Page 112 of Artemis' Bow
“All right,” Dax says, and Kira shoots him a glare. “You two stay with us and the four of you find a hotel. We’ll meet back up in a few hours. Hopefully with intel.”
“Fine,” I say, giving in. “You’re not giving us much of a choice in the matter anyway.”
We pile into the car Dax and the others brought, opting to leave them the SUV since there are a lot more of them than us, and Jayden drives us into New Orleans.
“We need to try to find a place not too far from the temple if we can,” I say. “That way we can be there quickly if there’s a problem.”
“We might have trouble finding a hotel on the outskirts of the city because most people want to stay close to the French Quarter.” Greyson stares down at the map.
We drive around for a while, searching for a hotel but can’t find anything close. “I guess we’ll have to find something in the French Quarter then since there’s nothing out here.”
“It’s not ideal but the others will be okay.” Jayden squeezes my knee.
“I didn’t want to leave them behind in the first place. Now we are going farther than I wanted just to sleep. Maybe we should go back and end this now instead of sleeping.” I glance out the window.
“No. They were right about us not being at our best right now. We take on every fight on our own. The four of us are the strongest and we overexert ourselves over and over. We need sleep or this fight is over before it’s even begun.” Jayden shakes his head.
“It will be okay, B. We will get a hotel, sleep for a few hours, and then go kick some ass.” Raven sits forward between the seats.
“We’re up against a damn obsessed god and a horde of ancient monsters,” I say. “What if this is too much? What if we can’t win this fight?”
Fear courses through me and tears threaten to fall, burning the back of my eyes. Could we have come all this way and fought countless battles just to lose this one now? There were hundreds of monsters outside the temple. We have to get through them toget to Artemis, but I have no fucking clue how we’re going to do that.
“We can and we will, love. There is no other option.” Jayden glances at me. “We will fight this together as we always do.”
“There is no other option,” I whisper. “You’re right. We’re the cornered animals here and there’s nothing worse than a cornered animal in a fight because they have nothing left to lose.”
“The world is already fucked from this,” Raven says, cheerful. “Yeah, it will probably be worse if we don’t fix it, but you’re right. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We’ve got this, B.”
“I get that in theory but in practice… my brain just won’t shut off.” I rub at my temples.
“You have to figure out a way to shut it off if you’re going to sleep and get the rest you clearly need.” Raven glances out the window.
“I have some ideas to help with that.” Jayden winks at me.
I swat at him. “Of course you do.”
“Men constantly have sex on the brain,” Raven huffs.
“Like you don’t?” Greyson raises a brow at her.
“No, actually, most of the time I’m thinking about battle strategies and weapons training.” She sticks her tongue out at him.
Greyson bares his teeth at her, snapping them. “I’ve told you before, there are better uses for that tongue, babe.”
“There you go proving my point.”
“Just telling you how it is, babe.” Greyson chuckles. “There should be a Marriot up there.”
Greyson points ahead of us and we follow the signs along the side of the building to the parking garage. My hands shake as we allow the valet to take the car and head into the lobby to see if they have any rooms available.
I glance around the elegant space without really seeing anything as the others arrange rooms for our group. Surprisingly, they have rooms available even though they are in the heart of the French Quarter.
I’m silent as we head to the elevator, lost in thoughts of the battle ahead. Is tomorrow guaranteed? What if we’re too late. Sleeping right now could be a terrible idea.
“Are we sure this is a great idea? What if sleeping ruins everything and we’re too late because we needed rest?” I mumble.
“It doesn’t matter now, love. We will cross that bridge if we come to it. Right now, we need rest and to remember what we’re fighting for.” Jayden pulls me into his arms.
