Page 113 of Ares' Shield
“They are fucking gold statues. How do we kill them?” Raven asks.
“I don’t think we can. I think this is Draven’s test. It’s why Adrian went after him. He knew this would happen.” I clench my fists.
I want so badly to draw my sword or my whip, but I can’t because humans mill around us, completely oblivious to what is going on in front of their faces.
“Adrian, Draven,” I yell before Jayden slaps a hand over my mouth.
“What are you doing?” Jayden hisses next to my ear.
The lions growl as they turn their gazes on us. “They needed a distraction so Draven could do his magic,” I say behind his hand.
“You could have warned us. The lions have their sights set on us now.” Jayden steps forward, putting me behind him as the lions’ gazes are locked on me.
Raven pulls her ax from the ether and I eye it with trepidation. What if someone sees it? We could be on video again with unexplainable powers. Like what happened in Oklahoma City Zoo.
We can’t afford for humans to see us. Will that speed up the war timeline if they see us fighting creatures they can’t see?
“Raven, I don’t think that’s a great idea,” I mumble, but the lions have both turned to us, ready to pounce.
“Do you have a better idea, B?” Raven asks, hefting her ax. “This can’t be worse than the Nemean lion.”
She’s not wrong, but I’m not given any more time to think about it as the bigger lion roars and pounces.
It flies over the side of the fountain and lands on the ground in front of us with a resounding crack.
“Split up,” I scream as I roll away from a huge claw aimed for my head.
Raven dodges the other way and flips back up onto her feet before slashing with her ax at the paw aimed for my face.
“Draven, we need some help here,” I scream.
He’s the only one who can stop them and if he doesn’t figure out how to do that quickly, then we are going to have a major problem.
“I don’t know what to do,” Draven yells.
The lions circle me and I touch the lightning bolt charm around my neck. My whip unfurls in my hand, and I flick it at the biggest lion. He flinches back at the crackle of electricity.
How the fuck did the golden lion statues come to life in the first place?
The smaller lion lunges at me but Jayden appears next to me, blocking it with shadows.
“Draven, you need to figure it out before we are all torn to shreds by these things,” Jayden barks.
“I’m fucking trying,” Draven snarls.
The small lion growls and lunges at Jayden’s shadows again but flinches back when hellfire rises from them and his nose comes back charred and black.
The big lion paces around us in a circle, searching for an opening, but I crack my whip at it to keep it back. It won’t last forever but hopefully it gives Draven enough time to get us out of this mess.
“We shouldn’t be using our magic like this,” I say, glancing around. There are several humans with cell phones out and recording. “Shit. We’re in fucking trouble.”
Jayden glances over and horror fills his expression. “Beth, behind you.”
I turn to find the huge golden lion crouching with his ass in the air. He looks like a normal lion or a house cat ready to play, but this isn’t like Spot. We can’t just throw a ball and get them off our backs.
“Jayden, drop your shadows,” I say.
“Are you insane, Beth. It’s the only thing keeping the smaller one back.” Jayden reaches for me, shaking me a little.
