Page 80 of Bonds of Hercules
Wait, is that a finger gun?
Kharon leaned down and blocked my view as he brought the needle and thread up to the left side of my face.
I tried to speak, but I couldn’t; I tried to tell him with my eyes not to do it.
Kharon bent closer, his jaw clenching with resolve as he sewed his appendage onto the side ofmyhead.
“Per angusta ad augusta, carissimus,” he whispered.
Through trials to triumph, my dear.
Augustus appeared and Kharon leaned back to give him space. They patted my pockets until they pulled out two tags engraved withHercules.
A single droplet fell from the sky, splattering across the golden name.
Augustus leaned down.
He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. I couldn’t feel a thing, yet my skin tingled where his lips brushed. He smelled like gunpowder, lightning, and sin.
Poco patted my cheek.
As they pulled away, the heavens opened up and rain drenched the world.
Kharon resumed sewing.
I was alive when I should be dead.
The Roman Colosseum loomed above, an ancient reminder—this was Sparta, and for better or worse, we were the gods of this new dark age.
13
THE HUNTER
KHARON
The world hissed as rain poured down, mud gathering beneath my knees.
Gunshots echoed, Titans screeched, chains rattled, and Augustus grunted as he fought behind me.
Soaked to the bone, pain throbbed across the fresh wound on the left side of my head.
All that mattered washer.
Alexis Hert was lying in the muddy grass covered in blood, looking ruined and ethereal.
My wife is injured.
It was nothing short of devastating.
With perfect precision, I stitched my ear to the side of her head.
In, out, in, out.
Fixing Alexis was the only thing of consequence.
The fucking Titan had sliced her ear into pieces, and I had a perfectly good one that she could use. It was that simple.
I was also no stranger to stitching appendages back on. I’d lost fingers, toes, and even an entire hand once in battle.
