I swallow around a throat thickening with grief but nod for him to continue.
“Diego won, and his prize was the Protective Mark of the Algea—he can’t feel pain. Physical or mental. The ninth—”
I hold up a hand. “Wait.” No. Tell me they didn’t. “They’ve completed more than one Labor while I’ve been out?” I ask slowly.
He nods.
We’re fucked. “How long was I out?”
“Almost two weeks.”
“Two—” I feel the blood drain from my face. I thought it was days. Suddenly, Hades is standing by my side, tipping a cup of water to my lips. I swallow some, which helps. Before my injury, the Crucible was being run with only a few days between Labors at the very most. Almost two weeks?
Hades sets the cup down and takes my hand in his, a lifeline of steady strength.
“How many did they get to?” I ask.
“You’re upset, and you should be resting. We can talk about this later—”
“No. Now.” I spear him with a glare.
The zap of emotions when it strikes this time is a mix of regret and reluctance. “Three Labors—the eighth, ninth, and tenth.”
“Three,” I whisper.
Three Labors. There are only two left. “Tell me the rest.” I’m not sure I really want to know.
“The ninth was Hera’s. As the goddess of the stars, she put a new constellation in the skies. The champions had to figure out which one. The world remained dark until they did, and she unleashed Deimos and Phobos on the champions to make it harder.”
The gods of fear and panic when it’s pitch-black? “I bet that was a treat,” I mutter.
“Rima and Zai figured it out together.”
I allow myself a small moment to smile at that. “Tied?”
He nods. “Hera gave them separate prizes. Zai has a stone that, when eaten, will ward off poison. And Rima was given a single vial of dragon fire.”
I shudder. I only dealt with a glamoured dragon, and that was enough for me.
But the good news is that gives Zai and Diego two wins each. I could still beat them. I just need to win the last two.
“And the tenth?” I ask.
“Ares,” he says.
I wince. Of all the Labors, Ares’ was the one I’d dreaded the most. I can’t say I’m all that sorry to have missed it. “A battle?”
“As he’s the god of war, you’d think so,” Hades says. “But he reminded the champions that in the ancient world, almost every god of war was about protection of their community, their people. His Labor was centered around that. Each of them was given a baby chimera. They had to get it back to the nest without being mauled by the baby and without the mother destroying Larissa, Greece, where her babies were taken.”
Interesting.
“Samuel was severely injured.”
My breath catches. “He’s not—”
“No,” he says. “Not yet. I loaned Zeus the doctors who worked on you.”
Which means none of the Strength virtues won that Labor, or Asclepius would have healed him. “Thank you for that.”
I pause, studying him. I’m not sure Hades would have done that on his own. But for me…
No. Silly idea, Lyra.
I force my mind back to the Labors. I almost don’t want to ask the next part.
“Who won?”
The way he hesitates, he doesn’t have to say it. I already know.
“Diego.”
Oh gods.
“His prize is a spear that telescopes down to pocket-sized.” Hades’ voice sounds like it’s coming down a tunnel.
I close my eyes to hold the panic at bay, pushing the desperation and terrible truth down where they can’t hurt me. Where I can think.
Zai won one. That gives him two. And Diego…three, now. At the very most, with only two left to play, I could tie for the lead, and I’d have to beat Zai to do it.
