Page 8 of Artemis' Bow
“What?” Adrian asks.
“The moon. They can’t overpower each other because they are twins. Apollo is the sun and the moon is Artemis.”
“Maybe it’s just a fluke. A onetime thing where the moon didn’t rise,” Adrian says, hopeful.
I raise a skeptical brow. “What in our history would ever make you think that this is a onetime thing?”
“I am trying to be optimistic because the alternative is fucking dire.” Adrian shakes his head.
“What has Adrian so worked up he’s swearing?” Raven asks as she jogs over.
Glancing around, there’s no sign of Zeke so she must have handled him. Good. I don’t have time or the patience to deal with meatheads with a god complex.
“I don’t think Apollo is totally to blame for that.” I point up at the blazing sun.
“What do you mean?” Raven asks.
“I mean, we were right about whose item of power is missing, but if that is any indication, it’s so much worse than that.”
Jayden grabs my hand, squeezing it gently. “What happens if there’s no moon?”
“Chaos,” Thad says. “The tides are going to be a mess. My father is going to be pissed. He just calmed down from the last catastrophe.”
“It could be so much worse than that, though. Even the humans understand the impacts the moon has on the world,” I say.
“If we don’t find out what’s happening with Artemis, we could end up in another catastrophic weather event the likes of which humans have never seen before,” Adrian mumbles.
“Like the earthquakes and tsunamis when Poseidon was weakened?” Jayden asks.
“Worse,” Adrian says. “We could find ourselves in the middle of a new ice age.”
“Nothing and no one will survive.”
3
“This is bullshit,” I say, mopping the sweat on my forehead.
“It’s been days, and the gods are completely silent.” Raven swings her blade at Jayden and he blocks at the last second.
“No head shots, remember?” Jayden snarls.
“Is the enemy going to fight fair?” Raven asks. “They will definitely try to take your head off.”
“Let’s leave the decapitation attempts to the enemy, yeah?” I say.
A breeze cools my heated skin, and I sigh with relief. This never-ending sun is destroying my sense of time and any ability to keep cool. We need to find out what’s happening.
“Training’s done. Let’s contact Hades and see if he knows anything about what might be happening to Artemis,” I say.
“Why my father?” Jayden asks.
He whips his shirt over his head wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead with it.
“He’s the only god that gave us permission to contact him for assistance other than Hermes and try as I might, I haven’t been able to pin down the trickster god with the shell.”
“That makes sense,” Jayden says.
My gaze tracks a bead of sweat running down his chiseled pecs to his lickable abs and I mentally shake myself to get my brain to continue functioning properly.
