Page 13 of Artemis' Bow
“I still want to be absolutely sure that we are going to the right place. We are only going to have one shot at this. If we pick the wrong temple, the world is fucked.”
“Agreed,” Jayden says.
“I have to get back to Hades’ errand,” Hermes says, then vanishes.
“Do you think we’ll be able to do that?” I ask.
“Probably eventually.” Jayden shrugs.
“What are we going to do?” I ask with a sigh.
If we can’t pick the right temple and stop whoever has Artemis, the world will be destroyed. No pressure.
4
“We need to look through the book again,” I say.
Jayden stands and offers me a hand to help me up. I don’t need the help but I accept it anyway. He’s trying to be a gentleman and I love it, but the voice in the back of my mind is loud.
You’re gonna have to choose. Which will it be? The world or the man you love?
I shake off the horrible thought and follow Jayden and Raven out of the room and up the stairs to my floor. I place my hand on the door to unlock it and we file into the common room.
“I’m gonna get the book and also maybe the textbook from Cross’ class. Maybe it will have some useful information about where to find the other temples.” I rush into my bedroom.
I pull my history textbook from the drawer in my desk and head for the closet to get the book Cross loaned me—that by all rights shouldn’t exist—and the maps in case we find something.
There has to be something in the book, right? If there isn’t, then we are completely screwed. There will be no way to know ifwe are targeting the correct temple. Never-ending daytime will be the least of our worries if we’re thrown into an ice age.
“I got the books and the map just in case. Jayden, why don’t you scour the history book and I’ll look through this. We have to find something.”
“We will, Beth. We always do,” Jayden says.
His confidence should be comforting but that stupid voice in the back of my mind persists, reminding me of the choice I’d made on the island. Dread pools in my belly as I sit on the couch between Jayden and Raven and open the book.
Artemis is easy to find since the sections are arranged by power level and the moon goddess is high on the power scale.
Artemis is the goddess of the hunt and the moon. She is one of three maiden goddesses who chose a life of celibacy. That celibacy was called to attention repeatedly in ancient times, but the goddess remained pure. It’s said that the hunter Orion was the only man who came close enough to the goddess to tempt her.
The god Apollo feared his sister would give in to temptation with Orion, so he devised a plan to force the goddess’ hand and she accidentally killed her love. Artemis begged her father to save him, so Zeus put the hunter in the sky as the constellation Orion.
“That’s awful,” I say, shaking my head.
“What is it?” Jayden asks. “Did you find something?”
“Artemis killed the man she loved because Apollo tricked her.”
“That fucker really needs an arrow in his head,” Raven grumbles.
“You woke up choosing violence today, huh?” Jayden chuckles.
He couldn’t possibly know how bad this story is affecting me. It’s eerily similar to a choice I had to make other than killingJayden. She chose her vow over the man she loved and Apollo being the giant douche he is took the choice away from her. I would have murdered him if it had been me.
“Stop being an ass, Jayden,” Raven snarls at him.
I glance away, not wanting Jayden to see how badly this is affecting me. I’ve done my best not to show my feelings to him since we got back, but it’s getting harder to keep him at arm’s length.
“Sorry, Beth. I didn’t realize you were so upset about this. What’s going on?”
