Hunter

Chapter Forty Five - Figuring It Out

"Jasper, which one of them is your girlfriend?" He made a strangled sound in the back of his throat as his eyes darted between the both of them. I kept my stance, arms out ready to attack. Andrea on the right raised her hand.

"Hayley, it's me. It's Andrea. The real Andrea. I don't know who this is, but you have to trust me!" Andrea on the left stepped forward.

"Hayley, don't listen to her! I came here looking for you!" Right Andrea looked appalled.

"What? No! Trust me--"

"I don't trust either of you. All I'm trying to decide is who I should kill last." Left Andrea stepped forward again.

"Hayley, come on! We went to school together! We were in the same gym class until crescent burned down!" I looked at Right Andrea, her face slightly pale.

"Hayley, Remember on the first day when you obviously didn't want to sit with me? That was me! Who else would remember such small detail?"

"Jasper, any day now would be great. One of them is obviously stalling." He was still silent. Left Andrea spoke more desperately.

"Hayley, I invited you to my party!" Bingo. I threw a bolt at Left Andrea, and she blocked, jumping backward, my necklace flying to her hands once again. As I threw the second bolt, Aiden's flames coursed right by my face. Her right arm melted off. My bracelet changed into a dagger and I aimed at her right hand, slicing it clean off. My blade stuck out of a wall, my necklace hanging around from it. I charged once more, and Aiden and I finished off fake Andrea the robot.

Real Andrea was on her knees, and Jasper's arms were around her. She looked mortified as tears pooled from her face. The fact that there were two of them made things easier to understand. I grabbed my dagger and my necklace, and then I walked over to Andrea. The real Andrea. I kneeled by her side, wishing to talk to her.

"This might come out the wrong way, but why are you here?" She sniffled and wiped away some imaginary snot that she must've felt was running down her face.

"It's all Hephaestus!" I cast a gaze at Jasper and then back at Aiden who was tending to Dee's head injury.

"What do you mean it's all Hephaestus?" I whispered.

"It's a long story, and I'll explain it all later, but you have to trust me. Hephaestus is behind this all. How else do you think the other me was a robot? What about the dragon that attacked the school? That robot dragon came from a metal box that the metal Andrea gave to you. And the robots that attacked you in the cave?" No matter how desperately I wanted to interrogate her, I knew that we needed to get to Aphrodite, and we needed to get there fast.

"Okay," I breathed, "I trust you. We need to find Aphrodite, quickly. Are you able to do normal human things like... breathe and run?" She nodded, a small smile on her lips. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her. Even though she wasn't the one who caused all of my problems, there was still something distinctly irritating about her. "Okay, that's great, because we need to go. Now." To my right, Jasper helped her to her feet, his hands around her waist, and to my left, Aiden's hand swallowed Dee's in his own large paw. Of all the concerns in the world, I couldn't help but think about how I was the fifth wheel. When everyone was ready, I started to navigate.

I knew where we were going just from having been there in my dream. I jogged hurriedly down the cobblestone paths, weaving left and right through the marble columns. When we reached a grand staircase that led to an enormous room, I knew that we were there. We sprinted up the stairs and there was Aphrodite, slumped on the floor, almost all of her power gone. I ran up to her and shifted her into a sitting position.