Page 16 of Monster Song
I felt his fire lick into my body, and mine responded. Demos definitely wasn’t scared of me anymore. He cupped my ass and squeezed it before he pulled away and hopped through the portal.
Kimon pulled me into a hug next, but he didn’t kiss me. He asked permission first.
“Can I have one of those, baby bird?”
“I’d be mad if you didn’t.”
Kimon was so gentle when he kissed me, but the kiss grew in passion until I was panting and pulling his hair. Kimon broke away and jumped through next.
Tryphon spun me around and kissed my forehead.
“I still want my naked pool swim, my pet,” he said, kissing the tip of my nose.
I tilted my head up, and our lips met. Tryphon tasted exactly like the salt on a margarita glass. I tangled my hands in his green hair and kissed him back with just as much passion as he kissed me.
After Tryphon disappeared, it was just Hephaestus and me. He looked nervous.
“May I kiss you too?” I asked.
He cocked an eyebrow at me.
“You want to?”
He seemed so shocked.
“Yeah, I do,” I growled, yanking him down to my lips.
Hephaestus didn’t kiss like his shoulders were stooped with a harsh word. Sure, he was a little tense at first, but once he relaxed, he buried his hands in my hair and took my breath away. He nuzzled my nose when he pulled away.
“I didn’t know what you meant by spoons before, but thank you for being my big spoon. I hope we can do that again.”
Now, it was just me on this side of the portal—time to hop through and see what a pit of monsters looked like.
Chapter 12
River
T
he scene in the monster pits was heartbreaking. That’s precisely what it was—a big giant pit. It was like someone dug a deep hole in the ground with an entrance to the fighting arena and just crammed as many bodies in there as possible. It smelled like unwashed bodies, rotten food, and feces down there. All I could hear was anguished screaming in my head. There were so many voices!
My father was trying to translate for Hades, but it was utter chaos. I couldn’t even begin to pick one voice out of my head, much less all the crying sounds. I rushed to my father’s side.
“Please!” I yelled. “Barbatos and I can hear you while you’re like this, but not when you are all yelling at once.Listen in your head. I can speak to you.”
Slowly, the cries died off in my head, and I could hear grunts and growls out loud.
“Is there a leader here?” Barbatos asked.
A huge centaur came trotting forward.
“I foresaw you were coming, but they lost hope. You see? I told you a raven-haired beauty with the ability to speak to monsters would come.”
A woman with scales on her head and boar’s tusks slithered forward. She had deadly claws.
“You must be River. Pavlina speaks for you.”
“You must be Stheno,” I said, holding out my hand.
