eyes burned with hunger, burrowing into us. Spikes ran down the length of their arched spines, all the way to the tips of their tails that were complete with the largest and most deadly spike. Their hind legs were shorter than their front ones, lending all its menacing appearance to the front of their bodies. I just hoped that meant their bodies weren't particularly good when it came to jumping, or we were so unbelievably screwed.
“Just a quick and terrifying question I know I am going to regret asking but what's that under their skin?” I asked, referring to the glowing veins covering their bodies.
“Oh that, yeah, that's lava.” I shot her an incredulous look before she said,
“I think we should still be running.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good plan right now.” I agreed, as it looked like the three Hellhounds weren’t giving up and kept trying to look for a way across. In reaction to this, we both turned around and started running down what looked like an overgrown road. We both continued to look behind us becoming more nervous by the second. Because even with the growing distance between us, we could still see the Hellhounds trying to make their way across.
So, we ran.
And we ran.
And then we ran some more until we could no longer see them.
“Where do you think we are?” I asked Nero after we both needed to stop to catch our breaths before passing out. Like me, Nero had her palms to the tops of her knees as she bent over taking deep breaths but at this question she straightened and looked around. To be honest I didn't think there was much of the landscape to be able to tell us wherever we were, but she still said,
“My guess, somewhere on the outskirts of Tartarus.” At this I sucked in a startled breath, because this is what Lucius' brother had been wanting to find out. He had wanted to know where this gate was and the place I knew from my future. I also knew it was the only way to stop the plague that was killing Lucius' people and one that would eventually reach me and my mother at the top of the Tree of Souls.
“What…what is it?” Nero asked, no doubt after seeing my face drop. I shook my head a little and told her it was nothing, when in actual fact, it was everything.
I knew that being in Tartarus and potentially this close to finding the gate he was looking for could be my only shot at stopping this. But I was torn because I also knew that I couldn't do this alone. However, this in itself presented a problem, as the person I needed was also the last person that would ever help me. This was because as soon as I made it back to Lucius, then it was doubtful I would be allowed to go even a few feet away from him. And let’s just say that I didn’t think my powers of persuasion were good enough to get Lucius to believe that Tartarus would make for a nice romantic weekend away.
Nero and I continued to run, stopping for only a few minutes to catch our breaths before we were off again. From the looks of things, then neither of us was in the best of shapes and at our fittest. But then having Hellhounds chasing after you was a heck of an incentive to get your ass moving. The only time we started to slow down was when the vast open space was no more and instead the view in front of us now, was that of a looming, dark forest. A forest, I should mention, that held nothing growing but giant soul weed.
The seemingly never-ending bush, if that was what it could be called, rose higher than trees in the forests back home. Their roots were pushed up from the ground as thick as tree trunks, and the way they arched made them look like giant grey snakes trying to hide in the dirt. It also reminded me of the scene from Sleeping Beauty where Maleficent surrounded the castle with thorns. Only in this forest the thorns were the length of VW Beetles and looked big enough to spear elephants!
“Well, this looks like a happy place,” I commented, making Nero reply,
“You're in Hell, sweetheart, what did you expect, A fairy tale forest with talking rodents?” Nero asked dryly whilst looking uneasy.