AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nope thought it smelled amazing. It bubbled and hissed around the edges, reminding me of Hecate’s shadow portal on the W train. I was afraid the goddess might pop out and demand Transylvanian pastries.
Grover sniffed the darkness. “Hecuba made this, definitely. She was either shadow-trailing here or shadow-traveling out. I’m not sure which.”
In the distance, someone screamed. A familiar howl echoed through neighborhood—the war cry of a dog, but much too deep and loud for any earthly canine.
“I’m going to guess Hecuba’s still around,” I said.
We raced toward the sounds of terror.
Across the street from the basketball court was a kebab joint called Sal’s Souvlaki.
From half a block away, we could see diners rushing out of the restaurant, screaming and stumbling over one another, holding pointy kebab sticks even though their moms had probably told them not to run with sharp objects.
“Rats!” one yelled as he ran past us. “Huge rats!”
“Oh, great,” I muttered. When mortals look through the Mist and see rats, you can be pretty sure they’re not actually rats. As Nope towed me along, I fished my pen-sword out of my pocket, because I too love to run with sharp objects.
Grover trotted beside me. “If Hecuba’s inside,” he said, “maybe we can coax her out with—OH, NO!”
He slammed on the brakes. (Imagine his hooves had brakes.) Annabeth grabbed my arm and pulled me back, almost snapping me like a wishbone between her and the eager pup.
“Hecuba’s not inside,” said Annabeth. “Look.”
She pointed toward the fifth-story roofline. Looming over Sal’s Souvlaki, looking like a proper superhero and not some knockoff alley-dwelling sidekick, was Hecuba herself, her front paws planted on the coping stones, her eyes glowing balefully, her fangs bared. She seemed to be sniffing the fear in the air and enjoying herself immensely.
As soon as Nope sensed her presence, he whimpered, hid behind my legs, and started trembling violently. He was a smart puppy.
“So, if Hecuba’s up there,” I said, “what’s in the restaurant?”
I really needed to learn not to ask questions like that. As the last of the diners ran screaming into the night, the restaurant’s plate-glass window shattered, and half a dozen undead warriors tumbled onto the sidewalk.
They were rotting corpses with ancient armor, corroded swords, and glowing red eyes like Hecuba’s, as if they were all plugged into the same power source. They were definitely not rats.
“Trojan soldiers,” Annabeth grumbled.
“Did you know Hecuba could summon the dead?” I asked.
“No, but it’s just our luck.” She scowled up at the roof. “Hecuba, bad dog! Stop terrorizing these poor mortals!”
Hecuba snarled down at us. She turned and melted into shadows just as her minions attacked.
They say there’s a first time for everything. I had never tried hand-to-hand combat while holding a dog’s leash, and I would not recommend it.
My Celestial bronze blade worked just fine against the undead. No complaints about that. I cut down the first reanimated corpse (while getting tangled in Nope’s leash, of course), then sliced another two undead into dust. Meanwhile, Annabeth launched herself at another dead guy, driving her dagger into his face, while Grover goat-kicked one right through the windshield of a parked Toyota.
“Sorry!” he yelled to no one in particular. “I can’t stop breaking things!”
Nope snarled and clamped his jaws around a Trojan’s ankle. The dead guy raised his sword, but I managed to turn at an awkward angle, still tangled in the leash, and stab him first.
Unfortunately, that left my back exposed. Two more corpses piled on top of me like they wanted a piggyback ride. They could’ve easily stabbed me, but they didn’t seem interested in that. Instead, they each wrapped a cold, desiccated hand around my neck.
As soon as their flesh made contact, a flood of emotions washed over me. I crumpled to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably, and slipped into a fever dream.
When I looked up, I was no longer in Queens. I knelt on a barren, battle-scarred hillside. To my right, the city of Troy was burning. The walls were cracking like eggshells. Towers crumbled into the inferno.
On the plain below me, Achaean troops were dragging enslaved Trojans toward their ships in the distance. I understood this would be my fate, too. My ankles and wrists were bound with iron shackles. But I didn’t care about myself.
Lying in front of me was the broken body of my last son—my beautiful boy, whom the Greeks had slain like all my other children. They had taken everything from me: my husband, my family, my city, my hope.
