The Blood of Three

Chapter 50

Our fathers and Dylan spotted us as we grew close. Poseidon looked sleep-deprived. His short, light-brown hair was tousled and his blue-green eyes had dark circles under them.

I couldn't tell what was on Hades' mind. His expression was complex, filled with a mixture of emotions. His mysterious brown eyes looked back and forth between Kyle and me, like he was trying to figure out who we were. Overall, he looked stressed.

Zeus looked relieved—completely stress-free. His shoulders were relaxed and his arms were hanging loosely by his sides. A bright smile stretched across his face, revealing his pearly-white teeth.

The three of them stood still as we walked up to them. That's when I realized how bad the two of us looked. Both of our shirts were almost completely covered with my blood. My jeans were ripped and I knew everyone could see the stitched gashes on my stomach through the tears in my shirt. Sweat covered Kyle's face and his hands were trembling from all of his worry. A bandage was on his temple and the skin beneath his eyes was still puffy from crying.

Dylan didn't look much better. His face was still void of any color, looking completely worn out. A large purple bruise was on his jaw, and his brown hair was tousled and damp from his drying sweat.

"Is it over?" I asked quietly, breaking the silence.

Zeus nodded. "For now. Terran is dead, but there's always a threat looking to overtake the demigod population."

"What do we do now?" Kyle asked, shifting his arm further around my back. I still heavily relied on him to support my weight.

The gods exchanged glances. "We find someone new to watch over Safe Haven," the god of the dead informed us. "Then we train the demigods we have left and prepare for our next fight—whenever that may be."

Kyle looked around. "Let's hope we have a while before we receive any more threats," he said.

Dylan agreed. "All we can do is hope. Safe Haven had only been up and running for a little over five years before we got involved in a small war. There's no telling what'll happen over the course of the next few years."

#

For the rest of the evening, we gathered and cleaned the weapons that were used against Typhon. Kyle, Dylan and the other demigods did most of the work. Every time I would attempt to bend over and pick up an arrow, I'd wince and have to straighten up. After just a few minutes, Kyle told me to go sit down. I protested and claimed I would be fine, but he thought otherwise. I had taken some nectar, so as long as I wasn't putting pressure on the wound it didn't throb.

As I waited for them to clean up, I decided to wipe off my own blade. I reached for my bracelet, only to realize the trident charm wasn't there. My weapon had to still be around the site. Standing up, I slowly walked around, searching for my weapon. I wandered to the area where Terran had almost killed me and spotted my bronze blade lying on the cracked ground. Grimacing and tensing my stomach, I bent over and picked it up.

The bronze was covered in dirt. My thoughts wandered to what it had been through. I killed Aidan with this sword, and I wish I could say I killed Terran, too, but instead Terran almost killed me.

Kyle said Terran erupted into flames instead of fading to a mist. The thought sent an uneasy feeling through me, but I could have just been paranoid. Maybe it's where he was the most powerful monster to ever live; maybe that's just the way he died.