Hades Rewound (Hades Series #2)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I haven't used Hades' helm in so long that I land on the ground with a gasp, mjy shoulder aching painfully as I stumble around in an attempt to regain my footing. Luckily, there isn't anyone around me to witness my unceremonious landing, so as soon as I regain my footing, I shove the helm - which has helpfully transformed into the beanie I became so used to during Hades' disappearance - over my messy bun and cloak myself with my invisibility, all the while refusing to let myself think about the look on Hades' face when he saw me disappear with his helm.

Only once I'm sure I'm completely inconspicuous do I allow myself to look around my surroundings so I can try and figure out where exactly I am. I am on Crete; I know that much. I'm also surrounded by towering trees, with thick green foliage and birds singing in the distance, so I think it's fair to say that I'm outside. But apart from that, there's nothing out of the ordinary that screams 'one of the oldest beings in the universe is hiding right here', so I'm kind of stumped.

I grimace slightly. I may not have thought this through as much as I thought.

Finding no other option except from trudging through the forest in the hopes that I'll run over an exceptionally obvious clue, I set off, peering suspiciously at the foliage like every individual leaf is a spy just waiting to report my position back to Poseidon. The more I walk, the more paranoid I become that someone's going to find me, and the more skeptical I become of my surroundings. Even though there's nobody around, I feel like the entire world is conspiring against me, and I fear with every move that I make, something's going to pounce on me and drag me kicking and screaming to Poseidon's lair. I'm starting to see why Spencer and Kezia protested so bluntly to my whole 'find Rhea and save the world' idea; it's really not the best I've come up with, and if I don't find Rhea soon, I'm kind of screwed.

Well, unless Hades figures out where I've gone and comes to find me before Poseidon does. But then again, I'll probably still be screwed; he's got a temper that rivals my own when it comes to hot-headedness. That's probably why Kezia found our arguments so entertaining; it was like two rams butting heads.

I wander through the forest for hours, not really heading in any general direction apart from towards the great hulking mountain in the distance. I remember reading somewhere years ago, when I was first doing my research on Cronus to try and help Hades defeat him, that Rhea favoured Mt Ida, so it's as good a heading as any. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do if I reach the mountain and still can't find Rhea, but what I do know is that I'm determined not to return to the Underworld until I've finally ended Poseidon's megalomaniac quest for power once and for all. He drowned an entire city because of me, and I'll be damned if I let him hurt any more people.

I'm so caught up in my frantic searching for Rhea that I don't notice when I lose focus on maintaining my invisibility, and switch back into the visual field. I still don't notice when all the bird chatter around me abruptly stops, plunging the forest into an eerie silence. I still don't notice when someone's shadow creeps up behind me, their footsteps muffled by the soft leaves carpeting the ground.

It's only when I feel the soft breeze of something being lifted behind me, do I finally realise how unnervingly quiet the forest is. But by that time, it's too late, and I turn around just in time to see a bat being brought down on my head with a force that knocks me out cold.

— — —

I come to with a loud groan, my head throbbing just as painfully as my shoulder. It feels like an over-energetic drummer has taken up permanent residence in the back of my skull, and is pounding away like his life depends on it. I want to find that drummer and smack him repeatedly until he's just a bloody smear on the ground, but funnily enough, I can't find the strength in me to do it.