Chapter 23
They sprinted through the trees in hellhound form, using the shadows to cover the ground faster. Ben followed clumsily in her wake, still unaccustomed to shadow travel; several times she slowed and once she stopped dead, looking around, waiting for him to appear. When he jumped from the nearest shadow, he nearly bowled her over. She darted out of his way, snarling at him before she sprinted off again, taking off once he fell into her wake.
As they broke into a clearing the clouds above opened up with a thunderous rumble, unleashing lashings of stinging rain. A feral wind whipped up, the trees swept into a cacophony of rustling leaves. A shadow flew out from the trees. Fay threw herself in front of Ben, the shadow crashing into her. Sharp teeth sank into her flesh. A yelp tore from her mouth as the both of them rolled together, a whirl of teeth and claw. She wrestled and snapped her teeth, trying to sink into anything real but the world was made blinding by flashes of lightning.
In a flash she was on her back. Something loomed over her, talons digging into flesh, pinning her down. She couldn’t make out anything more than a mass of black looming over her…and burning red eyes. It leaned in closer, unfazed as she struggled to bite herself free, unafraid of her teeth. She snarled and shifted back human, momentarily throwing off the beast as she was suddenly half her size. She slammed a freed hand upwards, surging a bolt of shadow magic upwards.
The creature fell back with a strangled howl and she scrambled to her feet, looking around madly for Ben. Panic rushed through her and for a moment she saw nothing but darkness and trees.
“Ben! Ben!”
Something groaned nearby. She spun around but something slammed into her, sending her tumbling to the ground. A sharp pain burst in her shoulder, like white hot iron being driven into her. White stars flashed over her vision as she threw her hands up, sending a surge of energy upwards. The creature screamed as it burst into smoke.
She pushed herself up, teetering awkwardly as the world lurched violently. As she touched her shoulder, she hissed it pain, feeling her whole-body throb painfully. Her shoulder burned. She looked around again for Ben when she saw someone push slowly up onto their knees, trembling violently. She didn’t have to see his face because something inside her knew. In a flash she stumbled over, nearly tripping over her own feet. As she got closer, she slid on a patch of shallow mud, sending her careening forward, crashing into mud.
With a curse she forced herself up to her knees when Ben appeared in front of her, his hands on her shoulders.
“Fay? Fay, you okay?”
For a second, she blinked, unable to speak. His face kept changing; Cerberus, Amon, Ben. It made her head hurt. When he reached out and wiped her muddy hair out of her face, she saw Ben properly. Real, bloody and muddy. Worried for her, not for the fact there was a deep cut above his eye and an ugly bruise welting on his cheek. Then there was the fact his shirt was in tatters and he looked like he’d been through the ringer. For her, by her side…and his hand was still on her, warm and real.
Then his mouth was on hers, molten, desperate. His hands in her hair, drawing her closer. Her own hands, drawing him closer, sinking into his skin.
He pulled away suddenly, breathless. Her own head was light, full of shock and confusion. In her own dim memory of her teenage years Ben hadn’t been able to kiss like that; not like she was water to a man in the desert.
His wild eyes held her own, mirroring the wild rush of emotion.
“I-“
“Don’t you dare say sorry,” she cut in.
He nodded slowly. “Does that mean?”
“Don’t overthink it,” she replied, though in truth, she wasn’t sure what it all meant anyway – she didn’t want to. “Anyway, how badly are you hurt?”
He glanced down. “Just a few cuts and bruises. You’re the one bleeding, though.”
Fay touched her shoulder, felt the deep gash and the hot skin. She winced and stood up, one hand over the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding.
“We need to find somewhere to rest and I can have a look at that,” he said, standing up slowly, wearily.
“You’re a doctor now?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “No but I did some courses topside.”
“It’s fine. I’ll heal soon anyway,” she said.
But all she thought about was the sword of Hades, how even a copy wounded her and she barely healed from that. Which meant there were things that her body struggled to heal from and she had no idea what attacked them. As she killed them, they vanished. They hadn’t felt like demons, nor like the magnetic of a God. Something else but what? A creation of Eris perhaps?
“We can still rest. We’re no good to Andromeda completely exhausted and I think she can wait a little longer for you,” he said, resting one hand on her upper arm.
She wanted to argue with him. Andromeda felt so close that to stop felt wrong. However, he was right. She hadn’t slept more than a few broken hours in so long that her body was run down, her mind frayed at the edges. It wasn’t ideal to finally come face to face with Andromeda like that. She knew she had to be ready, focused. Andromeda wasn’t a game. She was the master of it, already thinking several steps ahead.
“Okay but not for too long,” she said impatiently.
He nodded and they set off, though he remained close by, watching her in the corner of his eye, like he was afraid of her passing out. She didn’t like him seeing her injured, weak, so she stepped ahead and kept her distance. Tried really to focus on anything but the kiss. Why she’d kissed him back. Why he’d kissed her…and like that.
They trekked slowly by foot back into the forest, where the rain had finally stopped. Somehow, Ben had fallen into step beside her, though aside from a few stray looks, he didn’t pay her much attention. It should’ve been fine but the silence was deafening, making her mind tumble down the rabbit hole.
Shaking her head, she looked forward, scanning the thicket for any sign of the shadowy figures that had attacked then. She didn’t have the same feeling of being watched as before, so she hoped that meant the threat for the moment had passed.
It was just as well since she felt weak, as fragile as porcelain. If she was attacked again, she didn’t think she’d be able to win and she was unsure of how death worked in Tartarus. It was unknown ground.
So, she walked on, one step after another, willing herself forward. One by one, her senses grew dim, and the world seemed to soften into a hazy kind of darkness. She was slipping away and she had no strength to resist, to desire to fight. She didn’t even feel when Ben grabbed her until he forced her to stop. His hand was gentle on her arm, cautious, and he looked down into her eyes.
“We’re going to rest now. I’m wrecked,” he said and gently led her into a cave she hadn’t even noticed before.
She was too tired to argue as he sat her down and he set about making a fire. He left the cave briefly, returning with a small bundle of twigs, which he arranged for a fire. Then, to her surprise, he lifted a pendant from around his neck, two small stones on it. He gently tugged the stones off, then leant by the fire and struck the stones together. Sparks leapt, tiny bursts of gold, and he cupped his mouth as he blew softly, kindling a small fire. As it grew, he fed several more twigs, then set a larger branch he’d broken up on it before he sat back.
“You always carry two flint stones with you?” Fay asked with a wry smile.
He glanced up suddenly, like he just remembered she was there, and a soft smile tugged at his mouth. It hit her like a knife to the chest. Before, Ben had been this kind-faced youth with bright eyes and a dizzying energy. He was older now, no longer bearing the soul-crushing guilt of his actions, with eyes resolved, fiery.
“It was a gift from Lydia, a hound from my squad. She said I’d need something to keep warm. Her version of a joke, I think,” he said, smiling.
“Lydia?”
His eyes crinkled at the edges. “That jealousy I hear?”
“No,” she said calmly. “Just don’t remember meeting her, that’s all.”
He laughed softly but said nothing. Fay shifted where she sat when the world lurched and she went forward – straight for the fire. Ben was there, catching her and carefully laid her down to the side. Fay closed her eyes with a groan as pain lanced through her chest.
“Please don’t fight me but I need to have a look at your shoulder – okay?”
She mumbled out an ‘okay’ and when she opened her eyes his nails had grown into talons. With careful tenderness he used his talon to cut her shirt around the wound, peeling back the strips until he could get a better look at the gash. She tried to look at his face but it was out of focus and the throbbing behind her right eye was getting worse.
“How is this infected so quickly?” He mumbled. “This looks bad – Geez, Fay, why didn’t you say it felt bad?”
She tried to swat his hand off her shoulder. “I’m fine. I’ll heal up and we’ll be on our way.”
“And if I go out there, I may not find my way back to you,” he said restlessly. “Let alone if I even find something – or someone – to help.”
Without thinking she grabbed his hand, feeling her strength slipping further and further away.
“We always find our way back to each other eventually,” she mumbled before darkness finally claimed her.
A low fire burned in a stone room. In one corner Andromeda was sprawled out in a cot, a fur blanket draped over her naked body. She was out cold, sleeping peacefully, whilst Amon was writing on a script on a nearby table. Every so often he glanced over her, worry in his eyes, then back to his work, refocusing. Eventually, he finished and pushed the scrolls aside, then rose and walked over to Andromeda whom started to murmur in her sleep. He brushed the hair from her face tenderly, then went over to the fire, knelt down. With care he fed a few more logs into the fire, stoked it and then stood, looking satisfied.
Andromeda let out a sudden shout of alarm, which dissolved into a series of incoherent mumbles. He was at her side in a flash, gently nudging her shoulder.
“Love, love, it’s me,” he said.
She sat up with a yelp, her eyes wild, full of panic. For a moment she didn’t seem to know where she was, looking around frantically. Her eyes caught Amon and before he said another word, she grabbed him, yanked him into her arms. He rubbed small circles in her back, saying nothing as she seemed to calm in his embrace. When she pulled back, he brushed the hair that had clung to her tear-stained cheeks, tenderly fixing her hair.
“The same dream?”
She wiped her face and nodded. “I’m at Olympus but Zeus impales me with his sword, saying how I have failed.”
“You will not fail,” he said firmly.
Her eyes flickered to his, searching. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because I have never known a human who strikes fear in Olympus. They fear you because you are powerful. You are a Goddess, immortality or not. Who else would be brave enough to enter the Underworld as a human? Or steal Poseidon’s triton? You will not fail because you are Andromeda.”
She grabbed him and kissed him.
When he pulled back, resting his forehead on hers, a smile stretching his mouth. A smile that was mirrored on Andromeda’s face…and in that moment she looked human. Someone whom was standing before the Gods and saying no, you will not defeat me. With Amon they seemed like an unbeatable pair.
“Here is the part where you say how much you love me,” he said teasingly.
She shoved his shoulder. “Don’t be petty. You already know I how I feel.”
“Do I?” He echoed coyly.
“I’m going back to sleep!” She declared and rolled over to her side, back to him.
He chuckled and got up from the cot, then walked out through a nearby doorway. Fay followed him outside the small stone house that sat atop a hill, a small clearing out in front and a horse grazing in a sectioned off pen to one side. He fed the horse, refilled the water and then wandered to the edge of the clearing where he sat on a rock. From it he looked out past the cliff’s edge and to the sprawling valley before him, running all the way to the glimmering ocean.
On that rock he seemed peaceful. If he shared Andromeda’s fears, he gave no sign. As Fay turned to go see Andromeda again Amon turned sharply on his rock.
“Who is there?”
Instinctively, Fay froze, then turned slowly. Amon was staring at something just off to the side of her. He shook his head fiercely and slapped his cheeks.
“Calm yourself. There is no one there,” he said to himself.
Fay froze. What – or whom – was he seeing? Or pretending not too, anyway?
Amon scrambled off his rock and started back towards the hut when dark smoke burst before him. Out of it, Hades appeared, clad in his armoured tunic and his infamous sword unsheathed, held firm in one hand. Amon glanced rapidly behind Hades to the hut, then back to him.
“You should go,” said Amon bravely.
“Do my ears deceive me? A mortal commanding me?”
“A mortal froze you solid and made you weak. I think we mortals are quite clever when we want to be,” said Amon.
“She did that, not you…and I am not here for her. You, however, are another story entirely,” said Hades with a cold smile as he took a step forward – and closed several feet in the process until he loomed over Amon. “I didn’t see it before. Andromeda shines so brightly she protected you. Did she see what you were? Or is she truly ignorant to what you are?”
Amon scowled. “I am a mortal man, nothing more.”
“As Andromeda is nothing but a mortal girl that Olympus cowers before,” said Hades with a laugh. “You I have to remove. A loose end that I missed all those years ago, though it is just as well you do not remember any of it.”
Behind Hades the door opened. Andromeda stepped out, one hand on her forehead, shielding her eyes as she yawned. In a flash Hades plunged his sword into Amon, leaning in close. Fay was at his side, hearing it all.
“See you in hell, brother.”
Behind him, Andromeda’s screams filled the air as Hades dissolved into smoke.
ns 15.158.61.18da2
