Page 73 of Bonds of Hercules
“Pater noster, qui es in caelis,” someone cried out in Latin.Our Father, who art in Heaven.
The Titans prowled toward me, talons extended, mouths open.
Amen.
I raised both guns and kept firing.
Poppopopopopop.
Some bullets hit, some missed, but the monsters kept advancing, slow and steady. They were toying with their prey.
Ten feet away.
Poppopopopopop.
Five feet.
Poppopopopopop.
Two feet.
Poppop—Click. Click.
A ferocious growl echoed as Fluffy Jr. leapt forward, slamming into one of the Titans. The beast tried to shake him off, but my protector held on, his teeth locked around its throat.
It crumpled to the ground—Fluffy Jr. had ripped out its throat.
Jerkily, I reloaded both guns, raised my arms, and fired at the second screeching Titan.
In a blur of white fluff, Fluffy Jr. launched himself at the remaining Titan, but it was quicker, raising its forearm. He bit down on its arm.
I lowered my guns, unable to get a clear shot.
“Adveniat regnum tuum, fiat voluntas tua,” chanted frantically behind me.Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.
Sobs became wails.
“Genuine question,” Nyx hissed. “Are we trying to die? Because if not, we should berunningaway right now!”
“I just need a plan,” I whispered.
Gritting my teeth, sweat burning my eyes, I bounced back and forth on my toes as the Titan spun, trying to dislodge my protector.
My thoughts raced desperately—a times x squared plus b times x plus c equals zero.
New plan: never think again.
Reciting the quadratic equation was not helping anyone.
I threw my guns down because the weapons were barely doing anything.
Try visualizing your success—a dead Titan morphed into the triangular function graph of Collatz conjecture.
I grabbed the hilts of the long daggers strapped to my thighs—the pair Kharon had insisted I wear—and pulled them both free.
All I had was poisonous blood and an unhealthy amount of theoretical math knowledge.
So be it.
