Page 55 of Artemis’ Bow (Halfling Academy #5)

“ H ow are we getting back?” Dax asks as he tosses Zeke to the ground at my feet.

“Don’t worry about that.” Artemis waves a hand at Dax. “I’ll take care of that shortly.”

“Have we rounded up the traitors?” I ask.

Mia is wrapped in shadows on the ground, thrashing against his magic, and I smirk at her. The other two members of their team are also unconscious and bound to the ground by an invisible force.

“Well, this just wrapped up nicely,” Raven says, elbowing me.

“It really did. But now we need to figure out what to do with them all. Mia is the only one who didn’t appear to be mind-controlled.” I shake my head.

Traitorous bitch. What would make her think that Jayden would get with her because she betrayed us and became gods touched ? She really is delusional.

“Hermes,” Artemis calls. “Brother, you are needed.”

“No need to shout, Artemis.” Hermes smirks. “It’s good to see the moon back in the sky. Hopefully the world will even itself back out quickly.”

“It’s good to be back. That bastard ruined my temple for me.” Artemis shudders.

“What are you going to do with me?” Alpheus screams.

I kick him in the ribs. “Quiet, the adults are talking.”

Artemis and Raven burst into loud laughter and I can’t help but chuckle when the river god clamps his lips together. He listens well when he realizes he’s outmatched in every way. At least he’s not a complete moron.

“Hermes, can you take Alpheus here into custody for me, please? I have some interrogation questions for the river god.” Artemis grins and it’s absolutely terrifying.

I’m just glad she’s on our side.

“What about that one?” Hermes asks. “Aphrodite’s annoying spawn.”

“She was not mind-controlled. Everything that comes out of her mouth she actually believes. It’s pretty pathetic really.” I shake my head.

“I’m pathetic?” Mia says. “You’re the pathetic one. You just had to go after Jayden, didn’t you?”

“Does she have memory loss too?” I ask Raven.

“Seems that way. She clearly doesn’t remember how desperately she tried to cling to someone who never wanted her.”

“You were just jealous and started shit with me because you wanted what I have but you will never be as pretty as the goddess of beauty’s daughter,” Mia says.

“Can you lock her up too, Hermes? She’s giving me a headache.” I sigh.

“I’m sure the other prisoners will hate that. It can be a new form of torture. Tell me what I want to know or I’ll put Mia in your cell.” Raven chuckles.

“Yes, anyone willingly betraying Zeus or the academy will be taken and locked away.” Hermes waves a hand, and both Mia and Alpheus disappear.

My shoulders slump in relief that they are in lockup. Glad that I don’t have to deal with them again.

Orion clears his throat. “What happens to me now?”

“I don’t know.” Artemis sighs. “That will have to be up to my father. My only hope is that he will need every person at his disposal for the coming war and he won’t make you go back yet.”

“This is so sad,” I whisper to Raven. “Why do they have to be apart?”

“I don’t know, B. It sucks because you can see they truly care for one another.”

“We will go see my father after I have a chat with my little sister and her friends.” Artemis squeezes Orion’s hand.

“Wait a second, did anyone ever find Olly?” I ask.

Adrian blinks and steps forward. “That was weird. My father just spoke to me. He said he pulled Olly out of the chaos because he wasn’t meant to be there; he has another path in this war.”

“I wish I had a different role to play,” I grumble.

Jayden places his hand on my hip and squeezes it gently. “I wish you did too.”

“Oh well, what do we do next?” I ask.

“Oh, give you a gift and take you back to the academy.” Artemis grins.

Please tell me it’s another charm that does something seriously cool and not something that’s going to be a problem. Artemis loves to fuck with me and ask me to do things that are stupid and dangerous. It’s because of her that we became gods touched in the first place.

“What gift?” I ask with more trepidation in my voice than I would like to admit.

“Don’t be like that, little sister. I give great gifts. And this is a two for one.” She holds out her hand.

A charm of a bow and arrow rests in her palm. I sigh in relief, seeing the charm, but I’m still reluctant to touch it.

“What does it do?” I ask.

I gingerly grasp the charm and add it to the large collection of them. Artemis has a sly grin on her face that makes me even more nervous.

“It will call my hounds to you in time of need and as long as you wear it, your aim will be true and your strikes deadly,” Artemis says.

“That’s it. There’s no crazy catch or anything?” I ask.

“Why would there be a catch?” Artemis asks.

“Did Alpheus erase your memories in the last week? Everything you have asked me to do has had a catch.” I throw my hands up in the air.

She does remember the lion, right? What I had to do for her to rescue him even though she could have gotten him out all on her own.

“Name one time.” Artemis crosses her arms.

“Oklahoma City Zoo. The lion. You didn’t actually need my help getting the lion out of that enclosure,” I say.

“That was Apollo’s doing. He needed that to happen for some reason.” Artemis shrugs.

“Of course he did.”

“Abby, Beth. We met Abby in the chaos, remember?” Jayden says.

“The tiny seer. Yup, her poor mom was terrified and running constantly. I cursed Apollo for that little girl getting such a dangerous gift so young.” I tap my foot.

“Cursing me is a bit uncalled for, don’t you think?” Apollo asks.

“No, I don’t think so.” I narrow my gaze on him.

“It all worked out the way it was supposed to. Abby is safe now because of the information you gave her mother. She will live to have her own adventures and a destiny as well,” Apollo says.

“I’m glad it worked out, but at the time it was a mind fuck of epic proportions. I’m sure you can understand why I’m leery of gifts from Artemis.” I raise a brow at him.

“Yes, baby sister. I can understand. I didn’t tell her to have you short out the power to the entire zoo just for her to cause some chaos.” Apollo chuckles.

“I did cause chaos.” Artemis grins.

“You two are certifiable. Don’t get me started on the fountain. What kind of psycho makes a fountain that causes a person to rhyme when they get too close?”

“Ahh, yes, that was very entertaining,” Apollo muses.

“All right, let’s get back on track before Beth lights us all up with her crazy magic,” Jayden says.

I shoot him a glare but he grins back at me. It wouldn’t bother him a bit if I did, since my magic can’t physically hurt him.

“I think we need to get back to the academy,” I say.

“That is probably best. We don’t know if any of the queen’s spies are lying in wait to gather information.” Raven scans our surroundings.

Artemis waves a hand and the world spins beneath my feet before abruptly stopping and I land in the courtyard of the academy.

“Damn, it’s good to be back,” Raven says.

“Yeah, but for how long and are we really even safe here?” I ask.

“We’re safer here than anywhere else,” Jayden says.

“You’re back.” Chiron gallops over to us. “Good to see you back safely, goddess.”

“Thank you, Chiron.” Artemis bows her head slightly.

“Here’s the other team. They have been mind-controlled. We need to detain them until the Hermes students can figure out how to help them.” I point to the three unconscious forms at our feet.

“Professor Cross,” Chiron calls. “Grab some of the other professors and place these students in the reinforced cells.”

“You planned for this?” I say.

“When you told me they were being controlled, I spoke with Cross, and he told me what happened last time. We planned accordingly.” Chiron nods. “You appear to be missing a student. Where is Mia?”

“She wasn’t being controlled. Hermes took her for interrogation.”

“Good riddance,” Raven mumbles.

“Seriously, if I never see her again, it will be too soon.” I shake my head.

“Did Hermes bring a shifter here?” I ask, suddenly remembering the issue with the gods touched shifter.

“No, I have not seen another shifter other than Greyson,” Chiron says.

“That is going to be a problem. Shit.” I rub my forehead.

Remember what we said about borrowing tomorrow’s problems, baby?” Jayden asks.

“I know but I don’t think that’s a tomorrow problem.” I chew my lip.

“Everything is a tomorrow problem for you lot,” Chiron says. “You just got back from battle. You need to rest and recover.”

“No, not this. The shifter is gods touched like Greyson and from what we were told, he has a chip on his shoulder. He’s a loose cannon with as much power as he now has.” I shake my head.

“We’ll talk to Hermes and Tristan tomorrow and get the details.” Jayden squeezes my hip.

“Fine,” I grumble at the same time my stomach rumbles.

“Well, at least part of you agrees with us.” Jayden chuckles.

We all trudge into the cafeteria, relief flooding through my veins at being back at the academy and glad to get some food, even if it isn’t tacos.

“Go sit.” Jayden kisses my temple. “I’ll get us something to eat.”

Greyson shoos Raven off as well as they both head for the buffet. Shrugging, Raven and I make our way to the Zeus table and sit in our regular spots. The guys come over with plates piled extra high for us and I raise a brow at Raven.

“I used a lot of magic. Greyson insisted that I shield myself the whole battle.” She bites into her fried chicken. “I’m starving.”

“Told you when you were making fun of me that you would be next.” I laugh.

“Whatever,” she says.

Adrian and Thad sit across from us with Dax and Kira. Draven’s expression is uncomfortable as he shifts from one foot to the other.

“Can he sit with us, Beth?” Kira asks. “I know you guys had bad blood and all that, but things are different now. He helped us in the fight.”

“Yup, totally fine by me, but Jayden will be the one uncomfortable so it’s up to him.” I turn to Jayden.

“I guess you’re not completely useless,” Jayden grumbles. “Yeah, it’s fine by me.”

That’s about the highest praise Draven is going to get from Jayden. They’re practically best friends now. Draven nods and sits next to Kira on the opposite side of Dax. The guy has come a long way since the Ares mission where he annoyed the shit out of us and was basically useless the entire time.

He helped save us in the battle with the phoenix so I can’t say that I hate him anymore, but that’s all he’ll ever get from me. I don’t hate him.

“What’s next?” Thad asks.

“Next, we rest because we all know this is far from over.” I run my fingers over my temples.

“You’re right that it’s not over.” Hermes materializes in front of our table.

Artemis frowns. “What are you doing here?”

“I was interrogating Alpheus and he thought it would be a good idea to taunt me with what he knows.” Hermes folds his arms.

“Fucking fuck. Did you not hear the part about first we rest?” I throw up my hands.

“I don’t think the danger is immediate, Beth.” Hermes glances at me with understanding.

“Can the other gods just take a chill pill for a couple weeks so we can regroup? This is exhausting.” I slump back in my chair.

“What’s the problem?” Jayden asks, his hand squeezing my knee.

“He told me their plans… for me,” Hermes says.

“We figured you or Hephaestus were next. They have already hit all of our other major allies,” I say.

“Travel is going to be impossible soon and there could possibly be a breakdown in communications around the globe. He laughed when he told me there are more missing travelers around the globe in the last week than there were all last year.” Hermes grips the back of his neck.

“The weaker you get, the worse it will become. We need to find your item of power,” I say.

“Caduceus.”

“Bless you,” Raven says, giggling.

“That’s what my item of power is, my caduceus.”

“I know but I have always wanted to do that, so just let me have my happiness.”

I shake my head at her antics. She really can be ridiculous at times. I love her anyway.

“Lord Hermes.” Jayden sighs. “I appreciate the information on our next mission, but we have been back maybe an hour and had zero rest. With all due respect, we aren’t jumping from one battle directly to the next. We need a break.”

Hermes hangs his head. “I know. You’re right.

It’s just so many terrible things could happen if I’m weak.

There could be another threat of a third world war because of the breakdown in communication.

Roads that would usually lead from one normal place to another in this realm could lead to other realms or people from those realms could wind up here. ”

“Okay, so just as bad as all the other times. Got it,” I mumble, really hating my life right now. “How long do we think we have before the world goes boom?”

“It will be a matter of weeks but very well could already be starting. With the current chaos in the world surrounding Artemis and the moon missing, we won’t know for sure.”

“I’m sure Alpheus knows more,” Artemis says. “We’ll get whatever we can out of him and be in touch.”

With that the two gods vanish from the cafeteria. I slump back in my chair with a sigh.

No rest for the wicked. We’re once again racing against the clock to save the world and restore Hermes’ power before the world ends… again.

The end… for now.

Our friends at Halfling Academy’s Journey hasn’t quite come to an end. Be sure to get Hermes’ Caduceus HERE to continue this epic adventure.