Bonds of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #2)(5)

She shot an arrow into the sky.

Please let it hit me.

A squirrel fell from the top branch with a loud thud.

Okay, Arthritis (Artemis) needs to be stopped.

Artemis turned her horse to face us. “Per tradition, in honor of Pheidippides of the House of Ares—you will be hunted by our youngest members, twenty-five miles through the woods.”

Was that blood on her teeth?

“They will give you an entire hour’s head start before they come after you.” Artemis scoffed, like she thought that was too much time. “While you’re in the forest, leaping and fighting back is forbidden. It doesn’t matter how many bullets you take.”

She smiled.

“If you fail to make it out of the woods and are captured, you will be killed.”

Drex whimpered.

Oh nice, Arthritis looks genuinely excited.

Hades shot me a reassuring smile.

He’d explained all this before and said everyone always survived, but Artemis made it sound like our demise was a very real possibility, and she was personally going to make it happen.

“After the woods, you can leap,” Artemis said flippantly, like she didn’t need to explain it because we’d already be dead by then.

“If you’re uncaptured by the first morning light, you’ll be in the Assembly of Death, and can choose who you want to partner with for your first mission. If you’re caught, the two Spartans who capture you will fill that role.”

Kharon bared his teeth and Augustus smirked, his eyes still dripping crimson.

Achilles cracked his neck back and forth, muzzle concealing his expression. Patro winked, looking smug.

Artemis raised her bloody bow.

“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

Drex and I didn’t need to be told twice. We turned and sprinted into the icy woods.





2


THE HUNTER




KHARON

Hell and Hound led the way through the dark woods, bones flashing as they sprinted between the snow-covered trees.

Augustus ran beside me.

The sky opened up and freezing rain fell sharply, covering everything in a layer of treacherous ice.

It was a perilous night for a hunt.

Old scar tissue and misshapen joints ached in my ruined right knee.

I’d been steadily spiraling out of control since Alexis left us. We’d rushed down the aisle to avoid violating the marriage law, since I’d turned twenty-seven on the first of February.

We’d hunted Alexis and yet she’d still gotten away.

You’re nothing but a failure.

Dark memories strangled.

Artemis and Erebus had enrolled me in the SGC when I was eighteen, to show off the strength of their prodigy.

But I’d done the unforgivable.

I lost.

Defeated and broken, gasping on the hot sand with a mangled ruined right leg—bones protruding, bloody brands across my chest—I’d dragged myself out of the Dolomites Coliseum by my arms, and collapsed in the wings.

I’d whimpered with pain, fading in and out of consciousness, waiting for my parents.

No one had come.

When I finally woke up, Artemis was standing over me with a disgusted expression. “You’re no son of mine.”

It was the last thing we’d ever said to each other.

Officially, to save face in front of Olympians, I was a member of the House of Artemis. Unofficially, I was dishonored.

If it wasn’t for Augustus taking me in and helping me prepare for the crucible, I don’t know what I would have done.

Don’t think about it.

I focused on the present.

Lowering my head, I activated my powers—protector bond strumming in my chest, I shoved my consciousness into my hellhounds while maintaining a full-out sprint—my senses strengthened.

The forest illuminated with the neon green of night vision.

Vanilla smoke filled my lungs.

I’d inhaled that scent when I’d dragged my tongue across Alexis’s delicate golden skin ninety-nine days, twelve hours, thirty minutes, and ten seconds ago.

“They’re not going to make it to the clearing in time,” Augustus said stoically as he scanned the forest.

He was my hunting partner.

It wasn’t romantic between us—we hovered on the narrow border between friendship and unequivocal devotion—Alexis was the new glue that bridged the gap.

“You won’t win,” Patro taunted in a singsong voice at our heels. “Alex hates you.”

Fuck him.

I’d once considered him my brother.

Patro chuckled darkly.

Not anymore.

Augustus glared back at the approaching Chthonics, murder in his gaze—blood dripped from his eyes like tears—it was a new development.

Ever since the marriage bond settled into place, our powers had been more volatile. Stronger, but more painful.

We got everything we ever wanted, and it was torment.

Up ahead, a few hundred feet away, two fluttering dark cloaks ran through the woods.

Are they even trying?

Alexis and Drex were moving like snails. It was only a marathon, for fuck’s sake; it wasn’t even that long.

Messy golden curls flashed.

Alexis looked back over her right shoulder, eyes widening with fear—one dark, one white—locked on me.