Page 85 of The Hellbeast's Betrayal

“Then we are in agreement, the plan is for me to get to Ella and try and get her back.”

“Only then do we have any hope of winning this war, as with Garmr unable to use Ella, then his forces will be weakened,” Lucius agreed, making his wife nudge him.

“You mean as the dead remain dead,” she said in response, making Lucius wink at her again.

“Then I should go and ensure that our men are ready,” Dom said, giving his own wife’s shoulder a squeeze.

“And I better go tell Pip not to wear a bra,” Keira said, making Amelia laugh. And well, the joke wasn’t lost on any of us, as we all knew from experience that the only way for Abaddon to calm down from one of his rampages was to chase his wife naked somewhere.

Which officially made it the strangest way to end a battle plan.

* * *

This time,my brother refused to allow me to go alone, as he wanted to ensure I didn’t do anything stupid if this all went to shit like last time. This ended in me trying to argue, something he refused to listen to, as he told me,

“Shut the fuck up, I am coming and that’s that!”

Then he walked away, giving Marcus cause to look smug and comment,

“I guess he’s going then.”

I could do nothing but grit my teeth. Because I knew that when Orthrus was like this and his mind was set, there was no use trying to change it. As for our side, we had pulled together all the resources we could in the short time we had. But it was like Dom had said, most that were willing to join the fight, were too far away to get here in time. And time was definitely of the essence. Something we discovered the next day when scouts returned with news.

It seemed as though we hadn’t been the only ones busy in the week that had gone by in my absence. Because it turned out that even if we had wanted to wait for more men, that was no longer an option. Not seeing as now Garmr had decided to…

Bring the fight to us.

His enormous army was on its way, which meant that we had no choice but to meet him head on. However, it did give me an idea, because the scouts mentioned what road they were taking. Making me now run into the war room to find the Kings making the final preparations to their plans. Originally, each King was to lead a different section of the army, in hopes of taking them side on, and splitting up their legions. This was a risky strategy on our part, as it meant dividing up our numbers and taking out the chance of a head on attack like Garmr would want.

But what if there was another way to control their side. Hence the first thing I said when stepping inside was,

“I have an idea.” I then walked to the table, looking down on that huge map of the Underworld. One that now had markers of each side. Garmr’s in green and ours in red, to represent our own force. My eyes scanned for the area I knew they were taking, and I lifted up one of our markers and put it down at the Valley of the Gods.

“We fight here,” I stated, making Dom and Lucius look at each other, as if they knew where I was going with this.

“But what if he doesn’t take this route?” Seth asked, leaning in.

“Then we will have to encourage it,” I said, not yet knowing how.

“And why here?” Tyr was next to ask.

“Because it will offer us a swift way out if we need to retreat,” Dom said, already on the same page.

“Garmr would not fight in a bottle neck,” Clay pointed out.

“No, he wouldn’t choose to, but he will if he has no choice, and he will continue to do so if he thinks he is winning and wishes to foolishly give chase,” I replied.

“And what will happen when he does?” Amelia asked, making me point to one of the giant statues the Valley of the Gods were full of.

“We use these,” I said, making realization dawn on her face.

“And if you’re wrong about the route, we will have our entire army stationed in a place that will be difficult to escape from if they come at us from behind,” Clay said, crossing his big black arms across his chest, being at nearly the same size as my brother.

“Not if we force him to take that route,” I said, thinking of a way where he would have no choice. “What if we lure out Lernaean?” I added, knowing its lair was close enough so that all we would need was a little bait to keep her interested and reason enough to get closer to the riverbank. Once provoked, she could take out fifty men with one strike.

“That could work, but we would need a lot of fucking bait to keep it out hunting near the river,” Lucius pointed out, and he wasn’t wrong there, as it wouldn’t leave its nest for anything less than a decent meal.

“What about the Cerastes, they burrow this time of year and all we would need to do is set fire to their tunnels,” I replied the second it came to me.

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