Page 18 of Hades' Shadow
Raven sticks her tongue out at the nearest tree and strides forward behind Cross. I swear a soft snicker meets my ears as a root reaches up from the ground, tripping her. She stumbles and growls. “Fucking dryads.”
“C’mon, Raven. Let’s just keep quiet until we get to this lake,” I say, helping her up from the ground.
The rest of the walk through the forest is silent except for the sound of rustling brush and our loud steps. Cross stops at the break in the trees and sighs. “Here it is.”
I step past him with the others at my back. I frown at the weird familiar feeling. “Raven, do you feel that?”
She cocks her head to the side and steps up next to me. “It’s familiar but I can’t quite place it.”
Cross’ head snaps to us. “What do you feel?”
“It’s familiar magic, but I can’t place where I remember it from.” I crouch on the ground touching the edge of the deep hole. I run the dirt between my fingers. It’s pulsing with magic. “Shit. Someone did this on purpose for sure. Adrian, can you get a read on it?”
“I can try.” He bends down, touching a small rock, and frowns. “It’s like I’m blocked from whatever did this.”
“It’s not a what but a who.” I grimace, almost positive someone snuck in here when we were all battling for the school.
Raven puts her hands on her hips, turning to Cross. “Where was your wife during the battle?”
“She was fighting with the rest of us, doing everything she could to put out any fires that popped up,” Cross says, widening his eyes.
“But why do this? What is so important about Cross that they would want to weaken him?” I ask, mostly to myself. “No offense.”
“None taken.” He nods. “It most likely has to do with Poseidon.”
Adrian nods. “The children of the original three are stronger than the others. If they knew of a way to weaken you, I’m sure they would do that too, Beth.”
“Do you want some help to try to fix this?” I turn, facing Cross.
“Who? Everyone is weakening.” Cross scrubs a hand over his face.
“Draven, son of Hermes, has not weakened yet. I think he can help.”
Raven growls at my words. “After the shit that asshole pulled, you trust him with this?”
“You have a better idea? Plus, I think he’s trying to fight Dax and Jayden for me, which is fucking stupid, but I can work with that.” I shrug.
Adrian shakes his head but agrees. “She’s not wrong. It’s like the three of them have lost their minds over her.”
“Uh, thanks? I think that was a compliment,” I huff. It was at least a backhanded compliment kind of, maybe?
“It was an observation.” Adrian smirks.
“Anyway, Cross, do you want Draven to have a look?” I ask, getting us back on track.
“I guess it can’t hurt but we will have to have a talk with the headmistress about letting him back here so we don’t all get in deep trouble with her.” He covers his eyes with his right hand and runs it down his face.
Raven claps him on the shoulder. “I think he might recognize this magic. I can’t place it exactly, but I know I encountered it on our mission to save the students.”
“I think so too.” I push myself up from my crouched position and dust off imaginary dirt from my clothes.
Cross turns and leads us back through the forest. The dryads aren’t as active this time. Raven doesn’t say a word though so that probably has something to do with it.
When we get back to the admin building, Cross breaks off from us. “I’m going to talk to Rebecca about my problem and your solution.”
Cross hurries away from us. At least his eyes shine a bit brighter now that we might have a solution. “C’mon, let’s go eat and see if we can talk to Jayden.”
I hate the idea of having to include him in this, but I haven’t forgotten Adrian’s warning. If we don’t have Jayden with us on this mission, then it could end in disaster.
