Out of the corner of my eye, a ghostly apparition of a humanoid figure floated out from behind a tree. My head snapped in her direction and I shivered at the spectral vision. She had her arms out, hair trailing behind her in clumps as she wide-eyed dead-stared at Hyperion and me. “Help me,” she trilled, sounding all echoey and creeptastic.
Hyperion aimed his palm at the woman and shot a beam of light right through her. Her blank expression faded and she turned all dark and angry, hissing before bursting into nothing.
My breath seemed to be caught in my lungs and I had to gasp in and out a few times to get everything moving again. “What was that? This is like a horror movie!”
“Lost souls. Come on. We shouldn’t linger, they’ll be attracted to our life energy.”
Attracted to my life energywas something I never ever wanted to hear again. Like … ever.
As we walked deeper into the dead wood forest that seemed to be made up of thousands of tree trunks, and not a single leaf in sight, I heard a snapping branch behind us and yelped, white light shooting from my palms.
The light hit a tree and it exploded into a dozen pieces.
“What was that?” Hyperion spun, getting all up in my face.
I winced. “Oops. I got scared another ghost lady was coming after me and fired off some of Thanatos’ borrowed magic I guess.”
Hyperion frowned. “This doesn’t make sense. Thanatos doesn’t have light magic, and your light is more silvery, whereas mine is yellow.”
“Okay, color master, can we focus on finding Cronus?” The whole light magic thing was freaking me out too, and I was getting grumpier by the second.
#GiveMeFoodOrGiveMeDeath #DramaticMyAss
Hyperion sighed. “I could put up a light signal but the Erynomus might see it.”
Light signal? Was that like a bat signal? “So…?”
He started to move, sliding between more dead trees. “We walk until I sense Cronus.”
Great … walking … my favorite thing.
As we trudged through the forest-of-no-leaves for an hour or twelve, we passed a few more lost souls and a shit-ton of those tiny Go-Go Gadget arm creatures. But between Hyperion and I pulsing light from our palms, we scared them off.
“I’m going to die without food,” I whined.
Hyperion looked back at me and frowned. “You do look skinny. But your demi-god half should sustain you.”
#WellItsFuckingNot
I was about to retort when I heard a shout off in the distance. My whole body froze then. That voice … it sounded a lot like Cronus. Without thinking, I started running in the direction of the noise.
This time, I absolutely distinctly heard Cronus roar, “Rhea, dammit, get off your lazy ass and help me find the portal to level six!”
Tears leaked from my eyes as laughter bubbled in my chest. I felt like a madwoman. Hearing that voice made everything inside of me fizz with happiness.
“What does it matter? We can’t use the portal anyway. Let me rest!” Rhea snapped back, and there was an icy tendril on the breeze.
Hearing Cronus and Rhea fighting was music to my ears.
Hyperion’s footsteps pounded behind me, but for once I was the one with all the energy. Breaking through a thicket of dead trees, I came upon them.
“Cronus…” I croaked.
He spun at the sound of my voice, and when his gaze ran over my body, he burst from where he stood and slammed into me, wrapping his arms around me, hauling me up into the air and pressing his body to mine. Well, not exactly a body, but his semi-solid form was enough to hold me.
“Is it really you?” he murmured, moving his head down so that his face was buried in my hair. He inhaled deeply and I trembled, trying to comprehend that I’d finally found him.
“It’s me,” I sobbed, my heart aching at the intensity.We did it.Since that day on the boat deck when I held his lifeless form, I’d been waiting for this moment.
