Page 52 of Ares' Shield
Kira steps in quickly. “The lava isn’t good for them. It will hurt them.”
Claud’s face falls and his brow pinches down. “No hurt friends.”
“That’s right, Claud. We don’t hurt our friends,” Kira says.
“Show me what you’re working on, Claud.” I glance past him at his huge workbench.
Claud turns around and grabs a bronze battle ax. It’s beautifully carved and intricate lines of gold weave through it.
Raven’s eyes widen as she stares at the weapon. “Did you make that all by yourself, Claud?”
“Yes,” he says and hands it to her. “For friend.”
“You made this for me?” Raven’s eyes swim with tears.
“Don’t like?” Claud whimpers.
“It’s beautiful, thank you,” Raven chokes out.
“That’s an amazingly thoughtful gift, Claud,” I say.
“You too.” He races to a cabinet in the back of the workroom.
He made me something too? He’s such a sweet, gentle cyclops. It still angers me that he was tortured by Campe for millennia.
He bounces back over to us with a scabbard in hand that looks like a toothpick in his hands. He hands me the scabbard. The handle of the sword is inlaid with gold much like the battle ax and has small lightning bolts on it.
I pull the sword out of the soft leather scabbard and the blade is bronze with veins of gold running over it so it glitters under the firelight.
“Claud, this is gorgeous. Thank you,” I breathe.
“You saved me,” Claud says.
I couldn’t have done it without the others and Hades’ permission.
“You didn’t deserve to be stuck there. This is a much better place for you.” I squeeze his arm.
Claud glances around, his one eye searching for something, and turns back to us. “Jayden?”
“He couldn’t come with us. He’s protecting a friend.”
“Protect friends.” He nods solemnly.
“Yup, that’s actually why we are here.” I turn back to Kira. “Where is Max?”
A huge guy with dark-blond hair steps into the room and crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m Max. What do you want?”
“We need something that can hold a child of Ares.” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“Why would you want to imprison a child of Ares?” he asks slowly and glances at Raven.
“We don’t have a choice. Were you at the bonfire last night?” I ask.
“Yeah, I saw everything.” He nods.
“We’re keeping it quiet because we don’t want to cause a panic, but students are being controlled and leaving the academy.”
Raven steps closer. “They almost got Dax to leave, but we stopped him. He’s still under their control though.”
