Chapter 44 The 12 Labors of Hercules Continues
ALEXIS
The sound filled the coliseum.
Abject fear rooted me to the spot.
Spartans screamed in terror.
Fluffy Jr. twitched next to me, whimpering as his hump glowed brightly.
Two blurry monsters stomped out of the darkness, objects protruding from their backs.
Titans.
Jagged wings jutted from their backs, and golden tags were threaded through their lips. It was the same two Titans I’d fought in Rome.
They were once again unchained.
Is this why the federation had us tag them? Was this their plan all along?
There was no doubt left in my mind—Zeus was trying to eliminate me.
Everything was fuzzy, colors bleeding together. I gripped my calculator in my pocket and clutched the strange rod in my other hand.
Screeeeeech.
The Titans unhinged their jaws, their eyes locked solely on me.
I stared back, face throbbing in time with my heartbeat.
RIPPPP.
The Titans hadn’t moved.
In slow motion, I looked down—the sound had come from Fluffy Jr.
RIPPPPP.
The lump on his back had split down the center. Something was … emerging?
The Titans shrieked in unison, leathery wings flapping.
My head shot up.
Sweat dripped down, stinging my swollen eyes. Visibility worsened. For a second, everything went dark. I shook my head to clear my vision.
Patchwork wings spread wide as both Titans leaned forward, ready to attack.
Fluffy Jr. howled as he kicked sand at my feet, another ripping sound echoed, but I didn’t have time to look down.
I raised my arm and pointed the sharp end of the bloody rod up at the beasts.
The Titans screeched.
I was already running, sprinting across the sand—rod held high.
Wings flapped and they shot toward me, flashes of black.
Lungs heaving, my side throbbing, I pumped my legs, sand spraying as I sprinted with all my might.
Air whistled.
I dodged swiping talons and swung the heavy rod with both hands like a baseball bat.
White-hot agony scoured my already ruined side as their talons sliced at me—they screeched in my face—I screamed back. Our pitch was flat. Mozart would not have loved this.
Black wings beat loudly as all three of us stumbled—I’d clipped both of them with my swing, and pain was exploding inside my chest as my power activated. My blood was inside them, devouring.
The Titans fell to their knees, foam streaming from their lips.
I clutched at my side—sticky blood poured from deep talon grooves that aligned perfectly with lion claw marks, coating my fingers in liquid.
The Titans’ gurgles quieted, ligaments snapping as they looked up at me in unison.
Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley winked at me as she penned Frankenstein.
I backed away.
There was nowhere to run—the steel gate was still lowered. The round wasn’t over, and electric lines hummed above—I couldn’t leap away.
My wounds throbbed.
I was losing too much blood.
I stumbled across the bloody sand, away from the monsters, and my own failings—toward Fluffy Jr.—grunting through the pain.
The stadium was dead silent.
Dropping my rod—it sizzled into a puddle of blood—I fell to my knees beside Fluffy Jr., twisting so I didn’t put pressure on Nyx.
He was still collapsed on his stomach, panting heavily.
Mucus and … something pointy was sprawled behind him. Half covered in sand, it was impossible to tell what it was with my limited vision.
I didn’t have time left to figure it out.
I clutched at his muzzle and peppered kisses across his face.
“I love you. I love you, I love you,” I whispered, the mantra falling from my lips, tears pouring from my eyes.
Titans screeched behind me.
I ran my hand down my leg, across Nyx’s blood-crusted scales. Words, whispers, pleas—I wasn’t even sure what I was saying.
As a child, I’d always thought I’d die in the cold, alone in Montana, surrounded by monsters of the human variety, starved and weak, all alone.
Instead, I would perish loved by many, and my death would start an apocalyptic war—both thoughts were comforting.
I dipped my fingers into blood, and a rod solidified in my palm. I planted it into the sand and hoisted myself up, leaning against Fluffy Jr.
Better to die fighting monsters, than to live cowering at their feet.
Something soft moved against my side.
Oh my god.
Fluffy Jr. rose to his feet with a loud flapping noise—he towered above me, his head taller than mine. He opened his mouth, and the sound that rumbled out was straight from my memories.
It was the terrifying noise from the back of the menagerie.
Flaps echoed, appendages moved, bright blue feathers shimmered.
Fluffy Jr. bellowed louder—majestic wings protruded from his back.
Mother of God.
Goose bumps exploded across my body.
Augustus had been wrong.
Fluffy Jr. was one of the rare creatures who molted, and he’d just grown wings—they were stunning shades of sparkly blue, straight from lore.
I had in fact bonded with a horse, and it all made sense, he really wasn’t the brightest.
He was a half-breed—part dog, part Pegasus.
His wingspan was at least thirty feet, bigger than the Titans, his feathers glorious.
Fluffy Jr. tipped his head low, as if he was asking me if I was ready, determination and love strumming through our bond.
His intentions were clear.
He bent his body low onto the sand so I could climb on. Holding my blood rod out so I didn’t accidentally cut him, I mounted his back.
I sat at the base of his thick neck, straddling him like a horse.
He rose up to his full height.
Wings flapped downward, air whooshing—we jerkily flew up above the blood-soaked sand.
From my higher vantage point, the world moved in slow motion.
Zeus was standing at the end of his podium, donned in white, holding his scepter—Hades had moved and now stood with Cerberus, blocking Zeus’s path, black toga trailing, fog swirling at his feet.
Gods of a golden era—facing off—in these tragic modern times.
Both were frozen, their heads tipped back as they watched me.
“Behold.” Hades’s voice strummed with pride as he raised his arms wide. “The heiress to the illustrious House of Hades!”
Zeus flinched.
Make Sparta fear you, daughter.
Shrieks echoed as both Titans rose from the sand to meet us in the air—their black patchy wings unfurled wide, and they hovered, toes dragging across the sand—Fluffy Jr. barked, a thunderous, booming warning.
Luminous wings beat faster around me.
The crowd gasped.
We rose higher until we hovered just below the dome of the electric grid.
The Titans matched our height, hovering fifty yards away, monsters in the sky.
Power deserves to be seen.
Far, far away, a little girl freed herself from a rope outside a dilapidated trailer. She ran into the woods, climbed under a fence, and collapsed into a field of wildflowers.
I raised the rod up high.
For her.
Pleasant humming buzzed along my palm.
Shakily, I got to my knees.
I planted my feet and slowly stood up in the middle of Fluffy Jr.’s thick back, rocking back and forth to keep my balance, as his wings flapped.
Gasps echoed.
“Angelus Romae!” people called out from every direction.
Screeeeeeech.
I pointed the end of my rod at the Titans.
They shot toward me, a blur of black.
Everything slowed as blood lust pounded through me, my senses heightening.
I raised my rod and, once again, swung—one Titan screamed, slashed mid-flight. Agony exploded inside my sternum as it dropped like a rock toward the sand.
The other Titan dodged my swing. It turned around midair and streaked toward me.
I leapt forward.
Legs wide, rod extended.
Suspended over free air, I slammed into the remaining Titan.
Everything blurred.
Talons scoured my side. Shrieks echoed. I stabbed it with my rod.
We careened to the side, its patchwork wings struggling to keep the two of us up as I ripped downward with all my might, dragging my rod through its innards.
Air whistled. The sand approached.
The classic Euclidean problem: What is the closest distance between two points? A straight line.
Pressure exploded as we slammed into the sand in a tangled roll.
The world went still.
A loud ringing muffled both of my ears.
Peering groggily through my obstructed eye, everything was fuzzy and out of focus.
I was lying on my side.
Nyx moaned miserably as she shifted around my leg.
A Titan lay limp beside me—a crimson rod was protruding from its open stomach; black blood was everywhere. I was covered in it.
I rolled onto my side, clawing at the sand. I pushed and heaved, fighting gravity.
Thud.
Fluffy Jr. landed beside me.
In a blur of white, he ripped off the Titan’s head—bones crunched and snapped—he tossed it in the air and swallowed it whole.
“Good doggie,” I whispered, digging my fingers deeper into the sand and grabbing my bloody rod with both hands—I yanked it out of the downed Titan.
Hunched over, gripping my side, I barely stood upright.
Agony was a living, throbbing beast.
The arena was spinning.
Fluffy Jr. tipped his head back and howled. The muffling in my ears split; the loud sound filtered in.
The world snapped back into motion.
I scanned the arena with my sliver of vision. Both Titans lay decapitated, organs strewn across the sand.
Nyx moaned in pain.
Her scales were freezing cold around my leg.
Please God, please heal her.
“You’re going to be okay,” I whispered, willing it into existence as I gently pulled her off my leg, holding her in one hand, and the rod in the other.
Dark scales shimmered into existence. A long slice mark had split her body almost in two. She was covered in blood.
I gasped and Fluffy Jr. whimpered beside me.
“Love you … kid,” Nyx hissed weakly.
“No.” Tears poured down my face as I bowed my head and prayed, clutching her to me, waiting for someone to save her.
Scales grew colder against my skin.
My fingers tingled.
The pain in my heart was worse than anything I’d ever experienced when I’d activated my powers. I sank to my knees. Sobbing.
I brought my rod next to my heart beside Nyx, bowed my head lower, and prayed harder, cradling them both.
The tingling in my hands intensified—sharp pain skewered my sternum.
A familiar bright light emanated from my fingers, and the scarlet rod also lit up with a golden glow. It warmed beneath my touch, the circular end shining brighter than the sun.
Scales vibrated where they touched the rod.
Snake skin slowly knit itself back together.
Seconds later, Nyx reared her head back, her body fully healed, as tears of relief streamed down my face.
“So warm,” Nyx hissed as she slithered out of my grasp and wrapped her scales fully around the rod, shuddering with relief, her eyes closed. “I’ve seen this before … in a dream.”
Gray clouds parted as the heavens opened up, golden rays streaming down.
Climbing slowly to my feet, I raised the glowing staff up to the sunlight—Nyx’s black scales shimmered against it in stark relief.
Fluffy Jr. stood up to his full height and unfurled his wings.
A gasp tore from my throat.
It was the crude symbol Ceres had shown me in her book on predestination. The one that had disappeared from the page. The line with a circle was the staff, the squiggle a snake, and what I thought were clouds were wings.
“Radius Asclepii!” someone shouted, awe in their voice.
I choked on a sob.
Everyone knew the story behind the famous Spartan healing symbol.
The wings represented creatures, the snake Chthonics, and the glowing rod Olympians.
Hades was Chthonic. Persephone was the daughter of a dark creature and Demeter.
My heritage was all three.
I raised the Rod of Asclepius up into the light, Fluffy Jr.’s wings raised high on either side.
The ancient symbol of healing—of life and death—was mine to wield.