Page 211 of The Games Gods Play
“It’s not an enchantment, like the dragon or the frog!” Jackie hisses. “It’s real.”
The dragon’s fire was real enough if you ask my arm, so I’m not sure if I care about the difference. And what we should be doing right now is not standing here staring.
With a bellow, the minotaur disappears, and a cloud of dust and debris bursts out of the crevice into the sky. It’s having trouble climbing out.
“My compass indicates there’s no one path,” Samuel says. He’s already tucking the copper instrument away. “But go through the gates. You can’t go around them.” Then he shoves something in my hands. “Here. This showed up in my room, but I know it’s yours.”
I look down to find the handle of my axe in my hands.
What the—
I reach into the vest pocket where I keep my relic, but it’s still there. This isn’t mine. This is…Hades’. The twin that completes the set Odin gave him.
Zeus stole it and gave it to Samuel.
It’s not a relic or tool Samuel already owned, like I did with my axe and the dragon teeth.
That godsdamned cheater.
Another bellow. The minotaur is pissed. Great. Why are we standing here?
“Run.” Diego beats me to it.
His glow is immediately doused as he disappears from sight. Like horses out of the starting gates, the rest all take off. Not together. Not a single one of us is sticking together. Because we can all win now.
Me too. I should be running. Instead, I drop to one knee, reaching a hand into one of my zippered pockets.
I have a few dragon teeth left. About four of them. I start digging a hole in dirt that is packed so hard it doesn’t want to budge and my scratching’s barely making a dent, so instead I shove the white shards of bone into one of the cracks and hope that’s enough. If last time was any indication, it’ll take a few minutes.
The horns are back. Fuck me, I should have just run. Two massive hands appear at the top of the crevice again. I pull out both my axes, holding them up. Not that they can do much against a thing that size, but they’re better than nothing. It’s coming out with its back to me. That will buy me a little more time.
I take off after the others, who are far enough ahead that they’re small in the distance. Trinica is closest to me. And Samuel, maybe still weakened from his wound, isn’t much farther ahead. Jackie and Zai are still on the ground, having not used their gifts of flight yet. The others are all too far away to tell.
The minotaur is halfway out, now off to my right, covered in brown-and-white mottled fur. Its bull head sits atop a human-ish body—huge shoulders, bare cowhide-covered torso. The human shape of him is rippling with muscles on muscles.
Run faster, Lyra.
The minotaur swings a leg up to the ground. The thing is wearing breeches of some sort that only come to its calves, revealing that, like satyrs, its lower half is the same animal as its head—also bull, with the same brown-and-white coat. Both hooves finally on firm ground and chest heaving with anger and effort, the minotaur rises to its full height, towering into the skies, back to me still.
But movement must catch the minotaur’s eye, because it whips around to face us.
Its fur-covered face is grotesque, with a brass ring through its wrinkled, glistening nose. But of all the parts of the minotaur, including its size, the scariest are its eyes.
Cold, glassy, black eyes with no whites, as if the soul was sucked out of the beast a long time ago.
My stomach twists even as I pump my arms and legs.
I’m at the back of the herd. The obvious weak one. I am fucked.
Its head comes down, and it paws the water-starved dirt with a hooved foot, kicking up dust. Its body vibrates with rage built up from its frustrating climb, and I’m the easiest target available to take it out on.
This time, its bellow shakes the very earth.
The minotaur charges, coming straight at me. Out in the open. Alone.
Adrenaline hits my blood hard, and my heart pumps fast as I force my body across the long, flat distance between me and the gate. The ground shudders with every pound of its hooves as it closes in on me.
I know I’m not going to make it when a puff of humid, rank breath hits me in the side of the face.
