Furious

Chapter Ten

I hit the floor on my stomach with little grace. My chin thumped on the mat, teeth clamping down on my tongue. The taste and smell of blood flooded my senses. A moan burst from my lips, followed by a grunt and an attempt to stand.

Okay badass Fury within me, now would be a good time to show yourself.

"Stay down, Fury, you're not match for the two of us. Hades," he emphasized the word, correcting me, "sent you to us for a reason. The less you try to prove yourself now, the sooner we can actually get started." Gregory spoke, reaching a hand towards Alex to help her to her feet. No hand was offered to me this time.

"This is ridiculous. He said I was in training for war, not for getting my ass kicked," I reminded them.

Battling Alex and Greg in the mirrored room wasn't anything I had prepared for, mentally or physically. A few kickboxing classes had given Sarah and I sore muscles and a few techniques but this was a different ballgame. Two on one just didn't seem fair.

Alex sneered; her wings flapped gently and she floated upwards, feet completely off the floor. "You need to learn basics first. You know next to nothing—shut up for five minutes and we'll change that. We start at the beginning and work our way up. We're not here for physical training, anyway. It's just fun to watch you try."

"Oh, you should see me when I try."

Finally on my feet, my abdominals ached, and I struggled to carefully breathe around the pain. Gregory's knee was sharp and I would probably bruise. Good thing I wasn't trying to impress anyone with my astonishing good looks; dirty, tired, and bruised, the opposite of cute.

"I'll do my best not to hit you; you could try looking a little less confrontational, Alex." I breathed evenly against the pain. Instinct told me not to show weakness in front of these two, perhaps because one of them had wings and the other could have broken me in half with his bare hands. Both were less terrifying than the child-eater in my apartment but there was always time to be proved wrong.

Alex smirked from the air, literally hovering over me, ever ready to strike.

"How much do you know about Greek mythology?" Gregory asked.

"Let's see. I've read about a quarter of the Iliad and that's about it, Greg. Public school education at its finest. I know about Zeus and Hera and Hercules thanks to Disney and that's about where the knowledge stops. Tell me what I need to know," I answered.

"Don't call me 'Greg'. Cartoon Hercules isn't exactly factual. Unfortunately you'll never learn all of it, as we live in a proverbial time crunch with our unknown deadline looming closer every minute. But before you meet the Fury, there are a few crucial things you need to know."

Meet the Fury? I thought I was the Fury.

Alex chimed in, "Cliff notes version: the Titans, who were awful and scary powerful beings, gave birth to the Olympians, who were then the downfall of the Titans; the Olympians are more or less led by Zeus, brother of Poseidon and Hades. For centuries, they've been dormant in the lives of man—until the Nectar was stolen and they started to die. Among the dead so far are Hermes, Demeter, Eros, Artemis, the Muses, and Hades, to name a few. Enter Hector, new and improved Lord of the Underworld. The history of Greek mythology in a hundred words or less, there you go."

"Okay, sounds legitimate. But what does that make you?" I gestured to her wings.

She smiled at me. Could it be a genuine smile, like we'd simply gotten off on the wrong foot and she no longer wanted to tear me apart?