He turned pale. “W-what?” he stuttered. “No, I’m not—how could I—”
I held up my hand to stop him, and he fell obediently silent again. “This is going to be difficult to hear,” I continued, “but I need you to listen to me, for I swear by the Styx that I know this to be true. Leon, you are a son of Apollo.”
He made a squeaking noise for a drawn-out moment. Then he launched into a tirade of objections, his face still the ghostly shade of shock. “What the fuck? No, I’m not. I can’t be. I’m just—what are yousaying? Why would you tell me—? I’m just amusician!”
I supposed I shouldn’t have expected immediate belief. I grasped him by the shoulders and reached for my most persuasive tone of voice, trying my best to appear strong. “No,” I told him firmly. “You are a demigod. You are the son of Apollo,god of music. And I know it’s hard, but I need you to stay focused, because right now the city needs you.”
“No!” He pulled away from me, shaking his head fiercely. “No! How could you say that? You’re wrong. This isn’t real. There isno waythis is real!” He stepped backward, hands on his head, and nearly tripped over himself in his scrambling retreat. I feared in that moment that I’d lost him for good, but then an idea flashed into my mind.
“Leon, it’s yourbirthday, isn’t it? Today is the day you were found, eighteen years ago?”
And, thank the gods, I was right: the reaction on his face was certainly a yes, and the poor boy froze to the spot in shock. So once again I stepped forward, gripped his shoulders tightly, and commanded him in the most authoritative tone I could muster. “I am your oracle. You are a demigod. And right now I need you tofollow me.” I looked fiercely into his amber eyes. Apollo’s eyes? “Nod for me if you understand.”
Agonizing silence hung in the air. But he took a gasping breath and offered me the slightest nod. That was good enough for me. “Let’s go,” I said, and I threw open the back door.
The scene outside was like something from a nightmare. The road was empty, save for a squadron of guards down the way and a few hustling stragglers who still searched for shelter. Looking to the left, we saw a harpy swoop down from the sky and snatch up a soldier in her mighty claws, dragging him along the ground with furious beats of her wings. The rest of his company formed a ring around a second creature, waving steel and torches in her face in an effort to push her back. Blood dripped from her feathers, but this only seemed to anger her more, and with each attempted attack she spiraled deeper into screeching, clawing rage.
“Come on,” I said, before I could change my mind. I took off at a run, leading the young demigod around the corner and up another road. I wasmostlysure I knew which roads to take.
“Where are we going?” Leon demanded as he leapt after me into the chaos.
“The armory,” I bellowed. “It’s this way, isn’t it? We need to get you a bow.”
“What?”
“You need a bow so you can shoot them down!”
“What the fuck?” he yelled at me, his surprise punctuated by the crashing sound of falling crates. “I’ve never evenhelda bow!”
“You don’t need practice,” I called over the din of our surroundings, pulling the reassurance straight out of my ass. “The talent is already in your blood.” Of course, I had no clue if demigods worked that way, but I could see no better chance for him than this. If he’d inherited anything that could save us, it had to be archery. So I presented it as truth, because Ineededhim to believe me—and more, I needed him to believe in himself.
I panted with exhaustion as the armory came into view, a rectangular stone structure overlooking a circular plaza ringed with wooden dummies and targets. As we got closer, my courage was shaken by the unmoving lumps that littered the surrounding grass: bodies cased in unhelpful armor, their lifeless hands clutching to useless weapons. Two more soldiers sprinted from the nearby garrison as we watched, appearing as streaks of silver that charged across the field to meet a harpy’s blackened talons.
These men were enough of a distraction for us, but perhaps not for long. We had to gonow. I grabbed hold of Leon’s wrist and pulled us toward the building with a burst of nervous energy, sprinting toward the slim hope of salvation. We made it only halfway before another harpy swooped down fromthe cloudy sky and landed before us, fluffing her ugly feathers to release a mist of human blood. She cocked her head to the side and assessed our presence with beady eyes.
“Oh, gods,” moaned Leon. “Oh shit oh shit oh—”
“—There!” I yelled over him, my eyes falling on a body sprawled to the right of the creature. A fallen soldier’s hand was still curled around the grip of his carved wooden longbow, and in the bloody grass at his side, arrows spilled from their leather quiver onto the ground.
I saw Leon’s eyes fall onto the bow as well, but he was frozen to the spot, unwilling to move while the horrifying bird crept closer and closer. “Go get it,” I whispered, hardly daring to speak for fear of antagonizing her into action. He took the smallest step to the right, and immediately the harpy dove.
Maybe godlike reflexes actually did exist, or maybe Leon was just a lucky guy. Regardless, he executed a perfect dodging roll and sprang to his feet again with the bow in his hand. But the harpy reared to strike far too quickly, and he still needed time to notch an arrow.
“Hey!” I screamed. I scooped up a stone from the ground and threw it with all my strength at the center of the monster’s spine. She froze as the blow landed, muscles tensing.
“Leon,” I whimpered as she whirled around, preparing to lunge. Her beady yellow eyes marked me as her prey. “Leon.Leon, shoot it!”
The harpy leapt for me, and I squeezed my eyes shut in instinctual terror, but the blow that I braced for never landed. Instead, a loudtwangcut through the air, and when I peeked through my lashes again, the creature was writhing on the ground with an arrow through her neck. She let out a gurgling screech and beat her wings, squirming against the grass; but in another instant she was silenced when the bowstring snappedagain. The second arrow buried itself perfectly through the back of her skull.
I exhaled sharply and looked up to Leon, who stood ahead of me with his bow at the ready. His face was still the picture of absolute terror, but his hands weren’t shaking anymore. I supposed that was all I could ask for.
Before I could say a word to him, an alarming popping sound assaulted my ears, and the corpse of the harpy dissolved to ash before our eyes. Not a single feather was left behind. All that remained were two arrows sticking up from the grass and the soft glow of a small violet light. We watched, frightened but fascinated, as the light collapsed into a pool of swirling violet and sank like water down into the earth. Hades’ pet was returning to the Underworld.
“Holy shit,” Leon stuttered. “I—”
“Look out!” I yelled, and we barely ducked in time to miss the grasping talons of another vicious harpy. Two more swooped in from behind, screeching in fury. It seemed the monsters had identified their target.
“Run,” said Leon, and with a tug at my dress he pulled me back into motion. I saw his point: in the open field like this, there would be no hiding from their aerial strikes. We dashed back toward the city block in a mad scramble for cover. It was a short distance, but our pursuers were fast. Halfway to the buildings Leon peeled away from me and let loose another arrow; I heard a furious screech as it too found its way into cursed flesh.
