Chapter 23 #2
“You think you can keep these bastards between us and Heracles?” I ask Draven.
“I’ll stay as wide right as I can so they can’t get on the other side.” He grips the reins.
“We can both block the left side to take them out faster,” I whisper.
The men in the chariot next to ours are leering at me and Raven and licking rotten teeth. That’s just outright disgusting. I glance over my shoulder at Jayden whose shadows are swirling around him in a chaotic mess of anger.
“It’s okay, baby,” I yell to him. “They won’t have eyes in a few minutes.”
Jayden smirks at the men who scoff and chuckle like what I said couldn’t possibly be true. I crack the whip experimentally and sparks swirling black and white bounce from the ground outside the chariot. Shit. That’s new.
“They won’t have tongues either,” Raven says. “That display was revolting.”
“You think you can play chariot race with real warriors, girl? I’ll show you what we do to women who think they can handle a real man and win,” the defender closest to us jeers. “I’ll make you use that tongue for other things.”
Jayden lunges as Adrian and Thad grip his arms to hold him inside the shield Apollo made for them. I shake my head at him, begging him to stay where he is and not lose control. I roll my eyes at myself as I remember our mind link.
Stay calm, baby. You know I’ve got this. My whip will pluck their eyes from their ugly skulls. Or I can electrocute him in his tiny dick.
Make them suffer, my love. Jayden smirks as the others glance between us, but he finally calms and Adrian and Thad release him.
“On your mark,” Apollo bellows.
Raven and I take our positions shoulder to shoulder, hiding Draven completely on the left side. If he can keep us against the wall of the arena, we can completely defend him on both sides. It’s the perfect positioning and the perfect plan.
Heracles nods and I take that to mean he knows what we’re up to and is willing to herd the competitors to us so we can keep the right side blocked. At least for now. Once the others are out of the way, all bets are off.
“Let the mayhem begin,” Apollo cackles.
The man in the chariot next to us lunges for me, anger and something else in his eyes as he makes a grab for me.
I lash out with my whip and swirling sparks slash across his eyes.
He screams, loses his balance, and falls to the ground beneath the wheels of his own chariot.
There’s a sickening crack and the body dissolves.
“The driver isn’t fully protected,” Raven says with a grin.
“Shove the end of the javelin into the spokes of their wheel. It might throw them off-balance enough to go flying out of the chariot,” I say as I ready my whip for my attack.
I flick my crackling whip and it wraps around the driver’s throat. I pull it back with all of my strength, even as the man screams and gurgles. He claws at the whip to get free and the reins slip from his hands.
The horses rear and unsettle the chariot. The man defending the other side crashes into the other defenders’ chariot and is impaled on their defenders’ sword. He dissolves into nothing, going back to Hades.
“First blood and the first losing chariot goes to Beth, daughter of Zeus,” Apollo shouts.
“Well, they aren’t underestimating us anymore, B. Thanks, Apollo,” Raven grumbles.
I shoot the other competitors a savage grin and flick my whip at the ties to the horses, cutting them loose. The chariot stops as the horses run off the track and through the door at the end of the arena, vanishing from sight.
The chariot next to us is giving us a wide berth, not closing the gap left by the previous chariot, which gives me a few seconds to breathe before Heracles’ chariot driver swerves to his right, forcing the others to either crash into each other or close the gap.
The chariot swerves and the right defender curses as he holds up his sword to block my strike, either forgetting what I did with my whip before or just not thinking.
My whip flies toward his sword arm and he shouts in pain as sparks dance along his skin where it wraps around his forearm. I yank him forward, and his sword clatters to the ground beneath the chariot.
“Oops. Looks like you lost your sword,” I say.
“Beth, look out,” Draven yells as a ball of magic hurtles toward me.
I throw up my shield at the last second but my concentration shifts from the opponent in front of me and that costs me. A small blade glints in the man’s other hand, and he slashes it at my stomach. I twist but the blade still knicks my skin, sending a trail of fire across my nerve endings.
“Fuck,” I yelp and stumble back, clutching my stomach.
“Poisoned blade, courtesy of the queen. Die, bitch.” The man laughs but it cuts off into a gurgle as Raven’s sword cuts clean through his neck.
“Focus, Beth. Get the pack,” Raven shouts as she throws a spear at the driver.
He blocks the spear with a blast of magic, sending it shooting back at Raven. She catches it with one hand before it can impale her on the end. She would not be happy if she was injured by her own weapon.
“Get the fucking pack off your back now, damn it,” Raven snarls and turns to the driver. “I’m a daughter of Ares, moron. You really think you can best me with weapons?”
I glance up and notice that of the four chariots, only two now remain between us and Heracles. I need to get the bag off my shoulder and get the elixir before I die for real. My hands shake and my breathing grows labored as the poison works its way through my system faster than should be possible.
My hands fumble with the straps on my bag as I try to pull it open. This is going to be harder than I thought. My hands are trembling.
“Bring it to me,” Draven says. “Can you scoot to me? I can help.”
“Just… drive,” I say through wheezing breaths.
“Beth, I swear to the gods themselves you better have drops from that elixir on your tongue in the next five seconds or I’m going to say fuck that plinth and do it for you,” Raven roars.
With shaking hands, I grip the bottle and open it. I hold the dropper over my mouth to squeeze the drops in but the chariot lurches and the bottle flies out of my hands. It crashes to the floor and shards explode in every direction.
“No,” Raven bellows and launches one attack after another at the driver of their chariot until finally a spear hits home right through his throat and he disappears.
Draven tightens his grip on the reins. “Beth, focus. You still have the dropper. Bring it to your tongue right the fuck now.”
I try but I can’t lift my arms. They are heavy weights like lead.
“I can’t,” I slur my words.
“Yes, you can, Beth. Try harder,” Draven demands. “I’ll stop this fucking chariot to do it if I have to.”
I glare down at the arm in question, begging, pleading, and eventually commanding it to move but it refuses to budge. I can’t do it. It’s numb.
“Can you lean forward and grip the dropper with your lips?” Draven asks.
I smack my lips together. They tingle a bit but that just means I still have some feeling in them. Bending at the waist, I grope with my mouth for the end of the dropper. Once I have the dropper between my teeth, I suck a few drops from it as I tilt my head back.
A rush of warmth and healing washes through my body and stitches up the wound in my stomach. My arms tingle as if they were asleep and not completely dead weight only seconds ago.
“Fuck, that poison was nasty. I wish I could bring him back so I can kill him all over again,” I say.
“There’s more people to kill in his place,” Raven says as she dodges a sword strike.
There’s only one chariot between us and Heracles now and they are spread thin between us both attacking at the same time. Draven keeps the chariot steady as we round the bend.
“Beth, watch out,” Draven roars, but it’s too late.
A bolt of magic hits me in the same side I just healed and I slam into the edge of the chariot. Black spots tint my vision and in the distance, a feral roar fills my mind as blackness washes over me and I fall into oblivion.