Monster Whisperer - J.B. Trepagnier Page 0,42

to walk back inside, but I held my head high. They might be able to force us to do this, but Demos was out there somewhere getting intel.

And something told me River would figure out how to end this. And then I would have my revenge.

Chapter 30

River

S

omething must have gone horrifically wrong during the fight. I listened while Pavlina killed the man that was brought for her to eat. She took her time, and he was screaming for a long time. She was a predator, and she had a personal vendetta against the harpy she was fighting. To be honest, the way she was talking about the fight before they took her, I wasn’t sure if I would have the stomach to watch it. Both fighters sounded like they loathed each other.

I knew Pavlina’s fights rarely happened that fast because they booed her, and they threw things at her. I had to find out if she was okay. I rushed back to the jail, but by the time I got there, Pavlina had covered the entire front wall of her cell with webs. I couldn’t exactly knock without getting cut, and I didn’t know her well enough to know if she needed space.

“Pavlina? Are you okay?”

“One day, I will get out of this collar and have my revenge on Demeter and her army.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Aello and I met right after Hades conscripted me as Persephone’s bodyguard. It was soon after I ended up in the Underworld. We burned bright, and I fell hard. I loved that harpy, and I thought everything was perfect. I thought I was doing everything right. Then, she just started becoming distant, and I found out she was cheating on me.

“It hurt a lot, and it took me a long time to get over it. I don’t think she was expecting to face me in the fighting ring. The monsters in the pit are broken. She knew one of us would die, and she wanted it to be her. She had no hope we could turn this around. Before she just laid down and asked me to end it for her, she confessed she always loved me. She was just jealous of the time I spent around Persephone. I think it was because Persephone is a Goddess, and she was a harpy. It gave her some sort of complex, so she pushed me away. I’ve killed many people, but that one was by far the worst.”

How horrible. I needed to find out more about those collars. I needed to visit the monsters in the pit to give them hope. I’d only visited the ones in the cell. I’d tried to make life better for them, but what about those sleeping in the pit of this jail? For now, I needed to worry about Pavlina.

“Did you want me to just come in there and sit with you? We don’t have to talk. We can just sit there in silence.”

I watched as one of her pinchers started pulling her web down. It must not cut her like it did me. Pavlina climbed up a web in the corner and snapped her pinchers at me.

“I made a chair for you out of webs in case you visited me. It’s made of a softer web.”

I could see it in the corner. It looked like some sort of hammock swing but from crystalline web. I didn’t want to insult her, so I sat down. It was surprisingly comfortable.

“Hey, this is nice.”

“Do you need anything, Pavlina?” Tryphon asked.

“Anything, and I’ll try my hardest to get it for you,” Kimon said.

This is what I liked, when they all got along instead of insulting each other.

“Revenge. I need revenge.”

“Demos gets back tomorrow. Maybe he’ll have news for us.”

I knew Demos would be back, but I was hoping Demeter would pay a little visit. I had a plot up my sleeve to find out about those collars. I made it on the fly, but I hoped my bait was enough for her.

“Can we just have a moment of silence for Aello? She didn’t deserve to go like that.”

We could definitely do that. And I needed to do better by the other monsters here.

Chapter 31

River

T

he next day, Demeter played right into my plot. Demos still wasn’t back yet, but if she looked into his cell, she would see an empty cell with him sleeping inside. I knew who she was as soon as she came storming into the jail with Hades trailing