Page 96 of The Unseen Hour

“You won’t touch her.” Orion glared at the god, looking every bit as angry as when he mentioned Charon.

“And you, Head Shade,” the deity’s voice dripped with disdain, “will feel the wrath of Odos’s hammer.”

The answer to my question of which god we faced no longer felt relevant. Knowing his name wouldn’t help us beat him.

I leapt out from behind Orion, shaking my fist.

“You cannot have him!” I screamed.

Odos threw back his head and laughed.

“Look at the two of you. Such fiery tempers. Fierce. Certain of yourselves, even when you’re outmatched. Not that I’m surprised. After all, you made it down here, and you⁠—”

“Celia, run!” Orion shoved me, and the two of us tried to sprint farther from the beach.

I had no interest in finishing our conversation with Odos, and we couldn’t let him get the baton, either. It was our only bargaining chip with Death.

The sand rolled, and I went flying. Odos lifted his hammer, striking the beach a second time. The ground beneath me shook, and I was slammed onto my back. I sat up and struggled to breathe. My lungs refused to take in the air my body was begging for.

I looked for Orion, only to see him on his feet. His expression was positively feral as he faced the god. He charged at Odos, screaming.

The god raised his hammer, and I reached uselessly for them.

“Orion, no!”

Lightning slammed into the sands between the two of them. My heart leapt.

Death didn’t appear, but Odos had stopped and was looking up at the skies.

A familiar voice boomed overhead.

“Leave or fight me, brother.”

I recalled what Death had said about their not truly being related, but she’d been right about one thing: they definitely fought like siblings.

Odos glared at the skies overhead, and then at Orion.

Ry had been thrown back from the lightning, and was pushing himself up from the sands.

“You have no authority here!” Odos yelled at Death’s disembodied voice.

She laughed, the sound echoing around us.

“No more than you. This is foolishness. Leave, before he senses us. You could ruin everything.”

“But he⁠—”

More lightning peppered the earth, striking the sands. Where it hit, brittle curved structures that looked like warped glass rose from the beach. Odos struck each of them down with his hammer, a defiant scowl on his face.

I took my chance, rushing over to Orion and helping him to his feet. The two of us stumbled away from the arguing gods, making for the sparse treeline.

“Don’t stop!” Orion shouted at me when the ground beneath us rolled again. I almost tripped, but he held me up.

“Leave them be, Odos!” Death’s voice boomed again, followed by more lightning. I risked one glance over my shoulder.

The god continued to glare, but his wind stopped chasing us.

“This isn’t the end of it,” he warned, voice echoing as his form faded on the beach and we distanced ourselves from the sands.