“Fine, snacks help,” Jayden grumbles.
“Told you,” I sing as fog curls around us.
“Zeussss,” the hiss of the wraiths reaches my ears and I roll my eyes.
“Hades, they’re dumb.”
“The queen will have your head,” they whisper again. “Ssssurenderrrr.”
“Umm, they have never said anything but Zeus before. That’s creepy as fuck.” I shiver.
I call my sword and whip again and lightning crackles in the air around me. I swipe the sword through the fog and it retreats as the wraiths screech and hiss at the light hitting them.
“Go back to your fucking caves, you psychotic hags.”
The fog spreads around us in a circle and I spin, hacking at it with my blade until it’s farther away.
“Does water affect them?” Thad asks around a protein bar in his mouth.
“We’ve never actually tried that,” Jayden says, slamming his blade into the fog with his obsidian blade. “But considering the mist, I’m going to guess that it’s not likely.”
“Okay, the hard way it is,” Thad reaches over his shoulder, yanking the trident out of the sheath at his back and slams the points into the fog with a precision that makes me jealous.
A wraith wails and then ash explodes from the retreating fog. I glance around the clearing, but more and more monsters keep popping in. Raven has the Nemean lion in a headlock again. Dax and Kira are being steadily pushed farther from the temple by a large group of demons but are holding their own.
“What is taking him so long?” I whisper. “Something’s wrong.”
I spin toward the temple and even more wraiths and the lizard-looking demons are popping in between us and the entrance. Not that I can go in anyway without the power destroying me.
“Do you still feel Hermes’ power pulsing around the entrance?” Jayden asks.
“Yeah, which means he doesn’t have it yet. What the hell is he facing in there?” I ask.
Dax and Kira stand frozen as a roar bellows right behind them. “Motherfucker. She brought in that asshole?”
“What are you talking about, Beth?” Jayden asks.
I point with my sword to the seven-headed dragon breathing fire at Dax and Kira as they roll away from the flickering flames. The hydra. She hasn’t brought this creature out since I faced it alone in the first battle.
“Do not cut off its heads, Dax,” I scream as Dax swings his ax at a head coming too close to snatching Kira up in its jaws.
Dax stiffens and attempts to correct his swing but it’s too late. The swing is true and the head tumbles to the ground. The other heads roar but it doesn’t take long for the neck to split and new heads to grow in the dead one’s place.
“It’s the hydra, dumbass,” Raven yells. “You can’t just cut the heads off. You have to cauterize the wound after or it will grow two in its place.”
“Why in Hades would anyone create a monster like that?” Dax throws his hands up, exasperated.
The heads are fully formed within moments and I grimace. It’s going to be even worse now. The air changes and the pulsing of Hermes’ magic disappears abruptly.
“He’s got it,” I whisper. “He’s got the caduceus.”
I glance to the door of the temple but my blood runs cold at the spear sticking out the front of Draven’s chest and a grinning Pelops standing behind him.
