Crete hit him on the shoulder with a knife of electricity. The blade of light tore at Ryder’s exposed skin, cutting a huge gash over his collar bone and down to the center of his chest.
Ryder retaliated with a bolt of his own, just in time to keep Crete from plunging the lightning into Ryder’s chest.
Ryder’s lightning hit Crete dead center in the torso, pushing him back several steps. Crete wobbled off balance. His dirtied toga flapped over the line of the path. The subtle whip of clothing screamed through the cavern. The Centaur from before flashed to where Crete stood, slicing his ax through the air.
Crete pulled back just in time. The ax cut through the fabric, but Crete was safe.
The Centaur didn’t retreat back to his place this time. Instead, he stood at the edge of the path, watching Crete with the kind of greed and insatiable hunger Hades watched me with.
Interesting.
Was it possible that Crete had to stay on this path too? Was the Underworld as dangerous to him as it was to anyone else?
I turned to look at the crowd of nightmarish creatures, a sight I had been terrified of until a second ago. They watched the fight with open-mouthed voracity. Their dull eyes danced with something like hope.
I hadn’t been able to look at them, too afraid that thirst was for me or for Ryder.
But now I saw it for what it was. They wanted Hades. They wanted to rip him apart and drink his blood.
They wanted to end their suffering as badly as anyone would in their situation.
Ryder realized this too. His attack became more thoughtful as he stopped trying to kill Crete. Instead, he tried to push him over the line.
It would only take a second. One second of his feet falling over the path’s edge for something to grab him.
If I had my voice I could compel him to step over the line, but the Underworld had taken it from me as if it had anticipated that.
It probably had.
Ryder lunged forward and put his hands on Crete, wrapping them around his throat. Crete didn’t hesitate to do the same to Ryder. They stumbled and fell against each other, both desperate to end the other.
Ryder’s foot came down and slammed onto Crete’s knee. Crete buckled beneath him and let out an agonized shout. It only took him a second to recover though.
Crete was bigger than Ryder. He was bigger than the human version of himself I had come to recognize. Crete had personified himself as the god he was and his larger body and bulking muscle dwarfed Ryder.
Hades grew as I watched him. His eyes darkened into black holes of depravity. His teeth lengthened until they looked like fangs dripping from his mouth. His skin cracked and split and his fingers became crushing boulders held against Ryder’s throat.
Ryder looked like a doll in Crete’s hands. Hades shook him like a boneless puppet, strangling the life from him. Ryder’s face reddened with the effort to breath and I stopped breathing with him.
I pounded against my force field. Electricity zapped my skin and jarred my bones, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks as I watched the life drain from Ryder’s face.
His eyes fluttered as he struggled to keep them open. His arms lost their hold on Crete’s bulging neck and hung limply at his side. He fought to look at me and I blinked quickly so I could see him through my curtain of tears.
He mouthed something that I couldn’t understand in my grief. Then his eyes fluttered closed and he collapsed against Crete’s body.
Hades stood up straight, still holding Ryder’s body in his crushing grip. He looked at the body in his hands and a slow smile slid over his mouth. His soulless eyes danced with victory and something like the evil-version of joy wrapped around his entire body.
“You senthimto stop me?” he bellowed at me. “This human? This weak, pathetichuman?” Crete tossed his head back and barked out laughter. “You are mine now, Siren.Mine. And this,” he threw out one of his large hands, “is your new home.”
With horror like I had never known, I watched Crete toss Ryder’s body toward the salivating crowd waiting for flesh.
An agonized sound ripped from my throat, burning and cutting as it fell from my lips. I wanted to turn away, but I couldn’t. I had to watch this until the last moment. Until I joined Ryder on the other side and we both succumbed to the mindless emptiness that would destroy us.
Ryder’s back arched as he crossed over the invisible line that separated the Underworld from the path. His fingers reached out and grabbed Crete’s wrist at the very last moment.
Hades hadn’t been expecting Ryder to still be alive, let alone capable of any kind of strength. I watched confusion contort Crete’s features. Absolute fear gripped the god of the Underworld as Ryder’s surprising strength pulled Hades with him over the line.
The Centaur was there waiting for Ryder. The entire crowd had moved forward, hungry for him. But the moment Crete’s body crossed the line with flailing arms and screaming lips, Ryder was forgotten.
