Chapter 27
Ireach lower and strain to reach his hand. “Use your shadows and get yourself out of this.”
“I can’t. She’ll get away if I use them to save myself. I can’t hold them both.” Jayden shakes his head. “She will tell the queen our position and any surprise we might have had will be gone.”
“I don’t fucking care, Jayden. Use them. We’ll find a way.”
“Jayden,” Raven growls. “Don’t be stupid. If you die, she’ll get away anyway.”
“I have an idea.” I pull my whip out and flick it around Jayden’s waist.
“Are you strong enough to pull him up?” Greyson kneels on my other side.
“I don’t know.” I yank at the whip, but he barely budges.
“Can you transport to him and bring him back that way?” Raven frowns.
“Maybe but you guys will have to hold him with the whip.” I glare down at the chasm. “I’m going to have to be fast, but you guys need to be ready for anything.”
“Don’t, Beth. It’s too dangerous.” Jayden’s hand slips.
“Shut up. I’m not letting you die here.” I glance at the others. “Are you ready?”
“We’ve got this.” Raven takes the whip from me. “Go get him. We can’t do this without him.”
I nod and the world spins for only a second before I wrap my arms around Jayden and transport back to solid ground. Jayden wraps his arms around me and presses his nose into my neck.
“You’re okay, you stubborn idiot.” I shake my head. “Why didn’t you just allow her to escape? We would have dealt with it.”
“I’m not making you choose me over the possibility of succeeding in this mission,” he whispers.
“That’s stupid, Jayden.” I grip his shoulders. “You’re not allowed to die.”
“I’m about fifty percent sure that fall wouldn’t have killed me.”
“Stubborn ass,” I grumble.
“Your stubborn ass.” He kisses me hard.
“You guys are disgusting. Keep it PG until we get out of this,” Raven snarks.
“Shut it. I thought he was going to die,” I snap back at her.
“Sorry, B. Yeah, that was insensitive. I would have been the same way, but we need to keep moving.”
“You’re right. Let’s get out of here.” I grip Jayden’s hand and tug him to the next tunnel.
“I guess the left was the correct tunnel if they had someone waiting for us there.” Raven stows her sword.
“Yeah, it appears you were right.” I glance at her over my shoulder.
“Don’t tell her that. She has a big enough ego as it is,” Dax scoffs.
“It’s not ego when it’s true, dear brother.” Raven flips her hair.
“Sure it’s not.” Dax shakes his head.
“Everyone be on alert. The Minotaur is no doubt here somewhere and my guess is he’s waiting just outside the door to the forge. One last line of defense to keep us away from the throne.” I scan the maze ahead of us.
A low bleating noise from deeper in the tunnels reaches my ears. “Shit. He’s not far away now.”
Hooves stamp the closer we get to the Minotaur. It’s obviously antsy waiting for us to show our faces and kill it.
“Stop,” I whisper. “We need to figure out what our next move is from here. Artemis said it will be stronger here, so we need a game plan.”
“We won’t know what the plan will be until we face him.” Jayden shakes his head.
“We’ve faced him before, but I’m afraid that what Artemis said is going to make this harder than the last few times.” I lean back against the craggy stone.
“We’re stronger now too, though. Maybe it won’t be as hard as we are making it out to be. It’s the Minotaur. It can’t be that bad.” Raven pats my shoulder.
My stomach growls loudly and the pacing and bleating stops. “Shit, he heard my damn stomach.”
“I guess any time we had to come up with a plan is gone. Let’s finish this and finally be done. One way or another.” Jayden pulls me in for a searing kiss.
“Beth,” Adrian calls softly. “You can do this. Just follow your instincts. I know you’ll make the right choice.”
“Don’t you start with me too, Adrian. There is no choice at this point. We haven’t come this far to fuck it all up in the end.” I run a hand down my face.
“There is no choice. You and Nereus need to stop pushing her. The only choice is to end this once and for all,” Jayden snarls, crowding Adrian.
“I know, but my dad and the fates were screaming in my head, telling me to remind her.” Adrian shakes his head.
I step between them, putting my hands on each of their chests and shoving them back. “Stop fighting. Forget Apollo, Nereus, and the fates. They aren’t here. They aren’t the ones who can save everything. We are, and we will all do whatever is necessary.”
“Sorry, baby. I’m sick of the pressure everyone is putting on you to make the right choice. You don’t have to fucking choose. The choice will always be the world.” Jayden kisses my forehead and pulls me into his arms.
“I don’t know that it will be that simple when it comes down to it,” I whisper.
A roar vibrates through the maze, and I flinch. He is searching for us. He’s coming to bring the fight to us, and we can’t let that happen.
“He’s coming, B,” Raven calls. “What do you want to do?”
“We need to head him off at the pass. I want to be at the door to the forge when we face him.” I spin out of Jayden’s arms and race in the direction of his hoof steps.
“Beth, wait. We need a plan.” Jayden jogs behind me.
“We don’t. We wing it like we do everything else.”
“Incoming,” Raven yells.
Thunderous hoof beats follow her warning, and the Minotaur roars a battle cry as he comes into view.
“Does he look bigger down here than normal?” I ask, tightening my grip on my weapons.
“Maybe it’s the enclosed space that’s making him appear bigger?” Jayden asks, unsure.
“Maybe? Or maybe this is part of what Artemis was saying about him being stronger?” I duck as a meaty fist swings for my head.
I kick out, cracking his knee and a bellow of pain rocks the maze as debris falls from the ceiling. I roll away as the Minotaur stomps his foot where my head just was.
“You think you can just stomp on me?” I laugh. “You remember the last couple times we fought? It’s not gonna be that easy.”
“How about we don’t taunt the overgrown fleabag,” Jayden shouts.
“But it’s so much fun.” I flick my whip out at the beast, electricity crackling along the edges.
It singes him but my electricity doesn’t work on him the way it does with other monsters, and he roars again, angry and agitated.
“I don’t think this is working, B.” Raven dodges when the beast swings on her. “We need to end this once and for all.”
“My electricity only works on him if there is water involved and like hell am I ever doing that again.” I stow my whip in the ether and adjust the grip on my sword.
The Minotaur lunges forward but I swipe my sword out keeping him back. A thin line of blood drips down his torso and steam pours from his snout as glowing red eyes regard me with hate.
“C’mon, asshole. You know I can beat you without my magic.” I lunge forward and the raging bull doesn’t have an opportunity to block.
I yank my blade from his arm and spin out of the way as he reaches out to crush me with his other hand. If he gets a hand on me, I’m dead. I have to keep moving.
“We need to cut off its head,” Raven shouts.
“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 an oof on 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.
Everyone’s hands glow the color of their godly parent as they follow our direction and place their palms on the door. I glance at Draven, nodding once.
“Do your thing, magician,” I whisper.
Draven squeezes his eyes closed and a soft green glow lights around his hands. It pulses in the shadows of the maze as long minutes pass with nothing happening. My shoulders slump in defeat only a second before a click blasts through the silent maze and gears grind against each other.
The doors swing open slowly and I blink at the bright-gold everywhere. “Well, that’s disorienting.”
“Don’t touch anything,” Adrian warns. “It could come to life and attack us.”
“Good point.” I turn to Kira. “You gonna be okay?”
“This is amazing.” Kira steps forward almost in a trance. “My father’s greatest creations are here.”
“We can’t touch anything, Kira. You did hear Adrian, right?” I grab her hand as she reaches for something.
“But I’m his daughter. Maybe I can touch it without it coming to life?” she asks, still in a daze.
“Dax, Draven, can you guys please keep her from touching anything? I don’t want to take any chances here.” I wave them over.
Each of them grabs a hand and they form a wall around her and anything she might want to touch and make this all a lot harder. The thought of anything stopping us now is unfathomable.
“This place is huge. How are we supposed to find the throne in here?” Raven spins in a circle, her arms out to her sides.
“Maybe we should split up and look for it?” Thad asks.
“I don’t know. That sounds like a recipe for disaster.” I shake my head.
“If we stick together, we could be too late to stop her, B. This place is massive. It could take days to search.”
“We don’t have days, Beth,” Adrian says. “Splitting up is the best way we can stop her for good.”
“Fine, but I don’t like this. It feels like a setup to split us up and destroy us one by one.” I rub my eyes with the heel of my palms. “Kira, can you feel anything? Maybe a direction we should go?”
“Huh?” Kira blinks at me. “No, I’m a little overwhelmed with everything.”
“Okay then. I guess we’re splitting up,” I grumble. “Kira, you, Dax, and Draven go that way but don’t touch anything or we’ll be in some serious trouble.”
“We’ve got her. She won’t touch anything,” Draven says.
“We’ll go this way.” I point to the left down a long wide hall lined with trinkets and pieces of machinery I couldn’t begin to try to name.
“I’m coming with you.” Raven steps up next to me. “No way are you guys doing this on your own.”
“We don’t even know if we’ll find the throne. It will be fine.”
“You took the most likely location.” Raven raises a brow at me. “The left.”
“I literally just looked at the hall and decided it was the most probable place.” I shake my head. “It had nothing to do with which direction to go.”
“But it’s still to the left.”
“You’re ridiculous. Let’s go. Adrian?” I turn to him and Thad.
“I know which way we’ll go.” Adrian waves Thad to a smaller hallway to the right.
“This could all blow up in our faces and end in destruction.”