Page 28 of Hades' Shadow
“I pay close attention. Your class has saved my ass several times.” I shrug and Raven nods.
“I’m glad to hear that my class is useful. You have no idea how many students think it’s a useless class of dusty books and old facts.” Cross shakes his head.
“With someone reviving all the old monsters?” I say with a frown.
“Many of them hadn’t seen it before the battle. They didn’t have monsters chasing them because they weren’t as strong as you.” Cross waves a hand, opening a cabinet with the other.
“True.” I sigh. “It’s probably why we keep getting chosen for these damn missions.”
Raven nudges my shoulder. “Most of the students here wouldn’t last five minutes on a recovery mission.”
“Yes, this is a fact,” Cross says as he pulls an ancient rolled scroll from the cabinet.
He brings it over to a cluttered table and frowns down at the books and papers littering the space.
Moving to help him, I shuffle papers and grab a few books before he can do something crazy like swipe them all onto the floor. It would be cool to see but a mess to clean up later.
Raven and Adrian jump in to help, and we quickly have the table cleared for Cross to roll out the map. It’s huge.
“This should work out nicely for your purposes.” Cross stares down at the intricate map. “You have been studying the ancient language as well, right?”
“It’s difficult, but yes. I have been studying that carefully as well. You never know when you might need it.” I nod, leaning over the map, taking in all the landmarks, and though I don’t know all the words, I can make out some of the scribbles.
“I think I can work with this, but I will need my ancient language textbook,” I say softly.
I’m in awe of this map and it almost feels disrespectful to speak loudly around it.
It’s stupid but that’s how it feels.
Cross rolls the map back up carefully and goes back over to the cabinet, searching for something.
“The map will help but most of the maps and stories of the region are based a lot on mythology, so we don’t have anything that’s exactly the way it was. If you are trying to connect to places in our country, then it makes it even harder because we are so much bigger than Greece even in ancient times.”
“So, this isn’t going to be easy. That figures,” Raven groans.
“You really thought saving the world was going to be easy?” I scoff.
Cross shakes his head, pulling a book reverently from the shelf. It’s also ancient, with yellowing pages and gold filigree on the cover.
“The History of the Gods and Their Power,” I read the gold leaf.
“It’s the only book of its kind, given to me by Poseidon to keep safe. Be very careful and do not let it fall into the wrong hands.” Cross hands me the book.
I take it gingerly, holding it like it’s a snake poised to strike. “Are you sure about this?”
I hold the book out to him, but he holds out a hand stopping me. “That book will help along with the map. Just be careful with it.”
I widen my eyes at Raven and Adrian. Fuck, he’s trusting me with a lot by giving me the priceless fucking ancient book.
I just hope his trust isn’t misplaced. We need this if we have any hope of finding out who is weakening the gods and attempting to take over the world.
Again, no pressure.
7
“Ineed to stash these in my room.” I nod to the ancient map and priceless book as we walk out of Cross’ office.
“Are you sure that’s safe?” Adrian asks with a lifted brow.
