“That thing is fucking seven feet tall, how in the hell do you expect me to do that?” I sweep my leg out, kicking one of its tree trunk legs but my leg bounces off and I grunt in pain. “Stupid giant bull.”
“I don’t think that was the way to do it.” Raven chuckles. “But it’s good to know we can’t possibly take him down like that.”
“Shut it.” I flip backward and land on my feet.
“Don’t,” Jayden shouts, rushing toward me.
The only thing I can think to do is jump on the creature’s back or maybe transport there, and that must be what Jayden sees on my face right now as he rushes forward to stop me.
“I have to, Jayden. We need to end this already.” I glance between all my friends.
“If you do this, he could take the whole place down around us trying to get you off him.” Jayden dodges a fist but doesn’t stop moving to me.
It’s now or never. If Jayden gets his hands on me, he won’t let me do this and it’s the only way other than electrocuting myself again. I close my eyes and picture myself on the beast’s back. Someone curses next to me but I’m already spinning through space. I land with anoofon the Minotaur’s back and he crashes his back against the craggy wall.
My whip materializes in my hand, and I wrap it around the beast’s neck, pumping as much magic as I dare into the weapon. The Minotaur thrashes and bellows but finally drops to its knees. I jump off his back and brandish my sword to swipe at its neck, but Raven is already there, her battle ax slicing through the creature’s neck and it crumbles to ash.
“Teamwork.” Raven grins.
“Hell yeah, the best team ever.” I high-five her.
“I swear to the gods you just took a decade off my life,” Jayden says with a growl.
“It had to be done. Now we’re one step closer to ending this thing once and for all.” I kiss his cheek.
“You keep racking up punishments, love.” Jayden crushes me against his chest.
“You keep saying that and never deliver on it,” I whisper.
“Guys, we have a problem,” Kira says.
“What is it now?” I ask. “Are there more monsters down here?”
“No, we found the door, I think, but there’s something missing here.” Kira steps closer to the tall metal double doors. “There’s a heavy dose of magic on this door. Not just my dad’s. I think it’s from all our parents.”
“What?” I frown. “They locked us out? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Or they locked the queen out. Are we walking into a trap?” Jayden steps closer. “My father’s magic helped seal this, I’m sure of it.”
“That was what Apollo hinted at. They need all of us here to unlock it because we have each come into contact with our parents’ items of power.” I rake a hand through my hair.
“What do we do?” Raven huffs. “If we open it, we could be giving the queen exactly what she wants.”
“If we don’t open it and find a way to trap her in the throne, then the world ends,” I say. “We don’t have a choice. We have to risk her getting hold of what she wants in there if we’re going to save everyone.”
“One problem,” Thad speaks up for the first time in a while. “We don’t know how to unseal it.”
“That’s what we have our resident magic user for.” I turn a grin on Draven.
“Me? You think I can figure this out?” He steps back.
“Can you do to the door what you did when the students were mind-controlled all those months ago?” I ask. “There has to be a way to kind of unravel the magic, I’d guess.”
“That’s actually really smart. I think it could work but I might need to have you all touch the door. Artemis’ magic is on here too, though.” Draven shrugs. “None of us handled her magic. It was Orion.”
“Greyson and Kira are both children of Artemis in different ways. It will have to be enough. Apollo said nine of us for a reason. Everyone put a hand on the door.” My palm lights up a beautiful royal blue as I touch the door.
“It’s responding.” Raven stares at the bright-crimson glow on her palm.
