Page 113 of Hades' Shadow
The poor dryads would suffer terribly.
“There aren’t any dryads here, right?” I ask Jayden.
“No, the trees aren’t alive since nothing in the underworld is. The dryads are reborn when their trees die.” Jayden shrugs.
Raven races past us with a frown.
“Are you guys done chatting? Because we could use some help here,” she shouts.
“Yo, give me a break. I nearly died, twice in the last ten minutes.” I throw up my hand.
Jayden still has the other held securely in his as we pick our way across the last branch and are finally on solid ground again.
As soon as I get my feet beneath me, I crouch in a fighting stance. Adrian is darting back and forth between the golem’s legs, keeping the giant’s eyes glued to him so we can get our bearings.
I grip my whip, pulling from that well of magic deep inside, and let the bright-blue electricity crackle over the whip until it’s almost white.
“I need to get higher,” I say as I glance around at the tall trees.
“What are you thinking, B?” Raven asks as she steps up next to me.
“The hydra,” I say, not explaining it fully.
“What about the hydra?” Jayden asks with a frown.
He only recently started speaking to me after the battle at the academy, so I haven’t told him how I defeated that particular monster.
“If I can get high enough, then maybe I can wrap my whip around its neck and fry him the way I did the hydra’s heads.” I shrug.
Raven chews her lip before turning wide eyes on me. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Those trees don’t look very sturdy.”
“Adrian isn’t going to last forever racing between the thing’s legs. We need to act now.” I glance between the two of them.
Jayden scrubs a hand down his face. “Let me try first. My hellfire may help.”
“We can both go,” I say.
It will take too much time to get me up there if the hellfire doesn’t work on the giant.
“I don’t think the trees will hold us,” Jayden says, peering up at the trees.
“If we start to fall, then you can shadow us out of there.” I stride toward the nearest tree.
Its trunk is huge, but they are right. The closer to the top they get, the smaller and thinner the branches become.
“Fine,” Jayden says and wraps his arms around me.
The cool kiss of his shadows caress my skin, making me shiver as they swirl around us both.
We land on the top of the nearest tree and I peer out at the back of the giant’s head.
He’s scanning the ground, trying to keep his gaze trained on Adrian as he zips between his legs faster than I thought possible.
“Adrian, get out of the way,” I call down to him.
The golem spins, searching the ground for me. He can’t tell where exactly we are.
“Hellfire, Jayden,” I whisper.
