Mostly thanks to Griffin, I end up dressed again before he gathers me into his arms and then sits, settling his back against the tunnel wall. With me in his lap, he wraps our smoldering cloaks around us both. The soft light flickers over the hard angles of his face.
I lift a heavy hand and trace my finger along the prominent bridge of his nose. “I love your nose.”
His mouth curves in a dubious smile. “It’s big and hooked.”
I sigh. “I know.”
I let my hand fall and then tuck it between us, resting my head under Griffin’s chin. I fall asleep almost instantly, warm, happy, and safe for the first time in days.
CHAPTER 21
THEHYDRA IS REAL—UNFORTUNATELY—AND JUDGINGby the scattered bones, clearly an effective guardian for the narrow entrance to the Phthian Gap. The creature sits half submerged in the shallows of the lake, its gigantic, oblong body only partially visible. At the tops of a dozen towering necks, heads whip and twist and tangle and roar. The snarling gets louder the closer we get. I’m guessing humans aren’t welcome here.
I push my cloak back from my shoulders, already sweating from the balmy temperature. The Hydra is no fool. In a land of snow and ice, it lives in a place riddled with hot springs. No wonder magical creatures winter here. With the Hydra in front and formidable mountains protecting the entrance on either side, the Phthian Gap then descends into a wide, verdant valley. The inviting vista winds its way from where we now stand to not-so-far-off, cloud-capped Mount Olympus, rising majestically in the north.
Nerves jangle in my belly. “I need more heads,” I conclude after conducting a thorough inspection of the Hydra.
Griffin angles himself in front of me. So does Flynn.
Next to me, Carver says, “Do I even want to ask?”
Of course he does.“If we’re going to keep facing creatures with multiple heads, I need more. You know, just to make things fair,” I explain.
“One head is enough.” Griffin stops me with a steely arm in front of my chest when I try to come up next to him again. “And I told you to stay back.”
I stretch up on my toes and whisper for Griffin’s ears only, “I could get creative with my extra mouths.”
He ignores that. The grump.
“You know what I love about you, Cat?” Carver draws his weapon. We all do. It’s for the best—big monster and all.
“Is this a trick question?” I ask.
He smiles. “You can make jokes while looking a creature like that in the eye.”
“Which eye?” I cock my head and study the Hydra. “There are a lot to choose from.”
That earns a chuckle from everyone except Griffin. He’s still being a grump. Probably because he knows I get flippant and verbally reckless when I’m scared.
I nudge his arm. “Do you have a plan, Your Grouchiness?”
Griffin levels a flat look on me. “Do you, Princess?”
I shrug. “Tiptoe? Go around? Quietly?”
“On that?” Flynn eyes the one-person-wide, narrow strip of ledge butting up against a sheer cliff that appears to be the only way around the Hydra and the steaming lake. “You do know it’s already seen us?”
“Plan B, then,” I say.
“Which is?” Kato asks.
I grimace somewhat. “Chop off its heads?”
As if in response to that idea, one huge head disengages from the rest of the whirling, serpentine mass and lunges in our direction. Gargantuan jaws snap way too close for comfort.
Cursing under his breath, Griffin grips my hand and leads me thirty feet back. His glare seems to be some kind of silent, masculine command to stay put.
I glare back. “I’m not a bloody dog.”
