Page 173 of Bonds of Hercules
Kharon winked.
Down on the sands, Artemis tipped her head back and laughed as the Cyclopes stomped at her and missed.
I frowned as a thought struck me. “How do you … lose in this competition?”
It seemed crucially important, yet no one had bothered to tell me.
Kharon’s smile fell.
He looked away.
Artemis scowled as a Cyclops slammed a meaty fist down, barely missing her body.
Augustus sighed heavily. “Three ways: you pass out from blood loss, fall into a coma, or—”
“Die,” Kharon finished.
Augustus nodded curtly.
“Tell her the other way,” Kharon ordered, his voice loud and harsh.
Drex and Helen glanced back at us; they blanched when they saw Kharon’s expression.
Kharon leaned closer, his voice dropping. “There’s a fourth way to lose.”
I didn’t like the gleam in his eyes.
“You can defeat all your labors, but if both your legs are broken, the pieces of your kneecap sticking out of your skin … you can crawl across the sand …”
His nostrils flared as he paused like he was lost in memories.
“You can drag your bloody, ruined, weak body out of the arena … and still be branded a loser.” His eyes sharpened. “Winners walk out of the arena on their two feet. Those who crawl … get branded.”
His ruined knee and the scars on his chest.
This was Kharon’s story.
“But that’s not fair—you beat them,” I said with outrage. “You beat all eleven of your labors—how could they count that as a loss?”
Kharon’s lips curled as he stared down at me. “Because OlympianshateChthonics. They live to humiliate us … to brand us. To mark us. It’s all about power … and to wield it over others … you must break them.”
Skeletal fingers dug into my thigh.
“I won’t let them do it to you.” Kharon’s nails pressed harder. “I won’t let them—”
Boom.
We all turned.
The sands were covered in shimmering scarlet as if a bomb had gone off. Artemis sat on her steed in the middle with her arms raised.
Pure terror filled my throat as her mist traveled up the stadium, glittering and deadly in the bright sunshine. The electric force field hissed as the fine droplets traveled through it.
All five Cyclopes shrieked in unison, a terrible sharp sound.
Artemis’s black horse reared back, whinnying as its front legs kicked powerfully through the air, and she cocked her bow.
She fired two arrows at a time—in different directions.How is that possible?
