The Shadow Summoner | Book Three - PJO Universe

eleven

NAP TIME

Nero's place was the nicest place Ariana had ever been imprisoned in. She would have rated it five stars. Absolute luxury! Would die here again!

Judging by Apollo's expression, she had passed out - probably from exhaustion or stress or a mixture of both.

"Thank the gods!" Said a frantic Apollo, a hand on his girlfriend's forehead.

With a groan, Ariana swatted his hand away; she sat up, her eyes going blurry.

"I'm okay." The daughter of Hades whispered.

Apollo gave her a knowing look. "Yeah, passing out for ten minutes is really okay Ariana!"

From the high ceiling hung a chandelier ... a chandelier, much too far out of reach for a prisoner to grab.

Crystal pendants danced in the LED lights, casting diamond-shaped reflections across the eggshell-white walls.

In the back of the room sat a sink with gold fixtures and an automated toilet with a bidet, all shielded behind a privacy screen - what pampering!

One of Nero's Persian carpets covered the floor. Two plush Roman-style sofas were arranged in a V on either side of a coffee table overflowing with cheese, crackers and fruit, plus a silver pitcher of water and two goblets, in case they prisoners wanted to toast our good luck.

Only the front wall had a jailhouse look, since it was nothing but a row of thick metal bars, but even these were coated with - or perhaps made from - Imperial gold.

Ariana and Apollo spent the next twenty or thirty minutes alone in the cell.

It was hard to measure time. Ariana watched from the floor as Apollo paced, Apollo screamed, he demanded to see Meg.

The former god even banged a silver platter against the bars and howled into the empty corridor outside.

Finally, as Ariana's fear and queasiness got the best of her, she discovered the joys of vomiting into a high-end toilet with a heated seat and multiple self-cleaning options.

Ariana was beginning to think Luguselwa must have died. Why else was she not in the cell with them, as Nero had promised?

How could she have survived the shock of double amputation when she was already so badly injured?

Her mind also concluded that Meg was dead despite having no indications as to why.

Somehow, her bracelets had fallen off but it didn't matter, it wouldn't have made a difference. There were no shadows in the room and even if there had been, Ariana knew it would be stupid to try anything whilst she was half unconscious.

Just as Ariana was convincing herself she would die alone in this cell with Apollo, a door banged open somewhere down the hall, followed by heavy footsteps and lots of grunting.

Gunther and another Germanus came into view, dragging Luguselwa between them. The middle three bars of the cell entrance fell away, retracting into the floor as fast as sheathed blades.

The guards pushed Lu inside, and the bars snapped closed again.

Apollo rushed to Lu's side. She curled on the Persian carpet, her body shivering and splattered with blood.

Her leg braces had been removed. Her face was paler than the walls. Her wrists had been bandaged, but the wrappings were already soaked through. Her brow burned with fever.

"She needs a doctor!" Apollo yelled.

Gunther leered at him. "Ain't you a healing god?"

His friend snorted, then the two of them lumbered back down the hall.