Its fur-covered face is grotesque, with a brass ring through its wrinkled, glistening nose. But of all the parts of the minotaur, including its size, the scariest are its eyes.
Cold, glassy, black eyes with no whites, as if the soul was sucked out of the beast a long time ago.
My stomach twists even as I pump my arms and legs.
I’m at the back of the herd. The obvious weak one. I am fucked.
Its head comes down, and it paws the water-starved dirt with a hooved foot, kicking up dust. Its body vibrates with rage built up from its frustrating climb, and I’m the easiest target available to take it out on.
This time, its bellow shakes the very earth.
The minotaur charges, coming straight at me. Out in the open. Alone.
Adrenaline hits my blood hard, and my heart pumps fast as I force my body across the long, flat distance between me and the gate. The ground shudders with every pound of its hooves as it closes in on me.
I know I’m not going to make it when a puff of humid, rank breath hits me in the side of the face.
With a yell, I stop and face it, but not with any real plan. But before I can make one, some invisible, magical force draws my axes up as if they are magnetized. They cross at the hilts, and the second they do, a force strikes them so hard I’m thrown to the ground, but so is the minotaur.
I don’t wait around to figure out what just happened. I’m back on my feet and moving.
But it doesn’t take the bull long to get up and chase me again. I got lucky last time. This time, I have no choice. I’m reaching for a pearl in my vest, thinking I’ll only use it to escape him, when a streak of turquoise zooms by me and rushes the minotaur’s head. The monster pulls up mid-charge. Another wine streak with white wings is right behind that, and the minotaur bats at the air with its beefy hands.
Jackie and Zai.
Zai manages to get in a stab with the Harpe of Perseus, hitting the minotaur’s forehead. On another ground-shaking bawl of rage, the bull swings its head, and Zai catches one of its massive horns in the stomach—thank the Fates, not with the tip—but it catapults him through the air, the wings on his sandaled feet beating ineffectually against the momentum.
“Zai!” I yell, my stomach twisting as I watch him flip midair.
He recovers before hitting the ground, and I almost stumble in relief.
“Go!” Zai shouts at me, then flies back at the minotaur.
And I do.
Heart now in my throat for them, making it hard to breathe, I run as fast as I can for the gate. Any second, I expect to hear a crunch of bones as it hits one of them, but I don’t stop. It would only keep them in danger longer.
The ground under my feet quivers. I think.
I keep running.
Up ahead, I see Samuel pass through the gate, where Dae is already waiting for him.
Another quiver, harder this time, shakes clumps of dry dirt loose. Then another shudder, even bigger, and I have to slow down because it’s moving the ground under my feet.
That’s when four bone soldiers the size of the minotaur erupt from the ground in a blast of dirt and sand.
My bone soldiers are formed as men, rather than merfolk like last time. They wield bone spears and shields, bone helms covering their heads.
The minotaur stops swatting at Jackie and swings around to face down this new threat.
I point and yell my orders. “Protect us from all the monsters.”
Immediately, the bone soldiers crouch, shields up, spears at the ready. In a single line, they take a step toward the minotaur. Then another.
Their bones clatter when they do, the sound ominous. The sound I imagine death makes when a reaper visits.
The threat to the minotaur is clear, and the bull focuses solely on the soldiers, no longer paying any attention to Zai or Jackie. The beast paws the earth again. It also crouches, fist to the ground like a defensive lineman, and lowers its head to peer at the soldiers from eyes narrowed with fury. Its breath blows dust up off the ground as it snorts and paws. Then it does a full-body shiver, its muscles bunching before it springs into a sprint.
I skid through the open iron doors tall enough to let King Kong through, then whip around. “Run!” I yell. Trinica made it through ahead of me. She is with Dae and Samuel, none of them moving on to the next gate yet, transfixed on the stragglers trying to make it through the gate, each shouting and screaming to urge someone on.
I scour the area for any of the other champions and catch sight of Rima close by, Amir right behind her.
“Come on!” I wave at them.
Zai and Jackie dive to whip through the gate overhead, but then the minotaur clocks Rima and Amir and runs at them with a bellow.
The two bone soldiers closer to us beat him to the champions, each scooping one up.
“Close the gates!” Jackie yells.
“What? Why?” The gate stands solitary in the wide, flat valley, disconnected from the mountains far to either side. It’s just symbolic, isn’t it? It’s not going to stop anything.
“Walls! I can see walls.” She’s already pushing at one door to swing it closed, but it’s not moving more than an inch or two.
The rest of us start pushing with her. Even with Samuel’s strength, the gates resist us. Do all of us have to get through to close them? Or die. I can see Zeus thinking that’s a fun little twist.
The soldiers are almost to us, but the minotaur is faster, bearing down on them like death incarnate.
