AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I gazed somewhere in Theron’s direction. I couldn’t focus my vision to look at him properly. I couldn’t even breathe.
“What do you want to do?”
Alex had to repeat the question a few times for it to penetrate.
“Nothing,” I croaked. “We can’t. Alex, Selene heard everything you just said.”
“What? How?”
I held up my wrist. “I’ve got an invisible trinket too, baby. It’s damn sure a curse. Selene has watched my every move, and listened to my every word since before I jumped on your head. She’ll have already warned him that we know, and if we attack, he’ll only use his power on us and slip away.”
Selene laughed out loud—confirming everything out of my mouth.
“We’re stuck with him.”
Alex snarled, lips peeling from his teeth. “But we can’t do nothing. We know why he’s here. We’re here to make sure this Selene stays in. He’s here to get her out.”
“I know.” I cupped his cheek, hating that I couldn’t kiss his helplessness away. “But we don’t have a choice.”
“Finally, she begins to accept her fate. My rise is inevitable, child. I will not be stopped. Today, my shackles come off. Today, I rise.
And today, daughter of the Fates, you die.”
IT TOOK A LONG TIME. All day—though the beating sun never set—but eventually, we found the key. Once in hand, the door appeared instantly, appearing next to the bodiless eye.
We hesitated.
“We have Hera, Zeus, Ares, Hephaestus, and Hestia to go.” Tycho’s fingers jerked and eyelids twitched. He was on his feet thanks to Daciana’s care, but there was nothing any of us could do about the poison traveling through his weakened body. “These traps are kicking our ass. I’m surprised we’ve survived this long.”
Oh, but we didn’t. We died more than once.
“We need to be smarter about this if we’re all going to make it home,” he continued. “I know we said we wouldn’t do this, but we should split up.”
“Split up?” Nitsa cried. “Why?”
“Because of Ionna.”
Ionna’s head snapped up. “What, me?”
“Yes,” he said, voice firm. “You said it yourself. Your visions have been clearer. Focused. Accurate. It’s not just you. It’s crazy. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I should be dead.”
“Tycho, don’t say that,” I cried.
“No, it’s true. I canfeelit. I can sense my death in a very scary and frightening way that I never could before, but more than that, I feel myself holding it back.”
“Son of Persephone,” Alex said softly.
“Exactly. Alexander, you just took down a full-grown cyclops. Nitsa, you ran at full-speed in your cow form with two grown adults on your back. Theron, you’ve been controlling your explosions like no child of Ares has ever done.
“This place is supposed to kill us, yes, but the power that created it is the power that created us. It’s making us stronger”—he blew out a breath—“which is why I know if I go in there first and alone, Ionna will see visions of what’s happening to me, share it with you guys, and you all can come up with a plan to fight the next challenge. Why should all of us go in blind when just I can? I’ll be the scout.”
The blowback mowed him down before he finished speaking.
“No way.”
“Not happening.”
“We’re staying together. End of discussion.”
