Page 46 of Bonds of Hercules
Not.
Augustus moved in a flash.
He was gone.
Groaning, I resumed jogging around the course.
Heaving for air, vision blurry, lungs aching from exertion, I stared down at my gun and turned it so the gold WSDL flashed:War, Sex, Death, Lies.
“Make them fear you, daughter.” Hades frowned down at me. “No one fears the weak.”
These people were highly competent monsters.
Unlike them, I’d never been particularly adept at physical fitness. I was good at calculating obscure mathematical problems and writing scintillating (inappropriate) fan fiction. I was a true Renaissance woman.
Gunshots echoed.
A tall figure jumped down from above and landed silently in front of me.
Skeleton-tattooed fingers raised a knife.
It was pointed directly at my heart.
“It’s like you’renoteven trying, carissima,” Kharon drawled, his tone cruel.
My gun clattered to the ground.
Kharon grunted with surprise as he clutched at his stomach.
“You’re supposed to shoot it—notthrowit at me, darling.” His eyes went cold. “Pick it up.”
I raised my chin. “No.”
Kharon held himself unnaturally still. “You havethreeseconds to pick up your weapon and apply yourself to the simulation that I spent hours creating just for you, or else …”
I scoffed.
“Three.” His voice vibrated with violence.
Does he have a counting kink or something?
“Two.”
My breath caught and I pressed my thighs together.
Wait … Do I?
I raised my arm up, opening my hand like a puppet. “One,” I said, before he could, chuckling at my joke.
Icy fingers wrapped around my throat—he pushed me back until I was pressed against rough metal. He wasn’t laughing.
Kharon squeezed the delicate pulse points of my neck as he held me against a fake tree.
In slow motion, his masked face moved to eye level.
He pressed harder and cut off oxygen to my brain.
Foreign thoughts filtered through my head, a mix of emotions and images in a confusing jumble.
