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Samantha
When Lexand Alastor came into view, I ran to them. Lex caught me in a hug so tight I thought my bones would crack.
"Are you okay?" he murmured into my hair.
"I will be," I said as I pulled back and turned to Alastor. We weren't at the hugging stage, but I almost tackled him, anyway. His arms came around me a little slower and a whole lot more cautious, as if I was precious, and he didn't want to break me. "Thank you for coming."
"He is breaking all the rules," Lex said.
“What rules?” I flicked my gaze between them.
Alastor rubbed the back of his neck and met my eyes. “Gods aren’t supposed to meddle in mortal affairs. This would be considered meddling.”
“What will happen to you?”
“Nothing I can’t handle, it will be fine, and I would do it for you.”
A small flicker of unease flitted over my skin, but before I could reply, Raiden and Tyler caught up to us. I paused for a minute to take in our rescue party. It wasn't quite dusk yet, although the sun was setting fast, and we would lose whatdaylight we still had. Who knew how long my mom was with them, and what they could have done to her?
"Thank you for breaking all the rules, Alastor," I said, repeating Lex's words and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. Hopefully, he was right and everything would be fine. I was still aware of his wishes, and I wasn't sure how he felt about mouth-to-mouth contact.
"Anything for you," he said, the words low enough that I was sure they were for my ears only.
My fingers flexed on his biceps before I stepped away. "Lex and Alastor know where the camp is, they can lead us there," I told my brother and Raiden.
After that we fell silent, each of us in our own heads about the battle that was to come, because none of us believed this would be easy. Having two of the men I cared for most in my life here too went against everything I had ever stood for, but they wouldn't let me leave them home. I was sure that a demigod and a God with a three-headed dog would be more than enough to get my mom back. It was the only reason I relented.
The smell of wet dirt drifted around us as dead leaves and pine needles crunched beneath our boots. The forest creatures that I could sometimes hear were silent as our group made our presence known. I guess we weren't sneaking up on anyone. I stepped over a fallen branch, and Cerberus kept pace with me; he had abandoned Alastor for me the second we had entered the trees. But that was okay, he gave me a sort of comfort I didn't know I was missing.
The air nipped at my cheeks and nose as darkness fell like a blanket over the woods. The world seemed to stand still and hold its breath as we grew closer to the portal. I could feel magic pulsing in the surrounding air. Voices broke through our self-imposed silence, and we stopped moving as one as we listened.
"The woman won't last much longer if you don't call off the imps. We will have nothing to lure the hunter here without her."
My heart lodged in my throat, they had been torturing her, I knew what that was like. I started forward, and Raiden's hand snapped out to stop me. I tried to shake him off, but his hand was like steel around my wrist, almost supernatural.
"My mom," I hissed and yanked on my arm.
He gave a single shake of his head and pointed at his ear, as if to say, listen. I strained my ears over the sound of my racing blood through my veins.
"If she dies, we have other family members we can take," a voice replied.
That wasn't happening, they would all die tonight.
"But if we allow them to die in less than twenty-four hours, we will run out quickly," the first demon said.
I could see them now, near a low fire just inside a small clearing. The one that just spoke was a short and round female, while the second was a tall male in a billowing cloak with his head floating next to his body, parts of the spinal cord looked like it hung from the detached head. They had both been there when they tortured me. My chest tightened at the thought of what they could be doing to my mom.
"This way, I think I see your mom on the other side of the clearing," Alastor said into my ear. Raiden loosened his grip, and we all moved around the area, keeping to the shadows. Once we were on the other side, I saw her. She was slumped against a tree, three imps circling her and poking her with sticks. With an inhuman growl, I exploded from the darkness and took the three of them out with my dagger. Their sticks hit the ground after their bodies, and they didn't make a single sound as they dropped.
"Mom, we're here, you're gonna be safe." I knelt in front of her and pushed her hair back. A gasp left me when I realized itwasn't her. It was a demon dressed in her clothing, with hair of the same white as mine. I fell on my ass in an attempt to scurry away. The woman snapped at me and lunged for me. "It's a trap!"
My mom wasn't here, if she ever was, and the two demons earlier must have known we were in the shadows. Battle erupted around me. I grabbed my dagger and embedded it in the imposter as she attacked me. Tyler helped me up, and I turned toward the fight, ready to join in.
"Stay here," I ordered him. I had lost Raiden in the chaos, and I needed to find him. Tyler didn't listen as he kept pace with me, striking down any demons that got too close.
"If you think I'm leaving your side, you are insane, Sam," he said.
I came up short as a massive snake coiled near the center of the clearing, it looked as if it was pure shadows. A lion hunched low, looking much the same. But they were both going after the demons, so I turned away and focused on the demons flowing from the forest. Cerberus was next to Alastor, taking down three monsters for every one his master killed. Raiden was gone. Pure panic shot through me as I turned in a circle, looking for him.
