Page 33 of Hades' Shadow
Finally, he gets it. I want him here less than he wants to be here.
Adrian clears his throat, breaking our stare-off. “Okay, so we are here.”
“We went through Hesperia.” Jayden runs his finger across the map to where the garden of the Hesperides is in California.
“That’s where we encountered Ladon. Then we went through Arizona. Winslow is where we figured this all out. A shifter pack asked us for help with the fountain at the base of a nearby mountain. We think that’s where Parnassus is located.” I grab a pen from the bed and raise my eyebrows at Adrian, asking for permission to mark on it.
Adrian nods and I mark the mountain range with aP, so we know what is there.
Jayden points further back on the map. “Don’t forget the sirens in Havasu.”
I shudder as I remember the sirens and mark it with anS. “How could I forget. They had you both under their spell.”
“Why don’t you roll out the map of ancient Greece? We can see if we can figure out the major cities and landmarks using Delphi as the guide.” Adrian reaches for the map in my hands.
I hand him the map and he rolls it out, finding Delphi on it.
“I never want to go back to that place.” I shiver.
“You don’t want to be forced to rhyme again,” Adrian chuckles and I throw my pen at him. As a true child of Apollo, he catches it out of the air.
Archers have to have good reflexes and children of Apollo are the best archers. Artemis is the virgin goddess so she doesn’t have children with mortals ever. She’s also clearly a nutjob.
Jayden glances between the two maps. “I would say that the physical manifestation of Mt. Olympus would be somewhere south of the Montana mountains based on its positioning in Greek times.”
Raven huffs out a breath. “There’s a problem with this theory, guys.” She waves her hand at the ancient map. “We don’t have a giant body of water in the center of our country.”
“There are islands through that sea with monsters so maybe just treat that area as sort of neutral for now?” Adrian scratches his head with my pen and I snatch it back from him.
“He’s right,” I say. “We didn’t really encounter anything after we left Arizona until we got to Oklahoma City, and we didn’t really encounter myths, just a slightly unhinged goddess that wanted us to let the tigers out of the zoo.”
“That does add up with my theory then, so any temples at Athens would potentially be near The Great Lakes.” Adrian marks the top of Minnesota.
What exactly is this doing, though? I mean, yeah, mapping it out helps but is this really going to do us any good in finding the items of power and who took them?
There are so many events in ancient Greece; how will we figure this out? If we don’t, the world will end. No pressure.
8
Picking up the book, I’m shocked by what I find. This is definitely something that can never get into the wrong hands, and I’m not sure that mine are even the right ones, to be honest.
I walk over to the bed in a daze and flop down on the edge, careful not to jostile the books and papers stacked on the end.
“Um, guys?” I say to get the others’ attention.
My language textbook is open in front of Adrian as he deciphers the words on the map.
“What is it?” Adrian peers up at me from the map.
“This is huge.” I chew my lip, not wanting to have any of this dangerous knowledge at my fingertips.
Raven steps up next to me and peers over my shoulder at the book. I glance up at her wide eyes.
“Holy shit. Is that what I think it is?” she whispers.
“I think so.” I flip the page and gasp. “This should be locked away so no one can ever find it.”
Jayden stands and makes his way to where I am sitting on the edge of my bed. “You want to share what it is that is so crazy?”
