Page 246 of Blood of Hercules
Wait, he didn’t leave the boxes?
The handwriting on the note had been different from the box, but I’d assumed that was some type of mind trick to throw me off.
I had two separate stalkers.
Yanking at my restraints, I screamed through gritted teeth at the injustice of it all. Helen was still not moving on the ground.
Theros clicked his tongue. “There’s no use struggling. I’ve done this... manytimes. As you can see, I have a system in place.”
He knelt and picked up a rusty crowbar.
Eyes widening, I struggled harder.
Theros turned and slammed the iron against the metal wall. He banged loudly, a harsh sound echoing through the silent forest.
Far away, something screamed.
Theros smiled at me as he dropped the iron.
“This time,” he said, “it was almost tooeasy... all I had to do wasshout that Titans were attacking, and here we are—where the actualTitans will attack. This unprotected area is crawling with them. It was almost as easy as leaping, getting that Titan to attack the circuit—evil Chthonic bastards had to interfere.”
He killed Leo. He was the one who set the Titan after us.
The scream echoed louder.
I struggled harder.
Closer.
He ties them up, then lets the Titans kill them.
He was a monster.
I was going to die.
Yanking at the rope, I screamed, “NYX, WAKE UP!”
She moaned sleepily, then hissed as she realized something was wrong.
“Attack him!”
Theros’s eyes widened—he took a step back.
Icy scales slid across my calf as she launched herself forward.
The air distorted.
A dull sound echoed. Nyx moaned and fell to the dirt with a thud. Behind his shield, Theros looked around nervously. BOOM. He disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
“COWARD,” I shrieked at the empty space where he’d leaped away.
Outside, bone-chilling screams echoed louder, and Nyx groaned and whispered something inaudible.
Stuck in a lion’s head, I whimpered with dread.
This was really happening.
I was surrounded by the corpses of people who’d been in the same position before me. Helen had tried to help me, and now she was going to die.
