Page 234 of Bonds of Hercules
Hades shouted something garbled about Alexis.
A white toga came into view, sparks, a hand reached out. There was a fight. Yelling. A vial was pressed to my lips. Zeus yanked me out of Hades’s arms.
Everything went dark.
“Wake up!” Icy water splashed across my face, and I sputtered awake. The first thing I noticed was the scorching agony across my shoulder and chest.
Torchlight illuminated a low ceiling.
I was tied with chains to a chair, seated at a low metal table, in a small … crypt?
Stacks of skulls were piled high, lining the walls. The air was chilly and stale. I was somewhere in the labyrinth of chambers under the Dolomites Coliseum.
Zeus sat across from me at the table, his storm-gray eyes narrowed with disgust as he stared at me.
“Where is Medusa?” he asked, tapping a small glass bottle on the metal table. The tin sound echoed harshly in the quiet.
I opened my mouth—agonizing pain exploded in my chest, air whistling through my mouth.
“He needs more salve to speak,” Zeus said to someone.
Everything spun.
A guard leaned over me with a jar of paste. Rough hands slapped at my ruined skin—I screamed—air whistled through the open cavity of my ribs.
Darkness dragged me under.
Freezing water drenched my face. “Wake up!”
I sputtered.
The agony was still present, but slightly muted.
Zeus was still sitting across from me at the dingy table. “Can you speak?” he asked, electricity bright across his tongue.
My vision doubled—two Zeuses stared at me expectantly.
“SPEAK!”
“What—”
“Good,” Zeus said calmly. He held up a full glass vial. “Like I was saying,this—” he swirled green liquid in the torchlight “—is your incentive.” The Rod of Asclepius was stamped on the side.
I tipped my head back, heaving.
“Aren’t you going to ask what it is?”
I opened my mouth—and threw up all over myself.
“Very well, I’ll tell you,” Zeus said calmly. “You’ve already had a tiny sip; it’s why you’re not in a coma. It’s an advanced Olympian healing tonic—veryexpensive, our lab’s newest technology … Once you drink it, you’ll barely feel any pain. It’s going to change the world.”
My vision tripled.
Three Zeuses stared at me—three glass vials twirled.
“I’ll give you the tonic.” Zeus spoke slowly. “If you tell me where Medusa is.”
I was fucked.
