Page 95 of Artemis' Bow
“If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry, so let me have this,” I call over my shoulder.
“That’s fair,” Thad says.
“The nightmare of nightmares does have a nice ring to it,” Raven muses.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” I ask, bouncing on the balls of my feet.
“I don’t like this. Are they waiting for a signal or more monsters? Neither option is a good one,” Jayden says.
The damn phoenix is up in the sky, circling again. No doubt watching us sweat. What is Apollo’s game here? He gave his sister to a god who has been obsessed with her for centuries when he went to ruthlessly brutal lengths to keep her pure. Something isn’t adding up on this one.
It could be as simple as the queen ordered it and he had no choice, but what happened to his unyielding loyalty to Artemis? There’s something very wrong here.
“Anyone confused about where Apollo’s true loyalties lie?” I ask.
The fog has stopped advancing but it still pulses with menace and hatred. There’s definitely something else coming. Thephoenix isn’t sending a signal so much as watching the outcome of the battle.
“Yeah, I get the impression that the phoenix doesn’t actually want to be a part of this.” Adrian glances up at the firebird.
“Can you communicate with it?” I ask.
“I get the sense that I could, but it’s blocking me. It doesn’t want to talk to me.” Adrian squares his shoulders.
“Well, that’s convenient,” I grumble.
“I am getting feelings off it. It’s bored and doesn’t want to follow us anymore. It’s acting like it’s only doing what it was told to do, no more, no less.”
“I guess that’s sort of comforting in a backward way.” I swipe the air in front of me again.
Shrieks fill the fog, and it retreats just a little from my glowing electric blade. It’s a small victory that freezes in my throat a second later when the ground shakes with the thundering of feet pounding the pavement.
“That is not fucking good,” Raven mumbles.
I glance over my shoulder at her and my eyes widen at the sight before me. There is a horde coming toward us of those damn lizard men. Just like the creature that murdered my mother on my eighteenth birthday.
“I don’t know if we can do this without help,” I say, chewing my lip.
“We have no other choice. The phoenix fire is surrounding us.” Jayden tightens his grip on his shadow sword.
“Do we have enough space for Spot here?” I ask. “That’s the only way I see having a shot of us surviving this.”
“I think if we clear out some of the hags, there shouldn’t be an issue,” Jayden says.
“I say we throw them off guard. On my signal.”
Jayden and Raven nod in understanding. We are going to catch the hags off guard and attack before all their forces are in position.
Swinging my blade in a wide arc through the mist makes the creatures hiss and shriek but I keep going. The electricity crackles and sparks along the blade, lighting up the dark eerie fog a bright white. Wraiths don’t do well in the light, which makes me wonder what the queen was thinking when she sent them out at a time when there is no nighttime.
To me, that’s cruel but to her they are only tools. Tools for my destruction. Well, they aren’t getting it. Even if I have to destroy every evil creature here, I will not fail. I can’t fail. Too many depend on me for survival.
I scream a battle cry and dive into the fog without checking to see if my friends followed me, cutting through the icy fingers of the oppressive fog with my crackling blade. Something touches my back and before I can whirl to take the head off the creature, Jayden’s soothing presence fills me with relief.
“It’s me, and we are going to talk later about you charging into battle without someone at your back,” he says with a growl in his voice.
Not the time to be lusting over Jayden’s sexy growl, idiot. Focus.
“Whatever you say, babe. Can we kill some hags before you spank me, though?” I whirl on the next creature that jumps into my view.
