Return of the Titans

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Something was wrong.

I sensed it in the air when we left the grill and began to head down toward Apollo. Something made the hairs on the back of my neck rise, and not once did I like it.

Perhaps it was the five pounds of meat that Jay insisted on purchasing before we left. Steak, beef, and chicken, all smothered with cheese and stuffed into corn tortillas. The responsibility of carrying all of that unanimously fell onto me, because of course it did. It was fine if it wasn't for the extra packets of verde sauce and sour cream he had asked to be set on the side.

That, alone, was an extra pound. I might as well have been forced to stand against a wall in a chair position for five hours. At least then, I didn't have the delectable aroma of a complimentary taco teasing me every five seconds.

Maybe what I was feeling was the impending war that would arise in Jay's stomach after he ate all of that food. Like I said, semi-authentic Mexican food wasn't exactly my specialty. It was too rich in flavors, so a good pizza or burger was fine by me. I would only eat it if there was nothing else on the table, and only in moderation. Knowing Jay, he wouldn't even notice that anything was wrong until he was suffering from the meat sweats, but then again, he would just blame it on the humidity.

But, for real, it was hot. I thought it was the sun before, but now I knew that it was anything but. Sweat made my shirt stick to my chest like glue, and it was even worse for my antlers. I could practically feel them being bleached by the sun's intense heat, and that was not a good feeling.

Jay loudly sipped at his cup of soda, dragging himself along the sidewalk. Through the foggy lamplight, I could see his own face glistened with sweat. "How long is it?" he whined.

"Not far," Tobias answered.

His stomach was plump after eating his own party platter of Tex-Mex food, so much so where his belly button peeked out of his polo shirt. Congealed cheese stubbornly stuck to his shirt collar and remnants of his sweetened beer hung on his breath. Tobias had eaten only because him being a satyr gave him the ability to eat it all in under a minute, and it wouldn't unsettle his stomach a bit. I could have sworn he nibbled on the steaming plate his food came with.

I would have given him his space at any normal time, but this feeling was incredibly strong. It reminded me too much of the past two times where my gut intuition warned me of something bad. No way was I going to ignore it for the third time.

Dusk was falling rapidly over the city. Silhouettes of people rushing home passed us by, and I once mistook a brawny man for our horned guide. He was wearing a beanie with devil horns sprouting from their temples, it was an easy mistake.

"Sorry," I said and backed away.

I heard a snort from behind me, and Maria's voice said, "Is the darkness messing with your eyes, Beast?"

Her teasing didn't affect me much. I've heard worse, so this was pretty tame. "My name's Frankie, Maria," I said. Really, if that girl didn't stop it with the nicknames... "And no, my eyes are fine. I'm just trying to find Tobias."

"Nervous?" Jay asked.

"Troubled, is more like it," I said.

"It's alright to be scared, you know," Maria said. "Gods are wild things. They govern themselves by their own rules. If you're feeling antsy, it isn't too late to turn back."

"You know what, Maria --?"

"Shh!" Jay suddenly hissed and pointed behind me. "Tobias is coming."

I heard hooves clicking against concrete, and turned around to see the tall man hovering over me. "I was wondering why you guys weren't behind me," he said. "What were you all talking about?"