“We’ll figure out something,” Danielle said, her eyes blazing with determination. “If a ride from the dragons is the only way to the peak, then we have to get them to cooperate.”
“I respect your willpower,” Erebus said. “But be warned that a deal with the dragons will require a sacrifice. However, we have quite a while until we reach them, and I’m sure you don’t need reminding that time is of the essence. Shall we be on our way?”
“Of course,” I said, and while I still wasn’t positive that Erebus could be trusted, the three of us followed him back to the path through Kerberos.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Erebus led us across the cragged rocks and back onto the dirt path—I’d apparently been leading the group in the completely wrong direction. Since the path only led two ways—toward the mountain and back to the forest—I assumed Erebus would walk us along the rocks on the other side of the path. Instead, he turned around and followed the path back to the forest.
“In case you didn’t notice, the mountain is that way.” I pointed over my shoulder. “Why are we walking away from it?”
“I know where the mountain is.” Erebus let out an agitated breath and rolled his eyes. “It’s a mountain for crying out loud. It’s kind of hard to miss. But as I already told you, the route we’ll be taking is a meandering one that will lead us through the realms of Kerberos. In case you don’t understand what that means, the definition of meandering is—”
“Winding,” Danielle interrupted, stopping to wipe some sweat off her forehead. “Twisty. Bendy. Curvy. An indirect course.”
“Precisely.” Erebus nodded at Danielle, his eyes gleaming with what seemed to be respect. Danielle just tossed her hair over her shoulder, her lips curved up into a small smile.
“I know what meandering means,” I said, annoyed that both of them apparently thought I was missing a few brain cells. “I just thought we would be meandering toward the mountain and not away from it.”
“We must first go away from the mountain in order to eventually head toward it,” Erebus said. “When you accepted my help, I thought that meant you trusted me not to lead you astray. Do you doubt me now?”
There was a part of me that still questioned him, but since he was the one person in this hell dimension who seemed to want to help us, it would do me no good to tell him that now. “No,” I said. “Of course not. Sorry.”
Chris slapped away another wasp, but from the pained look on his face, it hadn’t been enough to stop him from getting stung. “Is there any way to stop these wasps from biting us?” he asked. “That was probably the tenth time I’ve been stung, and it itches so bad that it’s driving me crazy.”
I felt his pain. I also had multiple stings all over my body, and the more I scratched, the itchier they became. Still, while scratching made the bites worse, they burned so bad when I didn’t scratch them that I couldn’t resist giving in, even if the relief was only temporary.
If Erebus had a way to make it stop, then I was all ears.
“The flies and wasps are part of the torture inflicted by the Badlands—the realm in Kerberos between the mountain and the forest,” Erebus told us. “They will sting and bite you no matter what. You can lessen it by not irritating them by swatting at them, but it will not stop them completely. But as I’m sure you noticed, the flies and wasps disappeared once you started up the mountain. They will do the same once we enter the forest.”
“You mean that dark, creepy jungle of a forest that we saw when we stepped through the portal?” I asked. “We’re going in there?”
“Yes.” Erebus nodded. “That’s precisely where we’re heading.”
“How’s that supposed to be any better than the mountain?”
“The forest will not be an agreeable journey by any means,” he said. “But trust me—it’s not deadly like the mountain. It won’t cause you any physical harm. It’s unpleasant, but not deadly.”
“How so?” Danielle asked.
“You’ll see when we get there,” he said. “There won’t be any creatures to fight, so you needn’t worry about that. I’ll tell you more once we’re closer, but you’ll be fine as long as you remember this one important fact—whatever you hear in the forest isn’t real.”
With that, he turned around and continued down the path. He tugged at the straps of the pack on his back, and I contemplated asking him what was inside, but I stopped myself. After all, Erebus was a god. If he wanted us to know what was in the pack, he would tell us. I also had a feeling that we’d annoyed him enough since first meeting him, and I didn’t want to push his patience further.
He continued to lead us down the path, and we followed, not saying a word. The only sounds were our footsteps and the buzzing of the flies and wasps that bit and stung us no matter how little we swatted at them. The hot, muggy air created a layer of sweat over every inch of my skin. My hair was wet with sweat even after putting it up. I was getting thirstier and thirstier, but I held onto hope that we would find water soon. Until we did, there was no point in complaining. All we could do was continue on.
The path crested over a hill, and as we ascended I saw the trees in the forest waiting ahead. A dark haze surrounded the forest, and I couldn’t imagine the horrors that waited for us within. But I pushed away my fear and focused on putting one foot in front of the other, reminding myself that each step forward was one step closer to Blake.
We reached the top of the hill, and Erebus held his arms out, stopping us from proceeding.
“What?” I asked. “Why are we stopping?”
“Shhhh,” he said, facing forward and not looking at me. “Listen.”
I doubted that my sense of hearing was any match for his godly one, but I did as he said anyway, closing my eyes so I could focus on the sounds around me. It didn’t take long to hear the thunderous footsteps, getting louder and louder by the second. They were quick—whoever was making them was running. And they were so heavy that the ground vibrated under my feet.
I opened my eyes as a big-boned, troll-like creature at least three times the size of a human ran out of the forest. He was followed by another, and then another—there must have been five of them in all. They each carried a wooden bat large enough to squash us like flies.
And since they were following the path, they were heading straight toward us.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
My heart jumped into my throat as the giants ran out of the forest, and I glanced around, looking for somewhere to hide. But since we were in a rocky, desert wasteland, there was nothing nearby that would give us cover. And since there were more of the giants than there were of us, we wouldn’t be able to fight them off without our powers.
“Chris.” I spoke louder, so he could hear me over the rumbling footsteps of the giants. “Get your lyre ready.”
“Already on it,” he said, and sure enough, when I turned to look at him I saw his lyre out and ready to play.
“You won’t need to worry about that,” Erebus said, his voice annoyingly calm. “Just watch.”
Was he going to fight the giants for us? I thought he wasn’t “allowed” to interfere like that, but hey—if he chose to do it, I wouldn’t complain. We needed all the help we could get. So since he was a god, and I trusted him not to tell us to watch the giants if we actually needed to be running for our lives, I did as he said. After all, if he changed his mind and decided not to help us, Chris still had his lyre. He could use it to convince the giants to run in another direction and forget they ever saw us.
But none of that was necessary. Because instead of continuing toward us, the first giant hunched over and ran straight through the portal. One second he was there, and the next second he was gone. The rest of them followed his lead until none of them were left. Their pounding footsteps were gone, leaving an eerie silence in their wake.
“They all ran to Earth.” I stared numbly at the empty path ahead of me. “Straight to Kinsley. And none of us are there to stop them. Our families are there, a
nd now they’re at the mercy of those… things.” I whipped my head around to look at the others, and pointed at the portal. “We have to go back,” I said. “When we’re back, we’ll have our powers. And then we’ll be able to kill those monsters.”
“No,” Chris said, holding his arm out to stop me. “We can’t go back.”
“Yes, we can,” I argued. “It won’t take long. We’ll go through the portal, kill the giants, and then come back here to continue on. Those giants might be big, but they didn’t look very smart. With our powers, we shouldn’t have much trouble fighting them.” I looked at Danielle, hoping she would agree with me. “You’re the final vote,” I told her. “Should we go fight the giants, or let them run free through our home?”
She looked back and forth between me and Chris, her expression guarded. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “Our families are in danger, and I hate that. But there are protection spells around their houses, and they know to stay inside. If we lose time while fighting the giants, or worse—if anything happens to us while fighting them—we risk failing our entire mission.” She took a deep breath, sheathed her sword, and turned to Erebus. “You’re the god, and our guide,” she said to him. “What do you think we should do?”
“At least one of you has the common sense to ask for my opinion.” He spun his knife around—he must have gotten it from his bag—balancing it on the tip of his index finger. Somehow it didn’t draw blood. Once it finished spinning, he caught it with his other hand and continued, “I can’t make your decisions for you. But I can let you know that the giants are not the only ones to escape. Word of the portal is spreading, and as it weakens, more creatures are able to pass through. The giants are not the first to pass through since you’ve arrived here, and they won’t be the last.”
He didn’t need to say more for me to know that we couldn’t go back through that portal. I think I knew that from the moment the giants escaped. I liked the idea of being able to go back and fight them, but if we went back to fight every monster that escaped through the portal while we were in Kerberos, we would likely never succeed in our mission.
Plus, what if the lost time resulted in something terrible happening to Blake? We had to get to him as quickly as possible. Every second lost was another second he was at risk.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if he didn’t make it out of this okay.
“Even if we go back for the giants, we can’t go back for every group that escapes while we’re here,” I resolved, my heart dropping as I looked at the portal. “If we go back for the giants, we’ll be losing time here. It makes the most sense for us to continue on and get Medusa’s head as quickly as possible. In the meantime… let’s hope that Darius is making sure that our families stay safe.”
“I’m glad you’re seeing this sensibly now,” Danielle said. “Remember—Apollo promised he would go to Darius’s to warn him. Darius is smart, and he has Hypatia and Jason with him, too. They’ll do everything they can to keep the town safe.”
“I know,” I said, although it didn’t stop me from worrying about my family.
“Does this mean you’ve made your decision?” Erebus asked.
“Yes.” I stood straighter, thinking about Blake. He needed us. The world needed us to take back Medusa’s head. We might be running away from a battle… but it was so we could win the war. “We’re ready to continue on our journey.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
We continued walking along the path, past the portal, until reaching the forest. The footsteps of the giants were pressed into the dirt, and I placed my foot inside one of them, curious about how it would size up. The giant’s foot was triple the size of mine.
If we’d been walking along the path minutes earlier, we would have come head to head with the giants, who would have likely crushed us in their sprint for the portal. We’d been lucky this time. But I knew better than to think that the luck would continue. When facing the next monster, would we just run away like we had when coming across the Nemean lion? I tightened my grip on my bow, feeling like a coward as I remembered how we’d turned and ran. We’d been relying on our powers since the night of the comet—the thought of fighting without them was terrifying. Hopefully Apollo’s gifts would help us through whatever battles were to come.
Erebus stopped at the forest. I stopped behind him, craning my neck to look up at the towering trees. Their trunks were wider than a car, and I tried to see to the top of them, but I couldn’t. They grew up into the clouds. For all I knew, they were as tall as the mountain itself.
Tendrils of fog reached out from the forest, as if beckoning us to enter so it could wrap itself around us and never let us go. Despite the stifling heat, goose bumps rose along my arms. Every instinct in my body warned me to back away and run in the opposite direction.
“Are you sure this is the best way for us to go?” I asked Erebus, taking a step back. “The forest seems kind of…” I paused, searching for the right word. “Scary” and “creepy” came to mind first, but they weren’t strong enough to get across my feelings.
“Ominous,” Danielle finished the sentence for me.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Exactly. And we already know the giants were in there… what if there’s something worse inside?”
“You’re right to be afraid of the Whispering Forest,” Erebus said. “But the path through the forest is the only path that will take you up the mountain, besides the direct route that you already tried. And we all know how that ended up, so I trust you won’t be trying that again. But I assure you—there’s nothing in that forest that will harm you. Physically, at least.”
“But it’ll harm us in other ways?” Chris asked.
“It can,” Erebus said. “Once you’ve entered the forest, it’s easy to get lost inside. Many do. Some creatures wander in the mist for years, or centuries. When—or if—they emerge, they’re never the same. The forest breaks their minds.”
I shivered, not liking how that sounded.
“Luckily, the three of you have me as your guide,” he continued. “It’s about a three-hour walk from here to the other side of the forest, and we’ll hold hands and make a chain as we walk to make sure that no one gets lost. During that time, you must remember—the wind will whisper through the trees, preying on your fears, but none of it is real. No matter what, you must remember that.”
“Got it.” Chris nodded. “Is there anything else we should know?”
“You won’t be able to see or hear each other in the forest,” Erebus said. “So whatever happens, hold onto each other’s hands, and don’t let go.”
“And if something happens, and we do get separated?” I asked. “How will we find each other if we can’t hear or see each other?”
“That won’t happen,” he said.
“But if it does?” I pressed. “What then?”
“Then you have two options. Get lost in the forest, or get ahold of yourself and follow the path to the exit. As long as you remember that nothing you hear is real, you shouldn’t get separated at all. But if you do get separated, then for your sake—and for the sake of everyone living on Earth—I hope you’re strong enough to remain on the path. Because once you wander off the path, you’ll be nearly impossible to find. And if you’re lost, we do not have the time to spare to go back for you. Understand?”
“Yes,” I said, somber with the weight of his words. “I understand.”
I looked back into the forest, the fog so thick that it was like a ghost calling to me. Beckoning to me. What was it going to say to me? What was so horrible that it could drive even the most dangerous monsters crazy for centuries?
Fear crept up my spine, but I straightened, pushing it away. No matter what happened, I couldn’t trust anything I heard in there.
Blake was counting on me. The world was counting on me. And I refused to let them down.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“I’ll be the caboose,” Chris volunteered, glancing at Erebus. “Since you’ll be in fron
t, I figure we’ve gotta protect the girls.”
“You are no less vulnerable than they are,” Erebus said. “But as you wish.” He reached for Danielle’s hand, and soon the four of us were linked together—Erebus leading the way, then Danielle, then me, and Chris in the back. We were all sweaty because of the heat, but Chris’s palm was much more slippery than Danielle’s. I guessed that despite his attempt to sound brave, he was just as scared as I was. But it would embarrass him if I mentioned it, so I said nothing.
Erebus took his first steps into the forest, and we had no choice but to follow him into the mist. The first tendril of fog licked my fingers, and I was surprised by how silky and cool it was—a welcome break from the smothering heat. I made my way fully into it, contentment seeping into my skin as it covered me completely.
My insect bites, which had itched so much that they’d burned—cooled down in the fog until the burning was gone. It was as if the bites had never existed at all. My hunger and thirst was gone as well. The fog was thinner near the ground, so I could see my feet and the path. Above that, I couldn’t see more than a few inches around myself. But I didn’t care. This was the most comfortable I’d been since coming through that portal.
Perhaps this was why creatures entered the forest and never returned—they realized how comfortable it was here, and they made a choice. As the peaceful calm rolled over me, it wasn’t hard to understand why they had no desire to leave.
“Why did you say this was going to be hard?” I asked Erebus. “The three hours we’ll be in this forest will probably be the best ones in Kerberos. Besides the moment I see Blake again, of course.” I smiled, thinking of our upcoming reunion. I couldn’t wait to run into his arms and kiss him again, and finally tell him that I loved him.
Elementals 4: The Portal to Kerberos Page 5