Page 95 of The Unseen Hour

My gaze locked on a glinting mass that had just appeared near the waves. I couldn’t help feeling like I’d called bad luck down on us with my words.

Orion’s grip tightened on my arm, and he hauled us behind one of the rock formations.

“Nothing good.” He looked around.

If we moved, we’d be exposed.

To hide, or to run?

“Hiding didn’t work at the canyon. We should move,” I whispered.

“Quickly,” Orion responded, nodding his head toward a stone formation northwest of us, farther from the waters.

He squeezed my hand, and we ran for it. I threw a glance over my shoulder. The figure was closer, looking wholly out of place on the grey shores, silhouetted against the orange and purple sky. A man. Tall and barrel-chested.

“Not your father, I take it?” Orion asked as I picked up my pace.

“Definitely not! I’m fairly certain whoever’s out there isn’t even human. Another god?”

“He’s definitely not Charon!”

“Foolish beings! Do you really think you can run?” A deep voice boomed across the beach.

Orion threw us behind the next rock formation. I poked my head out, trying to figure out where the god was. Closer still, and with a malicious gleam in his eyes.

He was muscled and covered in armor. It looked almost like leather, but it was green. Green with copper studs and spikes along the chest and arms. He had long red hair tied at the neck, and a beard of the same shade.

“No sense hiding!” the god shouted.

“He’s right. If he can move like Charon or Death, he could just appear wherever he wants. He’s toying with us,” I said.

“But we have to try.”

We didn’t have a choice.

“On three, we go for the next formation. A few more and we can be off the beach and into the trees. Maybe we can lose him there. It’s our best shot. Three, two, one, go!”

We sprinted for the next formation. I could see the god out of the corner of my eye as we moved from that one to the next. We had one more to go before we were off the actual beach.

The god lifted his hand, spinning a weapon he held. It was a hammer, several times larger than the ones I had seen blacksmiths in Emrys using.

He stalked closer, his steps carrying him an impossible distance, but he still didn’t transport himself directly into our path.

His brows were lowered in a glare.

His size, and ferocity, added to my certainty that we faced yet another deity. This one looked much less friendly than Death.

“Why do you invade Charon’s lands?” the god demanded. Strong winds buffeted us as the words hit my ears.

If any of them had been a god of war, I imagined it would be the deity on the beach. He swung the hammer in a circle above his head, seemingly creating the wind himself. The copper on his armor gleamed.

Orion positioned himself in front of me.

The god lowered his hammer, pointing it at us.

“You have no right to be here. This realm is for Shades, not women of Emrys.”

He recognized me for what I was—alive—just as Orion had said Charon would. And he’d spoken to me personally. I gulped.