Page 196 of Bonds of Hercules
I should have looked away.
Only Drex was seemingly unaffected—he was still smiling with a goofy, lovesick expression.
The last ten minutes were going to haunt me for the rest of my life (six more days). Numb horror trickled down my neck. Even Nyx was unnaturally still on my lap, like she couldn’t process what she’d seen.
It was now crystal clear what Empusa did.
They ate men.
Agatha was covered in bits of gore. The remainingpiecesof the four guards lay around her, scattered across the sand—mostly just bloody armor and clothes. Apparently Empusa ateeverythingbut the stomachs of their victims.
I’d learned this the hard way.
Nyx hissed. “Why can’t you be more like her?”
“Because—I have mental health … sort of,” I whispered (this was a lie).
“SECOND ROUND BEGINS!” Zeus bellowed.
No one cheered.
The gate once again lifted—a man walked out—his hands were bound in front of him, heavy chains trailing behind him through the sand.
He wore a short black exercise toga and a scarlet snake protruded from his bald head.
A collective gasp echoed, and my stomach plummeted.
The Chthonic leaders all jumped to their feet.
“You dishonor Kronos’s sacred sands!” Hades roared, pointing at Zeus, who stood calmly on his podium holding his scepter.
I’d failed to notice that Hermos was missing from our section.
He was bound, down on the sands, walking toward Agatha.
She was his partner.
His … lover?
I wasn’t exactly sure what their relationship was, but they were partners, and it was obvious that they were very close.
For a second, Agatha’s monstrous visage disappeared, and she was once again a beautiful woman. She looked at Hermos with devastation.
Artemis shouted profanities down at Zeus about him taking this too far, and Ares nodded in agreement. Hades’s fog was spreading through the stands in screaming tendrils. Olympians whimpered all around.
“What … does this mean?” I asked.
Drex shrugged like he also wasn’t sure.
Augustus leaned forward. “She has to hurt him as much as possible, until he’s incapacitated,” he said gravely. “Which will also force him to take the humiliation of being branded once for the defeat—anyChthonic loss in the arena results in a brand. No exceptions.”
Drex’s breath hitched.
Charlie trembled at my side.
Down on the sand, Agatha’s skin once again peeled away, and her jaw unhinged.
Click.
