It was a good idea, and the only one we had. I was glad to make it into the buildings, at first. The wind was completely gone. The concrete walls kept some of the heat in, and everyone but Meg stopped shivering after only a couple of minutes.

  The problem was the shadows. Inside, they moved even more. I knew I wasn’t imagining it, this time. It was like when I cloaked myself, they reached out to me, lengthening and stretching toward me no matter where I was.

  Once inside, I also noticed an incessant whispering sound, like air being let out of a tire. I knew they were supposed to be words, but I couldn’t make out a single one. I checked every barren cell we passed, partially looking for a way to get to the garden of the Hesperides, but mostly looking for whatever was making the sound.

  As we had no idea what we were looking for, we wandered around for quite a while. It was at least a couple of hours later that Hannah finally mentioned that the way into the garden might be completely hidden except for right at twilight. The day that we had was so exhausting, we all clung to that idea and sat down on the first floor of the building, constantly looking around at all the cells for some kind of clue that the passage had opened.

  Unfortunately, with nothing else to distract me, the whispering was impossible to ignore. I tried, but I only lasted a couple of minutes.

  “Does anyone else hear that fucking sound?” I snapped.

  None of us had spoken since we sat down. Meg and Hannah looked at me like they were concerned, but Sam didn’t even turn her head.

  “The echo of the dead,” Sam answered immediately. “I figured you would hear it.”

  All three of us looked at Sam questioningly. She took a deep breath and answered. “The queen of the vampires always comes from my clan, because we’re the closest to the dead. You may notice that I look like a corpse, unlike most of the other vamps at school.”

  “You’re still gorgeous, though,” Meg assured her immediately.

  “Absolutely.” The word came out of my mouth before I could even consider what I was saying, and my stomach twisted uncomfortably once I realized what I had said.

  “Yeah, great,” Sam dismissed the comments. “Point is, we can hear what you’re hearing. When lots of people die in one place, or a bunch of people at once, or someone lives with particularly dark emotions for a long time, it leaves an imprint. Humans call them ghosts, but ghosts are entirely different. It's just the last lamentations of the departed.”

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “Try and talk less like a preachy goth, please.”

  I smiled and leaned back to prop myself up on my arms. The fact that I wasn’t imagining the whispers made them easier to deal with. In fact, only a few seconds after Sam said she could hear them, too, I was laying down on the concrete, my hands behind my head as a pillow, and I started to slowly drift in and out of sleep. The whispers were like my own personal white noise machine.

  I figured we probably sat around for a few hours, waiting for whatever was going to happen, me getting some much needed rest. Finally, the silence was broken in the best way.

  “Hey, you guys see that?”

  I blinked rapidly as I sat up, trying to push the sleep from my eyes. Meg was pointing to the second floor, and I jumped to my feet as soon as I understood what she was pointing at.

  One of the cells on the far side of the room was emitting a dark blue, shining light.

  “Imagine what would’ve happened if we camped out in any other building,” Sam said tonelessly as the rest of them jumped to their feet.

  I was already racing toward the shaky, metal stairs that we had walked up and down half a dozen times when we first arrived. My footsteps rang through the empty building like a church bell, echoing off the stone walls.

  Finding the way to the garden of the Hesperides had seemed like the most difficult part, it turned out it just took being in this building when it happened to be twilight. I was nearly giddy that this insane quest was almost over, until I reached the second floor.

  Someone bumped into me from behind, as I had frozen in place at the top of the stairs.

  Sitting on the railing, just in front of the cell glowing with blue light, were three ancient looking women with leathery skin and vulture’s wings.

  I had flashbacks of the day my mother was taken from me, and my heart started hammering against my ribs. I was not about to let anything like that happen again.

  I drew my sword and started running toward the harpies. The same second that I took my first step, all three of the creatures let out a terrifying screech and someone behind me let out a string of expletives.

  One of the harpies flew straight at me, her chicken feet scratched at me as she soared over my head. I blocked the talons with my sword and jumped as hard as I could, bringing my sword up in an arc as I rose into the air.

  My sword had barely touched the harpy when it burst into a shower of sparkling black dust. I landed, feeling exceptionally proud of myself, when I heard Meg’s scream.

  I looked back just in time to see one of Hannah’s arrows pierce through a second harpy, spraying its dusty remains all over Meg. Meg’s arm was shining red with three long gashes, and the final harpy was flying away toward the other side of the room.

  Hannah turned and nocked an arrow in one fluid motion. Half a second later, the arrow sailed through the air, and more black dust rained down along the length of the concrete room.

  “Son of a fucking bitch!” Meg screamed.

  “What happened?” I asked in astonishment as I hurried back to where the rest were standing, pushing my sword back into its sheath as I ran.

  Meg’s sword had fallen to the ground just in front of the stairs. Sam had already replaced her sword in its sheath, her arms were crossed over her chest, and she was shaking her head.

  Hannah replaced her bow over her shoulder as Meg cradled her wounded arm against her chest and answered, “Meg got over excited.”

  “Sorry guys,” Meg whimpered.

  Sam knelt down and picked up Meg’s sword, she shoved it back into the sheath at Meg’s waist and stomped past me without a glance.

  “You guys are useless. This passage isn’t going to stay open forever,” she called behind her without turning her head.

  Meg looked more hurt by Sam’s words than the scratches on her arm. I tried not to laugh at how ridiculous that was as I put my arms around Meg’s back and led her after Sam.

  Hannah ripped a length of cloth off of the bottom of her shirt and wrapped it around Meg’s wounds as we walked. Sam disappeared into the glowing blue room before we got there, and Hannah, Meg, and I followed only a few seconds later.

  There was a great flash of blue light, and I felt the building disappear from around us as we made it to the garden of the Hesperides.

  Chapter 33

  I WASN’T SURE WHAT to expect, given that everyone talked about Mount Othrys like it was the seat of all evil, but what I saw was definitely not what I imagined.

  Spread out in front of me was the most beautiful glade I had ever seen. Trees ringed the large space of free-growing grass and flowers, the area was almost a perfect circle, with bushes and ponds spread out over the entire field. It had to be at least a mile long in every direction. The darkened sky and dusk lighting that fell over the garden made it look like the world’s most beautiful painting come to life.

  In the very center of the garden was a short, white tree, the branches started only about four feet above the ground. I couldn’t see the roots, they were blocked from view by a stretch of bushes directly in front of us, but I could see the beautiful purple leaves, with golden apples shining all around them.

  The only thing that didn’t seem absolutely wonderful about the entire landscape was the sky. The stars, strewn throughout the purple-black sea above us, seemed much too close. I knew that getting to a higher elevation would make the sky appear larger, but I wasn’t seeing any more of it. It almost looked like there was a painted ceiling twenty feet above us made to look like a starry night.

  “Oh. Gods,” Meg gasped. “This place is so pretty.”

  Sam, who was leaning on a nearby tree, snorted. “Yeah, super pretty. If you ignore the fact that one of the worst titans in existence is around here somewhere, along with one of the most protective dragons to ever exist.”

  It took me a second, but I remembered the story about Heracles and the golden apples. We hadn’t learned about it in history class, so I had no idea which version was true, but I knew that either Heracles had killed the dragon, or he had tricked Atlas into retrieving them for him.

  “Wait,” I said slowly as I tilted my head back to look at the sky again, “this is where...”

  Sam laughed at my stunned silence. “This is where Atlas holds up the sky.”

  I slowly lowered my head again, trying to wrap my mind around that information. “So, that dragon isn’t dead?”

  “Probably not anymore,” Hannah answered casually.

  “What the hell does that mean?” I asked.

  I took my arm away from Meg and walked a little farther into the garden, trying to see over the hedges to the base of the tree. If the dragon was here, it would be guarding the golden apples. I still couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean that nothing was there.

  “If it has a name, it can never really die,” Sam explained. “The dragon of this garden is named Ladon, which means that even after it’s killed, it’ll keep coming back as long as the world remembers it existed.”

  I turned around, once again feeling like I was learning too much way too fast. “So, like those harpies we just killed, they just... come back?”

  Sam pushed herself off the tree and walked past me, leading the way through the bushes into the garden. “Every monster is eternal. Vampires and shifters can die individually, but if every vampire on earth was killed, new ones would crawl out of Tartarus. If a specific monster, like the minotaur or Ladon are killed, they come back exactly as they were.”

  With that horrifying thought ringing in my head, I followed after Sam, praying to whatever gods could hear me that I wouldn’t have to meet the hundred headed dragon Heracles had fought in this garden.

  Apparently, the gods didn’t care what I wanted.

  Halfway between the bright, swirling ball of blue light that we had passed through to get to the garden and the tree with the golden apples, I could finally see over the bushes.

  Laying on the ground, curled almost completely around the tree, was a long, lizard-like creature. It’s body was bigger around than I was, and at least ten feet long, not counting the tail or heads. Just like the hydra, multiple long, slender necks extended from the body. This time, though, there were more than five. I didn’t stop to count, but if the story was correct there were a hundred of them. They all laced together on top of each other, layering themselves into a giant pile of snake-like shapes that ended in heads that looked much too similar to the hydra.

  “We can’t catch a break, can we?” I whispered.

  Every one of the dragon’s eyes were closed. I hoped that meant it was asleep. Maybe, if we walked around the edge of the clearing, it wouldn’t even notice us.

  “Do not worry, Godling.”

  All four of us turned at once toward the sound of the voice. Sam and I drew our swords, while Hannah stepped in front of a cowering Meg and drew her bow.

  She hadn’t been there a few seconds before, but now, laying across the top of one of the bushes like she weighed nothing at all, was a woman. She looked about my age, so beautiful I doubted even Aphrodite could compare.

  Her skin glowed, like it was moonlight made solid. Her hair was pearly white, and seemed to be waving in a breeze that didn’t have any effect on anything besides her. She was laying seductively, her legs crossed so her almost translucent, sparkling, blue dress didn’t reveal anything inappropriate, but I could still see every curve of her body.

  I felt my face start to warm up, and my stomach start to writhe uncomfortably, like it had been filled with a thousand insects. I tried to speak, to talk to the beautiful creature in front of me, but I forgot every word I knew. What the hell was happening to me? I had seen nymphs before.

  Meg rushed forward and leaned on the hedge next to the woman’s head. Unlike the nymph, Meg’s arm sank into the bush, but she ignored the slight fall. Their faces were only a few inches apart, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she didn’t even notice the leaves and branches give way beneath her weight.

  “How could I possibly worry?” Meg purred.

  The nymph giggled, the sound brought to mind the chirping of birds and the trickle of a stream. I felt a lurch in my stomach, and suddenly I wanted to get closer to the woman, Meg shouldn’t be the only one to get her attention.

  Seriously? What the fuck was wrong with me?

  “You should not,” the nymph answered Meg.

  She brought her hand up and lightly drew her fingers down the side of Meg’s face. Meg noticeably shivered at the touch, but kept eye contact with the woman.

  “Ladon only protects the apples. Do not seek them, and you have nothing to fear,” the nymph continued.

  “Great,” Hannah said, a hint of anger in her voice.

  I had no idea why, but hearing such harsh tones snapped me out of whatever the nymph had done to me. I remembered where I was and what we should be doing. Immediately, I felt like an idiot for getting distracted.

  I turned my head toward the dragon, curled around the tree. There was a lot of space in the grove, we wouldn’t have to get anywhere near the apples. If the dragon really didn’t mind us passing through, this would be the easiest part of the journey.

  “And, what if the apples aren’t what we’re seeking?” Meg purred.

  I turned back around, already sensing what was coming.

  Meg placed her hand on the woman’s arm and added, “This garden has something far more beautiful than a few pieces of fruit.”

  Hannah rushed forward, grabbed Meg’s arm, and tugged her away from the nymph, almost causing her to fall to the ground. The nymph laughed as Hannah dragged Meg farther into the garden.

  Sam shook her head and followed after the others. I gave one more awkward smile to the nymph and hurried after them. The nymph winked at me before I turned away, setting my stomach wriggling inside me again.

  “Really?” Hannah scolded, while I was doing my best not to look behind me to see the nymph again. “You have to try and flirt while we’re on our way to stop a war.”

  Meg was still trying to resist being dragged away, looking back toward the nymph as Hannah dragged her along. “Please,” she said, still using her seductive voice, “I wasn’t trying anything. It was, like, totally working.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t go for it, Sam,” I said. My face still wouldn’t stop smiling, and I couldn’t get the nymph out of my head. I wanted to deflect my thoughts to someone else, so I didn’t have to think about how I had reacted to a woman. “The woman seemed right up your alley.”

  Sam didn’t even turn her head toward me, she kept walking without missing a step. “There’s already someone in my life. Anyone else pales in comparison.”

  I nodded, and watched the dragon as we walked past it. Several dozen heads had raised themselves into the air, while the other half remained on the ground with their eyes closed. The heads that were awake watched us as we rounded the edge of the garden, but the rest of the body stayed perfectly still. It seemed like the nymph had been right. If we didn’t approach the tree, Ladon really didn’t care about us.

  “Right,” I said to Sam as I glanced back toward the nymph. “You’re engaged to Raze.”

  The nymph was still laying across the hedge. She smiled and waved when she saw me turn around. My face filled with heat again, and I faced forward right as Sam snorted.

  “I don’t give a shit about Raze, I was talking about Gizelle.”

  “Aww,” Meg cooed, “that’s so sweet.” She was no longer fighting against Hannah, instead she was letting herself be dragged along.

  “Wait,” I said, not understanding, “you said if I did anything with Raze, you’d kill me. Then, you said I could do what I wanted, but you still hated me.”

  Sam flipped her head over her shoulder as she turned to smile at me. “Oh, I hate you. I may not care that I have him, but he’s still mine.”

  I didn’t get a chance to glare at her until she faced forward again. I was torn between wanting to apologize for overstepping the boundaries of an engagement and wanting to draw my sword and shove it through Sam’s back. If she hadn’t given me her blood, Sam might have been in a lot of danger.

  We made it to the other side of the field, and there was a slightly larger space between the ring of trees. A small path led out of where the apple tree and its dragon lived, through a narrow strip of grass between two tall hedges. It was a very short walk until we came out of the other side.

  I couldn’t see anything in front of me except Sam’s back, but once we made it out of the hall of leaves, the ground shifted from grass to rock.

  When the group spread out again, I saw that we had somehow arrived on a mountain. A trail led off to my left, rising through the dark brown rock to a peak not far from us. On top of that, there was an enormous castle, jet black and glinting in the dim light. It had turrets that disappeared into the darkness of the sky, and was so large it didn’t seem possible that a normal sized person could live inside. It had to be the home of giants.

  Titans, I guess, probably wouldn’t take the form of modern rocker chicks. They were probably the twenty-feet tall, toga wearing giants I imagined when I thought of gods.

  The castle where they lived, though it didn’t have any particular markings or fixtures that should scare me at all, sent shivers down my spine. Something about it terrified me. I looked away from it, just to make the feeling go away.

  That was when I saw the strangest thing I had ever seen in my life.

  Not far away from us, a man, no taller than Raze, wearing armor that was straight out of the history textbooks that taught about ancient Greece, was pressed between the mountain and the sky.

 

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