Monster Song (My Beautiful Monsters #2) - J.B. Trepagnier Page 0,42

track of her. I really hoped River was to safety because I knew that explosion wouldn’t kill Demeter. She hadn’t come out to try to stop us. That meant she had gone back to her temple. I desperately wanted to be with River.

So did Demos, and Barbatos must have said something to Lis. Between the two of them, they set the entire arena on fire. Barbatos opened a portal and yelled over all the screaming.

“To the temple! Let’s kill that bitch for good!”

Yes, lets. And I needed to make sure River was safe.

Chapter 20

River

T

here was a pop of light, and Hades appeared next to us. He took one look at Persephone lying on the ground and let out an anguished cry. He saw Keti and Irida with us, and blue sparks started flying from his fingers. He was in a rage and would kill them, even if they were now on our side.

It was probably stupid, but I jumped between them. Cerberus had my back like always. So, I was now standing between Hades and two soldiers, and Cerberus was now standing between Hades and me.

“She’s just drugged!” I cried. “Keti and Irida helped us, and they even told us what Demeter had in the IV. I’m not familiar with Moonflower, but they said she would wake up soon. I checked her vitals, and she’s alive. She’s just asleep.”

“She speaks the truth,” Kimon said. “Persephone lives, and her heart beats strong. You just need to get her somewhere safe until this is over.”

“You come with us, Kimon. I’ll bring her to the chateau, and I need you to watch over her. I need to come back here and end this. No one drugs my wife. Demeter will die for everything she’s done here,” Hades growled.

It was like this big blast of light exploded from Demeter’s temple. Someone was finally home.

“Well, you’d better do it now because Demeter is back at her temple, and she will figure out Persephone is missing, and we’ve stolen two of her guards,” I said.

Hades rushed to Persephone. Kimon shot me this pained look like he wanted to stay and protect me too. He couldn’t be in two places at once any more than I could, and I was still worried about everyone at the arena.

“Baby bird, come with us,” he pleaded.

I knew why he wanted me to, but I couldn’t do that to him. I had a feeling Hades was bringing Persephone to that chateau because it was isolated. We had no way of knowing if Demeter knew about it. She could travel with a thought like Hades did. If she came to that chateau, Kimon would have one of the weapons Hephaestus made to kill her, but he would have to make the difficult decision over whom to protect—Persephone or me.

I was cannon fodder to Demeter, and she would have known I betrayed her when she took me to Hephaestus. She might still hold fondness for her daughter and try to kill Kimon to take her alive. Me? She would kill me on sight. Kimon would attack and leave Persephone defenseless. It was smarter to stay here.

“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “Protect Persephone. I’ll be safe here.”

Kimon gave me this tortured look, but Hades disappeared with him and Persephone before he could say anything. Hades exited stage right just before the shit hit the fan. A colossal demon portal opened, and monsters and demons started charging through.

I strained to look. Where were my monsters? Were they okay? Where was my father? There were so many of them. When my father said he was bringing his army and a few he had borrowed, he wasn’t joking. The portal was the size of a skyscraper, and bodies kept spilling out.

Demeter’s soldiers noticed right away and started calling for backup. There were shadow demons like Solron, and it was dark outside. They appeared in the shadows of trees and slit the throats of Demeter’s soldiers before they could join the fight. They would just pop into a shadow, slit a throat, and disappear.

It was so strange. There was such a gun culture back where I lived, but not even the demons had guns. No one in the Underworld did either. They still fought with the old Greek style weapons. The demons all had sharp blades. I saw a few demons fall to an arrow from Artemis’s army, but most of the monsters who were rocking their monster forms just seemed irritated when an arrow buried