108
The Final Blow
Every part of me gets hit so hard with another burst of adrenaline, fear, and shock, my skin feels electrified.
It can’t be.
I very slowly turn and find Cerberus is there before me, bigger than ever, as if he’s grown to the same proportions as the other two monsters.
“Kill the mortal,” Cer snaps inside my mind. He lifts all three heads and sniffs the air. “Kill her,” Rus snarls. Ber just growls, showing me teeth designed to rend the flesh from my bones.
Sour bile rushes up my throat, and I swallow the burn back down.
This isn’t him. This can’t be him. The rage pouring through his voices is…feral. Rabid. Which is when I catch sight of Ber’s eyes. Black, soulless eyes. Like the minotaur. Zeus has to have them spelled. All of them.
But…the Labor is over.
We crossed the last finish line. Do all of us have to cross, like the other two gates? Except the gate is already gone. Thoughts fly through my head in a thousand directions.
Run. Hide. Help Cerberus.
Where the hells is Hades? Forget interfering. Zeus took Hades’ godsdamned pet and is loosing him on me after the Labor is already over. That fucker is cheating. If the hound is killed, Hades will never forgive himself. We can’t kill him. I won’t let the others. But I can’t let him hurt them, either.
Holding my axes up before me—a barrier between him and them—I face him. “Don’t—”
A black paw slams into me from the side. I hear Cerberus growl as, on a cry, my arms flailing, I sail up into the air and back down. When I hit, my axes go sliding away in opposite directions and the wind knocks out of me so forcefully, my next breath sounds like I’m dying.
That horrible noise of trying to make my lungs work again is immediately drowned out by Cerberus’ howls as he leaves the other champions behind and runs straight at me.
I see my friends scatter as soon as his back is turned, helping one another try to get to safety somewhere. Anywhere. My lungs are still struggling, and I’m swinging wildly between needing air and needing to run. The axes are too far away to get to both of them. I have my last pearl in my hand before I even think. It’s my only way out. There’s nowhere to hide here.
“Cerberus,” I yell. He’s so close. Right on top of me. “Don’t do this. It’s me. It’s Lyra.”
Cer…smiles. “I know.”
What happens next comes so fast, I don’t realize what I’m seeing until it’s over. Cerberus lunges for me, and a massive spear made of bone lifts into the sky over his head, startling white with my changed sight.
“No!” I scream.
Too late.
The skeleton soldier plunges it into Cerberus’ back. With a pathetic, horrible, heartbreaking yelp from all three heads, the hellhound twists around on the soldier, even as he falls to the ground.
And I have to scramble back to not get crushed when he does.
“No.” The word tears from my throat. Then I’m stumbling to get around Cerberus’ body to stop the bone soldier from finishing the job. “Don’t hurt him,” I order.
I don’t care if Cerberus eats me. I can’t let him die.
My protector immediately stands at attention, waiting for my next order.
“Lyra?” Cer’s voice is shaky in my head now. No more fury. No more mindless rage.
“Oh gods,” I whisper.
I reach out, only to jerk away at the sticky feel of blood, and Cer flinches from my touch, whimpering. His rapid pants are shallow and raspy. Ber and Rus are limp on the ground, eyes closed, unconscious and unmoving.
“I did not hurt you.”
I pat his head. “You didn’t hurt me.”
“I could see what I was doing, but I could not stop myself.” His voice is growing fainter.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” I’m shaking so hard, my hands keep clenching in jerking spasms, nausea rolling through me. “Can you get us to Hades?”
Where is Hades, anyway?
“Too…weak…”
“What will…fix you?”
“Only…the…” He stops, giving a pathetic little mewl. “Styx.”
Then Cer growls, the sound broken but fierce as he looks at something behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up, like I’ve touched a light socket. I don’t have to look to know, but I do anyway.
Zeus.
