Page 53 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

I shoot him a glare. “Whose side are you on?”

He shakes his head. “We’re all on the same side.”

I point at Zac’s back. “If he thought strangling me would bring back the object of his bromance, he would do it in a heartbeat. That’s not the same side.”

“No, but for now our goals align,” Zac says. A shadow skims the grass in front of us, coating us in darkness and blocking out the sun. Every head snaps to the sky for the source. Several birds circle us too high for me to make out their features.

“What are they?” I ask.

Nathan shields his eyes and squints. “Zac.”

Zac lets out a colorful string of curses. Good news, everyone, the god of war, is shitting himself. “I know.”

“What?” I ask.

“Run,” Nathan shouts as one of the birds turns into a dive and becomes larger.

Okay, so if you’re sane and a god says to run, you run, right? I glance at the temple, four hundred yards, ninety seconds if we are all fast. Which Duncan isn’t. A quick glance at the sky shows the bird has dropped half the height in ten seconds. We won’t make it. Nathan tugs on the sleeve of my jacket, encouraging me to bolt with them. I run as he lets go. I glance at the sky and swallow a scream. Hooked claws the size of truck tires and a beak to match fly towards us. The black eyes zero in on me. Griffins. We were being chased by griffins. As if this shit couldn’t get any weirder. At least they’re not zombies. They have a heart, they breathe, therefore they can die.

I skid to a stop, Zac hitting my shoulder as he storms past me. Power wraps around my heart and explodes in a burst of energy. The Griffin hits the barrier with a screech. The hairs on my arms rise. Zee arrives next to me. “Run, you idiot,” I shout.

He grins as fire sparks to life in his palms, a wicked gleam in his eyes. We were all going to die. “Locks!” Duncan shouts from somewhere behind me.

“She’s the only one capable of producing a shield strong enough right now, so don’t be an idiot and run,” I hear Zac growl out as footsteps thump louder in my direction.

“If you don’t all run right now, I’m going to ask Zee to zap your asses.”

Nathan and Duncan snort as they come to stand by my left. Zac strides a step in front of them, his arms in the air. Another griffin dive bombs my shield, I feel the reverberation down to my toes. I won’t be able to hold this for long. The power coming from the mythical creatures is insane.

“The second she moves, she has to drop the shield,” Zee states. “Someone needs to have her back so she can run and survive.” Oh, Zee, what the hell have I done? I don’t want him to sacrifice himself. I glance at Duncan, who’s studying Zee. He catches my eyes.

A gentle tug on my mind lets me know he wants to speak.“What do you need?” Duncan asks.

“Zee isn’t himself, I know we are protective of each other but not to the point of suicide.”

He frowns like he doesn’t agree.“Okay.”

“I need you to knock him out and run with him.”

Duncan blanks his features. That’s right, I’m moving your ass out of the danger zone too.“Nathan can take him,”Duncan says. Nathan’s head snaps to Duncan as he outlines the plan.“I’m about to disable Zee. You need to grab him and run.”

He shifts his eyes to me. Three griffins attack the shield, this time their talons scrape the side of the shield. I grit my teeth as the flesh on my arms feels like it’s being shredded.“What about you?”Nathan asks.

“I’ll stay behind, we can fight them off together,”Duncan says, pleading with me to go with his plan. Two powerless gods aren’t much use other than to take the crazy dude who thinks his life is less important than mine. I give a sharp nod.

“Zac, on a count of five, Duncan is going to knock Zee out. We need to grab him and run.”

Zac grinds his jaw.“Don’t die, Pandora.”

I bat my eyelids at him, forcing the searing pain from the shield attacks to the back of my mind. Separating it in my consciousness.“Aw, Zacy, I didn’t know you cared.”

“Five,”Duncan counts.

“Don’t mistake my reasons,”Zac says.

“Four.”

“I still need your ass to trap Ty,”Zac reminds me.

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