Page 26 of Artemis’ Bow (Halfling Academy #5)

“ W hat is it?” Jayden asks. “Another vision? Shit.”

“Yeah, shit is right. What else is going to go wrong?” I sigh.

Adrian gasps and scrambles to get his feet under him. “We need to leave right now.”

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“If we don’t leave now, we won’t be getting out of here. Orpheus, you need to close the portal and guard it even more carefully than normal. Something is coming,” Adrian hisses.

“Is it coming from the underworld?” I turn to Spot. “Sorry, buddy, playtime is over.”

The hellhound whimpers but lies down in the grass to wait to be put back in the little tube.

“We’ll get you back out as soon as we can.” Jayden pats his heads before pressing on the rune again.

With a mournful howl, he disappears. I turn back to Adrian. Everyone’s face is pale as a ghost.

“What’s going on?” I ask. “Is it coming from the underworld?”

“Yes, I don’t know how they got past Hades’ army, but they are trying to breach it and get back into the human world. We have to leave right now.”

“I’m ready, let’s go. Orpheus, will you be able to guard the portal on your own?” I ask.

“I’m going to shut it down until the coast is clear. Hades will collect the escaped prisoners soon enough. Go.” Orpheus claps me on the shoulder.

I turn on my heel and race down the winding halls of the strip club. Don’t let anything get through. Please don’t let anything get through. We need to get out of here before that happens. If only I could transport other people rather than just Jayden. We could be back at the car already.

“Stupid magic and its limitations,” I mutter as I round the corner to the mirror room.

“Thank the gods,” Raven says next to me.

“We’re not out of here yet. Just keep moving.” I shove the door open.

The SUV is only a hundred yards away when a crash sounds inside the building. Wincing, I turn to glance back, but Jayden shakes his head at me.

“We can’t help him. It’s his job to police the portal. He won’t fail. We have to go.”

“I know but I hate leaving people behind to clean up the monsters, even if an hour ago I was fantasizing about stabbing him in the eye. I don’t like leaving people in danger.” I run a hand down my face.

Sweat burns my eyes when we finally reach the SUV. Jayden throws himself into the driver’s seat and starts the ignition. “How far out do we need to be before we’re safe? Will they follow us?”

“No, I didn’t see them following us, but I would get at least a couple blocks away before they know we were here and come looking for us,” Adrian says.

“Let’s get on the road. We’re already behind anyway, but Spot needed that playtime and if I’m honest, I did too.” I shut the door once I’m seated next to Jayden.

Jayden throws the vehicle into drive and tears out of the parking lot as fast as he can. I grab the ‘oh shit’ handle above my head as he rounds a corner faster than he should, but none of us complain.

There are only a few beings powerful enough to escape Hades’ prison and I never want to see those assholes again. The only way Hecate would be able to get out is if she enlisted the Titans. They may hate Zeus more than Hera does, so I don’t want to be anywhere near that mess.

“Okay,” Adrian pants. “I think you may be safe to slow down. I don’t think they can find us from here.”

“If they even get out, right?” I ask. “It’s not guaranteed that they will succeed.”

“No, this time I saw more than one future. It was weird. I’ve never been able to see that much before and I can’t tell you anything else.”

“Why is your gift changing now? You didn’t get dosed with the ichor like we did,” I point out.

“I don’t know. You would think that because I’m working against my father, who is the god of prophecy, my gift would lessen.”

“Unless…” Raven tilts her head to the side in thought.

“What are you thinking?” I ask.

“The crazy old lady we always see at the gas station. I think Adrian is the only male she hasn’t beaten over the head with her walking stick. Maybe the fates are strengthening his gift.”

Thad says, “I can honestly say that I have never been hit over the head by a crazy lady at a gas station.”

“Give it time, man. She’s gotten us all and some of us more than others.” Jayden shudders.

“She went to town on Draven, and it still didn’t work.” Adrian chuckles.

“It was great to have someone else on the other end of that stick for a change.” Jayden shakes his head.

Greyson leans forward. “You do realize that if she is one of the fates, she’s probably going to meet us at some random gas station at some point on this trip and talking about her like this is probably only going to fuel her agitation at you guys, right?”

“He has a point,” Adrian mumbles. “If they are behind strengthening my seer gift, then we should be thanking them and not being mean.”

“The fates are awesome, and we will tell them that the next time we stop at a gas station.” I scan the SUV for any complaints that I’m tabling this, but there are none.

We drive for a few hours in near silence, everyone hypervigilant about anything and everything around us. I glance up at the cloudless sky a few times just to make sure there’s no demon pigeons attacking us.

Something in my peripheral catches my attention on the side of the highway. “Fuck, Jayden, you need to take the next exit.”

“What? We aren’t anywhere near Arizona, Beth. We still have about four hours to go.”

“Yeah, but I saw something that can’t be possible right off the highway.” I shake my head.

“What is it?” Raven asks.

“You won’t believe it until you see it.”

Jayden pulls off at the next exit and backtracks down an old dirt road. As we bump along the road, I squint in the distance at the familiar structure ahead. Jayden’s gaze snaps to mine as he realizes what’s up ahead.

“That’s not possible,” he says.

“It shouldn’t be possible, no. How is a whole-ass building here that was on the other side of the country a few months ago?” I ask.

“What are you talking about?” Raven leans between the seats. “Holy shit.”

“How? Why?” I ask. “Is it here because of us? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know but there’s a reason it’s here and we need to find out what that reason is,” I say.

The closer we get to the store, the more familiar it is to me. How in the world did this place end up here after being in the mountains in Virginia? The Satyr that ran this place outfitted us with survival gear to brave the mountains and help save the Hermes students from the enemy.

“Are we going in there?” Adrian asks, trepidation in his tone.

“It’s not anything to worry about, just an impossibility we hadn’t considered.” I shrug.

Adrian wasn’t with us for that first mission, so he’s never met the Satyr and his Naiad wife who run the little survival store called The Wilds.

“This was the least dangerous of the situations we were in on that first mission,” Greyson says.

“Let’s go,” I say as Jayden parks.

“What are the odds this is a coincidence?” Jayden asks.

“Is anything in our lives ever a coincidence?” I ask with an unladylike snort as I step out of the vehicle.

“There’s no such thing as coincidence. There is always a reason for everything,” Thad agrees. “Especially the impossible. There is always a reason for things that shouldn’t be possible.”

“Okay, let’s go see what the god of the wilds wants.” I sigh.

We make our way to the wooden door and the bell jingles merrily over our heads. The store looks just as disorganized and disheveled as the last time we were in here. Pan told us that his wife knew where everything was and he couldn’t do it without her.

Thad and Adrian hang back, glancing at all the equipment and random odds and ends. They are on guard in case an enemy pops out at them, which is fair, but they don’t need to worry about the wild god. I wouldn’t say that he’s harmless because he’s a god, but he’s helped us in the past.

“Relax, you guys, it’s fine. We just need to find the Satyr in the crazy of the shop. Don’t split up. We may never find you again,” I say seriously.

“Hahaha, daughter of Zeus,” a reed-thin voice intones behind Thad. “I would never let your friends be lost in my shop. My wife would pluck them up and set them in front of you the second they went missing.”

“Lord Pan.” I bow my head to the god.

“Ahh, so you are a smart one. How long did it take you to figure that out? I have been in hiding for millennia, you know.” Pan narrows his gaze on me.

“It was the way you spoke of the wilds like living breathing places all their own and your heartbreak over losing so much of them. Once we left and the store disappeared, I figured you were the god of the wilds.” I shrug.

“Very smart, young one.” Pan smiles at me.

“What are you doing in California? This exact store was in Virginia not long ago,” Jayden says.

“What is left of the last wild places in the human world are all connected, and I can move this place through them at will. The question is, why was I compelled to move the location here?” Pan asks, always cryptic.

We wait several moments for him to explain but when he doesn’t, I sigh. “Why were you compelled here?"

"There were brave demigods and a goddess in need of me and here I am to assist however I am able.” Pan steps around us and moves farther into the store.

We dutifully follow behind him and I rack my brain for a reason that Pan would choose to help us or how he even knew we would need him, but I come up short.

“You’re great friends with Artemis, right? That seems odd to me since you’re the god of wild things and she hunts those wilds,” Adrian says.

“Artemis has indeed been a friend for many millennia. You know what I love about the best hunters?” Pan asks. “They only take what is needed and show respect to the animals and the wild places they hunt in.”

“I can see the symbiotic relationship there. Hunters thin out the population so the wilds aren’t destroyed by overpopulation and as long as they don’t take more than needed, the land and the animals there flourish,” I say with a nod.