Page 92 of Scion of Chaos

Vesh

“You’re sure he keeps the key in the casino vault?” Erika asks. “Big powerful being like him uses a human security system to protect his shit?”

“It’s not secured by normal human alarms or security measures. Getting in is only the first step. There will be trials and tricks to overcome to reach the innermost chamber, which is the most likely place where Chaos keeps the key. But between my guards and myself, I’m confident we can retrieve it.”

She leans back in her chair and props her booted feet on the table of her command tent, crossing them at the ankles. The look she gives me is dubious, which irks me, but I choose to ignore it.

“The sooner we get started on the plan, the quicker we’ll have it in our possession. I’ll return to the prison and meet with the others to delegate.”

A wide grin spreads across her face. “Wait’ll my team hears what we’re up to. An actual casino heist.”

“Youaren’t going to be up to anything—my team and I will handle this. We’ll have the key for you by week’s end.”

She gives me an irritated glare, then sighs. “Fine. You know what’s best. But I want to hear the plan before you begin. If we can offer any help, whether it’s a diversion or some dragon breath, I can call in favors. I’m not completely helpless, you know. I do have friends in high places.”

I’m about to respond that it won’t be necessary when I’m rocked by a voice loud as thunder inside my head. What the voice says slices through me and sticks like a knife to the gut.

“I have to go.”

I’m barely aware of Erika jumping up in alarm, asking if everything is okay before I retreat inward to the prison and hope like hell that I’m not too late.

They’reall waiting for me when I arrive on the uppermost bridge, before the doors.

All but one.

Alcides’ absence cuts deep, almost as deep as Nemea’s. But it’s Pan’s fist to my face that causes the real pain.

He leaped before I had a chance to gain my bearings, knocking me over and smashing knuckles against my cheeks and jaw over and over.

“You motherfucker. She’s gone, and it’syourfucking fault for not being straight with her from the start! What the fuck were you thinking? That she’d just happily hang around without being able to leave?”

“She could leave whenever she wanted,” I try to say, but the words are hard to enunciate around broken teeth, a sliced tongue, and a jaw thrown out of socket.

“What? I couldn’t understand you, asshole!” Pan yells, giving my head one last solid punch before rising onto his hooves and staring down at me, nostrils flared and chest heaving. He shakes both his hands at his sides, flexing his bruised fingers.

I sit up, blinking back the pain and willing my teeth out of my throat and back into their sockets. I readjust my jaw with one hand until it pops back into place.

“I said she could leave whenever she wanted. She always had the power to go. She just needed to find it within her.”

“Oh really?” Campe says, striding forward to loom above me beside Pan. “Did you bother to tellherthat?”

I shake my head and wince when fresh pain spikes down my spine. “No, and I realize my mistake now. I was a fool to think she would be reasonable and just ask when the time came, or find her own way to the answer.”

I rise to my feet only for Campe’s fist to slam into my jaw, sending me reeling again. She grabs hold of my hair and yanks my head back, holding tight with surprising strength, her mouth pressed to my ear.

“You didn’t tell her, asshole. And now she’sgone. What exactly are you going to do to get her back? Weneedher.”

The tinge of desperation in her voice chastens me more than it should. I drop my shoulders and close my eyes.

“I’m sorry, Campe. I’ve made a mess of things. Even worse, we need Alcides if we’re going to get into that temple once we get the key. I expected Nemea to try to escape… practically counted on it. I hoped she’d use her powers to get out, not convince him to take her. He hadn’t even bonded her yet, had he?”

My apology makes her loosen her hold on my head and she steps back, turning to the others. “Which of you fucks were the last to bed her?” she snaps.

The anguish on Chrysaor’s face is enough of an answer, not to mention the haphazard state of his clothing for a man who is normally highly disciplined about his kit. He isn’t even wearing his sword belt, and his normally rigidly vertical spiky hairdo is askew.

“She didn’t bond Alcides, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Chrysaor says. “I don’t know what possessed him to take her.”

I take a steadying breath, my gaze sweeping over Erebus. “You hid her from me. I could have been here to stop her if you’d sounded the alarm.”

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