Chapter 21
Iclench my hands in fists at my sides as I turn away from Mia. “She couldn’t possibly have that type of weapon, right?”
“I don’t know. Just ignore Mia and let’s do what we need to and assess who is here by choice or not.” Jayden squeezes my hip.
None of the demigods in the cells are all that familiar to me since they all left pretty quickly once lines were drawn in the sand. I glance over at a girl who is vaguely familiar as one of the Hermes students from that first mission.
“You left because you were scared to fight. What happened?” I ask.
“I changed my mind.” She flips her hair. “I can fight for something I actually believe in.”
“She’s being controlled. She wouldn’t even go to the wards to keep everyone safe because she was too much of a coward. There’s no way she came to this battle of her own free will.” I hold up the charm Apollo gifted to me and use my magic to knock her out. “She will wake up confused but normal.”
I wave someone over to remove her from her cell and an automaton steps up to the cell, opening it and lifting the girl easily.
“Take her to the dorm building. The Hermes floor should have a bed for her since that’s her parent.” I wave a hand.
A chorus of shouts fill the room, people trying to be released by saying they are being controlled. I laugh as Mia tries the same.
“Jayden, you know I love you. I would never willingly take the opposite side of the war as you. You have to believe me; I was controlled by the queen too.”
“You aren’t going anywhere.” I laugh at her. “You’ve done too much damage for me to believe for one second it wasn’t because of your delusion or desperation. Probably both.”
“Shut the fuck up. You are nothing but Zeus’ puppet and Hera will clip your strings. Just wait. When the gods are defeated, you will die, and then Jayden will be mine,” Mia screams.
“The only way that will ever happen is if the queen controls me and takes away my free will, but you know what? That’s not possible now because of Apollo’s help.” Jayden’s shadows pulse up and down his arms.
“Calm down, baby. She can’t hurt us.” I wrap my arms around Jayden and Mia screams.
I use the charm and swing it around the room in a wide arc, using my magic to guide the charm to those who have actually been controlled. More than half the people in the cells are under mind control and pass out from the power. Mia, unsurprisingly, doesn’t stop screeching.
“Pull anyone who passed out on contact with my magic, and we’ll figure out where to put them later. The ones faking or still awake can stay here until the gods can come get them.” I wave over the half dozen automatons waiting for instruction.
“Put them in the first-floor common room for now. It’s a sort of a triage for the injured and healers,” Jayden says.
“Take his commands as if they’re mine,” I say just in case. “I have the charm that called them so I have to tell them or they may just shove the students wherever.”
“That makes sense.” Jayden kisses my temple.
“Let’s go see the shifters and assess the wards.” I sigh. “There’s so much to do.”
“I told you to rest, love. You said no until you assess things here. We can go to bed if you’ve changed your mind.” Jayden buries his nose in my neck.
“Not going to happen.” I laugh, shoving him away. “I asked the shifters to come so I need to know they are all okay here.”
“Fine,” Jayden grumbles. “Let’s go see the dogs.”
“Jayden, that was rude. Some of our best friends are shifters.” I smack him in the chest.
“Some of? Who else do you count besides Greyson?” Jayden’s brows tip down.
“Oh, right, you weren’t there for that reveal. Kira is half shifter. Her wolf is gorgeous; her fur has flames in it.” I grin.
“What the hell happened on this mission?” he asks.
“So much.” I glance away as the rogues’ screams fill my ears.
“You’re going to have to tell me what happened. Eventually you’re going to need to talk about it or it’s going to haunt you the way the island did for months.” He pulls me into his side.
“It’s going to haunt me forever whether I talk about it or not, Jayden.” I nuzzle into his side. “I promise, I’ll tell you when I know everything is okay here.”
We walk the rest of the way to the wards in silence and find several large tents set up just on the other side. Tristan spots us first and bounds over like a puppy.
“Beth, you’re back. Is that why the monsters fled with their tails between their legs?” Tristan grins.
“It wasn’t because of me but the army I brought with me.” I shake my head but I’m smiling.
He thinks far too highly of me.
“Sure, it was because of the army.” He rolls his eyes. “It’s not like you haven’t killed them all before.”
“Some of them multiple times. Which reminds me, did that big ugly bastard show up again?” I ask Jayden.
“You know? I don’t think I saw the Minotaur this time. Weird.” Jayden tilts his head to the side.
“It’s too much to hope that he was actually defeated the last time. He will probably come back when they attack again because they will definitely regroup.” I scan the tents set up around the perimeter.
“We’ll sound the alarm when they do. You won’t be caught unawares.” Tristan puffs out his chest.
“Having you guys out here on the perimeter probably saved a lot of lives. The warning howl gave us time to prepare even while you held them off.” Jayden holds his hand out for Tristan to shake.
“You have been friends to the wolves since we all learned about each other. Of course we came to help.” Tristan nods.
“Where’s Artemis?” I ask. “I would have thought she would be out here with her children.”
“She had to go to Olympus. There’s some kind of hell beast that she and Orion have to hunt or it could end the gods forever,” Tristan says. “She gave the wolves here a blessing before she left that helped us in battle.”
“You look a little starstruck, Tristan.” I laugh.
“I met the moon goddess. Of course I’m starstruck.” Tristan crosses his arms over his chest.
“Greyson,” a familiar voice shouts and I turn to find Grant with several of his enforcers running toward us.
“Grant. I didn’t think you would come. I thought you said you were sending people.” Greyson hugs his younger brother.
“This guy called to let me know he was coming into my territory for the battle, and I couldn’t just send a group of enforcers like I was too good to get my hands dirty.” Grant nods toward Tristan.
“Sure, it had nothing to do with me telling you that Artemis was here.” Tristan shakes his head.
“Not at all.” Grant’s cheeks turn pink.
“Sure, buddy.” Greyson shoves his brother’s shoulder. “I honestly don’t understand the hype. That goddess has gotten us in so much trouble in the past.”
“She’s helped us a lot too, though.” I point a finger at him.
“Probably just to make up for the damn zoo incident,” Greyson grumbles.
“You went to the zoo?” Grant asks, horror stark in his features.
“You know that’s no place for a wolf shifter.” Tristan has a similar shocked expression.
“Yeah, especially when a crazy goddess tricks you into releasing all the animals,” Greyson grunts.
“You guys are okay, though? You didn’t lose anyone, right?” I ask, glancing between Grant and Tristan.
“Nah, all accounted for. Our moon goddess made sure of that with her blessing.” Tristan grins.
“My people and the few that Randall was able to send are all accounted for and in good spirits. Most of us have never seen a real battle so a lot of them are excited to survive their first battle.” Grant laughs.
“Battle isn’t fun,” I say. “People die in battle.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat. The rogue’s wide dead eyes flash in my mind. Now that the fighting and the urgency are over, the horror of what I did is popping up more and more.
“You look wiped out, Beth. Go rest. We’ve got this and will warn you guys if any monsters come back,” Grant says and pats my shoulder.
“Thanks. I just had to make the rounds to see for myself all is well.” I shrug.
“We’re good. Go rest. This war isn’t over, I’m sure of it.” Tristan dips his head in a nod to me.
“Thanks,” I say as the sky darkens and thunder rumbles overhead. “Shit, the gods war is spilling over into our weather.”
“We had a feeling something like this would happen. It’s been happening on and off for the last few days while you were gone.” Jayden wraps an arm around me.
“There are going to be storms. Are you guys sure you’ll be okay out here in tents?” I ask.
“We’re shifters. If anything, we’ll take fur and keep ourselves warm and dry that way. We’re good, Beth,” Tristan says.
“Okay.” I let Jayden turn me around to walk back to the academy.
“What happened?” Jayden asks.
“Not yet. Get to the dorms first. Raven and Kira will just tell me again how I had no choice, and I can’t handle that again.” I shrug.
“You didn’t have a choice, B. We don’t know what your blood would have done to him.” Raven jogs up to my side.
“Shit. I think I know what happened or at least an idea.” Jayden tightens his arm around me. “Logic isn’t helpful in this situation, Raven. I know you’re trying to help, but that’s not going to help right now.”
Jayden sweeps me up into his arms and his shadows wrap around us, spinning us through time and space.
“Tell me everything.” Jayden swipes the hair out of my eyes.
“It was just the whole mission, Jayden. I got speared by an automaton and dropped off a mountain that turned out to be a fucking giant. And I killed a rogue. Not out of fear for my life but out of fear of what he would become if I didn’t.” I bury my face in his chest.
“Did he attack you?” Jayden asks.
He’s too calm for this conversation. Why isn’t he staring me down with disgust or calling me a heartless killer? Those are apt descriptions of me right now.
“He raked his claws down my back and got my gold blood on him, Jayden. I threw him off me. He wasn’t attacking when I made the decision to kill him.” My tears stream down my face, soaking his torn shirt.
“He was exposed to your goddess blood, and you said he was a rogue.” Jayden rubs soothing circles on my back.