BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

33.

EDEN went to stab anything she could.

Thank god for fucking Ares, who Eden probably owed her whole life to for these weapons. She stabbed her javelin into a wolf's back after evading its mouth and it dissolved into dust.

She charged into battle, swinging her sword around and round, dodging every little thing that was close to her to her and stabby stabbing and it was a real fucking great feeling that she missed a little too much.

Through the chaos, Eden caught glimpses of her comrades. Perfect Jason swung his icy piece of wood, which looked fucking ridiculous, by the way, knocking aside wolves and plunging straight through other venti. He was riding a fucking air horse that looked like it was barely there, so it looked like he was basically riding nothing. Fun.

Kaleidoscope was surrounded by Earthborn, but she seemed to be holding her own. She was so impressive-looking as she fought, almost glowing with beauty, that the Earthborn stared at her in awe, forgetting that they were supposed to kill her. They'd lower their clubs and watch dumbfounded as she smiled and charged them. They'd smile back — until she sliced them apart with her dagger, and they melted into mounds of mud.

Fire Boy had taken on Khione herself. While fighting a goddess should've been suicide, he was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. He burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.

Eden realized that Fire Boy was the only reason they were still alive. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, countering Khione's winter magic. Without him, they would've been frozen like the Hunters long ago. Wherever Leo went, ice melted off the stones. Even Lia started to defrost a little when he stepped near her.

Khione slowly backed away. Her expression went from enraged to shocked to slightly panicked as Fire Boy got closer.

Eden was running out of enemies. Wolves lay in dazed heaps, and she stabbed them dead with her javelin. Some slunk away into the ruins, yelping from their wounds. Kaleidoscope stabbed the last Earthborn, who toppled to the ground in a pile of sludge. Muscle Boy rode his horsie through the last ventus, breaking it into vapor. Fire Boy was bearing down on the goddess of snow.

"You're too late," Khione snarled. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."

Fire Boy set his hammers ablaze and threw them at the goddess, but she turned into snow — a white powdery image of herself. His hammers slammed into the snow woman, breaking it into a steaming mound of mush.

Kaleidoscope was breathing hard, but she smiled up at Perfect Jason. "Nice horse."

It reared on his hind legs, arcing electricity across his hooves. A complete show-off, Eden thought as it spoke to her.

Then Eden heard a cracking sound behind her. The melting ice on Useless Whore's cage sloughed off in a curtain of slush, and the goddess called, "Oh, don't mind me! Just the queen of the heavens, dying over here!"

"Good," Eden snapped, but Fire Boy dragged her over anyway.

He frowned. "Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?"

"No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry!"

Not only was Useless Whore sinking, the ground was rising around her like water in a tank. Liquid rock had already covered her shins. "The giant wakes!" she warned. "You only have seconds!"