Rise of the Blood

Rhea would never have awakened if Zeus and Poseidon hadn’t come after me and Apollo and bolloxed up the whole thing, but I hadn’t put them up to the vengeance. As far as incurring their wrath to begin with…what was I supposed to have done? Let them drop L.A. into the ocean? Maybe some day she and I could sit down over a pint and I could tell her about my heroic adventures where I wasn’t possessed by a mother goddess.

“Lead the way,” I told him.

Inside the elevator I stood as far away from him as humanly possible—toward the front while he stood in the back—but I could feel his gaze on me. He hadn’t bought my explanation for the emotional turmoil for even a second.

I was out of the elevator the instant the doors opened, but then I had to wait for Apollo to catch up.

He led me to a room at the end of a long hallway. I could hear even before we reached the door that we were in the right place. There were a lot of voices talking over each other. I would have thought “party” if I didn’t know better.

Apollo knocked, and the voices hushed. It was Hermes who answered the knock, looking from me to Apollo with sharp eyes that seemed to catch everything and guess the rest.

“Come in,” he said soberly. I didn’t know he could do sober. It made the whole situation seem that much more dire.

Hermes stepped aside, and we entered. Everyone stared at me as if I might go on the offensive again. I couldn’t blame them.

“What’s the news about your young man,” Yiayia asked from across the room. Fergus, I was shocked to see, was still at her side, singed but whole. Christie was conspicuously absent.

“He’s burned and hurting, but he’s going to be okay.”

“Zeus and Poseidon?” Hermes asked.

“Healing. Not all fired up to join us, but I don’t see that they have much choice. I’d guess it’s a matter of time.” I looked around the room. “What have you come up with so far?”

Everyone stirred uncomfortably, swapping glances, meeting each others’ gazes, but not mine…until I got to Althea. She looked me right in the eyes and said, “We can’t tell you. It’s like talking to the enemy. Tori, I’m sorry.”

I felt it like a blow to the chest. Nick didn’t want me. Now neither did they. And I couldn’t convince them they were wrong when I was sure they were right. But I also couldn’t stay sidelined. There was a battle brewing of epic proportions, and I knew with that sixth sense I had that I was part of things. I had to be.

I swallowed down my first response and reconsidered my second. “Fine,” I said. It came out tight but strong. “I understand. A quick suggestion. Yiayia’s been keeping track of who’s been doing what with whom and where for at least a decade. If you’re looking to recruit allies, I’d start there.”

“Anipsi—” Yiayia began, stepping forward as if she’d embrace me and make it all better. I held up a hand to stop her. It was the only way I could stay strong.

“Let me just ask—who’s going to approach Hades? With or without Zeus and Poseidon, we’ll need him on our side.”

No one spoke.

“Fine,” I said again. “I’ll go. I’m expendable and he knows me.”

He didn’t like me. The last few times we’d met he’d actually tried to kill me. But he knew me. Maybe he’d marvel at my audacity in approaching him long enough to listen.

There was something wrong with my vision again, and I fumbled for the doorknob. A strong hand, warm like someone had been soaking up the sun, came down on top of mine and twisted the knob for me. I didn’t thank him. It felt too much like he was coming to the rescue of some kind of damsel in distress, and that wasn’t me.

He followed me out into the hall.

“You’re not going alone,” Apollo stated.

I whirled to confront him and found him way too close, but I refused to take a step back.

“You gonna stop me?”

“No, I’m going with you.”

“You’re needed here.”

“I will be when things heat up again. For now I need to be with you.”

“Why?”

“I sense it,” he said, his turquoise eyes burning like sunlight reflected off the Mediterranean.

“A vision?” I asked. “What do you see?”

“I see you coming into your own. I see you having a pivotal role to play, and I know you have to survive.”

Not I know you will survive, but you have to.

“What about you? You have to survive, to fight. At my side doesn’t seem a terribly safe place to be lately.”

“Well darn, because you know how I like things nice and safe. Crossword puzzles, warm milk, in bed by nine,” he smiled.

To my shock, I started to smile back.

“You realize that if I get you killed, your sister’s huntresses are going to have my hide.”

“At the very least,” he agreed. “So don’t get me killed.”

“Sir, yes, sir.” I clicked my heels together and saluted, and his smile got wider. “You think they’ll help us out with some weapons to aid us in not getting slaughtered?”

Chapter Eleven

It turned out that it was Apollo and not Yiayia who had the intel on nearby entrances to the Underworld. Apparently, we’d already been within spitting distance of the nearest one. A cult of the dead had operated around the Tholos tomb where the Pythian Serpent had attacked. It seemed logical, I guessed. A monument commemorating a military victory would probably also involve honoring the dead. If Hades’s influence had been particularly strong there, it made sense that this would be a link to his domain.

Outfitted with a bow and a brace of arrows (Apollo) and a huge hunting knife (me), we stood in front of the Tholos now. No guns allowed. Althea didn’t have any because, in her words, “they weren’t sporting.” Neither was my bridesmaid’s gown. I’d changed into something a lot more practical—jeans and a heather-gray long-sleeved tee and hiking boots.

Viggo and his limo would have been too conspicuous, a cab would have left a trail, so Apollo and I walked, counting on the dark to hide us from watchful eyes. Because the Tholos was still a crime scene, just like the Sanctuary at Delphi. Site by site, we were taking out tourist destinations and millennia of history, just what Uncle Hector and his movie had hoped to bolster. It had to stop. We had to stop it.

“Where do we start?” I asked.

There was crime scene tape blocking off the access path to the Tholos, but no police here or up at the sanctuary site. We’d spread them too thin. Those who weren’t wounded or dead were probably down at the hotel, where structural damage caused by Typhoeus kept the danger level high.

In answer, Apollo ducked the crime scene tape. I followed, trying to avoid flashbacks to the Pythian Serpent crunching down on the officer who didn’t make it, the monolithic stone tumbling from the top of the Tholos and nearly crashing down on our heads…

Apollo stopped at the edge of the crater caused by the serpent erupting from the earth and shined a flashlight down into the depths. I stepped up beside him and stared down into it. And down…and down. It was more an impression of depth than an actual visual, since the beam didn’t penetrate the whole length of the tunnel. Or maybe it was the way air seemed to be trapped in there, moaning to be free. It was eerie.

“What are you thinking?” I asked him.

“What do you think’s more likely,” he asked back, “That the serpent made all new tunnels coming after us or