annais min was the god among mortals, the death that came along with life. now more than ever, she knew the cost of her existence, of what hades had done when he chose to pursue her mother. everything came down to her and the four other min girls, t...
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CHAPTER SIX: BE ON YOUR WAY
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ANNAIS' FIRST THOUGHT OF the townhouse was that danger lies in plain sight. While innocuous enough, something didn't sit right with her. There was a large greenhouse in the front room instead of a kitchen or a living area. It smelled of fertiliser, with dense green plants lining the walls and flowing over tabletops, while the back room was laid out like some kind of garage-computer lab-bedroom combination. Annais caught a glimpse of a glowing bank of computers pushed up beside a single bed, a series of gardening tools -- pitchforks, shovels and the like -- sticking out of a closet. She wanted to get a closer look, that dreaded feeling never fading, but she was interrupted by the strange man blocking her view.
"They can't get in," he told them as the monsters on the other side of the door bellowed and smashed their bodies against the walls. "You're safe now!"
"Safe?" Frank and Annais echoed incredulously. Hazel was hanging from Frank's arms like a ragdoll, and the man's disturbing lack of concern seemed to anger him. He yelled, "Hazel is dying!"
Still, Annais glimpsed no prominent shadows, just a blurry fog that seeped from her skin like heat radiating in the air. The strange man, who couldn't see this, glowered back at Frank. "Yes, yes. Bring her this way." With that, he ushered the group down the hallway towards the back room Annais had noticed earlier. He seemed reluctant to reveal its secrets to them, his shoulders tensing beneath the weight of Annais' watchful gaze. "Set your friend here," he gestured over to the bed.
As Frank obliged, removing Hazel's sword from her side so she would be more comfortable, Annais did a slow lap of the room, ignoring the man's grumbles as she stopped a few feet away from a giant python snoozing in the back of a red chariot.
"What were those cow things?" Frank's voice rose frantically from behind her. "What did they do to her?"
"Katoblepones," answered the man, finally kneeling at Hazel's side to observe her. "Singular: katobleps. In English, it means: 'they're always looking down.'"
Huh. Fitting.
"Right," Nico mumbled to himself as realisation dawned. "I remember reading about them."
Frank's glare turned to him next. "Now you remember?"
Annais elbowed his arm harshly. "Frank," she hissed in warning as Nico hung his head.
"I, uh... used to play this stupid card game when I was younger--"
Annais huffed out a laugh at the reminder. "Baby Nico would hate that you called his game stupid. You were obsessed--"
"Yeah, yeah," Nico scowled at her, cheeks flushing pink beneath the dim yellow globe that hung from the ceiling. "It was called Mythomagic. The katobleps was one of the monster cards."
