I’m breaking us out of here.”
“It won’t work,” Diana replied. “These things were forged by the Cyclopes themselves specifically for the task of taking us to Olympus. Don’t you see how thick the metal is?”
Prometheus grunted. “They may have been forged by the Cyclopes, but my chains were forged by Hephaestus himself and, as we’ve already discovered, can’t be broken very easily.”
“What do you expect us to do even if you break us out, then?” Diana asked. “The odds are most definitely not in our favor.”
“You kids have fought countless monsters, and you survived a trip to the edge of Tartarus. You’ll figure something out. And if you don’t, at least you will have tried. Now get ready to fight these guys.”
The bars snapped and caved in with loud clangs, and Prometheus scrambled out of the broken cage toward their pegasi’s prison, manacles ready. From beside the campfire, Violet, Layla, and the centaurs woke from their slumbers and jumped to attention, their own pegasi neighing as if to alert them. The Cyclopes stopped snoring, blinking open their bloodshot eyes in confusion.
Diana looked to everyone in the group, nodding at them although her expression was fearful, as though to say, Even if we can’t win, we have to try. And with that, the group shot to their feet and darted out of the cage together.
The centaurs drew their swords and charged for the group. Diana leapt ahead and conjured two blazing spheres of light, then chucked them at the centaurs. The attack hit both creatures in their stomachs. They flew backward and crashed into the trees.
Andy and Darko sprinted side by side toward the two bags holding the group’s weapons. Violet grabbed darts out from her robes and held them between her fingers. With a flick of her wrist, she sent them soaring for Andy and Darko. The pair bolted in different directions, avoiding the darts by inches.
Violet readied more darts and flung them in Andy’s direction, but Andy somersaulted out of the way and skidded next to the bags. He seized them and dumped their contents onto the ground—two bows and quivers of arrows, spears, daggers, a sword, an axe, and the Helm of Darkness. With an urgency Zoey had never seen in him before, Andy kicked the bows and arrows toward Darko and shoved a spear, an axe, and the Helm of Darkness back at Zoey and Kali, dodging Violet’s darts all the while.
Layla bounded toward Andy, blade ready, her skin and eyes shifting into as deep a red as her coiled hair. Andy grabbed the sword and darted out of Layla’s way just before she could reach him. Layla screamed in fury and pivoted toward him, ready to bring her weapon down, but before she could, Diana blasted her with a sphere of light and sent her flailing backward.
The Cyclopes fumbled to their feet, each of their booming movements sending shudders through the earth. Zoey pulled the Helm of Darkness over her head, vanishing, and seized her axe while Kali took the spear, two Cyclopes stepping toward them. The other Cyclopes walked toward Prometheus as he wrapped his chains around the bars of the pegasi’s cage. Their steps shook the ground so much Zoey could hardly keep her balance.
“Foolish human girl,” one Cyclops boomed, reaching in Zoey’s general direction with a giant calloused hand. “There is no escaping your fate today. Perhaps Zeus will let me have you for a snack if I can catch you and retrieve Hades’s Helm.”
The Cyclops’s hand hovered over Zoey and grabbed the space around her. She darted to the left, then the right, avoiding the monster’s grasp. He grabbed for her a third time. As his hand came down, she channele
d her strength into her left arm and hand. Using all her might, she swung her axe at his thumb. The blade cut deep. Zoey wrenched the weapon from the Cyclops’s flesh, blood squirting from the wound. The monster bellowed and pulled away.
Beside Zoey, as the other Cyclops tried to pick up Kali, the girl shoved her spear through his palm. His hand crunched from the attack. She ripped the weapon back out and the monster shrieked, falling back.
Across the camp, Prometheus cried out. Zoey looked over to see him on his hands and knees, the remaining Cyclopes standing over him. Karter circled the air above them, a golden lightning bolt in hand. The pegasi were still trapped in the cage; Prometheus had not yet broken the bars.
The Cyclops Zoey had injured stepped forward, shaking the forest floor and grabbing the air around her. Zoey charged on the monster and swung her axe at him. The blade cut into his wrist. He yelped, but before Zoey could wrench her weapon away, the monster flung his hand backward. The momentum flipped Zoey around and sent her toppling into the dirt, the Helm flying off her head and sliding away. The monster ripped her weapon from his wrist and flicked it across the clearing.
The Cyclops plucked Zoey off the ground and tightened his grip around her waist, then brought her to his nostrils and sniffed. “Mmmmmmmm. Perhaps instead of waiting for Zeus to give me permission to eat you, I’ll just go ahead and do it.”
A bright lightning bolt, one the color of rubies, flashed past Zoey’s head and blasted the Cyclops in the cheek. The Cyclops whined like a child, and Zoey glanced over to see Karter, more red bolts arcing and hissing in his hands. “You won’t do anything to her unless my father orders you to,” Karter said. “This is your only warning.”
