Page 67 of Hades' Shadow
The naked women cower on the floor away from Jayden. “O told us to lock the door and run.”
“O?” I ask softly.
“That’s what he goes by now.” Jayden shrugs. “Give me the keys and run like hell.”
They don’t ask questions as they toss the keys to Jayden and scramble out of the room. They don’t even stop to grab clothes. That’s going to be a problem.
Jayden finds the right key and puts it into the lock. “Weapons ready. We have no idea what we will find in here.”
Dread pools in my belly as he opens the door, and we face the gates to the underworld.
15
“Fuck,” Jayden yells as he sprints to the gate. An eerie red glow pours from the door that the large man is trying to keep shut.
A clawed hand wraps around the door, pushing it back toward us.
“What do we do?” I glance between Adrian and Raven.
“I don’t think there is much we can do except be ready for the escape,” Adrian replies, nocking an arrow.
Right. We just have to try to kill demons that can’t be killed right now. Makes perfect sense.
I roll my whip, holding it at my side in a white-knuckle grip, and crouch into a fighting stance.
Jayden is at the door, his shadows lashing out at anything that tries to come in, but they just keep coming.
“If more than one tries to push through at the same time, we are screwed,” I whisper to Raven and Adrian.
“Yeah, be ready.” Raven pulls her ax from thin air.
“They can’t be stupid like this forever,” Adrian agrees.
Jayden growls, “Go back to the underworld, assholes. You don’t belong here.”
He wraps the demon that is trying to escape in chains and hellfire sprouts from them. The demon bellows in pain as it bursts into flames.
“Neat trick, kid.” Orpheus grins but doesn’t take his focus off the door he’s holding closed.
Jayden rolls his eyes but keeps wrapping the oncoming demons in his fire and they all explode into dust. He’s breathing heavily by the time he turns to us with a grin.
“Jayden, watch out,” I scream, lashing out with my whip at the demon that’s about to attack him from behind.
Fuck these stupid bastards for being cowards and always coming at him when his back is turned. I can’t give him any more of the elixir tonight because it could hurt him.
The whip wraps around the demon’s neck and it explodes into ash when I unleash my electricity on it.
Jayden turns, grimacing at the pile of ash on the ground. “That was close, but how do we close the entrance?”
“I have an idea.” I jog across the room to the gate. “Can your chains hold it closed? It’s the power of the underworld, right?”
“I don’t know how long they will hold though, and if I’m going into the underworld, it will drain me to use magic here.” He shakes his head.
“Not that I’m not grateful for the help, but what are you kids doing here?” Orpheus straightens.
“One second and we’ll get to that.” I hold up a finger to the millennia-old man and turn my focus back to Jayden. “Can you hold it on this side while we have a chat, then when we are ready to go, block it from the other side, so it doesn’t drain you as much?”
Jayden’s eyes hold mine for long seconds. There’s a grunt to my left but I don’t dare break Jayden’s stare.
