Page 77 of Hades' Shadow
“You okay? I’m not crushing you, right?” His eyes widen and he sits up abruptly.
“No, I’m good. Thank you. I didn’t particularly want to take a swim,” I say with a chuckle.
“You do not want to swim in any river in the underworld.” He holds out a hand to help me up and I take it gratefully.
The boat suddenly jerks to a stop, and I scan the water. Is there a damn creature in front of us stopping our progress?
I grip my blade a little tighter.
“It’s okay, Beth. We reached the shore.” Jayden grins and pushes my sword hand down.
“No more boats,” I hiss at him as he steps out of the boat.
“No more boats until we go back,” Jayden says with a grin.
He holds his arms out to me and after only a second of hesitation, I let him lift me out of the boat onto solid ground.
“I have never been so happy to be on dry land,” I say with a sigh of relief.
“You’re being a bit dramatic, Beth.” Jayden chuckles.
Raven curses, jumping out of the boat and staring at me with wide eyes.
“One of my bags is gone,” she says, pacing.
“Which bag?” I ask.
“The bag with food in it. I had it on the boat but one of those creatures must have gotten it when we were fighting.” She scrubs a hand over her face in frustration.
“This is not fucking good at all.” I grip the back of my neck. “We still have the rest, right?”
“I think Raven’s is the only one missing,” Jayden says, holding up our bags.
Adrian nods as he jumps out of the boat and Charon starts the trek back to the entrance.
“I’ve got both of mine. Hopefully we won’t be here long enough to run out of food,” Adrian says with a shrug.
“Do you guys want to take a break and check the packs before we go farther? No telling what we may run into here,” I say, eyeing the group.
They all nod and I flop down on the hard-packed dirt.
I think I just decided that I officially hate boats. I open my bag and check that the contents are still there. We are running a little low on the elixir since Jayden and I have both already needed it tonight.
“Why didn’t they come after you, Jayden?” I ask absently.
“People say I reek of death.” He shrugs and sits next to me.
That’s a lie. Jayden doesn’t smell like death. I like his smell. It’s probably just assholes being cruel.
“It more likely has to do with you being the son of Hades.” I roll my eyes at him.
“You don’t think I smell like death?” he asks with a small smirk.
That is a completely loaded question. My cheeks heat and I turn away.
Raven scoffs, “People are assholes. You don’t smell like death.”
I turn my attention back to my bag, checking that everything is there. We can’t afford to lose anything else. The loss of Raven’s food makes me nervous and twitchy.
