Page 87 of Artemis' Bow
“They’re the biggest men I’ve ever seen. Can you help?” she begs.
“Is this the thing?” I ask Adrian.
“Yeah, I think this is what my vision was showing me, but I can’t be sure until I see them.” He tugs the collar of his shirt away from his throat.
“Show us the way to them,” I say. “We’ll help however we can.”
“Oh, thank the gods,” she says. “This way. They’re destroying it. We need to hurry.”
She turns and rushes away and I glance at the others with a raised brow. We still aren’t any closer to finding out what this threat is to humanity and the secrecy of all paranormal creatures.
“What do you think this is about?” Jayden asks.
We race behind the dryad. My grip on my whip is so tight my knuckles are white. She could be faking us out to trap us somewhere, but one glance at Adrian tells me that isn’t the case here. This is what he saw in his vision.
“Maybe we should slow down and assess the situation before we charge in there like a bunch of idiots,” I say.
“You’re right but we don’t know where these things are, and that dryad is damn fast.” Raven swings her sword experimentally.
“I just don’t like running in blind. It makes me twitchy.” I roll my shoulders back.
“Yeah, I’m with you there, B. Let’s scout out the area where she ran and see if there are any clues about who or what she saw.” Raven waves a hand in the direction the dryad went.
“Sounds good.” I touch my lightning bolt charm, storing my whip inside, and pulling my sword from the either.
We creep through the forest, much quieter than we’d been before when a crash and a wail sound from just past the tree line where a clearing sits. The ground shakes violently and I barely stay on my feet. Steadying myself, I peek between the trees just in time to see a tree hurtling across the clearing.
“What in Hades is strong enough to uproot a tree and throw it across a clearing like that?” I whisper.
“I don’t think that’s a what but a who,” Jayden says.
He points to my left and I glance at legs the size of tree trunks themselves. Shit. Tilting my head back, I stare up and up and up until I finally catch the face of a giant. He rivals Claud in size. His intelligent eyes scan the clearing. I follow his gaze and land on a second almost identical giant.
“We may be in trouble with this one,” I say in horror.
“Hades, there are two of them? This is just fucked up.” Raven crouches next to me.
“What do you remember about the stories of Artemis?” I ask. “They have to be in one of them, right? That’s what happened with the Calydonian Boar as well.”
“Yeah, she sent the boar to terrorize the people of Calydon because they forgot her sacrifice or something,” Jayden says.
“Wait,” Thad says. “I know this one.”
“Who are they?” I ask.
“We’re definitely in trouble. They are the Aloedae giants. My half brothers. They are fucking powerful. They have the ability to grow in size and in power. The gods had Artemis kill them because they were afraid they were too powerful.”
“I remember now and we’re completely screwed,” I say. “They have few if any weaknesses and the only way to kill them is by tricking them into killing each other. Artemis turned herself into a deer. None of us have that ability.”
I stand and back away from the clearing so we aren’t seen before we implement our plan. Whatever that plan may end up being. We can’t do what Artemis did, so how can we get them to kill each other?
“What about me?” Greyson asks. “I can turn into my wolf and get between them the way she did. Maybe it will work a second time.”
“No, it’s too dangerous,” I say. “I’m not using your wolf as bait.”
“We may not have any other choice,” Raven says and chews her lip nervously.
She doesn’t want to let that happen any more than I do, but she’s right. We may not have another choice. I glance back at Thad; he may be the only one who has a bit of insight on the giant twins.
